Red Ranger 1

Alf's episode count this block:Two.Nikau was in four, but didn't appear until near the end on Wednesday and wasn't credited, so I'm guessing that scene was moved from the next episode.Roo was only in one. As with a lot of aftermath episodes, we're not a lot further along at the end that we were at the start.Dean and Mia are still on a cliff edge, Nikau's still making pained noises, and no-one knows where they are.I guess we've got a vague idea of how hurt everyone is but it felt like half an hour of Nikau tumbling up and down hills and Mia telling Dean to wake up.Guess they want to make the most of the location.Frankly, given how much Mia was walking around, she probably could have got that phone:Okay, it was apparently "smashed up" but it's worth checking surely? Otherwise, we get a few funny lines between Leah and Justin, with him taking a more practical view to her attempts at romance, and, while I found Vengeful Mackenzie quite fun at times, I'm actually quite liking her and Ari as Amicable Exes.

More secrets is possibly not the best idea...

Ooh, Frank and Roo. The plot thickens...

I guess Cassie's still a bit insecure.Hopefully she can move past it.

Well, at least Ric and Mattie are still together! Bit of a two eras colliding feeling, seeing him with cousin Ryder!

Good to see Sally reunited with her old friends. Shame about Joel and Natalie though...

Interesting idea, looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

Well, despite what Mia said, Nikau wasn't kicked out of his own home, he walked out of it in a sulk, and proceeded to last one night before needing the grown-ups to look after him. That may explain why suddenly Dean being blunt with him is the right approach.But yep, one Olympic Cliffhanger coming up.A shame it seemed to involve an unconvincing CGI kangaroo, and end on a cliff edge shot which doesn't quite look real.I know it's probably safer to fake up shots than actually dangle your actors off a cliff but I miss practical effects sometimes... Mackenzie was another one fudging the details, agreeing with Tane that Dean told her about the kiss when in fact it was Ziggy.Does everyone shop for pyjamas in the same place?Ziggy's outfit here looked just like the one Bella was wearing earlier in the week, but a bit darker.I guess that answers the question of where Tane's been sleeping! Is it wrong that I actually preferred Christian's lyrics to Leah's rewrite? Some amusing stuff with everyone increasingly failing to not act suspicious around Tori, even if she is easily distracted with chocolate. I was expecting the episode to continue the Stewarts' awkward family lunch: All that set-up for one short scene?

Just caught up on this.Nice that you brought Matilda and Lucas into it, hope Ric feels able to go to school soon.

I kind of think Jasmine overreacted a bit to Cash asking Murray about her.She talked things over with Irene, what's wrong with him doing the same? It's not like he ran a background check on her or anything.Murray was a bit misleading in calling Robbo "one of our cops": He wasn't one of theirs, he was with the federal police, another reason to think Cash isn't history repeating itself. At the risk of being politically incorrect, it felt like Bella didn't exactly avoid that kiss? But yeah, once she pulled back, Nikau should have accepted that was it, instead of going "intense" again as Bella put it and not taking no for an answer. Ari's approach still isn't working, but I'm not sure if anything would the way Nikau's dug his heels in at the moment. I can understand why Roo's trying to push Alf and Kieran together but it feels like it could do more harm than good. And that promo gave away pretty much everything. CURS: Why was there so much of Ziggy and Tane when they weren't in the episode, or even really mentioned?

I like that Irene's priority was fixing Bella and Ryder's friendship: She knows what's really important around here. Ryder seemed to flip from encouraging Bella to get back with Nikau to just wanting her to talk to him. I'd be happy to see her continue to freeze him out, but I accept that it's a small town and she needs to find a way to deal with being around him. I think Ryder and Chloe are another couple that I want to like more than I do. I'm glad that Ryder's got someone around who seems to love him, and who he seems to love. I just wish it was someone less, well, horrible. Leah and Justin were cute, but pretty much just making up their episode counts. Not sure what I think of Jasmine and Cash.He's a better bet than Lewis, but then that's a low bar to clear.

Well, before Cash, the last two introduced were Chloe and Mia, so I'd say no.

I can't see Sophie being too happy about her replacement dad...

So, as I predicted, Nikau cheated on Bella, she understandably dumped him, and his response is to stalk her, harass her, ruin an important event for her and assault two of her friends...yet in Chloe's eyes, Bella's the one to blame for not being nice to him. Honestly, I wonder what the heck we're supposed to make of Chloe: She's okay with Ryder, sometimes, and her family, sometimes, but horrible with just about everyone else: Irene spent most of the episode looking like she wanted to wring her neck. And yet the episode gives her the last word as if we're somehow supposed to agree with a character to whom the description "emotional psychopath" applies a lot more than it does to Bella. To be fair, I actually agree that Bella was out of line. I get that she considers Dean her family, but Tane's been good to her and doesn't deserve to get thrown under the bus just so Dean gets what he wants. But it's hard to take Chloe moralising about it when she happily broke Mackenzie's heart to get Ari and Mia back together: What's the difference? Not a lot else going on. That kiss that came out of nowhere seems to have disappeared back to the same place, with Ziggy and Dean largely indifferent towards each other again. And Ryder did some nice doodles.

Alf's episode count this block:Three. Nikau really did take a long time to get the message and I'm still not sure it's sunk in.He deserved to get a serve from Ari and Tane, and while I understand the thinking behind Mia trying to talk it out calmly, Tane did that last episode and it just went in one ear and out the other.I'll take his word that he was trying to apologise to Bella, but if she doesn't want to talk to him, then what he's saying doesn't matter.I don't blame him for outing Ziggy to Tane, although it seemed to be done for point-scoring rather than out of concern.I'm surprised Mackenzie was so willing to give Ziggy a pass for her hypocrisy, but I guess she's too glad to have her friendship back to rock the boat, and it was nice to see the two of them playing big sister to Bella.Nice too that Bella took Emmett's news calmly and they parted on good terms, with her wishing him well: Hopefully she'll be able to build on this and make a career out of it. I'm afraid I found the Chloe stuff rather anti-climactic. It seemed like it was building to some big blow-out between her and Marilyn, but instead they're suddenly best buddies. We didn't even see her reaction to the fact Nikau actually gatecrashed the exhibition! Sadly, I can't really disagree with Alf that things are likely to end badly with Kieran, so I guess he's doing the right thing by steering clear of the situation if he feels like that.

I think it's just Pippa, Natalie, Flynn and Hayley (so four), plus temporary recasts for Selina, Rebecca, Mitch and Ailsa.

Interesting things developing between Shane and Emma. Bobby's life becomes even more messed up.

Alf's episode count last block:Three. I can kind of see both sides with regards the Kieran situation.Alf and Martha have every reason not to trust him, but it's hard to fault the likes of Irene, Roo and Jasmine for giving him the benefit of the doubt.It was nice to see Jasmine's epilepsy remembered, and even though Alf jumped to conclusions, ironically it seemed to work in Kieran's favour since it's caused Martha to give him a chance. Hard to know what to make of Tori and Christian.I do kind of like them together, but Christian refusing to move back in with Tori so he can make a big flashy proposal seems like the sort of logic as giving someone a miserable birthday so you can throw a surprise party at the end, even if Tori was typically juvenile in her reaction.I did like Justin's role, and I'm glad he seems to be his old self, although Leah saying she wasn't ready to take things further and then sleeping with him next episode was rather awkward, seemingly prompted by the need to drag the storyline out across their weekly episode quota rather than anything organic.I can see where John's coming from but he might be setting himself up for a disappointment.Maybe he should donate the money to the surf club! I've never really warmed to Nikau, or to him and Bella as a couple, and his current behaviour kind of demonstrates why.He's coming across as a creepy stalker ex, acting as though he think he's somehow entitled to have Bella and she doesn't have the right to reject him.They should just call the police and have done with it after that last performance.And I bet Chloe will still somehow spin it as being all Bella's fault, given her obnoxious behaviour on Monday, although I'll admit Bella's olive branch was pretty misjudged. Not that Ziggy has any right to judge him at this point.She gives Tane hell for not turning his back on Nikau when he cheated on Bella, then promptly turns round and cheats on him, and didn't look particularly guilty about it either.Dean didn't seem to be bothered about making out with someone else's girlfriend either, then went into a sulk and bailed on Bella when it didn't go his way.I didn't particularly like them together the first time round, and with this performance, coming on the back of months of Ziggy not showing any interest in Dean, I've gone from indifference to active dislike towards the pairing.

Good that Evie's talking to people now.

Watched the latest 5* episode because going to be away next week. Chloe was pretty obnoxious for most of it, and I really do wonder what Ryder sees in her at times.That wasn't really the best olive branch Bella could extend though.Was Dean deaf to not notice Mackenzie and Emmett discussing hiding something from Bella about two paces away from him?Nice to have Mackenzie back in the flat as well. Alf didn't turn up until the end, so hard to tell which way this is going.

Okay, well, at least Ziggy's stopped being a mardy cow with Tane, and was also a decent surrogate big sister to Bella.And it is really delightful to see Mackenzie back in that role again.Nikau is bordering on being a stalker now.It doesn't help that mere hours previous he was all set to get on a plane to Japan, and now that Sienna's turned him down, he suddenly decides he isn't going to take no for an answer from Bella.He's lucky Dean was so restrained, again.I am liking this odd friendship that's sprung up between Mackenzie and Emmett. I'm slightly uncomfortable that Cash has only been around a short while and is already turning a blind eye to crimes.I think the way he did it made it seem worse than it was:Him telling Leah she was going to be charged feels like it only happened so the show could put something misleading in the promo, and they struggled to justify it in-story.Did he change his mind or did he just say it to give her a scare?I think she and Justin should get the money back, and it's frankly absurd to suggest they shouldn't, but they need to go through the right channels.

Nikau apologising to Ryder and Ryder accepting it should have been the end of it, there was no need for Ari and Tane to get involved.Still at least they actually had a go at the right person: It was daft enough for Ziggy to be dirty on Tane in the first place, but now she's still being sour with him and it really is absurd.It's a bit perplexing that Sienna would go to so much trouble to hang on to Nikau, and tell Allegra there was no Japan trip without him, if he was that easy to replace.Then again, it wasn't actually said his replacement was going to Japan so maybe she's having to start again. I can understand why John handing out his account details would invalidate insurance.But it seems like Cash painted a bit too bleak a picture. He tells Leah and Justin that their money would be held as evidence: Er, evidence of what exactly? Susie's dead, so there isn't going to be any trial there.Are they looking for accomplices?So, after all that fuss last episode, Leah goes and tells Justin about the money anyway.And does not get the response she was hoping for...

I kind of want to like Tori and Christian being back together, but the way things ended with Rachel will always cast a shadow over it.If it had simply been Christian realising that he'd given up his own life in order to help Rachel and shouldn't have become involved to the degree he did, I think that would be fine.But Rachel dying and the way everyone's been talking since makes it seem like we're supposed to think Christian was wrong to try and save her at all, which just seems absurd. Similarly, I like Justin, I like Leah and Justin together, and I'm glad they're getting on well, but my response to Justin cheerily announcing the assault charges have been dropped was "Why?!" After all, he was guilty, and the fact his victim turned out to be a criminal doesn't change that.Maybe the idea is Stephen withdrew the complaint out of guilt, but if so, that should have been made clear, instead of acting like him being charged was an injustice.And now Leah's the one breaking the law, not only stealing back their money but taking a laptop into the bargain. (Okay, I'm going to have to play plot hole bingo here.If that's the money from cashing Leah and Justin's cheque, where's the rest of the money? Okay, she paid the surf club sponsorship money straight into an account which might not have been traced.But what about the money she transferred from John's account into her own? Couldn't the bank trace it? If she drew it out straightaway, where is it? And are we ever going to hear what happened with the loan Leah and Justin took out with one of Susie's associates? Did he disappear into the ether or did they say they didn't need the loan now they'd lost their deposit? One plot hole that's been filled: Susie being killed as she was about to leave town explains why she still had ID in the name Susan McAllister on her.) Elsewhere, Alf considers his impression of a bear with a sore head but at least a reasonable offer from Kieran gets him listening.

Well, Alf's continuing to dig his heels in and this could end up being a very costly "I told you so".Marilyn tried to play peacemaker but was pretty much on a hiding to nothing.Alf has now managed to end up offside with both Roo and Irene.Jasmine had a few wobbles but was ultimately supportive.Still no reaction from Ryder though, even though he was in the episode! Whilst I appreciate Ryder sticking up for Bella, I don't think there was really any need for him to have a go at Nikau like that.Mind you, there was no need for Nikau to punch him either:If he wanted to walk away, he could have just kept going, I doubt Ryder would have followed him for long.Chloe said he wasn't going to push her away but she may have changed her mind now. Tori and Christian did manage to do just about everything except have that conversation!

Unless I'm misreading it, he didn't actually say anything incriminating though? It was Cassie who said he'd hurt them?