Red Ranger 1

Levi did a really bad job of explaining himself frankly, repeatedly saying "You've not thought this through" instead of giving any reason why it was a bad idea. I think we eventually got to him thinking that it might lead to a family argument at the wedding, which was oddly specific, and meant it was down to Eden to come up with the idea of meeting Jimmy and hashing things out before the wedding.Well, she's got six months. I did like Cash desperately trying to break the awkward silence at the start but I don't blame Abigail for getting fed up and going into work. Eden was completely out of line with Lacey and there didn't even seem to be any real resolution to it. I thought for a moment that Mackenzie was going to tear a strip off her but then she just shrugged and let it go. Of course, Mali then went to the other extreme, hiring her without any attempt to explain what the job was or find out if she could do it. I know Kirby used to help out with lessons but Abigail was just manning the shop so I'm not sure why he assumed Lacey would do that. Talking of jobs, Dana spends the day stressing but cornering Levi wasn't the smartest idea.I grimaced when Mackenzie turned up at the hospital to see Levi, expecting her to start clambering all over him again, but looks like she's calmed down. Why on earth did we have Eden turning up at the police station for a personal conversation with Cash only a week or so after David putting a stop to that? It's like there are things, like Mackenzie giving away free food and drink all over the place, that are so ingrained that even if one episode says it's not going to happen anymore, the next writer will just do it anyway.

I have no sympathy for Harper, who was typically self-absorbed. And I don't blame Tane at all for getting on the plane without her, to go on a holiday that had been arranged and paid for and which he'd offered to her to go with someone else only for her to insist they go together and then change her mind at literally the last minute. I'd have done the same, but having said that, I suspect Tane may regret it when he finds himself stuck in Japan on his own and missing Archie.And of course Harper has taken the decision to go back to work partly to teach him a lesson. I'm still not sure about Jo but we got a bit more to her character here than "Doesn't get on with Lacey".She at least doesn't seem entirely sure about David as well, directing his comment about Lacey not handling her grief back at him.I noticed she left out the "I've also got a sister in the area who hates me" bit when opening up to Levi.So Jo and Dana have opposite outcomes with their interviews.I'm tempted to say that Dana might have got to read up on the subject if Irene hadn't insisted she spend the night holding Harper's hand, but to be fair, she'd probably have just stayed in the Diner chatting to her new best friend. We saw Levi objecting to Eden inviting their dad to the wedding in the promo, so I'd have hoped we'd be a bit further along by the end of the episode, rather than just an argument that doesn't resolve anything. I think what he's getting at is that the wedding isn't the right time to bring him back into her orbit after ten years of not saying a civil word to him, and she should meet him first and take the pressure off, but I guess we'll have to wait for him to explain it.

Interesting spat between Mackenzie and Harper, who have basically both got what the other one wants.Harper wants a loving partner and Mackenzie wants a baby, and it's not happening for either of them.I can't say I really have any sympathy for either of them though, because they're both being ridiculous.When Mackenzie went to see Levi, I thought for a moment that maybe she'd got the message but no, it was just another excuse to jump him, and she doesn't realise how obsessed she's being.At least Bree got released from her black hole in time to offer Levi a sympathetic ear. Meanwhile, it finally dawns on Harper, far too late, what a daft idea "Go on a platonic holiday with Tane and hope he falls in love with me" was.Marilyn demonstrates that her shipping can be rather hit and miss by gushing over the whole idea.Seriously, Tane tried to do the decent thing, offering the holiday to her and laying down ground rules for them going together, and she's wasted it over a schoolgirl fantasy. Avalon might have terrible ideas of the best way to stay awake, and bugging Remi when he was trying to sleep wasn't good either, but at least she seems to have started to respect Kirby a bit more: I wouldn't be surprised if she came up with the idea of Remi finishing Kirby's album that night instead of working with her. It's kind of amusing that all the women seem to have heard of her when Remi and Justin needed to look her up.

I can see David convincing himself it was just an accident and shutting down any attempt to suggest otherwise, whether that's from Lacey or his subordinates, because deep down if Jo was at fault, he doesn't want to know. Alf's episode count this week:Three.No Bree for the second week running, despite two references to her being around.Could they not afford her that month? Avalon continues to come across as a rather manipulative person.Again, Remi's instinct tells him to go and make peace with Kirby, and again, Avalon was in his ear, telling him he'd done nothing wrong. Mackenzie suddenly fangirling on her did break things up a bit. It was a bit much to expect Kirby to join them (especially with Avalon making the offer), but this was never about her wanting to stand in Remi's way, it's about him neglecting his commitment to her. So Mackenzie finally gets Remi to play a gig after about two years of attempts! Of course, Avalon then demonstrates why she really shouldn't be trusted... John's talk to Mali seemed to go better when it was one-on-one rather than an uncoordinated double team with Alf, and his argument that Mali should either make use of the space or give it over to someone who would seemed to be hitting home, but by the end Mali is just looking for loopholes to get around it. Mackenzie had a point about Levi opening her mail: Looking at it and seeing the logo is fair enough, but he stood have stopped there. That's about the only point she did have though, and despite claiming it was just a last resort, she's soon mounting him in a way that was bordering on non-consensual just because a piece of paper told her to. I'm glad that, after they were interrupted at the start, Leah and Justin made it to the gig together and had a good time. Marilyn probably should have given it a rest earlier than she did though.

David is definitely proving to be the person Lacey claimed he is: Totally by the book until it's his family drama, at which point he's happy to ignore the rules and expects other officers to play ball. This is, of course, ameliorated by the fact that David and Jo are listed as regulars (even if they're still not on the opening credits!) suggesting that they're meant to be broadly sympathetic characters and around long-term, so if David is keeping a secret then it's probably not going to be too earth-shattering. I find my sympathy is mainly with Kirby here. If Remi wants to be on Avalon's album, that's up to him, but he made a commitment to Kirby and he's not keeping to it. I wasn't keen on the way Avalon convinced him to stand his ground with Kirby, it just felt like stirring up trouble. Alf and John both had a word with Mali but didn't really get a satisfactory response.On the one hand, Dean did kind of drag Mali away from his old boarding shaping business to run the board shop.On the other hand, as Alf and John point out, he's worked hard to make it a success.

Tane came across as a bit unhinged here. Fair enough, pulling over when you see someone broken down is just good manners, and Jo was unnecessarily rude to him, showing she's definitely her father's daughter. But why would anyone in their right mind drive out there the next day and work on the car without the owner's permission? How did he even know the car was still there? What would he have done if Jo hadn't come back while he was there, stuck a note on it saying "Fixed it"? In a way, he's lucky she is David's daughter, because a complete stranger turning up and finding him there would have been even more creeped out. Alf, Irene and even Leah seemed to be charmed by David but Cash is seeing a different side to him.Still, Eden needs to realise that the police station being a drop-in centre isn't a thing anymore.Cash ended up helping Eden come to a sensible solution, going to see Debra instead of making assumptions about how she feels.I'm not sure Abby was invited, but it gets her out of the way for the rest of the week! Seems like Mali is having a bit of trouble being a one man band again. I noticed Alf only said he "looks after" the caravan park: An acknowledgement that Sally and Miles still own it after all these years? So, reading between the lines, it seems like Jo was the driver who killed their mother who Lacey feels David forgave too easily. It being his daughter is both more understandable and more disturbing, since he'd probably be quicker to convince himself she wasn't to blame, and try and demand Lacey do the same, than if it was a stranger. Despite him saying he wouldn't use his police authority to force a meeting with Lacey, he's done that already. I think Jo pushed it way too far with Lacey at the end, including grabbing her to stop her walking away, and she seemed to give as good as she got in that fight.

It was kind of one extreme to the other with Eden there.She started off having some nice sibling banter with Abby and it was quite sweet of her to ask her to be maid of honour.But as soon as she saw that message from their dad, it was like a hair trigger for her.She didn't even have the self-awareness to realise that this is one of the reasons she and Abigail ended up so alienated in the first place, her demanding Abigail hate Jimmy and Levi just because she did and wrecking her chance of having a relationship with them.So, now Abigail's issued a challenge, how will she respond to it? Whilst I'm glad in one way, Harper and Dana have been at odds for so long that it really felt like we needed a better wrap-up than "We talked all night and we've sorted it." But at least it left Dana and Sonny free to discuss what they are in their own not-giving-anything-away manner. I was amused by Sonny's claim to be the father of twins and the way Dana clearly wasn't taken in for a second. Unfortunately, it left Harper free to indulge in even more toxic past-times. Irene telling her to go and declare her undying love to Tane again was utterly terrible advice. And Harper's response, basically deciding to go on holiday with Tane in the hope something will happen, was even more terrible.Tane looked more than a bit bemused by the whole thing. Leah continues to be concerned that she knows more about Lacey than Theo does!

Harper is in full on crazy person mode here. And if that wasn't enough to endear Sonny and Dana to me, then they were wonderfully quirky. I loved Sonny's response to Harper's increasingly rambling questioning, and his kicking Dana out in the nicest possible way to go and sort it. I also like that Irene seems to have belatedly twigged that Harper's being a drama queen and shut her down at every opportunity. Marilyn, one episode after sniping at John for doing the same, decides to chime in with her opinion of Sonny so I was quite glad Irene gave her a taste of her own medicine. But yes, it makes sense that Harper would be overcompensating for her poor choices with Tane. Mackenzie seemed to have emptied out her own glass of crazy, but was back drinking it by the end with her multiple purchases. And yes, Levi even pointed out to her that getting stressed will just make it harder but she's determined to do this now. Justin ends up as Remi's confidante, even if he did stop him getting any sleep.I guess it might work for a couple of nights but hopefully Remi doesn't have to keep it up for too long. I liked Justin's deadpan attempt to convince Theo the surf is terrible and the byplay between Sonny and Theo.

Will was Alf's boat hand and Gypsy worked at the drop-in centre. I am struggling really hard to remember the details. My instinct is that Justine was still at school when she was working as a babysitter, and I seem to remember her studying drama at uni. However much of a villain 2005 Brett was, I'm not sure he ever went that far!

Alf's episode count this week:Two. Only Leah, Justin, Theo and Lacey managed three, and Bree didn't appear at all. Did I miss a line about her being out of town? Well, Dana and Sonny weren't fooling anyone there, especially not Irene. They've kind of missed out on both breakfast and lunch now, I hope they don't waste away. (And how did Dana not notice Harper turning up again when she was in the bathroom?) There were some very funny moments with Harper and Dana's Moonlighting-style bickering (Dana: "Good!" Harper: "Good!" Sonny: "...Good") but Harper really has gone sailing over the line now. I think she does need to accept that Dana has to be left to make her own choices, and also that she's made a much bigger mess of her life lately. Even Irene has stopped blindly taking her word for it that Dana should stay away from Sonny. Marilyn went back to being annoying and rather unlikable with her sniping at John for calling Sonny a good bloke, even though she's been saying the same things herself. It's as if sneering at him just comes automatically to her. Abigail really did seem to have regressed to her childhood with her present hunting, but she gets huge points for her sensitive handling of Mali's insecurities and the way she defused things. She even inspired Mackenzie, only for her to find out that good news is just as unwelcome as bad news because now she doesn't even have a reason why she isn't pregnant. When we saw Irene having the same conversation with both Alf and Marilyn, I thought at first that one of them was meant to have been cut and they forgot, but then John commented on it too so I guess it was intended!

She left three years after it happened. Some people aren't even on the show that long. I always feel people overstate how much she was against the idea, she may have felt it was the wrong timing in 2002 or whenever but I think she always knew it would happen eventually.

So after that big dramatic moment in the previous episode, Eden just goes along and takes part in the recording session anyway. It is a bit odd that Lyrik are basically making an album together without being Lyrik. I did like that scene of Eden watching the old music video with the slow melody of Someone Like You playing over it. Avalon's plan seems to have been to annoy Remi into playing with her. I appreciated that Kirby felt guilty about walking out once she thought about it. Of course, Eden then does make another dramatic exit anyway, as she's forgotten little sister's birthday. Abby was a bit of a big kid running around telling everyone it was her birthday, although I accept her point that it's the first time she's celebrated it with both her siblings in a long time. Debra makes a birthday phone call but no mention of Abigail's U-turn on living with her. Eden's horrified expression at realising she'd agreed to buy half a car was rather amusing and I think Levi let her off the hook a bit easily. Also love that John just wandered over to join them in the unveiling. It's a shame it's made Mali a bit insecure. Levi and Mackenzie's baby issues take a back seat but looks like there's news coming.

I didn't hear anything until late 2007. I doubt they planned it a year and a half in advance!

When Leah said she wasn't Lacey's biggest fan at first, I thought "You weren't her biggest fan yesterday." At the start of this episode, we were still only a day on from Friday's episode with Leah defensively asking Justin if Lacey was there when he took Theo's stuff round: That's quite a turnaround! But anyway, Leah gave her some good advice. We get some more hints about the rift between Lacey and David: They disagreed over the driver that killed her mother and Lacey feels David didn't support her. Still, if her mother died two years ago and she only moved out six months ago, that suggests she stuck at it for quite a while. So, Leah is now in the awkward position of knowing more about Lacey than Theo does... We saw a bit more of a human side to David but he still thinks a "clean slate" involves putting Cash on traffic duty, even if he did admit he abused his power to bring Lacey to the station. When Eden was talking about the amazing coincidence of the new sergeant being Lacey's dad, I thought "Yeah, that'd be like the hospital getting help from a top heart surgeon who turns out to be your brother." Cash gives Tane a "That's another fine mess you've got me into" look on seeing him at the station. Elsewhere, Kirby has a new arch-enemy. It did seem a bit odd that they were basically trying to put Lyrik back together without putting Lyrik back together, so I'm glad Eden thought it was weird too. Kirby really should have let her answer and I'm surprised Remi and especially Cash didn't notice she wasn't particularly enthusiastic for it.

That has to be one of the most bizarre cases of a reused actor ever, on a par with Vinnie's dad playing a random homeless person, Aden's dad being the new school principal and Robert Robertson turning up as a random counsellor. I've seen enough spoiler photos to get used to it but when I first saw him I immediately thought "Dylan Carter's back?!" And he's even playing another arrogant and corrupt police officer, although he's listed as a regular (not on the opening credits yet, have to keep an eye out for that!), so presumably there's a heart of gold in there somewhere. We didn't see much evidence of it here, with him being a hypocrite with Cash, needling him about breaking protocol while blatantly abusing his position, and coming across as rather controlling with Lacey. I'm not sure what Tane thought he was doing turning up at the station: Did he really expect New Sarge to go "Oh, okay then" when he said it was all his fault? He's obviously good at twisting people's words. I remember Lacey saying a while back about having been let down by the police in the past. I would guess Lacey is around the same age as Theo, yes. (25?) I did like Justin getting Leah to be his new gaming buddy in order to stop her dismantling the house and putting it back together again, and despite his protests last episode, Theo seems to be fine with just walking in as if it's still his home. (Mind you, most people do that on this show.) I was kind of expecting Dana and Sonny's storyline to continue, we've kind of been left hanging there!

It was good to see Leah back to her old self, I guess it finally dawned on her that she'd pushed it as far as she could. Theo seemed to be the one making the most waves, reacting in a defensive manner to fairly innocuous comments from Leah and Justin. But once Leah had offered an apology, things seemed to go well between everyone involved, with Leah and Lacey soon bonding. So we learn a bit about Lacey's background, her mother's dead, it sounds like her father's still around and she has a sister. It's kind of ironic that, when Theo was there, Leah and Justin couldn't wait to have the house to themselves, but now they've got it to themselves all the time, they're miserable about it. I actually found myself cheering Marilyn here as she was the only person willing to speak up for Sonny and Dana being together while Harper had a permanent sour face on and Irene was once more judgemental about someone she doesn't seem to have spent nearly enough time with to form a considered opinion. (Her baby snatcher tendencies resurfacing over Archie, not so much.) I think I've been thoroughly won over to Sonny and Dana by Harper's constant bleating.

Lacey only got added on Tuesday, around the time she was added to the main cast on the closing credits, so yes they're updating them, and probably fairly promptly.

Alf's episode count this week:Three. Well, Remi and Kirby's spat ended up being a bit of a storm in a teacup and it feels like they've already had this conversation once.I found myself leaning more towards Remi's point of view even if he didn't handle it well at times.Kirby's claim that Remi's never had to worry about money didn't really hold true: A year ago, he was supporting himself and paying his contribution to the household by picking up whatever music gig he could manage. And did she forget when their electricity got cut off? He might come from a rich background, but he's never liked accepting handouts any more than she does. Leah seemed to have lost all touch of reality here: She's moved from blaming Lacey for everything that's happened with Theo to blaming anyone even tangentially involved, including Justin and Bree. At least Bree's got a couple of new flatmates out of all this: Is Lacey intending to stay at a backpacker's indefinitely? Anyway, a bit of friendly advice from Alf and Marilyn, and some bluntness from Justin, and Leah's at least approaching Theo in a calm manner, but I guess we'll see if having to accept Lacey is a step too far. I liked that spectacularly awkward meeting between Sonny and Dana, especially Archie giving Sonny a totally-not-impressed look.

It's a tricky one because in many ways these things are almost undefinable. Sometimes a couple click, sometimes they don't. (The experts call it chemistry.) It was based on a long-standing close friendship: Even when they were still with other people, they seemed to be each other's go-to person. They seemed to be better people together. They were together about two years and were very solid during that time. They felt like a couple that you could imagine staying together forever. I guess sometimes a couple captures the audience's attention and for some of us, they were one of them.

I mean, I agree with you on one level. I think Sophie will always view David as the love of her life and have an idealised version of him that no-one else can live up to, although I don't think that's necessarily the only reason she was single for so long. Worth pointing out that the reason Blake didn't get a say in naming their son was he bailed on her while she was pregnant and seemed to have very little contact with them. It's a bit weird but again, a standard soap (and wider fiction) trope to name a child after a dead loved one. (Hayley naming her son with another man after her dead husband springs to mind.)

I mean, she's hardly unique in that regard. Blake came back single too. Roo was apparently single for the best part of 20 years after breaking up with Frank. So was he, for that matter. If they didn't leave with someone and stay with them, and there isn't a particular reason for them to have a partner when they come back, departed characters' love lives tend to be non-existent. In Sophie's case, I think it was at least partly down to needing to focus on being a mother to Tamara and not having time for dating.

A bit of creative tension between Remi and Kirby then.I kind of got where Kirby was coming from with not feeling comfortable spending more money than she had to, and Remi got it too once Bree managed to spell it out to him. I guess we'll have to wait and see how Remi's new plan works: Is the idea for him to stay completely clear of the recording and just sign the invoices? We did get a brief explanation, but Theo and Sonny being absent from the flat all day because they're not in the episode did feel a bit contrived. Another reference to Liz Shaw then, last seen as Harper's obstetrician. Mackenzie's kind of opened a pandora's box here, so I guess she and Levi need to have answers. Abby went closer to leaving than I expected, but I'm glad Mali managed to talk her round in the end and show her that her life in Summer Bay is worth keeping. I wasn't expecting Debra to appear but I would have liked some sort of reference to how she reacted to it. Instead, I suspect we won't see Mali and Abby again until next week, by which time the momentum will have been lost. ETA: As an aside, the actor playing the clobbered bodyguard actually did play one of Cash's bodyguard colleagues last year, but he had a different character name so it's probably not the same one.

I must admit I've got out of the habit after 17 years of checking to see if someone's been added to the opening titles, I've just been looking to see where they are in the cast list. I noticed straightaway on Monday that Lacey was now listed with the main cast, but it's only now I've looked back and checked that I see she was actually added to the opening titles yesterday! Anyway, aside from John celebrating the River Boys getting locked up (well...about six of them, anyway, unless the rest got found with the bodyguards), we're onto other matters.In normal circumstances, it might have been a bit early for Mackenzie to worry about not having got pregnant yet, but after she explained the background to Levi, he realised there might be cause for concern after all. She must have been stringing him along even longer than Cash did John: She tells him there's something he doesn't know when they're walking through a park area, then when we cut back to them, they're on the beach and she's still going "I should have told you this before" instead of spitting it out! So my guess about Debra was right then! After Eden has been threatening just about everyone in town. It was definitely a jolt to her to realise that her parents can actually be grown-ups about this, although she's still insisting on casting Jimmy in the worst light possible. John angling to be celebrant was pleasingly endearing. It's nice that everyone's fond of him and realises his good intentions even though he irritates them at times. I'm guessing Debra had good intentions but she seems to have done a number on Abby, her confidence is absolutely shattered after that character assassination. Any relief I had that she wasn't blaming Mali had dissipated by that final scene, so I guess he needs to step up now.

Well, the resolution was a bit better, with only the bad guys demonstrating a copious lack of intelligence. (Why leave Sonny and Theo on their own if they're just going to go back and kill them? Why wait to kill them if that's the end plan? It's not even like they were using them as leverage, were they really just going to give them a lift back to town if Gage was found not guilty?) But anyway, a combination of Sonny, Cash, Tane and a bit of Lacey gets them out of there. Diesel, Wheel Brace, Unleaded and Tool really would have been better off just dropping it and walking away, because they've just landed themselves in the same wing as Gage. So I guess that the River Boys' annual depletion of their ranks over with, and we'll see them after the next recruitment drive? Having been worried about the bodyguards last episode, I must admit I'd forgotten about them here but good to hear they're okay. As Theo said, how does Leah still not get it? She doesn't have to like Lacey, but constantly attacking her and treating her like the devil and insisting she be locked up isn't going to win her any friends, much less get Theo back onside. (Ironically, she's got a point about Lacey leading the River Boys to Theo and Sonny, but not in a way that would get her arrested.) I was glad Tane put Harper in her place, but unfortunately Dana let Harper get in her head, in a way that was spectacularly hypocritical given Harper doesn't tend to date boy scouts herself. (And I notice she's back making goo-goo eyes at Tane.) Eden did eventually explain why she doesn't want Jimmy around, but part of me does wonder why she's so determined to hang on to this one. She's forgiven Levi, twice, she's made peace with Abigail, Debra thinks it all turned out for the best, so she really needs to cross that last frontier. My first thought was "Did you post it on social media?", and I even wondered if Debra had shared the news, but Cash was always a possibility as well.

Well, I guess it would be too much to hope that it was as simple as Theo and Sonny going to court and giving evidence.I know it's easy sitting here, but it did feel like the episode relied on the good guys doing exactly what the bad guys needed.Why didn't the security guys radio in that the road was blocked? Why didn't their passengers make any attempt to warn them of the ambush, even though they saw the River Boys several seconds earlier? Why do they act as though they're helpless just because the road's blocked both ways, when they could have probably gone off road or at least driven into their attackers? Not that the River Boys do much better, as instead of getting rid of the witnesses, they leave Sonny and Theo unguarded and just leave Dana and Lacey behind so Lacey can go and give evidence after all. Does the River Boys' new field commander (named Diesel in the credits...what with him and Spanner, you wonder if the others are called Wheel Brace, Bumper and Unleaded) have a soft spot for her? It's not clear how Cash knew where Dana and Lacey were either. (Did they flag down someone, who lent them a phone to make a call and then drove on?) The episode does its best to explain the sudden disappearance of the security detail, but it feels a bit weird anyway. Of course, the worst thing is that we're probably now going to be treated to Leah and Harper getting on their high horses.I'm glad Eden at least made an attempt to defend Sonny to Harper. Someone should have a word with her about some of the people Tane's hung out with over the years. I loved John producing a big dossier on his being a celebrant, and loved even more that he then managed to win Eden over by just sitting down and showing an interest in her. I notice Lacey was credited as a regular for the first time, so looks like she's sticking around.