2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Little bean]

20 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

And more guff about how unlucky Hunter is, after he's got away with nearly killing four people in an arson attack, leaving another person for dead during a robbery, indirectly causing one person to end up in a coma and another to end up in a shallow grave during another robbery, and stabbing someone.He wants to go to Vietnam?Good, I'll buy the ticket for him.

I’ll split it with you.

[Red Ranger 1]

I've been resigned since last year and the utter cop-out non-event of Hunter being exposed as the Diner thief and no-one caring to the fact that he was likely never going to be brought to account for his crimes.So with that in mind...He didn't get a sunset ending with Olivia, which I was dreading from about their first scene together.He didn't get a sunset ending with someone else.He didn't leave because he'd suddenly been offered his dream job.He basically left with his tail between his legs after screwing up yet again.And objectively I accept that, even if there's no blood connection, the MacGuires are his family (although, like D.B., I wonder if anyone ever bothered to tell Zac and Evie of his role in Denny's death).So I'll take that.I'll sit through the overly long farewells of everyone acting like he was a good old boy, and the seemingly endless "drive away waving while emotional music plays as if we're meant to miss him for some reason" scene, and just take comfort in the fact that he's gone, and good riddance, and hopefully he'll be forgotten about as soon as possible.(After all, Wikipedia have been listing him as a "Departing Character" for nearly two years, and that isn't an exaggeration!)

Willow was a bit deceitful in her original apology to Jasmine: She should have said up front that Irene had offered her a room.On balance, despite her complaining about Jasmine last episode, I think she probably is sincere and probably does want to make a go of things, and I'm glad that Jasmine's willing to give her a chance.The three of them living together could be interesting as I said before, and it is nice to see Irene reinstating the no booze rule, which does suggest a good attention to continuity.

Elsewhere, it's nice to see Mason happy and even nicer to see him caring and responsible, so I'm definitely hoping things work out for him and Dempsey does seem to be appreciating his attention...at least until that rather worrying climax.

[H&Alover]

 

I may be splitting hairs here, but it was CHARLOTTE  that killed Denny, albeit accidentally, and Trystan Powell which was a deliberate act to 'protect' Hunter, he didn't know anything about either event. He was willing to turn himself in but NO she kept packing him off to his nan's.  I've said before he didn't have the best role model when he was growing up and who knows how he would have turned out if Charlotte was still alive. Btw didn't he confess to the arson attack and end up doing community service? Talking about Charlotte she had a fling with Matt, her pupil, a habit that seems to occur a lot in the bay. Hunter didn't have any involvement with Hannah & Oscar's deaths he wasn't at the fund raiser, it was Tank.  He's done bad things, but then so have a lot of people in the bay, but they are eventually forgiven. He was very forthright with Leah about how much he hated her at first and wanted her to suffer for taking his 'dad' away from him, but thanks to her hard work and patience she had turned him round and he was very grateful to her. It wasn't about herThis fresh start in Vietnam may just what he needs, things aren't working out in the bay that's for sure.   Yes Slade Hunter did really care about Christina that is why her lying to him hurt so much.

Totally irrelevant now as he's gone but Hunter was able to leave for Vietnam the very next day - really, how was that managed, wouldn't he have needed to apply for a visa, get vaccinations?

Leah's patience did seem to go out of the window though with the way she kept nagging Hunter about going to uni, I wanted to slap her, even if she had been his mum/step mum she couldn't expect him to just blindly obey her so he could stay in the bay and be near her, veering into Charlotte territory there.  She finally saw sense and wished him luck. She's going to be at a real lost end, though there is Ryder for her to (s)mother, at least until Roo gets back.

Coco is being, to put it plainly, a real cow to both Raffy and Ryder, now she's decided to pretend to be friends in public with Raffy, Ben & Maggie to be fair don't know the full truth so would believe Coco's version.  it's Ryder's first serious relationship so of course he doesn't want to screw it up, she's smart, funny, sometimes and he was very patient when she was going through all that trauma with Maggie and stepped back and was happy just to be her friend. If she's not careful she's going to lose them both.

Ziggy is only just 20 so not surprising Brody's plans for their future would spook her, I'm glad she talked to Ben (as did Brody) who was not only younger than her when he and Maggie married had her to think about too so they had to  grow up a lot quicker.  I dare say they had their fair share of arguments but they got through it. She is hot headed and impulsive, he's the calmer one but there is a middle ground. Let's not forget he's had a good few unsettled years moving around the country so not surprising he'd like a proper home. He shouldn't be expected to just close his business because she wanted to go off for the day, it's his & Ziggy's livelihood. Typical Dean should get the blame for getting her drunk, but he didn't dob her in, not that he would be believed anyway  and she did admit it was all her idea and he had tried to stop her, good luck there mate.   I liked that Justin gave him another chance, Dean wants to change and it's good he's going to give the apprenticeship a go.

Jasmine, Robbo is a big boy and perfectly capable of checking up his employee's past history for himself, so nothing to do with her.  Liked Irene's quizzing her whether it was because Robbo was just a friend and looking out for him. Willow was naturally defensive and she is making  a huge effort to turn her life around.  I'm glad they finally reached an understanding after that 'deliberate' omission by Willow that Irene had offered her  a place to stay before she made her apology.  Of course Willow can't promise not to slip back into her bad ways, anymore than Irene could promise not to drink or Brody promise he won't ever tough drugs again, all she could do and did was promise to try. Having said that Willow did miss an opportunity to admit her own addiction when Irene told her she'd been sober for x amount of years. Despite Justin's cajoling Willow did absolutely the right thing by refusing to move back in with him, she now knows her own limitations and them living together would be a crutch.

It's good Mason & Dempsey re gong to be a proper couple and sweet how he introduced her as his girlfriend at Hunter's leaving do. Not looking good when she said she was bleeding because what with her being a midwife she knows what that could mean.

[D.B]

2 hours ago, H&Alover said:

 

I may be splitting hairs here, but it was CHARLOTTE  that killed Denny, albeit accidentally, and Trystan Powell which was a deliberate act to 'protect' Hunter, he didn't know anything about either event. He was willing to turn himself in but NO she kept packing him off to his nan's.  I've said before he didn't have the best role model when he was growing up and who knows how he would have turned out if Charlotte was still alive. Btw didn't he confess to the arson attack and end up doing community service? Talking about Charlotte she had a fling with Matt, her pupil, a habit that seems to occur a lot in the bay. Hunter didn't have any involvement with Hannah & Oscar's deaths he wasn't at the fund raiser, it was Tank.  He's done bad things, but then so have a lot of people in the bay, but they are eventually forgiven. 

I feel like I should fix my previous statement and explain it from my point of view. To me, Denny 's death was a indirect result of Hunter robbing the diner, he may not have known about it until her body was found, but her and Charlotte wouldn't have fought if he hadn't placed the stolen vault in their apartment, so I feel like he does share some responsibility for it. Now, I get that really, he wasn't at any fault with what happen to Trystan, that was just Charlotte covering up her mistakes, and what happened to Hannah and Oscar was very much Andy and Tanks's fault, but when I wrote it, I was thinking about them being the results of the long term fallout of Hunter and Charlotte's actions (ie. If Hunter and Charlotte hadn't did what they did, Charlotte wouldn't have been killed, Dylan Carter wouldn't have come into the picture, and Tank wouldn't have been released and the whole explosion wouldn't have happened.) So while Hunter wasn't directly responsible for what happened to those four people, his actions played a huge part in all of it, and his actions did directly hurt Marilyn and almost for Billie, Zac, Matt and Oscar. Yes, he did confess to the fire, but I don't think that community service is the appropriate nor the proper punishment for an arsonist. And yes, people have done bad things before and are forgiven, but it has to be done properly, like Kyle, or Dean right now, or even Tank to an extent, and there most of the time have been actual consequences for those actions, but I can't say that this has been the case for Hunter. 

But in anycase, he's gone now, and while I'll still say that I don't like the fact of him going to Vietnam (I would have preferred at this point his grandmother or that Wally guy) or that he isn't going to face proper consequences for his crimes,  I'll accept that he, as Red says, isn't getting the happy ending he was hoping for. I actually felt a bit sorry for Leah this episode, because I felt like she actually did feel Hunter as a son, so it must have been hard for her, especially since he is the last remaining link to the family she once had. So farewell Hunter King, and to you as I say: Good riddance. 

In other news, I'm glad that Jasmine and Willow have sorted everything out and are settling on living together. And the Mason and Dempsey scenes were really sweet, though the cliffhanger seemed very bad. And you do make a good point, H&Aolver, she's a midwife, she would know what it means, which makes it all even more frightening.

[Red Ranger 1]

I've felt before that I don't really like the way Dempsey treats Mason, and I'm feeling that even more now.Everything's been on her terms, pretty much, and she's been quick to turn on him when he's had an idea she hasn't liked.Maybe if the storyline was being told more from her point of view then I might sympathise more with her, but Mason's the one we know and it's hard seeing him get put through the wringer.She's let him believe they were going to be a family and now she's taking it away from him.I'm not sure if him tracking her down will do any good, but I hope he does, because just disappearing like this feels like the coward's way out. To contradict myself, I do actually hope he finds her and they work it out, if only for his sake.

John and Marilyn spend most of the episode acting like those annoying people you avoid at parties: As Robbo said, he's only just getting his head around running the gym as it is without being expected to completely refurbish it.Their ultimate gift seemed to hit the mark and be appreciated though.Tori gazing lasciviously at random doctors and Robbo was more than a little cringeworthy.And, when Mason's talking to her about his on/off girlfriend wanting to get rid of his child at the time, more than a little insensitive.

[H&Alover]

D.B. We could play the if so and so hadn't done so and so then so and so wouldn't have done this or that game for ever but at some point it has to come to a natural end otherwise anything anyone had done in the bay could be attributed to something someone had done years ago, Andy & Tank made their own decisions to act the way they did.  As an example (maybe not the best the only one I could think of off the top of my head) but if Martha hadn't 'died' all those years ago maybe Roo wouldn't have got pregnant, have to give Martha up for adoption who then made a reappearance years later and then got involved with Hugo later to go on the run with him so now Roo doesn't know where she is.  Charlotte was an over protective mum who by covering up what Hunter had done was doing him no good at all, not to mentions her own great failings, who knows if she had been different  everything would have turned out another way, maybe never have come to the bay in the first place. But as you say he's gone now without a totally happy ending.

As we don't know more about Dempsey, no real background on her at all, she was definitely against her parents knowing, it is easier to be in Mason's corner regarding the baby.  It was at Mason's urging she decided to keep the baby.   But she is the one carrying the baby, with all that entails health wise, mild and otherwise, have to face everyone at work, take time off for maternity leave before and after.  Mason was a lot more enthusiastic  hearing the babies heartbeat than she was even if she was anxious  beforehand about Tori having difficulty finding it.  I may be reading too much into it but was there a reason she asked about the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy?  Strange she decided to do a bunk in the middle of the night.

Thinking about it Tori hasn't had any outside work contact with any of her colleagues, female or male, so to follow Leah's suggestion to chose someone from work to be the father of her baby would be a hell of a jump. but just as surreal is deciding Robbo is the one.  Yes she knows him better than the guys at work but still out there.  Like to see how that conversation goes tonight.

The more everyone pushed Robbo the more he dug his heels in, but he does need to put his stamp on it as he's going to be a lot more hands on than the previous owners. Very subtle gift to give him though Ryan "Robbo" Shaw was a nice touch.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Five, for the third week running.

Okay, it seems the show's decided that Penny McNamee can do comedy, so they're going to have Tori routinely regress to acting like a teenager and bumble around a lot whenever she's feeling awkward about something.So I guess we just have to run with it, and her babbling at Justin and hitting the wine was actually quite funny, especially the way he's obviously given her the wine when we cut back and his desperate attempt to convince himself she didn't actually want Robbo to donate that.And in the end he concludes that she's obviously insane, but he might as well help her make slightly less of a mess of it.He's got a very good point though: Tori is deluded if she thinks Robbo will hand over a sample and then have nothing to do with the child growing up in the same town as him.(It did also seem oddly timed to have this going on right off the back of Mason's heartbreak last episode.I was glad we at least got a brief update because it was looking like we were going to go through the episode without him being mentioned.)

Coco's doing herself no favours, acting like the world revolves around her, and the adults in the situation continue to be utterly clueless and self-congratulatory.In the end, it's left to Dean to provide Ryder with an unlikely confidante.I liked that he didn't have a clue who Coco is although his acting as though Raffy (suddenly promoted to Ryder's best mate now Ty's gone) is Ryder's equivalent of Colby was a bit weird.I'm glad Ryder came clean but it still failed to puncture Coco's self-centredness as she continues to act like the victim and refuse to admit she's done anything wrong.

[H&Alover]

Tori herself confirmed she doesn't know her colleagues outside work so they, the men especially are strangers and as she said, they are likely in relationships, she'd have to carry on working with them, she certainly wouldn't know their medical history -though, silly me, she could look it up.  But that wouldn't tell her anything about their character.  Robbo she does know, he's kind, thoughtful, likes to help people, she likes him plus she knows he's fertile.  Justin's objection was totally bonkers, yes he's killed people but that - Kovac aside -  was in the line of duty  he's not a gun toting homicidal maniac so not in the blood so Tori won't be strangled by their child.  But yes Red, he wouldn't be able to just donate and not get involved having been a dad. Oh looks like that conversation will be tomorrow night. Her acting like a teenager was funny.

Was good to get some sort of update on Mason and his hunt for Dempsey.

Dean may have seemed an odd choice for Ryder to open up to but it's sometimes good to get an outsiders point of view, he doesn't know Raffy or Coco so wasn't biased either way, so could give his honest opinion. Got it right though girl/boyfriends come and go but a good and true mate is for ever. Ryder bit the bullet and told Coco the truth and as he feared it backfired she acted like a true girl with her blaming him for spoiling her friendship with Raffy but as you said Red didn't accept her part in it by her behaviour.  Don't forget kids are good at hiding things from adults.

Dean has got his court date and from the looks of things has decided to, um, enjoy what might be the last couple of weeks of freedom starting with that girl who kept wafting by.

[Slade]

On 27/09/2018 at 15:54, H&Alover said:

Yes Slade Hunter did really care about Christina that is why her lying to him hurt so much.

I'm not sure.  It's hard to justify caring about someone when you ruin their career/life.

Very disappointed with Ryder.  Again, whilst I can empathise with his situation it was very weak behaviour not sticking up for Raffy and continuing to be quiet even though he did come clean eventually.  I thought last week Coco was just being Coco but I have to admit I was a little surprised she pretended to be Raffy's friend in front of Marilyn and wanted her to lie as I didn't think she would be that deceitful.  It does seems as though yet again, Raffy gets the short straw for trying to be loyal and whilst I do think she should give Ryder another chance even if Coco apologies, I really think she should just tell her to get stuffed.  It's interesting how Ryder was far less annoying when he wasn't around Coco which reinforces the point that perhaps he shouldn't be with her given that he appears to be unhappy more often than not.

Did find Dean admitting that he found Ziggy throwing up funny to Brody quite amusing.  Especially with Colby gesturing to him in the background not to put his foot in it.  Didn't really like Brody Friday last week.  And at that point did hope he wasn't reverting back to being up himself like when he first came to the bay although it does seem like a one-off.  Glad Justin decided to give Dean another chance and I'm finding that I quite like Dean now.

As someone who can't stand either Willow and Jasmine, I quite enjoyed them being at loggerheads initially.  Jasmine is just so full of herself thinking that the sun shines out of her a*se - "Robbo is my friend".  Willow isn't much different, thinking she has every guy wrapped around her little finger.  I thought them living together would be interesting to see the fallout, although admittedly their scenes when they were getting on weren't bad.

Given that they left so close to each other, I'm surprised the writers didn't have Olivia and Hunter ride off into the sunset together.  I felt a bit sorry for Leah because she's obviously still quite lonely but I did enjoy their goodbye scene.  I started off hating Hunter but over time grew to quite like him.  So I'm sorry he's gone and wish him well even though I didn't like the way things ended with Christina.

Found Marilyn and John both annoying trying to offer Robbo advice on how to run a gym although at least John had some idea what he was talking about unlike Marilyn.

Tori's going back to being quite amusing again with wanting Robbo to be her sperm donor (Think she had a point about the good genes!).  Especially liked the scene with Justin being grossed out.  I don't really think it's a good idea but I'll run with it for now as it's a chance to annoy Jasmine which would be good!

 

[H&Alover]

Well, that was two awkward conversations Robbo had!  Seeing how Tori is so confident as a doctor she really is hopeless when it comes to interacting with people - mostly men - outside of work related talk. She was getting so tongue tied when she first tried (and failed) to get the conversation round to what she wanted to talk about. Then, by accident, Jasmine pitches up after another pep talk from Irene and gets all flustered herself. Not surprising Robbo looked so bewildered.  He did get hold of the wrong end of the stick thinking Tori wanted a relationship with him when she was babbling on about how well they got on, he was a great bloke etc. Gringe city.  If it was that difficult with someone she knew well how much harder would it be to approach someone she didn't know as per Justin's (and Leah's) suggestion.  She did at last bite the bullet and go and see Robbo at home, a lot better, imo, than broaching it in a public place, needless to say it stunned him into silence.

Jasmine isn't doing that good a job of trying to convince herself she doesn't have feelings for Robbo, but Irene was right her and Robbo do need to work out some sort of compromise so she can go to the gym when she wants and not worry about bumping into him, ditto Salt and the Diner.  Was tricky when they bumped into each other outside the Diner, but hey it's a small town it's going to happen, they are both adults so should be able to sort something out.

Coco apologies to Raffy who just happily accepts it.  Personally I would have agreed with Coco when she said she'd been  a rubbish mate.  I think we could all let her off when Maggie was in hospital and she had more things to worry about than her mates, but now she's making good progress not so much of a reason.  It's now Ryder whose in the crossfire and bless him he did try to make amends after wise words from Grumps. John may act like a numpty at times, but he isn't blind or deaf. Coco stomping off to work on her own when it was supposed to be a joint project was a pretty big clue all was not well. After pussyfooting around them his direct approach was the only thing left. His idea may have been a bit clumsy but it did get them talking eventually, even Alf was impressed.

Not good news, it seems, for Willow as she's been called to testify against Dean!

Nearly forgot from last week Ebony has got her court date and Colby is in two minds whether to go or not.  In one way it'd be good for him to see her get sent either to prison or a secure mental hospital but on the other hand it will stir up memories again when he sees her.  Anyways it did prompt him to resume his search for Bella.