2019 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

10 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Jasmine never met Dylan either and she has history with Kat's exes, well one of them.

Yes, but Tori was virtually working through them in order: Nate, Ash, almost Robbo...

I guess someone wants a big cliffhanger mid-finale week of Ryder being wrongly accused to carry through into next season, but it looks like Colby and Mackenzie have to hold the Idiot Ball to make it happen.Did Colby even ask to look at Jade's phone to see if the video was on it? I mean, I guess she could explain it as personal use, but can they not tell which phone it was recorded on and which had it sent? The timescale would mean Ryder would have had to have uploaded it almost as soon as he got a copy! And the idea that Mackenzie somehow has to fire Ryder and keep Jade seems very contrived. Ryder's been charged, not convicted, so he's still technically innocent in the eyes of the law.I can't see Jade having the money to fund a wrongful dismissal case, and if she complains online then she'll leave herself open to a contempt of court charge (although that didn't stop Leah!). At the very least, there doesn't seem to be any reason why Ryder and Jade can't keep working there on separate shifts, which they were virtually doing anyway.Another frustrating episode for Bella: I get that her history means she'd sympathise with an apparent victim of sexual exploitation, but would she really take a near stranger's word over someone she's been friends with for a year? Even worse, she has a go at Ryder, and then has a go at Mackenzie for upsetting Ryder. Was she won over by his argument but decided that instead of going after him, apologising and supporting him she'd just yell at Mackenzie on his behalf, or does she just yell at Mackenzie every opportunity she gets even when she agrees with her?

It was nice to get a break from Robbo's macho antics, especially with the promos promising yawn-inducing scenes of yet more interchangeable men with guns for the rest of the week.Again, with Tori complaining that they'll never be safe, it's hard to shake the feeling that this is all down to her insisting on having Robbo's baby against the advice of just about everyone including Robbo. Jasmine gets a few nice moments missing Grace, as well as having to be the strong one and break the news of what's happened to everyone.

[CaptainHulk]

Bella needs to chill with her perma-resting bitch face, her dungarees and DMs! Bang out of order, she was! 

Shift changes, It would be a matter of time before a mix-up had them crossing paths in true soap fashion.

"Everybodyontheground!" "Dontf****ingmoveorwellblowyourheadoff!" "Rarararara!" That's happening too much for my taste in modern H&A.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Early on, Mackenzie says Bella will stop at nothing. I don't think she realised how right she was.Taking indeterminate pills because she's desperate to hold onto the eternally feckless Colby of all people is pretty messed up behaviour.My big question though is why, given that she was so convinced Bella was faking it just a few scenes earlier, did Mackenzie suddenly decide she really was ill? I'd understand if she was sweating or vomiting or passed out, but all that happens was she was doubled up in pain, something she's been faking for weeks.

There were a few nice character vignettes as we near the end of the season: Willow and Jasmine's brief girlie chat, Ben and Maggie checking on her cancer status (with a Coco name-check, although no explanation for why she hasn't come home), Justin cluing Tori in on Leah's disappearance, Robbo and Jasmine getting a night together in the midst of the chaos (although she may regret that shift change!), Mason getting to spend time with Grace...But unfortunately it all descends into "men with guns" silliness in the closing moments, underlined by the way that they come sauntering in with their guns in full view, yet no-one notices them until they start shouting, including the police officer who for some reason was looking in the opposite direction to the entrance.I'm tempted to say wake me when it's over.

[H&Alover]

I was so annoyed at Tori throwing a  tantrum demanding  she and Grace go home because she knows best, once again proving the old cliche doctors and nurses make the worst patients right,  but it seems she made the right move after all as they weren't at the hospital when the siege began.  I may have missed them but I don't remember seeing the bad guys carrying any visible guns and what was so wrong about the cop looking the wrong way at that particular moment, that's a tad picky.   They didn't appear to have come out of the lift but from round a corner.   I suppose we should have known was going to go very awry as everything, for most, was going quite smoothly, yet everything was somehow building  up to it.  Maggie and Ben have just got out in time, good news for them, has it been a year?, Mac and Bella have arrived at the wrong moment and Jasmine has just signed on for her shift and Mason is also there. Anyone else hearing the faint ring of alarm bells?. 

I was surprised Tori hadn't enquired before now why she hadn't seen Leah since she came out of her coma -Tori's coma that is.  

I think Jade took advantage of sending Ryder to get drinks to upload the video from her phone to his, then uploaded it again.  There has to be a way, maybe not at Yabby Creek, imagine that kind of tech would be limited, but at  a lab to find out what happened on what phone. Jade must have history of manipulating people to do what she wants, wonder if that is why she convinced Bella so easily.   She was bothered by those three blokes hassling her in the Diner so how is she going to manage when serving at Salt?  Ryder would, I think, cop it more especially from women customers and it wouldn't do Salt's trade much good.  Although I can understand in  a way why Bella would react the way she did when Jade told her side of the story, but she knows Ryder and how good he was to her after all that happened with Tommy so was very disappointed in her shouting at and slapping him.  Vague talk of getting Ryder a lawyer, no mention of Roo letting Alf and Martha know. 

Nice little separate scenes with various couples, loved the one with Mason and Grace getting to know each other, Jasmine and Robbo having a night together and her deciding having Grace in her life has changed her mind about her wanting a baby.  That was a real gulp moment when Jasmine  handed Grace over to Tori at the hospital, she was trying to be so brave but tears weren't far away, no reason why she shouldn't have given the routine she and Robbo had got Grace into to Tori, will save her blundering about trying to work it out.  Oh has Robbo's mum and dad been filled in in the latest goings on?  

You got it right with your latter choice Red, Bella just yells at Mac at any opportunity.  She got her knickers in  a twist when she saw Mac and Colby talking on the balcony at Salt but that was in his professional capacity, he was updating her on the Ryder/Jade situation.  Nearly got sprung when Colby caught her ranting on at Mac but managed to talk her way round it, but it has got him seriously doubting her.  Why she is so desperate for him just to be focused on her has got to have to do with her past.  Though I do agree Mac and Colby are not a good pairing. She's made one huge and maybe fatal mistake in taking unknown tablets which could be for God knows what, did someone mention a while back the boy who called wolf story? That was an odd and fast turn around by Mac, one moment telling Willow Bella was putting it on the next rushing her to hospital when she found her collapsed.  Bella's hardly likely to admit to anyone what she's done is she?

Ziggy has come back home after in her words 'messing up'. From what was said  it was to do with that guy that pitched up at her motel room.   

Completely off grid and very shallow I did like Mac's jump suit. 

[Red Ranger 1]

There were times when it was hard to take this seriously.Especially the scenes of Mackenzie and Bella sneaking around, which were so Scooby Doo that it wouldn't have been out of place for them to stand still with lampshades on their heads.The gunmen hear a phone but only take a cursory look before deciding they don't need to find it, instead of just looking round the next corner and seeing them.I thought for a moment Mackenzie might do something clever like leaving the phone behind so they'd think it had been dropped earlier, but then she wouldn't be able to call Colby.Good job she did because there didn't seem to be any sort of plan from the other side.Four of them (it looked like three to me but they said four, so go with it) isn't enough to hold a whole building hostage, so they'd have had extra people wandering in all the time if it hadn't been closed off.(Unless they were planning to turn everyone else back?If so, why do they need so many hostages? Or, you know, any?) Meanwhile, Robbo's out of the way talking about nothing with Des. I really hope there's a good explanation for all this. As Jasmine says, it seems unlikely it's a coincidence this is going on at the same time people are being dropped dead all over the place: Making her answer the phone did seem to be about making sure the police knew she was among the hostages. But the way it's being played out, it could equally turn out that this bunch of incompetents woke up that morning in a drunken stupour and went "Okay, what shall we do today? Racetrack? Ten pin bowling? I know, let's go to the hospital with guns and take a bunch of people hostage, we haven't done that in a while."

Meanwhile, Ziggy strikes a blow against feminism by throwing away her dream job for a sulky manchild like Dean.Which, incredibly, Ben and Maggie seem to be in favour of.There was an attempt to make out the job wasn't as much fun as she thought it was, but one scene of Alana and Kurt arguing does not a toxic situation makes, and it seems more like an excuse.One thing I keep meaning to ask: Did Dean ever look at his phone last week and find out it was Ziggy who called him?

[pembie]

It was rather pants that Robbo wasn't at the hosptail for what looks to be the finale to his own story haha Say what you will but he does more that dull Colby

[Dan F]

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Four of them (it looked like three to me but they said four, so go with it)

There are four but one doesn't get much screentime... must be hanging around in the (unseen) corridor.

As a random sidenote, Ben & Maggie in the emergency department to pick up test results...? Not very likely!

But then that whole department is just baffling in general...usage and layout....

Oh and fun fact, the main gunman is played by Greg Hatton, who is Christie Hayes' ex-husband. He previously played Blake's mate Mark in 1991, Mick Morelli in 2010, and he last appeared as Xavier's motorbike instructor (Gina nicked his bike to go after Xavier).

[H&Alover]

Glad I'm not the only one puzzled by ED's location, they are for obvious reasons usually on the ground floor but no in H&A ambulance crews and others have to waste valuable minutes or even seconds using a lift to get to it.  It does seem to double as other wards as Alex who is head of ED also appears to double as a doctor in this other ward.  We've seen NDH from outside many times and it's a large place. 

[H&Alover]

I only counted two gunmen, but I'll  go with the majority.  They only have control of the one floor, stairs have been secured, lifts shut down so easy to contain if they have all, well nearly all, sitting on the floor.  I had the thought this has nothing to do with the Ouroboros gang, they seem very shambolic, Des or Victor would have put someone much more organised in there and by now they would have used Jasmine, but to me it doesn't appear they know who she is even with the SFP cop there.  If it doesn't sound wrong their ops have been clean and swift. Though it could be that they are just a random group hired by Vic's gang to pretend to hold them hostage, knowing the news would get back to Robbo and he'd think the worst. Already mentioned the location of the ED.  Mac did have the nous about her to take off her shoes so she wouldn't be clattering around, have I said the gunman seem to be shambolic.  Using the old hostage takers cliché demand of pots of money, immunity and a helicopter tells me what they usually spend their time doing. Wonder how long this new rapport between Bella and Mac will last, even if Bella is gets to help no-one knows what she took, she doesn't know herself.   Usual mix of hostages, the ones wanting to do something, like Mas, others wanting to keep the peace like Alex. Quite liked the guy Marilyn was talking to, I didn't catch his name, he seemed to have a level head on his shoulders. 

Nice to see McCarthy after such an age, Armed Response are, of course, two hours away so left to Yabby Creeks finest to hold the fort until they turn up.   Colby as do most cops who have someone related or dear to them in a hostage situation wanting to storm the place, totally forgetting there are other people in there. Willow knows Alex is on duty, as she showed up with Dean, as will Justin and Tori knowing Mason is on duty, John will find out Marilyn is there.  Of course the usual bayers will turn up at the hospital  as well.  

Dean finally seems to have sobered up enough to lend a hand at the board shop, liked his exchange with John before Ziggy rocked up.  Answer to your question - probably not.   Would have taken guts to tell Dean why she's back straight out like that hope the guy she turfed out was OK about it and didn't tell tales to Kurt and Alana.     I do feel there is more to it than  her realising  it wasn't what she wanted to do.  Nothing to do with striking a blow against feminism, she's decided what she wants to do and where she wants to be. Being anti feminist would have been her not going in the first place. 

The interrogation went as we may have expected it to as if Des was going to roll over and admit his part in Dylan and Lance's murder.   Good move Scott, not the right time to tell Robbo Jasmine is being held hostage.  

13 hours ago, pembie said:

haha 

Why?

[pembie]

I just thought Robbo would be more involved with the hospital hostages like helping save them instead of getting Dean to do it