2019 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[D.B]

Well..... that happened. 

Might as well start with what's being going on beforehand that I missed: Felt rather sorry Dean, first Mackenzie (who I still like and actually feel sorry for) was planning to use her and now Rick is just giving time to him for the sake of his own public image. I hope that now that he's seen his true nature, we'll see more of Dean and Mackenzie developing a brother-sister relationship. That is, if Dean doesn't find out about Mackenzie and Colby. Great to see Ava again (despite different actress) and I really felt sorry for her as well. It's hardly surprising that she wasn't at all impressed with Leah beforehand, given that she's the fourth girlfriend that she's seen Justin with when she first came to the bay, but I was rather surprised at her more home-based issues. I'm glad to see her get around that and that we saw some lovely family scenes with her, Leah and Justin. Meanwhile, not surprised to see Ben finally snap under the pressure, though I wasn't impressed by the way he snapped at Maggie and Ziggy, who has been really great recently with both Dean and her family. And Ryder's quit the surf club to join Salt's. You know what, good for him, despite Roo's concerns. 

Now, the Robbo and Jasmine storyline. Firstly, about Tori's decision to keep Robbo out of the loop while he was away, this time I am more sympathetic to her reasoning, but I am glad she realised that since she was the one who gotten Robbo into this whole mess in the first place, she should at least keep including him in all the major decisions. And Jasmine was, as always, too good for her own good, being very patient and understanding with Robbo's parents, and even tried to discourage him when Robbo told them off. The wedding, well, while nothing really special, I rather enjoyed: it was nice and sweet and it suited them. Bit confused as to why Mason wasn't there, exaggerated that Tori decided not to show up, especially since Robbo and Jasmine did much and more to accommodate her, and found it bizarre that Jasmine had no family or past friends to contact, but still, nice. Well, at least it did until Lance had to break the rather unexpected and unrealistic news. Because, as everyone else has pointed out, why are the people who killed his family moving now? The only explanation that comes to mind is that they were always searching for him, somehow missed his face all over the news as Beckett Reid, and that Robbo was wrong about the only people seeing his real name would be those who got the wedding invitations, and that doesn't hold much weight regardless. And I'm still confused about the connection that the murderers must have to Dylan Carter and the corrupt cops, or how Lance was able to get his federal teams together in a rather short amount of time. Of course, with Lance and Scott's dialogue from yesterday, obviously they must have been tracking them for some time now, and for some reason they only told Robbo and Jasmine at the last minute for drama. Seriously, I love Robbo, I do, but his back storyline has more holes in it than a deflated balloon. At least hopefully we will see some answers. Did feel sorry for Robbo, not able to have one moment of peace, and for Jasmine as well, being thrown into a whole different world. 

And now, Bella and Irene. I'll be honest, while I've been cautious and at times very worried at where this storyline was going, but I didn't expect to see what I saw today like that. Holy ****. I expected any confrontation between Tommy and Bella to be really ugly, but I never expected to see him actually force himself on her. Such a disgusting creep. And then Irene came. Despite what happened afterwards, I'm glad she came home, because things would have been far worse if she didn't.  Now, to be fair, Red's got a point with what happened today comparing to what happened at the start of the year; Bella's guardians using force against a disgusting, bad person, but I felt there was a difference; at the risk of stirring up a dead argument, when Colby shot Ross, it was cold and premeditated. While Irene on the other hand, come together with her past trauma, just snapped with the emotional distress when she attacked, so I'm inclined to feel more sympathy for her and Bella (as always), even if she decided to cover it up. I hope that I've said this without offending anyone, as I know how sensitive this whole topic is. 

[Raffy is great]

Blimey, what an episode. Maybe to much going on for 25 mins of TV! 

Im not a fan that knows what went on in everyones past, so the 'Feds' turning up at Robbo's wedding seemed a bit of a distraction when there was such a massive storyline with Bella, Tommy and then Irene! 

It was pretty intense and not very nice to watch. Because it was'nt given enough time to let the story play out. Both things should have had there own episode linked together. 

I thought Irene was fantastic! But the flashback was scary, she did look like she had lost it.

Im not sure about the drop off at the hospital, with Tommy. He will probably be back. The evil git.

[D.B]

Also, I feel like I should comment on this: last night's episode contained some truly excellent acting from Lynne. 

[CaptainHulk]

I actually don't mind it when the pace quickens a bit.

[Red Ranger 1]

23 hours ago, Dan F said:

Channel 5's been snipping again (I thought they might given the subject matter) - they cut out a portion of Tommy's assault of Bella where he started kissing her, and also Irene bludgeoning Tommy after the initial blow with the champagne bottle.

Thanks for the info. I think this was another of the occasions where the trailers showed us more than was in the (edited) episode!

Today's Thing I Forgot To Mention Yesterday: John made it to the reception but no other new characters did. (We do see Ben and Maggie at the start of today's episode but they were probably downstairs or even arrived in the aftermath.)

I agree with D.B. that Irene's attack on Tommy, in which she really did "just snap", is easier to sympathise with than Colby's calculated "execution" of Ross. I think my main issue is the way she covered it up instead of phoning an ambulance.She's obviously on edge today but that seemed to be more fear of discovery than doubt that she did the right thing.It's somewhat frustrating that the show's morality is now such that even a "normal" character, and a long-standing one at that, is shown handling this the same way the River Boys would.

Colby and Mackenzie were basically just there to restate things we already knew so I'm not sure I've got much to say about them.

I loved Jasmine's attitude by the end of the episode, casually making herself at home in the safe house.As Robbo said, it seems to be a glass half-full attitude.Possibly this is false optimism that they're not going to be there for long and we may see that eroded, but so far she's seeming pretty resilient.It's a shame Bella was shunted off screen but we get to see Justin and Mason's frustration:They don't have any control or say in the situation, and neither does Tori, and they don't know where it's going to end.

Which brings us to Robbo's suddenly resurrected past, which I avoided talking about yesterday but we get more today so here goes trying to make sense of what seems to be very much a case of what-you-can-remember writing without any attempt to check the actual details: It's now made clear, having only been inferred before, that the corrupt police officers who got jailed back in 2017 were related to the people that killed Robbo's family.Dennis Novak (the man Robbo actually did murder but Lance made the charges disappear), previously portrayed as a hitman working for them, is suddenly said to have been one of their leaders.So the big question here is...how did they not notice that Ryan Shaw and Beckett Reid were the same person?! The fact that one disappeared from the records at the same time the other one appeared in them should have raised a few suspicions, but Robbo didn't even have any sort of disguise. Novat met him several times (and claimed to have had an association with him implictly going back years, but we're probably meant to gloss over it), some of the others probably did as well, Dylan Carter definitely did (although he may have worked out who "Beckett" really was given the little we know of his disappearance).Are we meant to believe that they didn't know what Ryan Shaw looked like?

The other question is, of course, still...why now? The silly explanation about wedding invites really doesn't hold water: It's hard to imagine them sifting from the post, and it seems rather redundant for a mole on the invite list to pass the details on when the Feds don't seem to have made any secret of where he ended up and, despite claims he doesn't use his real name much, there'd surely be plenty of paper trails to follow.So, working theories:Either they've decided to place Robbo on their priority list now that being married again and having another child on the way gives him something else to lose (which is possible if they're determined to go on punishing him, but somewhat suicidal given he's shown no interest in going after them), or this is a massive overreaction on the Feds' part to this revived organisation mentioning him in passing.

[D.B]

The main thing that interested me yesterday was Robbo and Jasmine, and it just seems that the writers, once again, seriously need to recheck their history. Twice. While I did call it that the people who murdered Robbo's family were connected to the corrupt officers (Rather than being the cops themselves as I originally thought), Novak's changed from being an assassin to a crime gang leader. Maybe his gang was hired by the corrupt cops to silence Robbo's family and then went solo to find him after he went missing? I like mystery in H&A, but it needs some sort of sense to work. Also, again, why is this happening now, after so long? It's like during the Who-killed-Charlotte story, where it went on for too long, and by the time we found out who, I nearly forgot about the whole thing with everything else going on. That said, I did like how Lance was able to allow Justin and Mason to talk to Tori. And I really loved the bit at the end with Jasmine and Robbo trying to have some celebration. I have to say, Jasmine's still doing well in this situation, but for how long, I'm not sure: Robbo's trained to deal with situations like this, and even Tori's very well experienced, but Jasmine though, has never dealt with witness protection or federal agents or any of it before. I fear for how she will cope. 

Irene's becoming definitely more on edge for anyone to see. I don't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for Tommy, but I do get Red's frustration that now even the "long-stays" are behaving very much like River boys. And also that not only if she did call the police on him, even afterwards, not only would Tommy be locked up now, but I suspect that the situation would have let Irene off. But now, there's less chance. 

Colby and Mackenzie...meh. 

[H&Alover]

Two small items out of the way first -  was Mason really working in the gym and not get invited to the wedding?  No show from Brody or Simone either, only remembered that when he got clued in on what had happened later.  Easy explanation about all the other guests not being at the reception - they're only allowed to got to the church bit.

Wow they were two action packed episodes!  Good to hear Robbo's mum and dad are OK thanks to the Feds intercepting their car.  That's why the Feds are the Feds, can gather the troops at very short notice have to be able to.

Maybe Novak got a promotion!  He only knew Ryan Shaw/Robbo as Beckett Reid - Ryan Shaw didn't exist he'd been expunged from all records.  Not sure even the Feds know why now, unless it's like what we think he has a new bride and a baby on the way.  Lance did say there had been some low key chat, so I suppose they are always monitoring them even if they have dropped out of sight. Robbo surely must use his real name on any paper work for the gym,  invoices, orders etc.  I do have one theory though the only person outside of the bay who knows Robbo's name and has met is Aiden Willcox,  Jasmine's therapist/counsellor who took a sudden interest in Robbo when he met him,  it's been mooted before but is he who he said he was or Robert Robertson, Robbo opened up a lot to him about his fears for his future with Jasmine and the baby.  I've never been able to shake the feeling there was more to him than met the eye. Sad Jasmine & Robbo didn't get to enjoy more of their wedding reception, but Lance did hold off as long as he could.  They did have it all covered, but that must have been terrifying for Tori, just as well Raffy wasn't at the Morgan's  and was wherever she was as she wasn't at the wedding or reception.  Wicked  on my behalf but I did think Tori has been there, done that, got the t-shirt, had to have brought up some bad memories for them all though. When that news gets to Nina another reason for her not to let Ava visit.  The added strain of course is Tori's pregnancy not your usual 'everyday' one but one that has complications. Isn't she meant to have regular check ups until it's decided it's safe for her to give birth?  No offence to Jasmine but she is only a nurse and Tori will need more specialist care.

Colby may be  a cop but no way were the Feds going to let him in on what was going on, doubt if even McCarthy could get anymore out of them, look at last time. I don't know if Lance was bending any rules by allowing Tori to speak to Justin and Mason but it put their minds at ease to a certain extent.  Very thoughtful of Colby, maybe with Mac's nudging, to send some cake and a bottle of champagne to Robbo and Jasmine.  Mac was very trusting of her staff to put them in sole charge of the first wedding party to be held at the new look Salt. Get used to it girl, things like this happen a lot, maybe not with the Feds involved, but a quiet sleepy town the bay ain't.

Now for the other drama - Bella was getting more and more twitchy over 'Tommy' his behaviour was getting more and more weird and he definitely didn't like seeing the photo of Ryder, jumping to the conclusion, perhaps, Ryder was more than just a friend. I didn't see that Bella had been lying to him about liking him that was just in his twisted mind.  Locking herself in the loo was the only thing she could have done, flimsy as the lock was at least there was one, he was debating whether to break in but decided to pretend to leave instead. Maybe, or maybe not, given his past history Colby didn't go back to the Beach house.  If, or I should say when, the news does come out he'll blame himself for not knowing what Bella had been up to but then no-one did, not even those living with her. Only Raffy knew about that.  If 'Tommy' had kept his mouth shut and just gone none of what followed may not have happened.  But he had to say those words bringing up Irene's own experience which even after all these years showed  is something you never get over despite of her having counselling for.  Of course Bella doesn't know anything about that which is why she asked why she had done it. Irene was for calling an ambulance - it was Bella that didn't want her to because she thought she'd go to prison, echoes of Colby and what he had done.  Did wonder if maybe Bella had had experience of dumping unconscious people at hospitals when living with Ross.  Don't most hospitals have CCTV anyway so him being left would have been filmed?   No wonder Irene panicked when she heard the Feds were at her house to pick up things for Jasmine, I think Colby and others thought her being all on edge was down to the news about Jasmine, Robbo and Tori being taken into protective custody. 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Ryan Shaw might not have officially existed, but if this gang were concerned enough about him to order his family murdered in order to warn him off, you'd think they'd have heard of him!

Anyway, today. Mackenzie (and indeed Dean) might not have thought this revenge through carefully enough: I'm glad that Mackenzie didn't give the press Karen's details but they should have realised that the journalists were going to dig deeper.That said, despite making a token attempt to call off the dogs (which was obviously never going to work), Mackenzie didn't seem all that bothered at Dean being upset by some of the article. She was soon back to celebrating Rick's humiliation.Meanwhile, Rick isn't taking this lying down and is quickly putting his own spin on things.I can understand Dean not wanting to get dragged into it, but he needs to exercise some sort of right to reply or it's only going to get worse.

Elsewhere, Raffy's feeling rather isolated as everyone close to her is busy with their major storylines.I did wonder why Ryder working at Salt is such a stumbling block for them given that they managed him working at the juice bar but then I remembered him sending her away when she first came to see him there: That age gap might suddenly be a problem.It did give her a couple of nice scenes with Mason though, even if she did end up dumping him as soon as Ryder was available.Shame he didn't get her to do that workout, even if she wasn't really dressed for it.Have we ever seen Raffy exercising?

[H&Alover]

Dean gave Mac the OK to expose Rick for the rat he is, but he didn't take into account it escalating the way it did, got  a life of it's own now.  Mac is still more obsessed with getting revenge on Rick more than anything. The hospital is very good about keeping the news from Karen, though I suppose even they can't guard against another patient or a relative of theirs accidentally spilling the beans to her.  Well from just a few people knowing about Rick being Dean's dad and Mac being his half sister everyone does now and Ben and Maggie know where Dean got his money for the business from. Dean and we know what Rick said about it was a lie and even if it looks like his new future career is scuppered Rick would make a  great politician, he lies so well.  Ryder dropped a mini bombshell in Mac's lap when he told her he'd been to Rick's house with Dean.  She's still insisting in calling them his 'new' family, getting tired of that now love.  That was a very tender scene with Ziggy and Dean when he opened up about the good times he had with his mum and the all night, all day party and how she charmed the police when they turned up.  If Dean does want to get his side out there he has  to pick his journo carefully to ensure they don't twist his words.

Rick so deserves that punch Dean gives him tonight!  I've been tempted to a couple of times before now. Fair enough Ricky baby you say Dean may not be yours, easily solved DNA test - simples.

Good to have a normal storyline with Raffy fretting she's not seeing enough of Ryder with him working at Salt.  Mason is working, Justin's worked up over Tori so obviously doesn't want to bother him too much. Did she saw something about John & Maz visiting Jett  so the house was sometimes empty?  I guess it's like most relationships  after the first flush of getting together when you can't bear to be apart, it settles down into a calmer phase, Ryder has something to occupy him but Raffy is at a loose end and just biding time until school restarts.  He didn't look that impressed when he saw her behind the juice bar.  I can't quite see her reasoning, yes, they'd be in the same building but they'd be working and maybe at different times.  Not sure if your question was rhetorical Red, but no I don't think we have.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Five!

The circus around Dean continues.At least Mackenzie had a fairly good reason for suddenly ducking out of sight.But one or the other of them needs to come up with an answer for the journalists some time soon, because at the moment the story's being told entirely with Rick's slant on it.It's a shame that some more ethical journalists didn't see that punch, it would have exposed the lie of Rick's claim they're getting on if nothing else.(The guy playing his ally had a couple of roles last decade, most notably as a Man from the Department investigating Sally over claims of a relationship with a student.)At least Dean has all the locals on his side, even if Ryder's mouth does keep running away from him.

Raffy's talk about everyone leaving did make her sudden dependence on Ryder seem rather more plausible.Alf gave a balanced view on things although Ryder's claim that the Salt staff are closer in age to him than Raffy seems unlikely given there's only about two and a half years between them.Maybe he just likes having grown-up friends?Anyway, they seemed to be back on track by the end and Raffy working at the juice bar will at least keep her busy even if she still doesn't see much of Ryder.

And hooray, Ben Murray, making his first appearance of 2019! I was beginning to think he was gone for good so nice to see him again, even if he is probably only there because Colby's had his three episodes this week. Oh, and that he was arresting Ben out of nowhere.A chance for some mystery there (albeit without any actual clues) but then we get the answer in the promo.