2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[H&Alover]

On ‎26‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 00:14, Red Ranger 1 said:

 

 

As for people in Oz Discussion talking as though the Willow who holds down a steady job, takes responsibility for her actions and is friends with police officers and Irene is somehow a worse person than the Willow who assaulted Justin and held him prisoner in an attempt to retrieve money for a criminal gang who later kidnapped Justin's daughter...this is why I don't look at what people are saying in Oz Discussion. 

 

I'll try and keep this as brief as possible. I'd have said that Robbo's behaviour towards Tori (standing guard outside her house, breaking in), and especially the faux calm way he acted as though it was normal and that paying for the damage meant she didn't have to worry, was more than enough to say that he's not entirely stable.And Tori did snap at him when it was clear he didn't get it.When has Robbo gone into bad boyfriend territory before?Well, the previous week when he hid details about the hospital visit for a start, and probably a few other times like standing Jasmine up on their first date without so much as a phone call.I certainly agree people have done things as bad or worse than Robbo pressuring Jasmine into risking her job just because he couldn't wait for the doctor, but I don't think that really excuses it, and I like to think that, even though I like Mason, I acknowledge when he crosses the line, as he did with Beth on occasion.

I did read about the Oz account after I'd thought that the old Willow wouldn't have put up with the way Justin is acting, just interesting I wasn't the only one thinking that way.  I never said she was a worse person, only a different one to the one we first knew.  Even Brody mentioned it to Justin about the Willow he was first attracted to was feisty, a free spirit, not wanting to plan for the future.  She has calmed down, don't want to say been tamed, and turned her life round, but still has her moments.  Justin and Willow's problems seems to be dividing everyone who's getting involved, Brody's wavering between the two, scolding Justin for giving Willow the ultimatum and then telling Ziggy to butt out of it and everyone sniping at each other. IBrody was well aware Justin was shouting at Ziggy and why was Ziggy suddenly struck dumb I was fully expecting her to tell Ben she could speak for herself.  In  the end it is down to Justin and Willow to decide where they go from here if anywhere.

Good thought that Justin & Brody put their differences aside to play together for Maggie's night. 

Funny I saw the whole Raffy jumping on Coco scene differently, to me Coco reacted just the way she would have if it had been anyone jumping on her like that, saying "Oh you scared me!", Raffy, sadly, took it the wrong way, even though Coco was laughing when she said it. Yet another time no-one noticed Raffy had gone off on her own, speaking of which Coco found her sitting on the beach on her own when she dragged her off to the Surf Club, so who was responsible for looking after her then? I also didn't find it annoying it was Marilyn who found her on Gina's bench, for once Marilyn didn't try to wrap things up in a bow and tell her everything would be fine, she gave good advice regarding the medication and she did get her to return.  Tori was at home resting but no mention of Mason.

They were certainly all having a good laugh at John's expense when he had to try all those smoothies, brave of him to glug down all those weird concoctions and he did them all before calling for a bucket.

Oh yes Abbie's parents have taken her away for a few weeks - that's her punishment? 

Good that Robbo finally told Jasmine what he had done before either one of the Morgan's let it slip. But that must have been painful for him recalling that fateful night, some of which we already knew, but we found out more about why he wasn't home, maybe his call to Lance brought back more suppressed memories and it certainly explains in more detail why he did what he did. The guy who killed his family is, according to Robbo,  still out there and could come back to punish him again.  He could be dead of course but Robbo has no way of knowing that.  Has to take a particular kind of slimeball who would kill a woman and two young kids.  He didn't tell Jasmine he was in the room with Tori not because he was a 'bad boyfriend' he just didn't think about it, it wasn't planned he would. I've said before he is new to this being a boyfriend thing, but Jasmine has spelt out she only wants to know what is going on and he's learning that. 

 

 

[H&Alover]

P.S. to above,  should we be worried about this Simone woman who's popped up from nowhere and seems to be Brody's no.1 fan?

[Red Ranger 1]

On ‎27‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 15:25, H&Alover said:

Yet another time no-one noticed Raffy had gone off on her own, speaking of which Coco found her sitting on the beach on her own when she dragged her off to the Surf Club, so who was responsible for looking after her then? 

He didn't tell Jasmine he was in the room with Tori not because he was a 'bad boyfriend' he just didn't think about it, it wasn't planned he would.

Raffy said Tori was getting food: Presumably she was close at hand but we couldn't see her because she wasn't in the episode.(A bit of a weak explanation to be honest, since Raffy could easily have had a fit without her noticing, although I guess realistically there are times when Raffy would be alone but someone would be nearby.)I'm still not willing to let Robbo off that easy: He deliberately kept the information from Jasmine when she asked him what had happened.I don't blame him for going into the room despite telling Jasmine it wasn't planned, but he admitted he chose not to tell her afterwards.

Anyway, today! And Ziggy went from having a point but expressing it in too hostile a manner to being completely in the wrong in the early part of the episode.Stopping Willow from answering Justin's call seemed as controlling as she's accused him of being and it seemed unnecessarily childish to kick Brody out of bed and leave him sleeping on someone else's sofa.(Why couldn't he have slept in the other room of the flat?Come to think of it, when did we last see their place?Did the set get misplaced?)When Maggie kept quizzing Brody about whether he'd made up with Ziggy, I kept thinking it was Ziggy she should be talking to.Instead, it's Ben who does a surprising 180 after spending the last two episodes agreeing that Brody should automatically be on his wife's side, pointing out to her that people don't tend to like hearing their family criticised.Still, Ziggy's plan of "Text Brody for make-up sex" wasn't the best way to go about it, although at least she and Justin cleared the air before she found herself playing third wheel to Brody and Simone.

And I think we're now well and truly at the point where I'm calling bulls*** on the Justin/Willow situation.I could just about buy it escalating from Justin telling Willow to stay away from Dean, since I could see that from both sides, but someone obviously decided they couldn't just split up over one thing so tried to find some underlying fatal flaw in the relationship.(If they have split up: Their conclusion seemed to be that they're on a break, but no-one told the music and direction.)So we have Willow's sudden moral of "I thought he made me a better person but he just made me a different one" and deciding to go back to how she used to be...which means what, exactly?Go back to working for scumbag criminals in order to make ends meet?Go back to stealing and dognapping?Go back to gambling?Go back to not doing relationships and having casual sex with her friends instead (which is a valid lifestyle choice, I guess, but not really an improvement)?Completely forgetting that she chose to move to Summer Bay, and pressured Justin into helping her, so she could stay away from her old crowd (like Dean!) who would drag her back into bad habits?It feels like different writers have different ideas about what's wrong with their relationship: A couple of weeks ago she was asking Justin if their relationship was going anywhere, now it's suddenly "Justin likes to plan things, I like to just go with the flow"?It just feels like randomly hitting plot points in a way that's neither consistent nor believable.

All of which leaves Robbo and Jasmine ironically as the stable couple of the episode! I did give a wry smile at macho Robbo being led into the girliest bedroom possible.And I am liking the beach house dynamic.Points too for Robbo's response to Willow asking about not knowing who you are.

[H&Alover]

There will be times Raffy is going to be on her own, like in the loo/bathroom or in her bedroom so realistically she could have a fit then and no-one would necessarily know about it.  It's when she out and about sitting on a deserted beach for instance and nobody knowing where she was.  Robbo did use that well worn excuse of wanting to 'protect' Jasmine by not telling her about him being in the room with Tori. but she didn't need or want protecting. Why do people do that, different if you are wanting to keep them safe, but 'protect' them is not the same.  Besides we all know the truth comes out in the end anyway.

Good in a way to see the Ziggy of old giving full vent to her feelings on the matter without taking on board others, Brody, have their own thoughts on the matter, especially when it involves a close family member. As was the kicking Brody out of bed! But she did go over the top and thankfully did acknowledge it after the talk from Ben which was absolutely right.  You can slag off your own family members but woe betide an outsider, even if husband or wife, doing, it that is a huge no no. I thought Brody had said he wasn't on anyone's side, just defending Justin against Ziggy's feelings he was in the wrong.   Nice that both Justin and Ziggy apologised to each other and she offered him advice, didn't tell him he should talk to Willow, that is what advice is, the person receiving it doesn't have to take it.  Interesting views from Ziggy, Jasmine and Willow on their respective relationships and how although they and their men are different  two of them Jasmine and Ziggy are making it work, it's just Willow and Justin who are struggling. Justin wants it to be just the two of them excluding others - well mainly Dean - but real relationships  don't and can't survive in a bubble. Willow is a different person, Justin got her of a bad place and smoothed some of her rough edges off.  She'd been used to looking after herself after her dad went into the home whereas the Morgan's all had each other, big adjustment to learn to lean on others. Not making excuses for her but wasn't she tied up with Boyd and others like him to get money to pay for her dads care home? Going back to an earlier comment of yours Red about Willow somehow being responsible for Ava's kidnap, that was all down to Hazel who you would hardly call the stable sort. Amongst all the dodgy things she done Willow did break up with Justin when Nina gave her the ultimatum that if she didn't she'd stop Justin seeing Ava. I don't think she wants to return to her bad old ways, just the girl that Justin first fell for. Though I agree she did go back on what she said to Justin the other week, asking where they were heading.  Don't know for sure but maybe after all those years of not being able to plan a future that is why Justin is for it. But funnily he seemed he was the one not able to see a future for them. 

Yes Robbie and Jasmine, they were certainly loved up.  I fully expected him to hop out the bedroom window the next morning like many a guy before him. But, no, he let himself be led out through the  living room/kitchen in front of Irene and Willow without seemingly any embarrassment.  Liked Irene's comment about how it's only when things are going wrong between Jasmine and Robbo she can't stop talking about it, yet when things are going OK not a peep.  I too liked the response from Robbo following Willow's comment.

Has Brody got himself  a stalker in the form of Simone or am I reading too much into it?

[Slade]

Even though Coco didn't actually do anything wrong, given how she's treated Raffy in the past, I was glad Raffy stormed off like that when Coco said Raffy scared her and it made Coco feel bad.  Glad that they found her fairly quickly although Marilyn and John were both annoying again and I'm really not sure how much longer I can take watching any scenes with them and Raffy in.

Justin's ultimatum was a difficult one.  You could have argued that he was being unreasonable but given that Willow and Dean slept together not too long ago, I could see why he would want to keep them apart.

Ziggy on the other hand really annoyed me.  It's one thing agreeing to support Willow as a friend but she involved herself in something (to be blunt) was not really any of her business.  And I didn't like the way it was implied that Justin was solely at fault for shouting at Ziggy when she was gave just as good as she got IMO.  I was glad unlike Ben, Brody saw things from his point of view.  Ben was just as annoying as Ziggy and reminded my why I disliked him so much up until fairly recently (even though he kind of stuck up for Brody afterwards).

I really like Simone.  She's lively, bubbly seems like a nice person and I actually quite enjoy the scenes with her and Brody.  As annoying as Ziggy has been, she's right to be suspicious of her though.   She spends $750 to have cooking lessons with Brody and is prepared to do a month's work experience for free as a trial.  If Ziggy and Brody's positions were reversed Brody would have spoken to Ziggy about it.  And if that had been Ben instead of Maggie, and a guy paid a ridiculous amount of money for a couple of cooking lessons and offered to work for free for Ziggy he definitely wouldn't have given the benefit of doubt like Maggie did.

I'm not sure what to make of Robbo telling Jasmine about his family.  I have to admit, I did find it quite funny when Tori got a little scared of him but I'm glad she could understand he was acting like that because he lost his wife and kids.  I was very surprised he was willing to give Willow a second chance and even prepared to spend thousands of dollars subsidising her education, given that she's been training people at the gym for a while without being qualified.  She's even more of a risk than Ben taking Dean on.

The facility where Dean's mum's staying looks alright.  I can see why people who commit very serious crimes play the insanity card to try and get out of going to jail to go somewhere like that.

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

8 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Going back to an earlier comment of yours Red about Willow somehow being responsible for Ava's kidnap, that was all down to Hazel who you would hardly call the stable sort

I didn't mean to imply Willow was responsible, I just means that's the sort of person that "the old Willow" used to associate with.

I seem to remember there was some discussion about Willow's qualifications or lack thereof when she first started working at the gym.They chose a confusing example for her lack of knowledge though: Wasn't Maggie using weights during the session we saw with Mason?(Maybe it was that which convinced him she should lay off them for a bit?)I guess Robbo knows what it's like to need someone to give you a chance and, as he said, with Mason taking time off he needs all the staff he can get.

Having been critical of Ziggy lately, I guess I should give her points for biting her tongue with Simone even though she's clearly not sure about her.I was surprised at how on board with the idea of her being around Maggie was.Maybe she's just grateful for the $750.

Well, I would say Karen's in the right place.It's perhaps a sign of how bad she was before that, despite there being a bit of a zombie touch to her, she seemed more "normal" here.I'm not entirely sure about Colby keeping Chelsea out of it, partly because she's up to her neck already so it seems rather late in the day to worry about that.Well, I guess Karen seems to be in the right frame of mind to answer questions about Ross...

Oh, and I forgot to say yesterday: I see Channel 5 have started using those "cast singing the theme song" promos, which I think have been airing in Australia as well.(I may be completely wrong there but I definitely saw it online prior to it popping up this week.)

[H&Alover]

I remember that too Red about Willow not being qualified when she went up for the job competing against Mason John decided to let them job share it.  It could be as Willow said John didn't bother asking her for any paperwork or she may have stalled him and he forgot all about it which isn't good business practice on his part, he was manager then so if anything had happened it would have come back on him. Though of course saying that it would mean Robbo should have checked out any paper work that was handed over. On that subject is Mason qualified, just because he's a med student it doesn't follow he  is. Anyhoo qualified or not she knows her stuff, she really enjoys it. She's been doing it about a year(?) now, there have been no complaints so must be popular with her regulars and there have, thankfully, been no accidents. We saw her looking over Mason's notes regarding Maggie's exercise regime, did she miss it or should it have been something she should have known? Her mistake/overlook with Maggie and the weights does beg the question would she have said anything had that incident not happened?  Quite understandably  Robbo was angry, it's his rep and business on the line, but he is short staffed, we only see other staff members drifting about in the background and he is investing in her by offering to put up the money for her training. 

To reverse the Justin/Willow situation - would Justin allow Willow to dictate who he could see if an old friend happened to be a woman?  Somehow I don't think so.

Brody is totally oblivious so far to what we see and what Ziggy suspects, he's just chuffed with the hero worship and enjoying showing and sharing his skills to someone new, Ziggy by her own admission is no foodie.

Willow was kind of economical with the truth when  she told Dean she and Justin had split and although she offered to go and see Karen with him it wasn't  a good idea, she wasn't Karen's favourite person.  Colby felt SG (or maybe SCG as in shiny Chelsea Girl) I'm so sorry please forget that - only people of a certain age would know get it  had done enough by stretching the rules to get them in to see Karen by using the 'we need to interview her about the car crash and skipping bail'. 

Looked a good, restful place, but it is still a secure hospital  with having to be buzzed in, locks, questioned if you are carrying a weapon, drugs.  Though not 100%  Karen did look better than when we last saw her. Quite a mouthful her diagnosis - schizoaffective disorder along with bi-polar - so I got what was wrong with her half right. Interesting Karen didn't pretend not to know who Ross was when asked about him and just said "What do you want to know?" I get he was desperate for news about his mum and Bella but he was over stepping the mark by pushing her so hard, she could have closed down completely. He may have been told the news about Michelle a little less harshly otherwise.  No time line mentioned but I'm guessing it was about the time when Ross called on Karen five years ago looking for Colby.  Methinks he can't have known about the tape. Colby was just getting his head round that when he got the double whammy that Ross had also killed his dad!  Intuitive of Michelle to tape their conversation, comes of being a cops wife I guess, did she already have suspicions?   The reason she left becomes clear, to me at least, she did it to keep Colby safe. That old suitcase of Karen's certainly hid some secrets!  Colby, despite Dean's misgivings, made the right call in deciding to hand it over to the cops.  Did Neal know anything about it all?

Justin has gone into melt down by getting very drunk and making  a pass at Leah which she dealt with very well by just brushing it off.  Full credit to Mason for looking after him though he couldn't stop him charging round to Irene's  shouting for Willow to come out. He is going to be so embarrassed the next morning.  Good too Mason for finishing your exams and I'm sure we'll hear soon he's now a doctor - F1 level?

I was going to mention the cast sing a long, looked like they were all enjoying themselves, but Ralph don't give up the day job!

 

[CaptainHulk]

Drunk Justin is hilarious! He needs to get leathered more often. Lord knows we could do with more laughs on the show these days!

[c120701]

What subject is Roo meant to teach? I thought it was Business Studies given her background, but it seems to be the Summer Bay standard of English and History.

[j.laur5]

9 minutes ago, c120701 said:

What subject is Roo meant to teach? I thought it was Business Studies given her background, but it seems to be the Summer Bay standard of English and History.

In Summer Bay you teach every subject and I remember Beth Hunter used to supervise classes as she was just school business manager.