UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

Although I basically like Jade, I was glad when she lost that bet with Toadie and had to be his slave for a day, she needed taking down a peg or two.Shame Toadie was left feeling the after effects of his pig out.Be interesting to see how Callum's search for him mum goes and they do seem to have plugged the last continuity hole on the whole "It's Sonya" thing by having him variously refer to his guardian as his gran and his great-gran.(It just about makes sense now.If you squint.)Sonya obviously crossed a line by ripping up the letter to his aunt, hopefully they won't string this one out too long like last year's baby plot.

Paul indulging in yet more revenge fantasies could be dull but it manages to raise itself up a bit by having Rebecca give as good as she's getting.It was nice that Andrew realised that Paul's more interest in his revenge than him and turned his back on him but I'm worried about where this is going. Originally I thought the worst thing that could happen when he finds out Tasha's lying about the pregnancy is he ends up with Summer.But now, with Rebecca having walked out and Paul using him and him focusing all his attention on Tasha and the baby, I'm worried it could seriously mess him up and turn him into Paul's Mini-Me big time.

Zeke's departure...well, it's nice to have a teen leave without ending up in a body bag but it was a bit too low key.The only person he actually told he was leaving was Summer, everyone else found out off screen.Then he's hardly in his last week or even his last episode before saying a perfunctory farewell to anyone who happened to be in the episode(so he doesn't say goodbye to Karl or Summer but he does to Mark Brennan...).Given how many years he's been on the show, you'd expect more than that.

[stevester]

I to thought it was very low key for zeke,with how long he has been in neighbours he deserved better and evey one waving him good bye in the street and they could of shown old clips of him in the end credits but hey ho they know best lol

[Zetti]

I think that Tash is taking this all a bit too far now! I hope she gets found out soon!

[Slade]

Zeke’s ending was so low key I didn’t even realise the actor was actually leaving the show although I should probably try and pay more attention too.

Susan really annoyed me this week. I hated the way she basically blackmailed Kate into going to the police and confessing to lying to about her statement to cover for Rebecca. Especially considering that she was quite prepared to keep quiet about Libby when Libby blatantly committed perjury in court to protect Steph, in spite of the fact Ringo was like a son to Susan. I really think Susan should have thought more about the implications of what she was doing. Kate could go to jail although that is unlikely, she’s going to probably have to pay a pretty hefty fine and her teaching career is almost certainly over as Toadie warned her. Also did Susan think about Sophie. I’m not saying that Susan shouldn’t have done anything at all but she should have at least given Kate a choice of whether she wanted to go to the police or not and possibly taken more time to advise her. It appears to me as though Susan wasn’t thinking about Kate at all and was more motivated out of loyalty to Rebecca. Would Paul have really have dropped Kate in it if he was aware of the implications? In saying that when Brennan dumped her part of me was left thinking how she took the moral high ground with Lucas and threw him out.

I’m actually glad Rebecca and Declan are gone now (I’m hoping it’s for good and not just temporarily). I never really liked the second casting of Declan and the character didn’t really interest me in the slightest. I liked Rebecca at first but was so fed up of the stuff with her and Paul I just wanted both of them to be over. Like Declan I found it hard to get worked up about her although I did like the way she cared for Andrew. With Rebecca gone it will be interesting to see how the bitterness between Michael and Paul develops assuming the stuff about Tasha comes out.

Summer and Tash have both been seriously doing my head in although I don’t think Summer has been as bad. How long does Tasha seriously expect to keep this up for? What is her excuse going to be when there’s no baby? Is she going to fake a miscarriage like Kirsty did in Home and Away? The longer she leaves it the worse it’s going to be. Given the way the storyline’s played out and the rivalry between the two and the fact that Summer finally basically admitted that she doesn’t like her I am expecting Summer to be the one to out her.

Libby still isn’t back yet. I’m wondering if there is any point in her being in the credits.

[Red Ranger 1]

Found myself annoyed with Jade again when she threw a spanner in the works with Kate and Brennan's relationship by telling her to ask him how many girls he'd dated and then mocked Lucas and tried to blame the mess on him.Although hey, she just told Paul where to go so that puts her firmly back in the plus column.

Susan annoys me a lot of the time and I did find her extremely sanctimonious with the way she forced Kate to confess to the police.I get that she made a promise to Rebecca but the whole argument that it would be better for Kate to come clean didn't make much sense.Paul was obviously not going to go to the police, he knew he couldn't get Rebecca into trouble and Kate wasn't even on his radar.Still, I guess it's worked out reasonably all right for her.I kind of agree about Libby, I get that Kym Valentine's ill but at the moment she's appearing less than Tom Oliver.Leaving her on the opening titles is one thing but it's silly having her name flash up at the end of every episode when she hasn't appeared for about six months.(Indeed, with panto leave and characters leaving and not being replaced, I think we're currently down to twelve regular cast members...)

Kind of bounced back and forth with my opinion of Summer.I think she did expose Tasha's secret mainly because it was the best thing for Andrew but there did seem to be a bit of personal agenda in there as well:As Andrew said, was she expecting a thank you?I still felt more sorry for Tash than anyone else, Michael's immediate reaction proved what a rubbish parent he can be although he does seem to be stepping up to the plate now.Susan poked her nose into other people's business again, which seems to be her sole function on the show when she's not being rude to Karl, although at least she did get Michael reinstated.Andrew does seem to have snapped back to being a bit of a jerk, whatever she'd done he had no right getting in Tash's face and threatening her(and he only did it because his act of petty revenge backfired and left everyone knowing what he and Summer had done).I'd really love it if Andrew and Summer kept to not being together but we'll probably have to sit through months of them angsting about it and staring off into the middle distance as sad music plays in the background before they hook up anyway.

[Zetti]

I actually feel sorry for Tash, she did the wrong thing and deserved to lose Andrew, but school kids can be so cruel, her own father wont even give her the time of day. I really hope that things look up for her and that in time she becomes friends with Summer again, I always liked them two.

[Slade]

The main saving grace for me with Tash is the fact that she ran back into a burning building believing Summer was still trapped so she was risking her life (or so she thought). However what bothers me about the whole fake pregnancy thing is that she’s not even the least bit sorry. I’ve used this term so many times now but her revenge was born out of pure spite and malice. Even when Michael was trying to explain to her and Summer tried to clear the air she couldn’t see what she did was wrong. She thought it was justified because of the way Summer and Andrew treated her.

As a person I find Lisa utterly repugnant and really dislike her. Although Tash masterminded the whole thing Lisa was the one who started the rumour about Zeke and Summer which could have cost Zeke his job and what she is doing to Tash is tantamount to bullying. Now that Summer and Tash really only have one mutual friend (and only one friend - Chris) it will be interesting to see if they can rebuild their friendship or relationship would probably be a better word as I’m not sure if they were even friends.

I’ve quite liked the stuff with Paul and Andrew and much prefer things now that Rebecca and Declan aren’t there. I thought Paul gave good advice about not mixing business with pleasure but I think his attitude would have been different if he knew more about Andrew’s business partner.

Fed up with the stuff with Kate and Brennan already and they only broke up a week ago. It doesn’t help that they are investing other characters in the storyline.

Can’t help feeling that it is inevitable that Callum will remember who his mother is.

Interesting scene on Friday’s episode when Kate was watching the Royal wedding. I wonder if that was solely for UK viewers as at actual Neighbours pace the date would have been wrong.

[Zetti]

Interesting scene on Friday’s episode when Kate was watching the Royal wedding. I wonder if that was solely for UK viewers as at actual Neighbours pace the date would have been wrong.

It was specially filmed for the UK fans.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think it's slightly harsh, if not exactly inaccurate, to categorise Tash as acting out of malice, she just seemed to be feeling a lot of hurt and anger at being betrayed by two people she thought she could trust.I'm glad that she and Summer have got back to their almost-friends stage, it's more fun than them being petty about each other, although it seems like they both still harbour feelings for Andrew deep down which could cause problems...I am glad that they do actually seem to be keeping Andrew and Summer apart and letting them have storylines with other characters though.Whilst I like Summer and Tash being friends with Chris, their trying to find him a boyfriend felt a bit tokeny:I think the fact he ended up rejecting both choices is a clear indicator of what the show is and isn't prepared to do.

Glad that the secret about Sonya is out in the open, I was worried it would drag on for months.I can understand Toadie being angry and worried so I'm deferring judgement on his behaviour for now. Susan, on the other hand, is just being her usual snobbish judgemental self by looking down her nose at Sonya and Jade.Not really a good week for her, since she spent the first part being a comedy bully and humiliating Karl for something that wasn't even his fault(it was Callum who cheated).Where was Jade while all that was going on anyway?She was the one who actually made the bet yet she was hardly in the episodes that finished off the storyline.Wasn't sure about Libby coming back since the show didn't really seem to need her but she's been pretty good so far.

Loved Kyle's antics, I notice he's now being listed as main cast on the closing credits.Mark, on the other hand, is now feeling increasingly redundant since he and Kate broke up.He spent two episodes doing nothing but poor scorn on Kyle and he seems to just be a rather shallow piece of guy candy.

[Slade]

Well I don’t think it’s harsh at all. She not only wanted to hurt them (just like she got hurt) but also wanted to punish them. She was quite prepared to drag the whole thing out for months (i.e. the duration of the fake pregnancy) so that both of them could suffer so IMO that was malicious. I wasn’t expecting her to lie down and take what happened and if it had been a short term thing I wouldn’t have minded so much but it was only because Summer was smart enough to figure out what Tash was up to her plans were scuppered. And as I mentioned previously she had several people try and tell her what she did was wrong but as she was suffering from a serious case of tunnel vision she thought her actions were justified. Although now if not sorry there at least appears to be some acknowledgment that she was in the wrong but it still took Summer to be the bigger person to make amends. That aside I’m glad they are getting on and that Summer stuck up for Tash regarding Andrew. Still I don’t like the way she’s trying to talk to Andrew like nothing’s happened. If she really wants to make up perhaps she could start off by saying “You and Summer shouldn‘t have betrayed me like that but I was wrong to lie about being pregnant” etc.

Andrew’s clearly having reservations about the music night because Thomas wants to use it as a front to deal drugs but he really needs to think about what he’s doing. He could get into so much trouble if the cops catch anyone in the act. Not to mention the damage it will do to his business and his dad’s reputation.

Like the fake pregnancy I’m really glad the cat’s out of the bag regarding Callum’s mother and I was expecting the fallout to be huge considering how badly Callum has been effected by his past, the fact that Toadie believes his relationship with Sonia is now a lie, also I wonder how long it will take them to put two and two together about Callum’s grandmother’s funeral and the letter Sonia disposed off. Anyway I do find I’m kind of in agreement with you on this Red Ranger. I hated the way Toadie was with Sonia but given the circumstances his actions were completely understandable. I’m really disliking Susan at the moment. I went off her when she blackmailed Kate into going to the police but I hated her attitude towards Sonia and the guilt by association with Jade (even though I don’t particularly like Jade although she hasn’t been too bad this week). Even when Lynn was trying hold off reserving judgment until she had all the facts Susan made a remark suggesting that would be her stance (obviously referring to Steph). It also really annoyed me when Susan was laughing at Kyle.

I’ve actually been looking forward to Libby’s return. Whatever she’s been doing whilst she’s away appears to done her the world of good. She seems to have a very positive vibe and outlook overall. I liked the way she spoke to Susan regarding the whole business with Sonia, was nice to Jade and even paid Paul a compliment (not forgetting he was indirectly responsible for all the stuff that happened with Steph). I also liked the stuff with Toadie. It is worth noting how he was prepared to live a lie for Steph even though Libby was supposed to be one of his closest friends which in some respects draws parallels to what Sonia’s been doing regarding Callum.

Kyle seems like a nice but dim character. I loved Lucas’s “He’s a walking disaster” remark to Kate when she was thinking about hiring him. Some of his antics have been really funny but what really made me laugh was on Friday’s episode in the Coffee shop when Michael brought back the Coffee and said it was worse than the previous one, Kate tried it in disgust before refunding him, Kyle confirmed that virtually every customer he had made Coffee for had brought it back and Brennan sat there smirking. I’m starting to wonder if there’s any point to Brennan too. I think they’ve tried to integrate him into the show by having him hang out with characters such as Karl, Toadie and Lucas but it just isn’t working for me and I haven’t really liked him this week. I did quite enjoy it when Kyle called him out for dumping Kate.