Red Ranger 1

To be fair to Roo, she showed a great deal of concern for the mother when Poppy was first found and wanted her to be found, and did make an attempt to talk Tane out of his dismissive attitude towards her (although she also seemed to be biting her tongue a bit around him).So I think that even if she hadn't met Sonia, she'd still see reuniting her with Poppy as the right outcome and be angry that Tane stood in the way of that.That said, her encouraging him to believe that he was destined to look after her long-term really didn't help.

This one's been bubbling in my head for a while and I might now have time to write it! I hope you enjoy. Story Title: Friends Reunited Type of story: Short/Medium fic Main Characters: Ryder, Bella BTTB rating: T/A Genre: Friendship/Romance/Mystery Does story include spoilers: No Any warnings: Mild violence and sexual content if any.No bad language. Summary: Two old friends reconnect on a cruise and shenanigans ensue. CHAPTER ONE Ryder did his best to keep a smile on his face as he mixed a cocktail for the latest set of idle rich customers.“One Summer Bay Roller!”he declared with a cheeriness he didn’t feel, not even able to muster up the enthusiasm to mention that he’d invented it.He waited until they’d charged it to their room and were safely out of the way before allowing himself to sag. To be fair, it wasn’t the customers’ fault.Mostly.As a rule, they were pleasant enough and probably hard-working people when they wren’t on holiday.It was just that he’d been on board the ship for two years now, worked over a dozen different tours, and couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he was pretty much doing the job he’d left behind in Summer Bay, but with a less stable floor and fewer surfers.His plan to move around the ship doing different jobs hadn’t been a complete failure but it still felt like he wasn’t quite living the life he’d dreamed off when he started there. He turned to the other barman, Chase.“Reckon it’s going to be a quiet one?” Chase shrugged.“At least we’re not going to get a sudden influx of new customers in the middle of the ocean.”He nodded behind Ryder.“Look out.” Ryder looked round and saw Archibald coming towards them. Archibald, who had firmly resisted Ryder’s attempts to call him Archie, was the staff manager, as well as the floor manager of the casino. “Ryder, we’re one short in the casino tonight,”he explained,“Clive’s down with food poisoning.” “Did he have the risotto?”Chase asked cautiously. “Tuna sandwich.”Archibald turned back to Ryder.“How do you feel about filling in on the blackjack table?” “How do I..?”Ryder did his best to contain his enthusiasm.“I would be prepared to do that, sir.” “I put my name down for a shift in the casino too,”Chase pointed out. “Sorry, Ryder’s name came up first,”Archibald replied before turning back to Ryder,“There’s something else as well.We’ve got a speedboat bringing someone aboard and for some reason there’s been a special request for you to be there to meet them.” “A speedboat?”Ryder’s mind raced through the possibility.“It could be a VIP.A famous rock star.”A sobering thought occurred to him.“It’s not my mum, is it?” “You know as much as I do.Just be up on deck in twenty minutes.” *** Ryder bounced from foot to foot as the speedboat approached, trying desperately to catch a glimpse of who was on board.“Can you see them?”he asked Archibald. “No,”Archibald replied simply. The ship’s captain, a man with the unassuming name Smith, joined them up on deck.He glanced over at Ryder.“Ryder Jackson?Yes, our new staffmember requested you here.” “New staffmember?”Ryder checked, having more visions of Quinn turning up. “Well, of a kind.A contractor.The head office decided some photos of a voyage would be useful for promotional material so they’ve hired a professional photographer to join the trip and take pictures of us all.” Ryder did a quick mental check of what professional photographers he knew.It couldn’t be… Before he could complete the thought, the speedboat had come up alongside them and a crewmember was helping Bella up the ladder onto the deck.Captain Smith approached her in a formal manner. “Welcome aboard, Miss Nixon.” “Wow, I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that before.Keep it up.”Bella looked over those present until her gaze fell on Ryder.Smiling, she approached him. “Miss Nixon,”he greeted her wih a twinkle. Bella pouted slightly.“Aww, is that what you say to an old friend?” Ryder pulled her into a tighter hug than he would have given his mother, before releasing her and giving her a smile to match her own.“It is really good to see you.”

Alf's episode count this week:Three. Every time Leah and Justin bring up the subject of Valerie, I think maybe they're going to restore my faith in them and behave like actual human beings towards her, and every time they just disgust me further. That whole "No regrets" scene was utterly sickening. It's like they think that if they say self-serving things like "It was the right thing to do" and "We did everything we could" often enough, then they and we will believe it. They did absolutely nothing for her. They've refused to give her any help or support, they've still refused even after she's tried to do the right thing by going to the police, and they've even stopped Theo from helping her. I would love to know exactly what Leah's justification for writing Valerie off as someone who can't be helped because she doesn't want to be is: That two minute conversation they had on the subject? There was no offer for her to stay with them as long as she got proper help, so I don't know how they can say that she wouldn't have done it. Just a cold "Go back to the clinic or don't, but you're not staying here." And in the blue corner we have Tane and his cheer squad of enablers and excusers. Roo was absolutely right to have a go and Harper's "You're making a complex situation simple" was utterly pathetic. It's not complicated at all, Tane felt he had some divine right to be the one that looked after Poppy and didn't care who he had to hurt to make it happen. And yeah, he belatedly did the right thing after getting a big dose of reality, but he doesn't deserve any praise for reuniting Poppy and Sonia when it would have happened earlier if he hadn't been so selfish. I'm glad Roo had a go at Mali as well, given he's been even more insufferable than Tane over the last two weeks, but sadly it didn't last long and we soon had Alf, who we were obviously supposed to agree with, giving a lecture about how it's pointless saying who's to blame. Right, so is he going to give Leah and Justin the same speech? Is he going to tell them that Theo and Valerie are equally deserving of their help, rather than them blaming everything on Valerie and dogmatically keeping Theo away from her? No, I don't think so. For all the claims on here that women get given an easier ride than men, it seems like the men are the ones getting a lot more leeway here. And while it's probably more to do with how long the actors are under contract for than gender, it still leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth. Mind you, they're always willing to redress the balance by putting the boot into John. The episode can't just end it with him getting a compliment from Alf and a testimonial from Leah and Justin, we have to get the ludicrous final note of Irene stealing his phone to stop him sending Justin a thank you text. How much of Justin's time would reading it have taken, two seconds? If he's really that desperate for quiet, he could just ignore it like all the others. It just came across as petty bullying. Dana was campaigning hard to be the most aggravating person in the episode to the point of actually making me feel sorry for Mali, who was at least trying to be the grown-up for once, so she definitely deserved everything Xander said to her.Somehow though, her qualified apology has led to her getting what she wants and Xander realising he doesn't really see her as a little sister...or at least I hope he doesn't! I quite liked Irene giving Rose a sympathetic ear, although as with Xander's "You're practically family (but not enough for me to go to your wedding)", I had to think hard to remember they do have a distant connection (which the show is determined not to mention). I'm glad Rose ultimately did the professional thing, assessed the facts and came to a sensible conclusion...and if Callan doesn't like it, then he should have done the job himself. I wish Mali had stopped treating Rose like the bad guy without her having to do something he approved of, but I guess he got there in the end.

Some terrible Home and Away logic at work here: Theo says the drugs are his and the response is that they can't just take his word for it so they're charging everyone, but now that Valerie's said they're hers, everyone's off the hook apart from the poor guest character that we're apparently not meant to care about (including Theo apparently, even though he was the one that paid for the drugs with stolen money and took some of them).I'm afraid I continue to be disgusted with Leah and Justin.Leah's speech about "sometimes you have to cut people off or they'll break you" might have had a whiff of credibility if she'd made any attempt at all to help Valerie, rather than just kicking her out in their first conversation after she found out about her troubles: No-one even suggested finding a support group or drug counsellor for her. We were apparently meant to disagree with Theo's tirade but he was 100% right: People gave Leah help and support with her issues, they gave it to Justin when he had drug problems, and Brody before him, they're giving it to Theo now, why is Valerie the only one deemed unworthy of help aside from some playground-level "She started it"? I even accept Theo being the priority: He did seem even more dependent than Valerie at one point, and despite saying he'd quit, he still found excuses to go back there. But what are they going to do when he gets better (as he almost certainly will)? Will it dawn on them then that "Oh, maybe we should at least try and do the same for that poor Valerie girl we just threw to the wolves"? Or will it be a case of "Valerie who?" Talking of terrible Home and Away logic, we now have the back-offscreen Sarge leaving it to Rose to decide whether or not to charge her friends.She's kind of in a no-win situation here: Either she pins trumped up charges on them or she looks weak for letting them off the hook. It doesn't help that, while objectively I think it'd be over the top to charge them, Mali and Dana have acted like such brats that a part of me wants Rose to lay charges just to see how they react. But no doubt she'd be portrayed as the bad guy if she did. I thought some of Bree's advice was pretty poor as well, and then Xander goes blabbing it to the biggest blabbermouth in town (yes, even bigger than John) after being told to keep it to himself. I'm not sure why Roo would need special permission to visit Poppy, H&Alover: She's back with her mother, who Roo bonded with and supported while she was in the Bay, so it's up to Sonia if she wants to keep contact. Yes, the same thing happened to my account last year. They kept sending me e-mails trying to get me to sign up for a paid account until they finally twigged I was ignoring them.Most of the important stuff is on my hard-drive these days anyway, and it was increasingly hard to get images back off the site after I'd stored them there.

And yet there seem to be far more people saying they want rid of Bethany because they don't like her voice.

Yes. In fact, I think, in general, soap audiences tend to be a lot harder on female characters who behave badly than male characters, who tend to get portrayed as "lovable bad boys".As this episode demonstrates... I was VERY disappointed with Leah. I genuinely thought she'd have more compassion than that.She insists Valerie's her friend, she told her repeatedly that she wouldn't kick her out, and then the minute she proves to be anything less than whiter than white, she does exactly that. In fact, in the end, both Justin and Kirby, who've given Valerie a lot of attitude, showed her more compassion, while Leah just stands there stoneyfaced declaring "It has to be done" without any real justification for it.Sure, they gave her the choice to go back to the clinic, but it was more of a threat than a choice.Summer Bay prides itself on provided shelter to young people in distress: Theo gets that, Kirby seems to get that. But every now and then, someone is apparently deemed not worthy of their help and support, only of being judged and driven out. Was it really the only solution? To an extent, Valerie was kidding herself, given how quickly she went back to being dependent on drugs after the initial rush of having a family to look out for her wore off. But they knew the score now and could have at least attempted to keep an eye on her. Instead, they didn't even try. Evidence that she was a lost cause is very thin on the ground. They're all running around mollycoddling Tane when he's doing nothing to help himself, and now we're apparently stuck with the selfish Levi as a permanent resident when I'd much rather he went and Valerie stayed. The whole thing left a very nasty taste in the mouth and left me feeling much less charitable about Leah and Justin that they'd just abandon a vulnerable young woman like that because it suddenly seemed like too much effort. Oh well, at least it's apparently a happy ending for Stevie, as it turns out her public appearance was exactly what was needed to flush the stalker out, although I doubt that was her intention! And it was nice to see Cash relax a bit and realise what this has been like for Stevie and why having to spend all her time locked away felt like a kind of living death for her. The thing was so confused I wondered if Channel 5 had cut something, as all Sidney seemed to do was take a step towards her, but then he did much the same thing as he was being led away so maybe he was a bit lacking in a plan. Nice to hear that Roo's got to visit Poppy and check in on her and Sonia, it shows the value of being the one who keeps a clear head!

No-one's saying Tane's the devil incarnate, but he did the wrong thing for what I'm far from convinced was the right reason, arguably causing Poppy more distress in the process, so I don't agree it should be shrugged off with "But it's Tane" like Mali thinks. A lot of people coming back to town and being bombarded with news here! I agree that Levi should be the one to tell Imogen, so if he is going to do that, fair enough.(No mention of the fact that he wanted to do that before and Mackenzie threw a fit: Now she's fawning over him like a schoolgirl about it.)Whilst I do hope Felicity and Mackenzie make up eventually, I think Mackenzie deserves a bit of stink-eye for now. She tries to claim it's not as simple as her going after a married man but really, it is, isn't it? She knew he was married but she let herself be led by lust and an attachment developed from him being her doctor. I was mostly on Kirby's side and Theo did come across as a bit of a deluded figure still chasing around after Valerie after everything that happened.But...I don't know.I guess I want her to feel something for Theo, even if I'm not entirely convinced she does.She came back, and she admits it was partly for the drugs, but maybe there is a part of her that appreciates having someone genuinely care for her and try and keep her safe.I was half-expecting her to go out and buy more drugs when Theo gave her his card, but she didn't.So whilst I think Kirby is right to ask questions of her, I also kind of respect Theo a bit for refusing to turn his back on her just because things have got difficult. Oh, and Cash has decided to go off and be a hero because of cause he has.Even Eden saw that one coming.

I wonder if there's a plan to make Tane the least objectionable person in the storyline so the audience will sympathise with him? Because unlike his cheer squad, he seems to accept that he did the wrong thing and is going to be punished for it and that's not Rose's fault. Whilst I'd be tempted to charge Mali just for being a stroppy teenager, I think bringing charges against him and Harper is pushing it: They didn't go by the book, but they went to talk Tane into giving himself up and succeeded, and sending the police instead might not have ended as peacefully. That said, I don't think either of them thought about what to do if Tane hadn't been won round by their arguments. Mali's sole response is "I trusted him". Well, yeah, I'm sure Mali trusted him not to kidnap the baby in the first place.Dana trusted him when she left them alone.Rose trusted him when she tried to deal with the situation with a friendly warning rather than making it official.That doesn't mean anything. Mackenzie and Levi getting some much-deserved flack for their behaviour, which is probably going to get worse as more people find out. I think Levi probably did want to reconnect with Eden, but using her as an unwitting pawn to cover up his affair was really not a good way to go about it and risks him losing everything. And do they seriously still think they can cover this up and carry on as before? I know Tane and Mali have been willing to keep quiet but Eden knows Imogen. Felicity had a point about Mackenzie's hypocrisy: Mackenzie gave her hell for lying to Tane, but she's happy for Levi to lie to Imogen when it benefits her. CURS: Why did we get all that stuff about the drugs being found? It wasn't mentioned at all! Worth pointing out at this point that Rose has been there two years now and remains the firm-but-mostly-fair police officer she started off as, compared to where Kat was after her first two years. So I'd say she's a definite improvement!

Well, I can see why Tori would consider Brody and Raffy the biggest draw.

Alf’s episode count this week: Four. Cash was only in one (although as mentioned, he was credited on Wednesday for no appearance). I think Roo was looking at Tane with a few too many rose-tinted spectacles saying he was just trying to protect Poppy, I think it was more that he just couldn’t face up to the fact that he’s nothing to her and let other people look after her now he wasn’t needed. I agree he wouldn’t have hurt her though and Callan dubbing him "dangerous" was a bit over the top. His grip on reality continued to be flimsy: Doesn’t he remember what happened the last time he tried to skip the country in the middle of a police investigation? And that was just Colby victimising the family, this time he’s actually guilty. Oh well, at least Mali and Harper got through to him eventually and I like that Harper insisted on calling Poppy by her real name instead of indulging him and using the pet name he’d come up with. Sadly, it seems we’re now being set up for weeks of Tane moping around feeling sorry for himself while people mollycoddle him and try and convince him to defend himself, likely culminating in it all feeling like a waste of time. I guess Rose was still in “I’m going to prove I can be a proper police officer with my friends” mode, because it seemed a bit extreme to insist on charging all three of them even though Theo had taken responsibility. How’s that going to hold up in court? I’d almost forgotten the ending with Eden’s uncanny ability to teleport in just as Mackenzie and Levi kissed. Explain your way out of that one.

I wouldn't have said Justin and Leah had a particular reputation for being on and off, although I guess they've had a bit of drama.And they may have a bit more in the offing because Justin's got to be having a laugh, hasn't he?Does he really think that a diktat that Valerie move out of the house before they're back is going to magically solve everything with Leah never needing know?For a start, he's obviously never met a young man in love if he thinks Theo's just going to do as he says and then flick a switch and forget about her.And Leah is going to have a lot of questions, and will possibly be more willing to give Valerie a chance than he is.Whether she'll take that chance is another matter.She insisted having a home and family was what she wanted most, but Theo should maybe consider the fact that she was willing to give up him for it but not the drugs. Luc got a mention although, as with Brody and Raffy, no-one says why she isn't there.It was a nice touch to have VJ want to go and check on Jett, remembering their friendship, and good that we hear that the still-unseen Lindsey is all right.I think, CaptainHulk, that John is just naturally merry: No artificial stimulants required! And his celebrant sideline is gathering pace... And talking of unseen characters....wow, the legendary Sarge does exist! Sergeant Callan according to the credits, who presumably replaced the seldom-seen Sergeant Cooper at some point. Part of me thinks he's jumping to conclusions about Rose, who seems to have been very professional in dealing with the situation, but then again, her doing favours for friends isn't unheard of.(Yes, I'm thinking of her inexplicably letting Leah off a dangerous driving charge again.)Still, it'd be nice if Callan applied his hard-nosed attitude to someone who actually deserves it like Tane or Mali (or Harper, judging by the promo), but it seems to have been mostly to set up Rose being a bit more diligent with her friends than she normally would be. (Oh, and we hear that the DNA test on Sonia came back positive, so Rose is more diligent than Cash on these things anyway!)

It feels like we've been waiting a lot more than a month for Justin and Leah to get married: How long have they been together now, 5 years?! So it definitely felt like time and I'm glad they did it. (But please, can this marriage stick? I really hope someone checked James Stewart isn't going to quit in a year or so...) Tori, VJ and Ava is a decent set of returnees for the wedding: Brody and Raffy get a mention but no explanation for why they're not there, no mention of Leah's parents or brothers (but then they didn't turn up for her last wedding either so I wasn't holding my breath, even if we have seen Dimitri since then) and no mention of Luc either (I'm guessing VJ left her with Ash in case Mick's still keeping an eye on arrivals). A nice ceremony, although I was bemused that, despite all the talk of walking down the aisle, neither Leah on her arrival nor Justin and Leah on her departure actually went down the aisle, they went down a path at the front of the service area! Justin and Leah's vows were nice, John was on fine form (and may be making a career out of it after all!), and Tori made the most of being back on the show. I hope we get a proper scene between VJ and Justin, given this is the first time VJ's been back to the Bay since Justin and Leah have been together. I was surprised to see Kirby greeting Ava so warmly, given she was basically Valerie Mark 1! A shame this is stuck in the middle of the baby kidnapping, but I guess we have to follow Roo's lead and just say we're not thinking about that today. Jett's wife being in surgery after a car accident is a pretty extreme way of explaining why Marilyn wasn't at the service! I notice Cash and Stevie were credited but didn't appear: I'm guessing Eden's (dubbed?) line about flying solo was meant to cover losing a scene of him explaining he couldn't come, but to be honest it just confused me and I wouldn't have noticed he wasn't there! I guess the event couldn't be completely drama-free, although Justin waits until right at the end to confront Theo. I have to say that Valerie's wedding outfit was very different to her usual style!

Whilst Leah was being a bit irritating and catastrophising somewhat, it feels like Justin's making a rod for his own back here.He's actually keeping a far bigger secret from her than just a hitch with the wedding, and she's obviously picked up on it. I wasn't keen to see Irene join the queue of people making excuses for Dana.Yes, Tane's responsible for his own actions but so's Dana: She was the one that decided to encourage and enable Tane to break the law just because she thought she knew better. I guess at least she did let Rose know about the contact with a bit of prodding, although I can't see it doing much good. That was a pretty extreme reaction from Stevie, but I guess she's at the end of her tether and almost feels like she's got nothing to live for if she's just going to be hiding away indefinitely.Not sure if we're meant to take the coroner's findings at face value (as Cash seemed to want to) or not. I did like seeing a more caring side of Felicity. They probably should have done it an episode ago but at least Xander and Bree finally talked like adults and sorted everything out.

I think I'd probably have to say something from that late 90s period that hasn't been shown since original broadcast. If pushed, I think I'd probably go for the Peter Moss storyline, which was one of Sally's biggest teen storylines and a classic case of Home and Away managing to do weird well. (And which the 7Two repeats stopped just before...)

What the hell is Mali's problem? He was utterly odious here and I really wish Mackenzie and Rose had reined him in more than they did. He's pleasingly had Rose's back when she's had to take action against Tane before, accepting she was just doing her job, and now that Tane actually has done something to warrant the police going after him (and pretty much proved Sarge and Dodgy Journalist Peter right to characterise his attachment to Poppy, as I guess we now have to call her, as toxic), Mali has suddenly snapped into some childish "police bad" mentality. Is he seriously arguing that it's okay to go around kidnapping children if you don't hurt them? I'm not even sure he was right to demand a warrant: Mackenzie's the lease holder and she'd given permission, do the police really need to ask everyone that lives there? And having thrown down the gauntlet like that, is he seriously going to throw a tantrum when Rose does exactly what he demanded she do? What was he expecting, that she'd just go "Oh, okay, I won't try and find the kidnapped baby if it upsets you so much"? If she's treating Tane like dirt, it's because he's behaved like dirt. Dana wasn't much better, with her constant whining like she's the victim, not helped by Harper and Xander enabling her with "You couldn't have known it would happen" nonsense. I wonder if she's told Xander the same half-truths she told Harper, because his "Tane shouldn't have put you in that position" stuff suggests he's ignorant of the fact that she was the one yapping around Tane like a puppy trying to get him to be her friend again and it was all her idea to break the AVO. Harper gave her a serve at the end, but I wonder if she'd do it if it wasn't behind closed doors. Then again, maybe having to sit across from Sonia and realise how much she'll be devastated if Tane's stolen her chance to be a parent from her rammed home just how much harm they've caused. Whilst it's not entirely clear, I'm guessing Poppy was born in Perth and that's why Rose couldn't find her registered locally. It's always amusing when Felicity has to try and be the grown-up despite really not being suited to it, and here she manages to muff up big time by trying to force Xander and Bree together only for Bree to decide she's going to avoid Xander even more. The one thing Mali got right was that it would be better if Levi just disappeared but nope, we couldn't be that lucky, and he and Mackenzie are back in their "We want to be together but instead of doing that we're going to sneak around behind his wife's back" holding pattern.

Alf's episode count this week:Two. Harper was only in one, although she was credited on Tuesday for no appearance. What on earth was Dana thinking? I mean, I get that she feels guilty over the fact she was partly responsible for Tane being banned from seeing Maia, but helping him break an AVO was daft. And then she goes beyond daft: She stands there watching Roo like a hawk while she's saying goodbye, then wanders off and leaves Tane, who is a lot less accepting of the situation, alone with Maia (and seemingly with no way of seeing if anyone leaves the room, so I don't want her keeping watch was meant to entail). If Tane had crossed a line before by ignoring police instructions, he's definitely crossed several now.And of course, it comes right as one of Rose's pleas has finally hit the spot and they've found the baby's mother, meaning Tane has chosen to deprive her of two safe and loving homes out of selfishness. Justin is not doing much better than Dana in the rational thinking state.He criticises Kirby for keeping Theo's drug taking to herself and then proceeds to do the same himself, even with Theo and Valerie having chosen that moment to disappear into thin air to avoid the fallout (and also because they've used up their episodes this week). I'm glad Irene gave John some words of encouragement, which makes up for her snide "This course is more trouble than it's worth" attitude last episode.I know Leah and Justin set the wedding date for a month's time at one point but I completely forget how much time has passed since then!

Wasn't he talking to John, or have I forgotten something? It might have been smart for Justin and John to make absolutely certain John could get his credentials in time before hiring him as celebrant: Looks like it's going to be a bit tight! That aside, I thought Irene needed to tone down the judgement, since it's nothing to do with her if Justin wants John to do the ceremony.Leah's reputation clearly precedes her as she rings around trying desperately to get information from someone.(Another name drop for Tori, but she won't confirm if she's coming to the ceremony.)This being Home and Away, Marilyn's tarot card reading is very prescient, with Valerie squirming.Theo seems to have snapped back to only being involved with drugs to keep Valerie's trust, after seeming a more-or-less equal participant last episode.As tends to be the way with these things, the Theo/Valerie/Kirby showdown built up in the promo just kind of fizzled out, but it seems to have led to Kirby going to Justin. Dana's enthusiasm in contrast to John being his usual laconic self was quite fun.The photo of Stevie and Remi gets belatedly deleted, too late to stop Bree finding out.To be a bit fair to her, she doesn't know about Dana's lingering crush on Xander, but it was still fairly off to just plant a kiss on him like that and he was right to give her a telling off.

Cash's panic quickly turned to fury once he realised exactly where Stevie had gone.Felicity was in the odd position of trying to give Stevie some words of wisdom...although I noticed she quickly ignored Cash's instruction to not take her eyes off Stevie! Stevie did at least seem to back down a bit when she realised how worried Cash had been about her.Cash did volunteer to take part in her audition tape:I'd love to see that one! Xander thought he was being a good friend showing Bree the photo but ironically, if he hadn't, she might not have seen it before Remi got Stevie to take it down. As many predicted, Leah is finding it hard to maintain her hands-off role with the wedding! Theo and Valerie's character arcs are completely messed up at this point.It started with Valerie giving Theo pills, then Theo was demanding more while Valerie thought they should ease up, then Valerie wanted more while Theo was trying to get her to stop, then Theo was only taking the pills to keep her trust, and now they're both desperate for more pills to the point of conning money out of Justin? I give up.

Well, Stevie seems to have found another attraction of staying in Summer Bay! I'm guessing that there was more to the audition than what we saw, especially since the line she kept reciting wasn't in the bit they did. (They, perhaps fortunately, didn't seem to be recording either.) I liked Felicity trying her best to enthusiastically volunteer herself as a scene partner. (Would she have been keen to do a romantic scene with Stevie if Stevie hadn't shut it down?) I still have no idea what Levi and Mackenzie want. Do they want to be together but not yet? Do they want to spend the rest of their lives sneaking around? Do they think this affair will fizzle out eventually? When Levi made that big speech about not wanting to hurt his wife, I was left wondering how exactly he thinks that's going to work. Oh well, seems like Imogen has a few days with him coming up, provided he doesn't go back on it.

Well, that was a very uncomfortable dinner for Levi at least, even without the elephant known as Mackenzie literally in the room. In the past, he’s apparently been keen to keep up appearances with Imogen but he couldn’t bring himself to try that hard here. Mackenzie’s assessment that he loves Imogen but it’s different to what they have is a way of thinking about it, I guess. Mackenzie’s curiosity got the better of her although she seemed to save Eden from an awkward talk! Tane hit a new level of annoying here: He’s been banging on for ages about wanting Maia to have a proper home, and now it’s going to happen, he thinks they need his personal approval? I’m glad Alf (among others) told him to pull his head in. I’m not quite sure why Rose got chosen to break the news when he’d probably have taken it (slightly) better from Harper. But, okay, fair play to him for apologising to them both and accepting the situation even if he doesn’t like it. Roo took the news quite well: She’s disappointed but she knew it was a possibility.

Sounds like quite a good episode, actually.

It depends what you mean by "in any way". Do I think they'll do a self-indulgent episode bringing back any actor that's desperate enough for work to reprise a role they played 40 years ago? No. But I think there'll be some acknowledgement of the anniversary, even if it's not in the show itself. "Its whole existence" is a sweeping statement that doesn't even come close to standing up to close scrutiny. Periods of ignoring the past and, perhaps even worse, the current continuity porn attitude of coming up with retcons of past events that seem designed to annoy everyone who actually does respect the show's past. (Honestly, Home and Away deciding Alf's first wife is still alive is nothing compared to Neighbours constantly rewriting the Robinson family history.)

What does that even mean? And if you don't know, why are you apparently endorsing it by "reposting" it?

Alf's episode count this week:Two. A rather eventful fundraiser then.I'm not sure why Remi convinced himself that Levi was into Bree, he looked up absolutely terrified of her. Mind you, it's kind of ironic that Remi has got the right idea but the wrong woman.Despite Eden suggesting Remi and Bree had a proper goodbye, he seemed determined to get in one last dig at her although he had the point that she expects him to change when she's not willing to.Also ironic that his pointed remarks have led to Eden doing the last thing Levi wanted! Rose seems to have worn out Mali's patience by sequestering herself away at work finding new wild goose chases. Still, at least her chat with Kirby gave us an insight into why it's so important to her.Felicity making knowing comments about the anonymous donor didn't really help things.Harper has good news for Maia, time to see if Tane can put his money where his mouth is about wanting her to be looked after properly. Mackenzie kind of managed to apologise to Xander: She wasn't any more attentive than the last time but I think he's accepted it's the best he's going to get.Did Levi buy that boat trip for them? How's he going to explain that one to Alf?

Felicity was in full-on force of nature mode again. I loved that moment where Cash and Stevie just stood there and waited for the penny to drop that there was a famous actress standing in her kitchen.It's good that Stevie didn't mind Felicity's rather intense fangirling and they actually bonded over being the high maintenance thorns in Cash's side.Cash is actually working extremely well as a kind of deadpan straight man.Then Felicity goes round to Mackenzie, completely oblivious to the fact that she's in the middle of her latest liaison, and ends up in full hurricane until Mackenzie just has to give in. Despite that, Felicity did her best to give Remi and Bree the benefit of her break-up experience but Remi was too busy getting sore with Eden for telling her things that are going to be public record sooner or later anyway.So, we get to see the other Lyrik duo in action, after they seem to have let Theo and Kirby do all the work so far this season! I did wonder about claims Rose would be at the fundraiser given she's already done two episodes this week, but maybe she'll turn up tomorrow.