2019 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[baywatcher]

I've really enjoyed the last two episodes.  I thought that they were well paced and the performances were top notch (especially Sarah).  I'm not usually a fan of love triangles but I liked the interplay between all the characters, particularly in the nightclub.

[Red Ranger 1]

Caught up to yesterday's episode after a week away.I absolutely loved Raffy being in her element as the cheeky little sister, teasing Justin about his arrangement with Leah while at the same time romanticising it.This is her at her best, and made it all the more uncomfortable when she gets a shoehorned-in scene with the Palmers and John's repeated comments about "Don't have a better time with the Morgans than you do with us" feel like he's only half-joking.While I'm not too enamoured with her made-up ship name, Roo acting like a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl hasn't been too bad so far.Leah and Justin's desperate attempts to keep it under wraps are amusing, but it does feel like there's potential for hurt feelings however much they claim they don't have any.I don't think Leah's as "disliked" as the social media mafia suggest:Certainly her treatment of Zac did her some damage, but I think she's made up for that since and she's got her fans.(She was in the Top 30 of last year's BTTB Most Popular Character poll after all!) Some realistic angst with Jett, and also with Bella, who made it through another of Colby's well-meaning disasters to build some bridges with Raffy and Ryder.

I can't say I'm keen on the idea of either Ziggy or Willow being with Dean, so I hope he sticks to his assertion that he doesn't want a relationship.It would be a good way to ruin two decent male/female friendships: As he said, he and Willow are a mess together, while him and Ziggy would just be a rebound thing.(I also found it very hard to believe in Willow claiming she always thought they'd end up together when it's not that long since she thought Justin was the love of her life.)I'm glad Ben finally lost his temper with Ziggy, because reverting to the person she was before Brody isn't a smart idea.Meanwhile, Brody's lack of concern for the effect his actions have on others continues to frustrate, although I almost found myself on his side over Ziggy bombarding him with drunken texts.Maggie was professional with Simone, if for pragmatic reasons, and managed to deliver a zinger about the way she's thrown herself into this whirlwind relationship whilst not having a clue who Brody is.(Remember, early in the affair she didn't even know Raffy was his sister!)

And Robbo's back, and as I feared Tori has been completely forgiven and he seems up for co-parenting.To be fair, I don't mind that too much after the last few weeks.And he has parents, who knew? I would never say Jasmine should take him back, and I do think he was a bit harsh on her, but I also don't think he's entirely deserving of the condemnation he's getting.He especially didn't deserve that promo-fodder serve from Irene, who needs to stay out of it: She's been giving her opinion on Robbo and Jasmine ever since they were going for runs on the beach, and almost every time she gets involved she just makes things worse.(I think the only time I thought her interference was warranted was when she told Robbo up for standing Jasmine up without calling or apparently remembering her.) Oh, and the radiographer during the scan popped up three years ago as a woman whose baby Tori helped deliver, which is an interesting role reversal! (That's one I found out by accident.)

[H&Alover]

Wow Dean - if it's not too an old fashioned term - what a real gentleman you were - there's three words I didn't think I'd use in the same sentence, but you deserve the accolade.  He took heed of Colby's warning and 'suggested' to Ziggy it was time to go home and she listened to him. Very deftly handed her over to Ben and Maggie turning down her offer to have another beer or six. Willow's eyes definitely turned green over her imagined theory that Dean fancies Ziggy, he was just being a good friend and looking out for her.  Spotted he was alternating a strong drink for a soft one (or water) good message to young and old out there.  Colby gave them both, but mainly Willow, good advice that they should talk to each other which they eventually did.  Did Willow seriously expect Dean to hang around for the next five, ten, twenty years until  she decides she wants them to 'be together'.  If that had been the other way round no way would she have gone for it!  She would have told him to go take a surf without a board! Was it all to the fact it's Ziggy Dean is being kind to and caring about, she never had any problem with his one/two night stands, but they were 'strangers' I guess.   Btw did like Willow's dress. Congratulations to her on passing her instructors exam and Dean finishing his CS stint, though he's still on his GBB. I like his reaction it wasn't anything to really celebrate as he had broken the law.

It appears we are seeing the 'old' Ziggy before the Astoni's settled in the bay, we know from what was said she was a bit of a wild child and seems she has reverted.  Of course it's all a reaction to what has happened with her and Brody.  not an easy temptation to resist sending texts of you enjoying yourself to an ex (or nearly ex) in her and body's case.  Someone (Colby?) has seen him and Jasmine having a sympathy snog in the background of Dean & Ziggy's selfie.   Don't think that is going anywhere, they've been there, done that () got the t-shirt.  Not both free agents - Colby is still married - even if separated.  Not sure if Robbo, if he sees it, will think the same, he confided in Colby how he wants to try and get back with Jasmine, he might think Colby is taking the proverbial.

I don't know about that Slade, Raffy has always been pretty quick on the uptake, if she caught on to something going on  she soon got it out of them.

Irene gave Robbo short shrift but then she's always blown hot and cold there.

Seems like deja-vu with Simone making all the rental enquiries/applications when just a few weeks ago it was Ziggy doing the same with houses for her and Brody. As awkward as it was it had to be Maggie to give her a current  employer reference, no idea of how the rental agreement system works in Australia.  So no surprise, though she got it wrong, when the application was rejected. Something else altogether my love. Took some courage approaching Maggie to give her the heads up. 

Have to say Ben is one hell of a builder, if he is doing all those renovations to John & Marilyn's house all by himself.

[Slade]

3 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Raffy has always been pretty quick on the uptake

Since she had the epilepsy?

Jasmine's face when she saw Robbo turn up at Salt during the night out.

Really awkward conversation with Simone and Maggie.  I can't actually blame Maggie for her reaction and thought she was quite correct.  I did find it quite funny that Marilyn was stuck in the middle and didn't say a word (Unlike her) and she felt very awkward.

I loved the scene when Simone went to confront Maggie about sabotaging her chances of renting a house because she believed she gave her a bad reference and Maggie told her she did the opposite to get rid of her.  Simone literally didn't know how to reply to that.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm not quite sure what to think of Raffy's behaviour here.It seems a bit cutting-off-your-nose to refuse the tutorials, but it's her choice and I don't blame her for not being enamoured with Simone.But being catty to Bella by association seemed unnecessary, and encouraging her to skip doing an assignment, mainly because she disliked the person she was doing it for, didn't make her seem like a particularly good friend.Even more than with Coco, Ryder just seems to be going along with whatever Raffy thinks, it was hard to read his expression after Raffy stormed off on Bella but it seemed to be along the lines of "She's my girlfriend, I have to be on her side." Anyway, I loved Mason's complete lack of sympathy for the hole Brody's dug:He's right that Brody threw his marriage away without having a clue what he was trading it in for.Bit of a shock to the system for Simone: She seems to be muddling through but moving in together, which was moving even faster than things did with him and Ziggy, seems to be off the table for now.

So, Jett gets to come home.I can understand his, John and Marilyn's trepidation and also his slight depression about knowing things aren't going to get any better for him.It sounded like Jett used the British/Commonwealth "leftenant" pronounciation here, and also used the Commonwealth address of "ma'am" for a female officer (although he pronounced it "mam", I think it's "marm" in British military) rather than the US practice of calling everyone "sir" regardless of gender.They may be being too paranoid in suggesting he's going to be blamed, it could just be standard procedure.

[baywatcher]

15 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Have to say Ben is one hell of a builder, if he is doing all those renovations to John & Marilyn's house all by himself.

Ha!  And he finished so quickly as well

[H&Alover]

20 hours ago, Slade said:

Since she had the epilepsy?

 

It's only the memory part of her brain that's been affected   The way she was pushing Bella into feeling guilty wasn't nice at all, she may as Red said decide not to carry on being tutored by Simone, though Justin and the others may think differently, but Bella has no axe to grind with her and she needs her help.  Poor Ryder in the middle again.  Have to give both Maggie and Simone credit for professionalism, Maggie when being questioned by Simone in front of the kids and the way Simone dealt with Raffy's snide remarks by just walking away.  Very subtle if sly  way Maggie hinted that Simone needed to talk to Brody as to the reason why they were turned down. Although I understand why Mason, Justin and Tori were shocked Brody hadn't told Simone about his criminal record and drug taking it's not something you can drop casually into a conversation.  "Yes darling, work today was fine and oh by the way forgot to tell you I'm a recovering drug addict and I've got a criminal record because of stuff I did while addicted to ice."  The WP stuff is more involved.  Maybe I'm or even Brody was being naïve but he genuinely didn't think his having a criminal record would affect his rental application - he didn't serve any time but given a suspended sentence and a good behaviour bond. He has, to give him his due, made his way back by working hard and has made Salt a profitable business again. I wonder how long something like that that would  be held against your credit rating?  One thing though - he said he wasn't that man anymore but it was being that man that has made Brody the man he is today, stronger, well in some ways - determined never to go down that path again. Don't know why Simone was so surprised that Ziggy knew all about it and Brody told her she'd been with him all thorough it.

I completely understand Marilyn's trepidation about Jett coming home, at the hospital there were a lot more people around to help Jett in whatever he needed, at home it will in the main be just her & John.  Jett was obviously having the same thoughts. I liked how he thanked Tori for all she had done, shame Jasmine wasn't about so he could say thank you to her too. I'm kind of guessing it'll put the kibosh on Raffy coming back anytime soon.  Did not the home assessment team check out the space available for Jett's chair or was that just an error on John's part by not moving the table back?

I thought the same as you Red, I would have thought something like a bomb going off on the base would involve an investigation as  matter of procedure, making sure all protocols were followed and no-one was acting alone or doing things they shouldn't have, especially as there were serious, life changing injuries and deaths. Unless of course Jett knows something he hasn't told us.  I didn't even realise Jett was talking to a woman until he said ma-am. Funnily enough there was a drama on recently that also dealt with a soldier who had been paralysed and he was also under investigation as men had been injured and killed while under his command.

8 hours ago, baywatcher said:

Ha!  And he finished so quickly as well

Shame he lives so far away, I'd hire him!

[Slade]

8 hours ago, baywatcher said:

Ha!  And he finished so quickly as well

From what I understand it was handrails he put up in the bathroom/bedroom and an extension to the kitchen tap.  Handrails actually don't take that long.  You're marking a couple of holes, aligning the rail and drilling and screwing them in.

Whilst, I'm not too keen on Simone, I have to admit, I did feel a bit sorry for her when Raffy kept making digs.  She genuinely looked very hurt.  I'm not liking this side of Raffy and I was disappointed Ryder just kept quiet as he clearly didn't agree with how she was acting.

Maggie seemed to relish the fact that Simone didn't know about Brody's past with drugs.  Whilst I'm not keen on Maggie either, I can't say I blame her as Simone has ruined her daughter's life.  Have to say I was a little surprised myself and just assumed it was all dealt with off-screen.  I did find it interesting that it was brought up that Ziggy not only knew about if from the offset but actively supported Brody.  Simone didn't seem to take to well to that.

 

[baywatcher]

I'm not surprised Justin is confused, as Leah has been sending out very mixed messages.  Her comment to Roo that she didn't go to the motel because it would have been like jumping to his tune was strange, given that she was quite happy when he jumped when she said so.  Oh well,  Roo got Lustin back on track.  Liked her scenes with Justin. 

Loving the Jett - Marilyn - John stuff.  It's nice to see this side of Maz and a fitting way to mark 30 years this week since her first appearance in the Bay.

Irene was right, Bella should just have told Raffy that she was going to work on the assignment with Simone.  I get where Raffy is coming from but she is behaving like a Princess expecting Bella to choose sides, especially as her schoolwork could suffer.  Ryder may not have said much but his expression implied he didn't agree with Raffy.  Now Bella has gone and carried out an act of vandalism (which seemed a little extreme) just to get back in with Raffy. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I think the toing and froing over absent Simone was actually well-handled, in that I could see everyone's point of view.Raffy wasn't being particularly considerate and her constant digs about Simone just made everyone uncomfortable (although by the same token I don't think Justin can really order her to accept her), but her main issue seemed to be Bella becoming another person that lied to her.Bella made the arrangement thinking she'd be free (and it did seem like Simone just assumed she could summon her into school on the weekend), but should have explained the new arrangement earlier and also been honest about it.However, I'm giving her a lot of leeway here because she's been thrown into this new life and her "family" all have a pretty hard time acting normal as well, so she doesn't really know the rules of how to behave.I'm not sure Irene did her many favours, it seemed like she was being rather ignorant about Raffy's level of hostility.I was glad to see Ryder grow a spine and actually try and pull Raffy in line when he blew up at Bella, so maybe he has learned a few things from her fallout with Coco after all.

I'm not quite sure what Leah's motivation was, whether she wanted to teach Justin a lesson or whether it really was just bad timing.Either way, it nearly backfired on her, since it's apparent neither she nor Justin wants this arrangement to end, although they needed a lot of prodding from Roo to stay on track.I did wonder if Justin was actually going to go through with walking out, but I suspect many of us wouldn't turn down Leah looking like that.

I was pleased to realise Jett's still being called Lieutenant Palmer, so I guess it's just the bored office junior left to type up the end credits unsupervised who doesn't know what his surname is and probably looked it up on Wikipedia.Today's obscure returning actor: The female colonel was one of Dani's fellow prison inmates way back in 2003! Jett's interview seemed to provide more questions than answers, although it sounds like he was actually with the two soldiers who died when the explosion occurred (explaining why there don't seem to be any other serious injuries).John and Marilyn are doing a good job supporting him, and hard as it is, they do need to let him make the call about going to the funeral.