2019 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 23:43, CaptainHulk said:

You're forgetting this is "You're not too sick for your HSC!" Leah Patterson!

To be fair, she was suffering from a brain aneurysm that was causing her to behave erratically when she said that!

A very tightly focused episode: There's basically just the one main plotline with other stuff peeling off from it.Karen seems to have retained a sense of humour but is thankfully less volatile this time round, at least for now.Dean was probably right to keep her in the dark about certain things while she was having treatment, but it's left him with a rod for his back now.I'm not sure why him having a girlfriend was a state secret though, but Karen gets top marks by responding to Ziggy's name with "Do her parents not like her?" (They don't appear to like either of their daughters!) Mackenzie pointing out to Dean that he could have just asked her to keep quiet was a good moment, but to be fair to him, she might have felt slighted and it's good that she's taken it well.I thought Colby and Mackenzie already knew Bella was testifying so it's a bit odd for them to suddenly find out here.

[H&Alover]

Loved that line from Karen about Ziggy's name, she's voiced what we've all been thinking.  Yes wait until she finds out about Coco.  She is still a real flirt, but her moods, at the moment, aren't as erratic due to her meds, lets hope she keeps on them, guessing drinking beer with them  is OK I suppose.

Alf was wise not to butt in when he saw Karen & Ben together but just mentioned it to Dean when he saw him.  Dean does know his mum's rep with his previous girlfriends back in the day, so I can understand his caution,  Ziggy is on feisty side, so they could clash.  Bella soon put an end to that idea by telling Karen about her. It was pretty nifty work by  him getting rid of Ben when they bumped into each other at Salt but he did explain why after. Talking of which Colby thought it was hilarious Dean was  asking him to keep Mack, um, occupied, to keep her out of the way as Karen insisted on going to Salt.  Quick thinking on Colby's behalf by whisking Mack in  a different direction when he saw Dean & Karen near Salt. Rather touching  meeting between Bella and Karen, Bella looked really happy when Karen said Bella was the image of her mum.  Actually Karen is the only  person Bella has met that knew her mum and can fill her in as to what she was like before she met Ross.   Ben looked surprised when he found out Karen was Dean's mum.  For one moment I thought Karen was after sharing Dean's van with him, that would have ended his fun, but luckily, phew, she meant her own.

The hospital did  then manage to keep the press away when Rick was on the rampage so Karen was completely unaware of what was going on.  Dean as I've said before can be very sensitive about people's feelings.  Karen has only just come out of hospital so doesn't want to set her back already, he's letting her know slowly about how things have unfolded since he emptied her house.  Starting with confronting Rick and him being rejected by him which was what Karen was hoping to protect him from.  Will he mentioned the $50k? Karen knew Rick's wife was pregnant  but said she didn't want to know anything about her so the next stage is for Dean to tell Karen the next stage of the story. I hope he doesn't take too long as someone could accidentally let it slip like Bella did about Ziggy.  I thought Colby was going to when Karen said to him I know all about Rick, as that usually means the other person blurts out the whole truth in error.   I think Mack would understand why Dean wants to take it slowly with telling Karen about her, as far as Karen is concerned Mack is just like Rick and not unlike Dean did will question Mack's motives.  

Maybe a memory lapse by TPTB or perhaps it wasn't definite that Bella was going to testify?

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, Karen's never going to be the soul of discretion and Dean was left cringing throughout their dinner.He wasn't the only one but it did mean that, after a rocky start, Ziggy ended up hitting it off with her.Maggie took a bit of a battering, but to be fair she didn't do herself any favours at times, with her comments about not giving people labels and where Dean came from.So was this principal that Karen slept with the one before Jade Montgomery?(I'm trying to remember if she was already principal in Heath's time.I don't think she was actually, so that fits, assuming they were even talking about Mangrove River High.)Ziggy and Maggie continue to make assumptions that everything's sorted with Ben and again they get disappointed.

It's hard to tell how much of this Robbo storyline was built around needing to get Tori out of the way for a bit and how much was already planned and needed to be adapted: It's easy to imagine a version where Tori was the one suggesting hypnosis, rather than Alex suddenly being involved.Well it's as good a plan as any, even if the promo does suggest she's going to regret it...

[CaptainHulk]

Aneurysm or not, Red, that was pure Leah/Ada!

Anyhooooo.... That little story seems believable of Karen.

There's gonna come a point where a guard follows Jas to the Khazi and she's all like "Do you mind?!"

[c120701]

When did they change the recap format? You’re probably going to say ages ago, but didn’t we have a previously on H&A letterbox recap, then titlecard, then episode? Now it’s titlecard, fullscreen recap, fade to black, episode. Something just seemed different with today’s episode.

[Red Ranger 1]

3 hours ago, c120701 said:

When did they change the recap format? You’re probably going to say ages ago, but didn’t we have a previously on H&A letterbox recap, then titlecard, then episode? Now it’s titlecard, fullscreen recap, fade to black, episode.

I dunno, 2013? Well, I think that's when they dropped the "Previously on Home and Away" announcement at the start anyway, but they were still showing the recap in letterbox, then going straight from that to the episode with the picture expanding at the end of the recap followed by a fade-out. I'm not sure when they started showing the recap full screen.<Looks at a few old episodes.> Start of 2018, I think.

Now that it's really kicked in, this Ben storyline is being done well.Maggie and Ziggy have been looking for some sort of rationality to it all but that's not going to happen.Ben is being deliberately hurtful but he's not in the right head space to respond to Maggie's entreaties, it's like he's emotionally cut off.Ziggy suddenly has to be the parent and get Maggie to get advice rather than winging it.The Astonis seem to be a really good vehicle for this sort of "normal" storyline, there's some shades of the cancer storyline from last year in this.(It did make me miss Coco a bit: She'd have been right there by Ziggy's side if she was around.)

I was all set to criticise the show for including Robbo attacking Alex in two promos, but actually they did well, because that's almost an incidental detail and focusing on that meant we got the real surprise, as we finally get a glimpse of Carter, albeit in flashback, and a long overdue explanation for what happened on the boat.We get a lot of answers but are still left with a lot more questions.(Mind you, there's also a nagging feeling that the details have been messed up: In the original storyline, Robbo as part of his undercover identity was meant to have been hired to kill Kat, but recently they've been talking as though Carter was going to kill her.) Carter called Robbo "Beckett" in the flashback: Was he being ironic or did he really not know who Robbo was? Anyway, I'm interested for the first time in a while.I'm not sure Mason is burly enough to restrain Robbo in full-on berserker mode: It would have needed both Justin and Colby for that!

CURS: Why did we get all that stuff with Karen and the lunch? It was barely mentioned.

[H&Alover]

I did blink when Maggie came out with 'we don't use labels in this family' when Karen said Ziggy had been a bit of a tomboy  what's wrong with being called a tomboy anyway? and Ziggy agreed with her and she did come across as snobby when referring to Dean's origins.  Had Maggie and Ben developed selective amnesia - Ziggy was a right wild child, broke into Maggie's old school, causing her migraines, drinking, bunking off school, getting caught up with bad lads.  Karen & Ziggy's first meeting didn't start off well, Ziggy not one for taking things lying down, but I think Karen liked that she fought back.  They both love Dean which will unite them, but woe betide Ziggy if she hurts him.   Loved Karen's response when she found out Caravan Ben was Ziggy's dad. I think even Karen would think twice about sleeping with a woman just to get Dean out of trouble, not that I'm suggesting she's got anything against lesbians.  She did answer my and Dean's question about drinking beer with her meds, she limit's it to two.   I don't think Karen's apology to Maggie went down that well, not all actually, admitting she'd jump on Ben given the chance.   Maybe just me, but I think the reason Ben feels more relaxed around Karen is because she knows nothing about his troubles, she's just taking him as she finds him. Ziggy acting the grown up who ever would have thought that would happen,  as Ben would need a lot of convincing to first admit he's depressed and second to see someone about it her idea of seeking help themselves to find out how they can deal with it was inspired, though Maggie was initially reluctant she bit the bullet and made the call. I know their situation is completely different but it took Karen years to admit she had a problem - well problems - and put Dean through hell. 

Onto Robbo, well after some  reservations Robbo agreed to the hypnotherapy and wasn't angry with Jasmine for confiding in Alex, though she's one sharp cookie putting two and two together the way she did. Good thinking by Robbo insisting he be restrained for the second round.  I guess any reawakening memories is going to be hard to portray on screen so can't say if it was good or bad or right or wrong.  That initial explosion of rage came out of the blue, thankfully for all concerned he'd just grabbed her by her shirt/blouse and not by the throat.  Interesting to see to see it play out from Robbo's viewpoint, that glimpse of the red tool box, the deck, sky, the sea, was that blow from Carter the one that caused his amnesia or the later one?   Robbo or Ryan as he was then was an undercover Fed so not that big a surprise Cater, an ordinary cop, would know his true identity, it would rather defeat the object.  Maybe, Carter doubted 'Beckett' would do the job and went along to make sure.   We don't know what caused the fight to break out, we heard the shot after they were seen fighting to get the gun and Carter spark out, he managed to get to his feet then knock Robbo overboard.  The boat with Coulson taking Carter away while Robbo was just surfacing unseen.  Robbo must have made his way ashore and the rest we know, Alf, Justin and Scarlett finding him, his reaction being him thinking 'they' had tracked him down.   Now he's remembered, which must be a relief, he needs to find out who treated Carter's gunshot wound, not at a hospital that's for sure, either a dodgy doctor or one who would do it and  wouldn't ask questions.  Plenty of them about, just ask any of the Braxton's and the straight docs who patched up their various wounds.  It would have taken Carter a while to recover from that and only now has he been fit enough to make a reappearance.  Guessing the gang that kidnapped Robbo isn't the same gang that took Carter.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

8 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Guessing the gang that kidnapped Robbo isn't the same gang that took Carter.

Given that they killed one of the guys that took Carter, probably not!

Bit of a low-key episode after yesterday.I did like that Jasmine was able to use her area of expertise to help Robbo out.Mason continues to be a bit too impressed about Alex, to the point of boring Willow! I sympathise with Ryder but I still think that he can't really assume that he and Raffy are just going to go back to being friends after breaking up with her.That said, putting the argument for it in Mason's mouth (he's had a bit of experience of being friends with exes!) did make me a bit more on board with the idea.Raffy too apparently, given her going to see Ryder (who is apparently okay with her coming up to the bar now!).

Irene and co learn the other side of trial by social media: There are, after all, an awful lot of skeletons in Irene's closet to be dug up.I'd like to say that her doing a runner is out of character, but truth is she does make daft decisions like this sometimes: Trying to run off with Olivia when Diana was after custody springs to mind.I also have to admit again that I've not been all that impressed with her during that whole affair even if she does have my sympathy, to the point that I'm still not 100% convinced she isn't guilty: Her assaulting Tommy did seem to go beyond protecting Bella into revenge.

[H&Alover]

Gang members have been known to turn on each other.   Is Robbo going to enlighten Lance, Jasmine and us as to what occurred at the pier and on the boat and what the argument was all about?  He didn't have a good angle to check the boat out properly so apart from it's a general model not much more to go on.  Yeh Jasmine scores a point or six over Lance and the Feds, her knowledge of what would be needed to perform a secret op - medical rather than cop related - came in very handy, she probably felt good she was able to help too. She does have some idea about borrowing hospital equipment when she helped out Dean.   We've seen plenty of times on the NDH CCTV various people helping themselves to drugs - Ebony was the last one.   Good that Justin is being updated as regards progress - he was there at the start.  Someone is still watching Jas despite Scott being there - they are good.

Mason did seem very star struck over Alex, wonder if he will go down that path when he qualifies.  I thought hypnotherapy was an accepted form of treatment, but the way Mason was talking it's like it's a new invention that's only just been recognised. He was on good form with Raffy finally persuading her to give Ryder another chance, I think it was a more hurt pride stopping her from accepting he was her friend.  He was always there for her in the past and is again as we saw.  I wondered about her being at the bar and Ryder not telling to go away.  On that thought does that mean any under 18 year olds aren't allowed to buy soft drinks?

Bound to be a downside on the social network regarding Irene.  Her arrest as a murder suspect would be on police record and would have been in the press, but how did her past and the fact she is an alcoholic get out there? The defence would have done their digging in order to discredit her but that should be private, has Tommy leaked it?   Irene was right saying to Leah  that it wasn't much good her taking down the site - it's out there now. Tommy's past can't be revealed in court so no-one will know about his previous grooming of young girls. We heard that Tommy will be giving his evidence by video link so Bella won't have to see him face to face which is a bit of a relief and Irene's solicitor has taken her through it all and what to expect from the defence.

[Slade]

Despite her psycho nature, Dean's mum (like Dean) can be really funny.  During the whole lunch with Ben, Maggie and Ziggy, I was laughing but at the same time found the whole thing quite cringeworthy.

I have to admit, I found Raffy's reaction really funny when Ryder didn't invite her to the party.  But I guess that was proof that she still cares about him and she obviously doesn't want to be friends with him because quite correctly she recognises it would be too difficult for her.  Ryder obviously still cares deeply about her.  It's hard to understand why he finished with her.  We have a couple of episodes where he starts working as a bartender at Salt, meets a hot girl who gives him her contact details and he decides they he and Raffy are not right for each other.  The cynic in me wonders if he just wasn't attracted to her as much after meeting a 'hotter' older female.

I didn't like Jasmine at first, then was kind of OK with her and Robbo now I would say I like them together.  I liked the way Jasmine smiled at Robbo when he didn't want her to go out after she got back from her shift and wanted her to help him with his investigation.  Part of me is hoping that he doesn't find Dylan if only to keep Tori away.  I've just been finding her pretty annoying.

This brings me onto Alex who seems like a better replacement for Tori.  My first impression of her was firm but fair.  I think she's a lot softer than what I thought and she was pretty cool with Robbo after he went for her during the hypnosis which surprised me a little.  I really liked the way she was with Raffy and revealed she was also an epileptic.  I'm kinda hoping she would join Raffy if she decides to go swimming in the future, you know just to make sure nothing happens to her.  We might even get to see her in a bikini as well.

I don't want Irene to go to jail and it wasn't her fault she was in a situation where she had to defend Bella but my mind keeps going back to the fact that what she did was premeditated.  She's actually very lucky she didn't kill Tommy or she would be up on a murder charge.