Red Ranger 1

And? The show's makers outright said that they were ignoring Covid because no-one wants to see it on the beaches. Neighbours referenced the travel restrictions (albeit inconsistently) and showed facemask wearing and warning signs.

Other way round, I think. So, yes, as the promo suggested, it turns out that John opening the container didn't affect anything at all, although they don't seem to have got to the bottom of exactly what it is yet apart from it being something at the Diner.I don't think it's necessarily legionnaire's, that was just one possibility Bree suggested that matched the assumed method of contamination and the symptoms: She said there were dozens of others. Bree's incompetence turns out to be even greater than in the previous episode: Not only did she completely fail to trace John's movements and track down anyone he'd been in contact with, but she made assumptions based on a snap judgement and had better hope this isn't airborne, because she's just left Dana, who was perfectly healthy when she came in, shut in a room with a man who's infected for the best part of a day. Oh well, at least it gave us John and Dana's repartee... Incidentally, the guy that collapsed at the Diner previously played a new dad befriended by Rachel Armstrong in 2009! I was very unhappy with the way both Felicity and Eden bullied Remi into going and playing nicey-nice to Cash, as if that's going to be some sort of cure-all...and I really hope it isn't, because Cash knows he screwed up and whether or not Remi agrees should be immaterial, just as a report saying their people should have called his people is immaterial. We seem to be being told that Cash had no way of knowing she was in danger a lot, as if that somehow completely exonerates him. Well, sorry, but his job was to protect her. Was he only supposed to protect her from people who rang up in advance to let him know they were coming? What if some other crazed fan had been inspired by Wickham's actions and decided to take a potshot at her? Cash himself noted he got complacent and didn't keep a proper eye on the court proceedings. Remember when he had his phone set up to let him know if anything was posted online that related to Stevie (even if it was just her sleeping with Remi)? Apparently, at some point he decided not to bother doing any of that and thought he was being paid to stand around on the beach looking vaguely intimidating. And he didn't even get that right!

I don't think it's a case of there being a hard and fast "You can't change your look ever" rule so much as them needing permission.The producers will want to make sure that whatever they do feels in character for who they're playing, and out of sequence filming means it'll need to be done in such a way that their look doesn't switch back and forth.

Well, John and Dana's quest to open the container turned out to be a bit anti-climatic...or did it? Because apparently they've just unleashed the bubonic plague on the Bay.It has to be said Bree was spectacularly selective with how she treated people.Xander gets kept in overnight for tests because he had contact with Dana, while Dana is shut away like she's patient zero despite showing no symptoms (and Xander isn't allowed to speak to her even though they've already had contact), but Levi is allowed to just walk out of there after a quick questionnaire despite having physical contact with John (and even interact with a patient!) and apparently Bree made no real attempt to track John's movements and learn he spoke to Marilyn, Roo and Harper (albeit not as intimately as Xander and Dana).I think he can rule her attempt to contain this as an epic fail. Despite my comments on Friday's promo, it seems it's not as simple as "It's all good" for Mackenzie and Levi.She's decided to paper over the cracks, but despite Xander pleading Levi's case, the old adage of "If they can do it with you, they can do it to you" seems to be ringing in her ears. Harper getting a tarot reading from Marilyn...well, it was nice to see her interacting with other characters but she seemed to be hoping to hear she'd meet a tall dark Parata who'd marry her and live happily ever after.

Thank you for the comments, Zig and pembie! CHAPTER SEVEN Bella stood outside the door to Ryder’s cabin, shifting from foot to foot in an irritable manner and checking her watch.She finally banged on it.“Ryder!Are you in there?”She paused a few seconds before knocking again.“Ryder!” Ryder finally opened the door, bleary-eyed but at least fully-clothed.“Bella?Did we have a breakfast appointment?” Bella grabbed his hand and pulled him down the corridor, barely giving him a chance to close the door. “No time.We have people to talk to.You don't have anything else to do, do you?” “Um, I’m not due on shift for another two hours but…” Bella suddenly stopped and grabbed him by the arms.“I have spoken to Emmett and have all the crew’s secrets.Trust me, you do not want to miss this.” *** Ryder tried his hardest to keep up with Bella as she barrelled into the cocktail bar where Wendy was working.The place wasn’t open yet, any more than the casino, so the staff were involved with setting it up.Bella spoke to Ryder quietly.“Follow my lead.”Then she stepped forward with a broad smile on her face.“Wendy, hi!We were just talking about Denzel.” It took Ryder a moment to realise that was meant to be his cue.“Right, yeah.I spoke to him last night. Poor guy.” “It must be so hard to be accused of something like that and he’s so adamant that he’s innocent.” Wendy had the air of someone who wasn’t quite sure why she was having the conversation.“Well, hopefully the truth wiill come out in time.” Bella’s face suddenly hardened.“Well, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” That comment seemed to throw Wendy.“What do you mean?” “Your last job.Where was it, Melbourne?You were working in a bar and you were accused of stealing. You were given a suspended sentence.” Wendy glared at her.“Fine, so you’ve Googled me.I was stupid and I lost nearly everything.If you think that means I’d do it again, you’re wrong.”She stalked away. Ryder cautiously came up next to Bella.“Was that the whole of your plan?Accuse someone and see how they react?” Bella turned to him, unrepentant.“Right, and it’s a good plan.So good that I’m going to do it again.” Ryder sagged.“I’m not going to like this, am I?” *** “Mr.Beck!”Bella called out. It took Ryder a second to realise she was talking to Archibald.He’d largely forgotten that was his name, given that he had a hard enough time calling him Archibald.He also had a sinking feeling about where this was going. Archibald looked round.“Miss Taylor.” “You know I’ve just been thinking about how isolated we are around here.It’s like we’re cut off from the rest of the world.” “Not entirely,”Archibald argued,“We do have telephone and radio, even internet.” “Yeah but no-one’s going to come here in person.” “Your own addition to the manifest aside, I suppose you’ve got a point.” “We’re not going to see anyone here from, say, Carter and Westman.” Archibald froze at the comment.Ryder did too, even though he didn’t understand it.“I’m sorry?” Archibald asked after a pause. “Carter and Westman.They’re a law firm.They’re currently acting on behalf of the building firm that you hired to do extension work on your house and then decided not to pay.” “They didn’t complete the work to my satisfaction…”Archibald caught himself.“I’m not sure how this is any of your business or how you got this information…” “I’m a photographer, I have my sources.” “…but if you’re attempting to imply something…” “Only that it’s probably useful for you to be out in the middle of an ocean right now.And you could use all the money you can get at the moment.” Archibald met her gaze for a moment, then walked away.Ryder came up to Bella’s side.“So are you done annoying suspects now?” Bella sighed.“You’re right.This has done no good.”Her face lit up.“What we need is evidence!”

Alf's episode count this week:Two.Only Irene, Marilyn, Justin and Bree managed three.Leah and Tane didn't appear at all, although at least we got explanations why. I really don't get why Levi thinks he had the right to play the victim.All Eden did was tell Imogen his new address when she asked, which she didn't have to do but I don't see any reason why she should keep it to herself.And then he even goes into a sulk about Mackenzie not trusting him when he has actually been lying to her.It's probably a good thing that Xander stopped Mackenzie following through on the worst idea he'd ever heard! I get why people find her irritating but I had to smile at Dana's quirky enthusiasm for solving a mystery.Yes, a whole lot of what she did was wildly inappropriate but she does make a perfect sidekick for John, who's equally inclined to take an idea and run with it far more than anyone else would do. Not only did the promo provide a better cliffhanger than the episode, it pretty much resolved what little tension there was over Mackenzie and Levi's fallout by showing them together!

I would say that Dana is someone who has a lot of loyalty to certain people (notably Harper, although she's shown it with John and Tane too) and that being focused on helping them can sometimes cause her to treat other people badly out of thoughtlessness. Anyway, today.At this point I'd say it's almost certain that Bronte is lying about her illness: That fall looked faked (although technically we didn't actually see what happened) and she was very insistent that Irene wasn't to go to the hospital with her.Her suddenly dropping into conversation that there's an experimental treatment that she couldn't possibly afford is a bit of a red flag. John gets involved in Justin and Theo's treasure search but seems to have given up on his idea that he's stumbled upon an international drug operation. Mackenzie and Levi are well and truly in the "honeymoon's over" period, with Mackenzie apparently suspicious on suddenly realising she's shacked up with a married man she doesn't even know that well.It feels like the show's turning Imogen into the bitter ex-wife in order to make us feel sorry for them.

My instinct is that Tom talks about his father at one point but that might be me misremembering!

I'm not sure if that was ever actually mentioned on the show, it was just in early publicity material..

It's been like that for quite a while, although I'm struggling to remember the last time there were four people living there. Was there a point when Irene, Willow, Jasmine and Bella were all there?

Kissing Remi. Stevie's funeral has been delayed by the police investigation but it probably won't last until the trial. Sounds like we can add Leah to the absentee list: Even with Irene back, there's not that many people in the Bay at the moment! I really struggled to follow Marilyn's logic here, and while she's not the clearest thinker, you'd expect Roo to point out the flaws rather than get swept up in the madness.I can understand not wanting food to go to waste, but if she's giving it away free, won't that mean the Diner's lost the money for it anyway? The barbecue did at least seem to be making some money but apparently not as much as normal.So really, how was it ever a possibility that Irene and Leah wouldn't notice how much she's spent? And sure enough, Irene realises as soon as she looks at the week's outgoings. I was not expecting Bree to go running back to Remi that quickly and I was expecting even less for him to be open to the idea given the mixed messages she's been sending him.But I guess I should applaud Remi for dealing with it maturely and noting this isn't the right time for them. Irene's picked up another stray, but we already know from that phone call that Bronte isn't entirely on the level.I thought Harper was pushing it a bit describing herself as Irene's housemate rather than her lodger.

To be honest, while I fully understand Nelson seeing it as a poisoned chalice and getting out of there, I'm not as ready to condemn the producers for wanting to recast as everyone else is.Whilst you'd think they'd have insurance for this sort of thing, in pretty much any walk of life, if someone dies, sooner or later their employer will hire someone else to do their job.Does it being so high profile make a difference? Anyway, that's Nelson seemingly gone (so no apology from Cash, who doesn't appear to have even seen him again).Bree really does seem to be messing with everyone's head at the moment: He forgives her and she turns him down anyway! I guess I can understand Remi (someone else she's sent very mixed signals to) wanting to get out of there and wasn't too keen on Eden sticking her neb in. It is always nice to see Felicity trying to step up and be the caring sibling, even if she did largely end up handing over to Eden.Not that Eden's brilliant plan to force Cash and Remi together was particularly helpful, with Cash seemingly left to pull himself out of this hole on his own. Even Roo comments on Alf and Irene's synchronised filming breaks! So, we get the explanation from Iluka and it seems he isn't too dodgy, although he has a tendency to hang with the wrong crowd.I'm not sure Mali and Rose really need to be that concerned about Kirby. Well, this is even more personal: Tane's slept with someone Felicity considers a friend and who knows very intimate and personal details about her from being involved in the aftermath of her rape. And neither of them seem particularly bothered aside from Harper worrying about herself if Felicity finds out.

Well, Cash overtakes Alf as the person with the most inappropriate reaction to Stevie's death. Where the hell does he get off having a go at Nelson for a decision made by someone else? Nelson has done absolutely nothing wrong, and this comes right after Cash admitting he took his eye off the ball and became complacent:Stevie kept him on because she thought she could trust him and he let her down.The excuse for Wickham being out of jail continues to be laughable, but then judges letting criminals go just because their defence asks nicely seems to be trendy at the moment.Part of me thinks that Nelson inviting Bree to come to Italy with him after a matter of weeks would be pretty out there even without her still being hung up on Remi, but I guess whirlwind romances happen. I am rapidly losing all respect for Harper, which is a shame because I used to quite like her, but her current performance as a rabid Tane fan girl who got lucky with her hero is just pathetic.(Dana calling him a "demigod" pretty much sums up how we're apparently meant to view him, although at least she got on Harper's nerves.)Naturally, Felicity is nice to Harper right after Harper's slept with her husband.Yes, yes, separated, but Tane is such a complete hypocrite on that one, judging Felicity for sleeping with precisely one person while he has sex with every willing warm body he can find, that part of me really does hope she gives both of them both barrels. So we finally meet Mali’s brother. He seemed to make at least a reasonably good first impression on Rose but Mali isn’t fooled for a minute by his “just popped round for a visit” claim.

Yeah, I had to include Emmett in there. I prefer him and Bella to remain friends (although he'd probably be better for her than Nikau) but I like the idea that they're still in contact being photography geeks together.

EastEnders has been on 4 episodes for a long time and has never been more than that except on special occasions (although it is, of course, the only soap without adverts, so in terms of minutes per week it's longer than the commercial stations who do the same). Coronation Street has 3 hour-long episodes. Emmerdale, I think, has 5 episodes including an hour-long one? I definitely don't see Home and Away as out of the ordinary, especially in terms of the UK schedule.

Thanks, pembie! CHAPTER SIX Ryder and Bella had retired to a corner of the deck with a laptop.They were unlikely to be disturbed so they had plenty of time to come up with notes on their investigation.Unfortunately, at that moment, their page was blank.“Why is this so difficult?”Bella moaned. Ryder thought for a moment.“Well…I guess one first step would be to write a list of suspects.” “Great idea!”Bella agreed, before her enthusiasm disappeared slightly,“So…who is there?” “I guess everyone who was working in the casino that night and knew about the takings?” Bella paused over the keyboard.“Names?” “Apart from me and Denzel, there’s, um, Frank, Ewan, Tracey, Glenda, Mike, Travis and, um, Brad.” Bella dutifully wrote the names down.“What about the cocktail waitresses?That Wendy?” “Yeah, she was there,”Ryder agreed,“And a couple of others.Er, Liz and Hannah.” “Anyone else?” “Archibald,”Ryder realised,“Hates it if we call him Archie.He’s in charge of the casino, he must know everything.” “What about the captain and the other officers?” Ryder shook his head.“I doubt it.They don’t tend to get involved in the entertainment side much.” “I’ll put them down anyway.”Bella did so, then looked at the rather long list.“Okay, now we’ve got this, what do we do with them?” “Interview them all?”Ryder suggested. Bella thought about this, then shook her head.“No, you can talk to people if you want but I’ve got a better idea.”She closed up the laptop and tucked it under her arm.“See you later!” *** Bella waited until she’d got back to her cabin and checked she’d got a phone signal before dialling a number.“Emmett?Hi, I need some help.”She opened up her laptop and found the list of suspects.“I need you to run background checks on all these people for me.” Emmett’s confused voice came over her phone.“Sorry, what?” “It’s something Ryder and I are looking into.” “You know I’m not the police, right?” “Yeah but you know people at the cruise company.You can ask around.” She heard Emmett give a resigned sigh.“All right, I’ll see what I can do,”he offered. Bella smiled.“Great!Okay, these are the names…” *** Ryder had headed down to the bar, confident Denzel would still be there.Sure enough, he was sat at a table, nursing a drink.Ryder sat down opposite him.“Hey there,”he greeted him awkwardly. Denzel lifted his eyes momentarily to look at him.“I wasn’t looking for company.” “Shouldn’t have left your cabin then.” Denzel seemed to concede the point.“You’d better be careful.They might think you’re my accomplice.” Ryder looked round nervously.“Why do they think it’s you?” “I don’t know if they do.Just want someone to blame.” Ryder lowered his voice conspiratorially.“If there’s a way to clear your name, I’ll find it.” Denzel actually looked amused as he met his gaze.“Well, that’s all right then.”

Alf's episode count this week:Five! So, yes, the usual trope of them spending weeks claiming a character's going to jail and then they don't.I guess I should give them credit for holding back on their usual "Pretty boy gets upset on witness stand so everyone feels sorry for him" trick.But as usual, it's ridiculously slanted: We don't see Tane get cross-examined (which was the main fear about putting him on the stand), in fact the prosecutor doesn't speak a word all episode and we just get Marshall's usual spin.(If Tane really wanted what was best for Poppy, he'd have let her go to the foster family, not hidden her away in a back room.Harper, of course, is too busy having sex with him to remember all the effort she went to find Poppy a safe home only for him to wreck it.)I'm glad that at least Felicity has moved on from constantly begging Tane for forgiveness and instead gave him a straight-talking "This actually helps you so stop being precious and suck it up." Harper, meanwhile, gets "rewarded" for acting like an utter twit in court by being his latest rebound hook-up.Tane finally admits he and Felicity are only separated so Harper has to face the awkwardness of facing up to his wife afterwards.No doubt Tane's "strict conditions" will be ignored going forward and he'll just do whatever he likes. I'm still not really comfortable with this desire to go "Stevie who?" as if a young woman being murdered is mostly an inconvenience that's getting in the way of everyone's surfing.(And Cash and Remi have used up their episodes this week so aren't around to argue.)But it was nice to get some more Aboriginal cultural details, Home and Away continues to be one of the best soaps at including this kind of thing.

She didn't make any effort to tell him as far as I could see, just made unhelpful statements like "I can't" and "I'm sorry". Even at the end, she was incapable of giving him a straight answer and left it to Marilyn. Maybe I'm being harsh on him but I was spectacularly unimpressed by some of Alf's actions here.Sure, get rid of the bloodsucker trying to make money from a tragedy.But what exactly gives him the right to ban all floral tributes to Stevie from the beach just two days after she died because...what? It's bringing the mood down? It's making the town look bad? For all his attempts to say it was just so they could set up a nice memorial somewhere warm and dry (and out of sight), it came across as massively disrespectful and I was disappointed that everyone except Mali let him railroad them into it. I was amused at Felicity's force of nature in just getting into Tane's car and refusing to budge, less so at her smug look of approval at Harper's pathetic display.If Tane and Harper weren't main characters and thus above the law, they'd both have been chucked in a cell until they could behave like grown-ups.(The judge even threatens to charge Tane if he speaks again, then he does and she just issues more impotent warnings.)Cash outright told Harper the court wouldn't tolerate anyone playing the fool with a sudden attack of amnesia, so why was she acting like she'd come up with the perfect way to beat the system that no-one had ever thought of before? As it was, she managed to spin the facts to show Tane in a favourable light anyway, so what was with playing silly beggars? It's frustrating that Felicity has let Tane get in her head and convinced herself that somehow her lying about wanting children justifies him deciding to go and take someone else's. If Dana had really been trying to help Tane, she might have mentioned it was her idea to sneak him into the hospital. Is it me or were both Rose and Dana somehow the first witness?

Hmm. Possibly, but I kind of assumed Crystal's character died in the movie.(She doesn't look in a good way in the bits we've seen.)Even Stevie seemed to stop insisting it was murder after the coroner's verdict came back, although that would make it a startling coincidence.

Was there any reason why Dana didn't tell John she had to be in court, instead of just pulling out of her shift with no explanation?Other than so he could keep pushing until she snapped? Bree was behaving really inappropriately here, appointing herself Remi's go-to person and then kissing him.Hey, he's never even brought up her promise that Stevie would be all right and she still has to keep pushing her luck! Theo was a much better choice. The Bay's pretty much in shock, and seems to have replaced the film crew with a combination of genuinely distraught fans and tasteless ghouls.

I rolled my eyes at Rose telling Cash he did a good job today.As both Remi and Cash himself pointed out, he had one job and he was an epic failure at it.A lot of the blame has to lie with the idiotic judge who let a dangerous criminal loose (Does a mistrial even require that? Couldn't he be kept in custody while a retrial was arranged?) and the idiotic police who decided to just let him roam free, somehow with full access to a rifle, but if Cash had actually been with Stevie doing his job when he got the call instead of listening to Harper and Dana's whining, there might have been a chance to get her to safety in time.I'm not sure I'd have been willing to indulge Wickham as much as Cash did, but I suppose that's police officer training when dealing with a sicko with a gun. I did feel sorry for Nelson here.I guess Bree stepped up eventually but she still seems to be more interested in hanging around Remi in a way that's understandable but vaguely inappropriate.At least he had Alf on hand.

At least in real life the forces of law and order managed to stop the plot against Holly Willoughby.In Home and Away world, they're so criminally incompetent that they don't lift a finger to protect Stevie, and even when Cash hands them the stalker on a plate, they let him out so he can kill her.Again, I'm left wondering why the show felt this was needed.At least when we had Vita Nova pop up for an unnecessary encore last year it ended with all the good guys fully recovered and them shut down for good.This is the worst case of a satisfying ending being replaced with a rather tasteless one since Robbo caught his family's killer only for his minions to kill Robbo, Mason, Lance and however many others.Did they write themselves into a corner by committing to having Stevie filming in the Bay for three months and decide the only solution was to kill her? Why couldn't she have just gone off to live her life happily after the stalker was caught? There are times when this show seems overly fond of putting young women through hell and then killing them. And the guy doesn't even do us all a favour and polish off Tane, who decides that instead of doing something useful like reporting the sighting to the police, he's going to behave like a macho idiot and go chasing after the shooter on his own and get whacked on the head (so nothing vital), leading to Felicity and Cash putting themselves in danger to help him. That said, I suppose I need to reflect on what would have happened if Felicity actually had stayed in the house with Wickham having made it his next port of call: Would she have been safely locked inside ready to call the police when she saw him, or would she have ended up as a hostage or worse? (As ever, people locking doors in Summer Bay is a sign things are serious!) Bree was daft to make that promise.You could tell from the look on Levi's face that he knew it too.

Thank you for the comments, John, Zig and pembie! CHAPTER FIVE Bella slowly woke up.She took in her surroundings and realised they were in Ryder’s cabin.Ryder was sleeping next to her.She glanced under the covers and saw she was in her underwear.It could have been worse.Memories, disturbingly evocative memories, of the previous night came back to her. She considered sneaking out of there but somehow that didn’t seem like something a friend would do. Instead, she nudged her bed companion in the side.“Ryder.Ryder.” Ryder blinked awake and stared at her.She could see the same memories were coming back to him. “Bella.Hi.” Even though they both knew what had happened, Bella still felt the need to verbalise it.“We did more than sleep, didn’t we?” “Yeeeaaahhh.”Ryder seemed determined to draw the syllable out as long as possible. “We should probably get up,”Bella decided, trying to avoid any further conversation.She began to get out of the bed, then stopped awkwardly.“Do you know where my dress is?” Ryder gestured towards the far corner on her side of the bed.“I think we threw it over there..?” Bella quickly located it and pulled it on.Ryder was on his feet as well by now.“Meet in fifteen minutes for breakfast?”she suggested. “Yeah, I’ll see you in the galley,”Ryder agreed. Unsure of the polite thing to do, Bella gave him the briefest hug possible, putting her arms round him and resting her head on his shoulder for what seemed like a fraction of a second.“See you there.” *** Ryder made it down on time and found Bella sat at a table, nursing a cup of coffee.He sat down opposite her, not making any attempt to get anything for himself.She looked up at him.“So, I guess this is what they call the morning after.” “Guess so,”Ryder agreed,“I’m not quite sure what happened there.I mean, we’ve always been just friends.” “Right, yeah.”Bella hesitated.“Except…” “Except what?”Ryder prompted. Bella rolled her eyes.“Do I need to spell it out?I had noticed before last night that you’re a boy and that you’re kind of cute in a dorky way.” Ryder blinked in surprise.“You never said anything.” “Because I didn’t want to be Raffy!”Bella sighed.“Do you not remember the two of us going to the movies with Willow, right after you dumped Raffy?We came back and she’s there yelling at us, accusing you of moving on and saying you always end up dating girls you’re friends with.Everyone I spoke to said you and her were good friends once but you could barely manage to be in the same room after you broke up.Same with Coco, you were meant to have dated once but you never looked that close.And I saw you with Chloe and I couldn’t even tell if you liked each other while you were dating half the time, let alone after.” She took a deep breath.“So, no, I didn’t want to be another girl that dated you and ended up hating you.I liked having you as a friend too much for that.” Ryder nodded slowly.“I remember Dean telling me once that girlfriends come and go but your mates are always there.And he was talking about Raffy, ironically.Maybe I should have remembered that.” “We’re taking life lessons from Dean now?” “If it works, use it.” Bella fixed him with a piercing gaze.“So come on then, your turn.Did you always find me utterly hideous so you were happy to have me in the friend zone?” “No, I guess I always thought you were pretty…in a scary kind of way.”Ryder thought for a moment.“I guess when we first met, you’d spent all your life living in a cave…” “It was a log cabin!” “…and you seemed younger than you were, like you weren’t ready for dating.And then, by the time you started getting all flustered over Nikau, I guess I’d realised that you had enough people in your life that wanted something from you, that wanted you to be what they wanted you to be.Your dad and that Tommy guy and even Colby and Irene.Maybe even Dean and Willow.So I figured I’d just be your friend and enjoy having you as mine.” Bella nodded slowly.“You know, in a way, you’ve always meant more to be than just about anyone.” “Same here,”Ryder agreed,“And I always thought the fact that we were so uncomplicated was a big part of that.” Bella reached across the table and took his hand…which felt like a bit of a mixed message but he went with it.“So, put last night down to experience and just be uncomplicated friends?” Ryder smiled.“Sounds good to me.” *** Despite their resolve, Ryder and Bella ended up heading to the bar together for Ryder’s shift.Ryder was surprised to see Denzel sat at one of the tables, nursing a drink.From the look of him, it wasn’t the first one he’d had.Ryder went over, while Bella hung back.“Hey, Denzel, what gives?I thought you’d be resting up before your next shift.” Denzel gave a shrug.“Not much point.I’ve got no shift tonight.I’ll probably never have one again if Archie has his way.” Ryder wasn’t any less confused.“What?Why not?” “I’m suspended until further notice.Guess I’m lucky I’m allowed out of my cabin.”He glanced past Ryder for a moment, noticing Bella.“I hear your friend got you off the hook.Congratulations. Shame I don’t have a friend.” Ryder was trying to piece this together.“They think you did it?Why?” “Because I was the last one out!I told them again and again that the safe was locked when I left but it makes no difference.They need someone to pin it on and they’ve decided that’s me.” *** Bella found Ryder standing by the side of the boat outside the bar, staring out to sea.She had gone to take some shots of table tennis games, arranging to meet Ryder at his break.He seemed in a pensive mood and she suspected she knew why.“You feel sorry for him, don’t you?”Ryder looked at her quizzically. “Denzel.” Ryder nodded.“I just can’t help thinking that if I didn’t have you here to back me up, that could be me. And he hasn’t got anybody like that.” “Do you really think he didn’t do it?” Ryder shrugged.“I dunno.I don’t know him that well but he seems like a decent guy.” Bella thought for a moment before coming to a decision.“Well, there’s only one way to help him, isn’t there?” “What’s that?” “We find the culprit ourselves!” Ryder looked at her sceptically.“You and me as some sort of detective duo solving crimes?” “Why not?After all, how hard can it be?”

Alf's episode count this week:Three, and he was credited on Wednesday for no appearance. Far too much of the episode taken up with Tane's Pity Party. And worse, we get it in stereo with Harper and Dana, seemingly competing for the post of head fangirl, whining about how it's "not fair" that Tane might go to jail.Of course it's fair, he kidnapped a child and tried to deny her a loving home and family for selfish reasons. Fifteen years might be extreme but anyone saying he doesn't deserve to go to jail (which now even includes Rose!) is living in fantasy land. Roo was severely slappable with her smug "It can't help to have a conversation" to Rose, who really should have told her to get lost instead of giving in. Tane's reasons for signing the gym over to Felicity were a bit odd (she's got her own business, she doesn't need his) but I guess she's the only family he has left in the Bay and he wants it in good hands. I guess there was far too much "I'm so happy" and "We have all the time in the world" (always a harbinger of doom) for there not to be some drama coming up. This show really does struggle to notice that a storyline's over sometimes: Was there really anyone clamouring for Stevie's stalker to lurch back to life like a bad horror movie monster and have another shot at her (literally)? It might have helped if Cash had been on hand doing his job rather than babysitting Harper and Dana. I know hindsight's easy but all he really achieved by running down there bellowing her name like a madman was make her an easier target, since it led to her turning round and standing still.

A bit of a filler episode but fun anyway.Justin actually was a pretty good actor, even if he did need Stevie to explain to him what "steel" meant! Leah really did act like the embarrassing aunt. Nice for Theo that he passed his apprenticeship. (No doubt Kirby will be wondering if that means he's free for Lyrik again!) Meanwhile, as indicated in yesterday's promo, Remi has apparently decided to make a go of things with Stevie, although ironically it ended up being Bree that he had the deep and meaningful with. Stevie seemed a bit scary at the end. Between her, Eden and Felicity, Cash is getting very good at shepherding highly-strung women. Eden probably landed on the right note: Staying angry at Levi isn't doing her any good, but that doesn't mean all is forgiven and she's going to go back to being the loving sister.