Red Ranger 1

Actually, given that the news about came out before Kym Marsh's real-life tragedy, I am wondering if it's still going to happen.

Okay, so we've finally seen her departure over here.And her last scene was both better and worse than I expected.They did manage to get almost everyone important there to see her off, I'm glad she got moments with Alf, Jai, Annie and especially Geoff and a little moment of semi-reconciliation with Nicole.(It's easy to forget they were actually friends for a bit.)I wish Ruby had been there:They were supposed to be friends but they didn't have any scenes together all year.I wish too they could have found a way to have a farewell with Kirsty, they were both in the previous episode and we missed out on it when she left town.Other than that it was fine...until the end when we didn't actually see her leave! She just wandered out of frame while we were left watching Geoff and Nicole argue! Which brings me on to her reason for leaving.I'm sorry but what were they thinking?They spent the preceding weeks if not months stressing how badly living with her mother had screwed Melody up, then sent her right back to her mother so she could potentially screw her up again?All the arguments against it were completely valid:She couldn't trust her, just because she wanted a relationship with her mother didn't mean it was actually possible.Christine may have seemed to have a personality transplant but she apparently turned over a new leaf once before, after the assault when she [presumably] dropped the charges against Geoff and let him and Melody see each other, only to turn up again worse than ever.Losing Melody was a shock to her and made her do what it took to get her back, but now that she's got want she wants I can't help thinking everything would go back to normal pretty quickly. And what was all that stuff with Melody's gran about?Are they suggesting Christine only treated Melody like that because that's how she was treated?If so, it just shows once again what an incredibly forgiving person Melody is-when Aden found out that his father(not even the person who abused him)had as rubbish a childhood as he did, his response was to try and kill him.More realistically, I can't help remembering when Nicole's mother came back:She was glad to get back on speaking terms with her but didn't even consider going back to live with her because she knew nothing would change.When Irene moved to the Bay, Fin and Damian gave her a chance but kept living with Michael and Pippa because they'd had too many false dawns and couldn't trust her.If the whole thing had played out over months instead of days, with Melody getting to know her mother again whilst still living with Miles or at least living in the Bay where her friends and her new family could keep an eye on her and then Christine had asked her to move away with her, it might have worked.But instead they just let Christine take her off to another country where she could do whatever she liked to her and no-one would know. "I've come full circle" says Melody just before she leaves.She's right and that's not a good thing. It feels as though all the months living with Miles have been rendered meaningless, she's given up all the new relationships she's built for a filial affection that's just appeared out of nowhere, letting herself be sucked back into the dysfunctional family she escaped from.At the end of the Melbourne trip, she was talking about how hard it is without people that care about you around.But the very next thing she did was go to somewhere even further away where she only knew one person, who we'd seen time and time again can't be relied upon.And the worst thing is, we'll probably never know what happened. Slim though the chance may be, I hope she's happy.No, actually, I hope she's miserable and she comes back.If they want to do it without undermining her exit(even though it was rubbish and deserves to be undermined), I think they should have her mother die shortly after their reunion, a la Bruce Campbell, so she has to come and live with Miles.So long as it doesn't leave her too angsty.I want my Melody nice, happy and most importantly in the show.

Believe it or not, whatever my personal feelings on the subject, I was originally going to have Aden apologise to Tam and them put it behind them.Then I thought "Nah, Aden wouldn't apologise, he'd get embarrassed and put his foot in it."

I liked Aden a bit when he was first living with Roman and seemed to be change but after the way he behaved during the Axel incident I just accepted I wasn't going to like him.I'll put up with him if he behaves himself but that's as far as it goes.I think possibly his biggest problem is that he's almost incapable of admitting or accepting when he's done wrong.Which is why he's never apologised to Geoff or Angelo for the way he treated them, why to this day he thinks there's nothing wrong with what he did to Axel and why he needed a counsellor to point out that no matter how bad a parent something is you don't go around trying to give them a lethal injection and why he was able to stand up in court and go "I know I shouldn't have done it but he let me be abused so I had a good reason." With regards to reparations, as a result of her spending her wedding day tied up in a shed watching a man experience liver failure, Rachel and Tony were left with an awful lot of costs for a wedding that never happened.So if Aden really did want to make it up to her, instead of expecting(or at least hoping) that she'd just go back to liking him after an obligatory apology, he could have offered to reimburse them, seeing as how it was basically his fault. (And I notice someone's fixed that header...)

Hey there, doola.Yeah, I'm going to try and argue some points.I've written essays about Aden's guilt or innocence but surely if he had had a "complete mental breakdown" then he wouldn't have stood trial in the first place, he'd have been judged unfit to plead.And to my mind, his actions were entirely consistent with his normal attitudes and personality and he knew exactly what he was doing. Anyway, my main problem is that I don't think Aden ever really faced up to what he'd done.I really think he doesn't want to think about what he put Rachel and Belle through.That was why he left when Rachel was reluctant to be friends with him again(she didn't refuse his apology), because he didn't want to think about the fact he had a right to do so.And that's why, despite the apology, he started treating Belle like the enemy, abusing her over her relationship with Angelo and criticising her for giving evidence, because he didn't want to face up to what he'd done to her.Although he did eventually say that he understood he'd put her through a lot, after they reunited, that was when she'd already admitted she still loved him, so he knew it was safe to do so because she wasn't blaming him. As for his attitude towards Larry, I'm not really sure how sorry he feels about what he did.He accepted that what he did was wrong and that Larry didn't deserve to die but that was as far as it went.At the trial, he said that he couldn't feel any sympathy for Larry over him being abused because of what it meant for him, which is probably how he still thinks.I actually think he's holding onto that anger and resentment as a sort of crutch, believing that he was justified in his treatment of him.That was why he couldn't handle seeing Larry at the hospital, because he needed to be able to feel bitter about him, which he clearly did during their conversation.A Larry who was genuinely sorry, and whose apology seemed to me a lot more heartfelt than either of Aden's, was something he couldn't handle because it meant he was wrong to treat him the way he did.And that was why he couldn't tell him he loved him, because that would mean admitting he'd been wrong to hate him.(It's interesting that his counsellor actually suggested that there was nothing wrong with hating Larry for what he did, he just didn't deserve to die for it.) But then I think about things way too much.

I think the closest we got to confirmation of Zoe/Eve's death was when we got a very brief glimpse of her body in a pan across the barn at the start of the next episode.It was actually Peter's liver that Jack supposedly got, except it actually came from the witness protection people as part of their cover story. That was 4647.

It's good that Belle's home but it looks as though her troubles are far from over...Looking forward to more.

I'm actually finding it hard to care about Belle, mainly because she's brought it all on herself.I actually think she did come across as self-centered during the development storyline.Her motives may have been altruistic but she acted in an arrogant and self-obsessed manner, deciding that she was the only person who could save the town from a vaguely defined threat(which as far as I can tell is still there) and thinking she could treat people as badly as she liked to get what she wanted.So it's hard to feel any sympathy about the fact it's backfired on her.

It was never actually confirmed in dialogue but I think we were meant to assume she died in the barn explosion.

Oh yeah, you're right about Jesse, I think some guy beat up Alex and then Jesse just went crazy on him.(Was it that storyline where Alex's occasional girlfriend's husband got released from jail and started stalking her?)Not so sure about Nathan, you might be right but I don't remember it.The guy did spend seven years in jail though so he more than paid his debt to society.I agree that part of the reason people had a problem with Kane was that, certainly in legal terms, he got away with it:I remember Alex saying it would be easier to accept him being around if he'd served his sentence.

^I've said this so many times people are probably sick of hearing it but I absolutely hated the way they dealt with the aftermath of that incident.There seemed to be no real consequences to Aden's actions.He spent about two weeks in a voluntary mental health clinic(which, for all the talk of "breakdowns" and "not responsible for his actions", suggests there wasn't really anything wrong with him).The court case was farcical, people's reactions to what he'd done non-existent and his supposedly momentous public revelation of his abuse was never mentioned again. What's more Aden never made any real attempt to make reparation for what he'd done.His way of dealing with it seemed to be to forget all about it(which seemed to be what the viewer was being encouraged to do).He made very basic apologies to Belle and Rachel:When Rachel was reluctant to immediately be friends again, he got uncomfortable and made a hasty exit and he went back to using Belle as a verbal punchbag pretty quickly.He never even attempted to apologise to his father, he practically had to be forced into the same room as him and again he left as soon as it got uncomfortable.In fact after the court case he actually said he wouldn't have been able to say what he did if his dad was there, suggesting he still feels anger and resentment towards him. No matter how much the writers try to convince me he's a nice guy these days, and how many "pat the dog" moments they gave him with Melody, I have a hard time just forgetting that he basically got away with attempted murder.

what X - Men names is that? Artie Maddicks.Who technically wasn't an X-Man, he was with the junior teams.It's still really distracting though...

That is 4642.

If you look at it from another perspective, Kane's the homewrecker.Kirsty and Miles were together, in a steady relationship, living together.And he turned up expecting to be able to just click his fingers and get Kirsty back.Kirsty was separated, even if it was just for a few months, and Miles didn't do anything wrong by getting involved with her and certainly didn't deserve violence.You can't say it wasn't Kane's choice to separate, he told Kirsty to get on with her life without him and refused to take her calls.Okay, he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't gone to jail but he chose to cut himself out of hers and Ollie's life. (By the way, neither Jesse nor Nathan ever committed a violent crime or armed robbery, at least not until near the end when Jesse beat up Chloe's abusive ex.Nathan burgled the school, not a violent crime.Jesse was involved with stolen cars and came pretty close to robbing Don's house while he was out but never did anything violent.)

Well I think I said I'd think about it...I'm probably going to regret mentioning this on an open forum but I decided when I first started posting on here that if anyone asked for a sequel to one of my stories I'd write one.(There's a few stories I had sequels planned for but no-one asked for one...and a few others I was heartily glad no-one asked for a sequel for because I've no idea what I'd have done.) Anyway, glad you're liking this.

Yeah, I sort of guessed that, that's really bad, especially now we know she's pregnant and with her and Aden fighting.Looking forward to the next update.

Ooh yeah, that was really good, I like how you're dealing with this and showing how hard things are for Belle instead of making her magically back to normal.Looking forward to more.

Samantha popped up a couple of times in the first year of the show, she was a model who stayed with their father when Carly was fostered.I think she pretty much disappeared after that.

Short and sweet but it's got me intrigued-really want to know what happens next.

I'm having another "Awww, shucks" moment here... Seriously, thank you so much for everyone that's been reading and commenting on this.I seriously do not believe at times not only what people let me get away with on here but what they actually seem to enjoy(especially since I can remember when splitting up Aden and Belle brought screams of protest...). It was another of my slightly contentious ideas and I'm glad people thought I got it right. Another fanfiction?What, I'm Agatha Christie now?Or possibly Terrance Dicks.(Yeah, pretty much...) Well...keep an eye on the advertisement thread.

Glad Belle's awake but she's not out of the woods yet...Looking forward to more.

Yay, welcome back!The shopping trip was hilarious.Looking forward to another update.

Oh my.Really good update.So sad that Belle lost the baby.Hope she's all right.

Been keeping an eye on this one for a while without really voicing an opinion.I was always kind of on the fence with regards to KK, not hating them, not loving them, liking them well enough but unlikely to be particularly upset if they split up.Although it's a bit annoying that some(by no means all)KK fans seem to indulge in Dani-bashing at times in a "Blame the victim" sort of way as if she should have been happy about her sister marrying her rapist just because he said sorry afterwards.I think it says a lot for her that she did eventually accept and befriend him.It also says a lot about their relationship that Dani never once resented Kirsty for falling in love with Kane.(And indeed, that Kirsty never once said "You've got no right to treat him like that" because she knew she did.) Anyway, enough about the whys and wherefores of Kirsty and Kane's past, onto their return.They'd changed.And I can understand why KK fans would be upset and want the "real" KK back but it's completely believable.I'm possibly the only person who didn't like Kirsty and Kane's exit because I couldn't see them being happy like that:It would have been better if Kane had cleared his name and then they'd left(especially given that it apparently wasn't that difficult...).And I'm kind of glad that the show has shown that it wasn't a good exit and they weren't happy. Think about the previous time Kane and Kirsty ran away, back in 2004.Once she got over the initial romance of it, it only took a few days for Kirsty to realise that her and Kane against the world wasn't what she wanted, she wanted to be back with her family, open about what they were doing.So I can't help wondering that, having made the snap decision to go on the run with him, just how long it took her to regret that decision and realise it wasn't the life she wanted.Only then going back wasn't an option.When they reappeared last year, both of them were worn down by their years on the run, Kirsty in particular.They were willing to give up Ollie because they realised that the life they'd chosen wasn't right for him.And Kirsty seemed willing to do anything, including giving up Kane and going to jail, if it meant she and Ollie could have a normal life at the end of it.She would have been happier if Kane could have joined them but she was prepared to do it without him.Kane, meanwhile, had chosen to embrace his less desireable characteristics in order to survive.By that point, they may well have been together largely because they had no other option. Wanting Kirsty and Kane back together or to stay together seems to be about nostalgia more than anything and I can understand that, we've all got our favourites couples from the show's past that we like to think lived happily ever after.But anyone who wasn't watching the show in 2005 would be wondering why Kane's even in the running, when all they've seen is him doing robberies and ordering Kirsty about.Kirsty finally had the life she wanted without him and I can see why she wouldn't be all that enthusiastic about going back.Kane did seem to make an awful lot of assumptions:He did try to find a job near the Bay, so he could be with Kirsty and Ollie no matter what, but he also set up a new job and a new life for them without actually bothering to ask Kirsty what she wanted.And his confronting Miles does suggest a lack of trust or respect for her, not willing to let her make up her own mind.I think things have changed between them and in the final reckoning some fond memories and a child they both love aren't enough to make a successful marriage.

I think it's all a matter of perspective and to be honest I'm not sure why that line bothered me so much. I agree, it's understandable Aden would want his girlfriend to talk to him if she had a problem and needed to see a doctor.Although the fact that they were discussing it does suggest Belle did tell him, albeit belatedly.I think it was the fact it almost sounded as though he was telling her off, as if she should...not have asked his permission exactly but certainly asked his opinion before seeking medical help.Whether that's the wrong attitude to take or not I'm honestly not sure.(Although it's interesting that he was keeping her in the dark about his uni decision at the time.)I think it's actually part of the whole reason behind him not going to uni, that he wants to be the most important person in Belle's life, the first one she talks to when she's got a problem, even when he's not the best qualified to help her.(Although again, ironically in the next episode when she was doing that he found it inconvenient and disruptive.)Whether that's a healthy way to view a relationship or not, I don't know.