2020 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[baywatcher]

After a great episode yesterday, we're back to the borefest that is the Astoni paternity storyline.

Ben and Ziggy both dumping on Maggie.  I'm surprised that they didn't have Coco call up to berate her too, so they could go for the hat-trick.  At least Maggie has her friend Roo to talk to.

Ziggy was back to her old unlikeable self (which is how I thought of her when I started watching regularly again).  Dean was surprisingly objective (I keep saying that but I'm not really surprised by him anymore, as he's quite a sensitive soul really).

At the end of the day, no matter what the result is, Ben will still be Ziggy's father and she will still be his daughter, so what really changes?

It was good to see Ben spend some time with his mate Justin though.

Leah seemed to be back to being in a better place.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with Grace's nursery.

I'm glad Colby & Mac stayed on the friendship page.  I just hope we're not going to be treated to a will they / won't they with her and Ari now.

Edited June 3, 2020 by baywatcher

[H&Alover]

All Ryder told Nik about Bella was she had been groomed by Tommy I don't think he mentioned Tommy had tried to rape her which is why Nik was so rattled and scared he'd done something wrong when Bella yelled at him to get out.  Wouldn't have been easy for him to go to Colby and ask him to pass a message onto her.  Not surprising he won't listen to anything  Ari says their relationship isn't your usual uncle/nephew one, maybe that's why John as an outsider, could get through to him. Lovely summing up of John by Ryder Good John and Grumpy John and he wasn't doing it to score Brownie points with Marilyn.  Maybe Maz should be more of an emotional support to Gemma but John understands more about losing a spouse.  Pleased Nik apologised to his mum and agreed to go back to working at the bait shop.  Had to chuckle when John frogged marched Ryder out to talk to Nik, thankfully it worked and they are friends again. 

It does appear that Tane is the bad brother,  likely to lead Nik astray, hence Ari facing him down but what he doesn't know is Tane told Nik to stay where he was and not run away from his actions.  

Colby doesn't know what to about Bella, he feels responsible for her because of what he did to Ross, but as Willow pointed out he can't do that for the rest of their lives. Harsh as it sounded he had to be cruel to ne kind. She may never be completely  cured I doubt if anyone would be but she has youth on her side.  The sight of her sitting  in the driveway was so sad.   Not wanting to be mercenary but Colby told Bella her TAFE place was being deferred so what about the money Dean put up for it?

Oh Mac did you forget you more or less told Ari you were looking  forward to seeing him later then when Ryder told her part of what had gone on with Bella and went to see Colby instead? She'll say it's just as a friend- oh yeah right.  It's not fair on Colby or Ari. 

[Red Ranger 1]

Without looking back to check, I seem to recall Ryder told Nikau that Tommy "took advantage" of Bella, which he rightly extrapolated as "that guy attacking you". Given that they rarely say rape on this show, I'd say he's more there than not but got taken in by Bella's apparent confidence.(Which is exactly what Ryder was afraid of.)

Anyway, today.I do feel for Maggie but I can see it from all sides.It's easy to say, as Ben did, that the paternity result won't change anything, but they'll always have that knowledge at the back of their heads even if they try to bury it.And it's not even the question of what the result is, it's the fact that they're having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that Maggie has known there's doubt for over twenty years, literally a lifetime in Ziggy's case, and kept it from them.So I can understand the feeling of betrayal, but at the same time, does that really erase twenty years of her being a loving wife and mother? I would say not, and I would hope that at some point they manage to put things in perspective and be a family again.Dean was pretty incredulous about it, given that Maggie's a complete saint next to his mother, but I guess it's a question of expectations.I do wonder where Coco is in all this: Has anyone even told her what's going on? It was nice to see Ben confiding in Justin.

I was keeping a cautious eye out for "moments" between Colby and Mackenzie.They didn't look too flustered at being seen together but their last conversation worried me: Mackenzie's expression could qualify as "wistful" and it sounded like Colby hasn't actually given up on the idea of a reunion, just accepted it's not the right time.On the other hand, Mackenzie did go straight to meet up with Ari and I get the feeling neither of them actually wanted to break up, he just did it because it felt like it was inevitable.

[baywatcher]

4 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

And it's not even the question of what the result is, it's the fact that they're having a hard time getting their heads around the fact that Maggie has known there's doubt for over twenty years

Has she though?  I honestly don't think that Maggie has ever considered that Marco was the father.  It was only mentioned at all because Ziggy jumped to that conclusion.

[baywatcher]

Another terrific episode.  Shame it was spoilt by what has turned out to be the completely pointless 'who's the daddy' storyline.  Ben told Ziggy that he still loved Maggie but he's got a funny way of showing it.  If this leads to the end of their marriage I will be really annoyed.  Dean has been the best thing about all this.

 at Tori trying to sneak a peak at the nursery.

Nice scene with the ladies in the Diner.

The nursery looked fantastic and the photos (memory wall) was a sweet idea.  The Tori, Justin, Leah & Grace scenes were really touching.

It was so nice that Leah felt ready to sleep in the same bed as Justin again.  I bet he thought the day would never come.  I like them as a couple more than ever.

[Red Ranger 1]

19 hours ago, baywatcher said:

Has she though?  I honestly don't think that Maggie has ever considered that Marco was the father.  It was only mentioned at all because Ziggy jumped to that conclusion.

I'm sure she convinced herself that Ben was definitely the father, because law of probabilities meant it was more likely to be her boyfriend than her one-night stand and anyway a mother knows these things, but I find it almost impossible to believe that she hadn't noticed until Ziggy said so that she slept with Marco around the time Ziggy was conceived.

Anyway, it was nice that for once a soap didn't go for the dramatic outcome and had Ben be Ziggy's father. Marco just seems to be looking for any victory he can find: He started off planning to get Ben to invest in the business and torment Maggie in the process, now he's trying to convince Maggie to run away with him and, failing that, trying to be on good terms with Ben and Ziggy.I did like Ben and Ziggy's scenes together but Ziggy was just a brat towards Maggie.And I must admit my sympathy for Ben is waning.I get that the paternity test turning out the way he wanted was never going to be the magic wand to make it all go away that Maggie thought it was: The betrayal was the fact that Marco could have been the father, not whether or not he actually was.So yes, it's made him doubt whether Maggie's the person he thought she was, but he needs to stop and think and realise that one secret from twenty years ago does not wipe out everything she's done for him since then.

I did like the girls' chat scene at the Diner and Irene admitting that she's a generation further on from the "aunties" as they all compete to accompany Jasmine to the scan.And I liked the photos, although as much as I understand the focus on the ones of Mason and Robbo, I wish we'd got a good look at all of them.(The promo suggests we're going to see a bit more tomorrow, and I spotted what looked like Robbo and Jasmine with Grace, but I may have to start freeze-framing again to satisfy my compulsions...)I do like how things are progressing with Leah and Justin but there's always that tiny feeling that she might be rushing things because she feels she needs to get things moving.

[baywatcher]

I'm glad we got to spend some more time in the nursery.  Baby Grace was looking at the photos (and then later at the boom!).  So cute.

Leah's reaction to Douglas's sentencing was completely understandable.  It's good that everything wasn't swept under the carpet straight away and Ada & James have been brilliant.

Marco is a prat but I agreed with what he said to Ben.  Pity Ben didn't take his advice.  I just don't think I can put up with months of his morose behaviour.  At least Ziggy wasn't around hogging all the oxygen.

[CaptainHulk]

Sometimes the more shocking twist in these "Mum's Baby, Dad's Maybe?" storylines  is the cheating woman's hubby IS the father!

[H&Alover]

I thought last nights scenes were very well played, especially Sophie's, aka Ziggy,  I looked very closely at her face when she was reading the results and there was no clue, not even when she met Ben on the beach and he said the same thing he did the day before when she saw he hadn't opened his letter and then told him the good news. Come did anyone have any real doubt she is so like Ben.  Maggie hadn't opened hers either and only Marco bursting in with "I've brought a McGuigans, good news" got her jittery.  But he did have the decency to tell her Ben was the dad, but then reasoning Ben or Ziggy don't want  a bar of her she can run away with him as he's always loved her.   Ben may  well still love Maggie, but forgiving her keeping that secret for 20 odd years is another matter.   She did ask a pertinent question about what would he have done if she had admitted it back then, he quite honestly said he didn't know, he was only a teenager so like a teenager would I suppose.  DNA was in it's infancy 20 years ago so finding out who the dad was may not have been so easy as it is now.  I think Ben's main problem is it was his brother she slept with not a mate or a random bloke but his brother and Marco, drunk or not, must have known on some level what he was doing when she came onto him.   Bad choice of words om Maggie's part when she said she had made a "silly mistake". Dean was so supportive of Ziggy, didn't say anything but was just there for her.  Right what you said though Red, Maggie made one mistake but that has to be balanced against all the years they have been together and how they have each supported each other through the years. I was wondering about Coco, has she been left out of the loop until the result was known?  It was good that Ben confided in Justin, he needed someone to talk to outside of the family. 

A lighter mood, which we needed, was struck by Tori trying to sneak a look at Grace's nursery and Justin springing her. That mint green was a right choice, was cooling rather than cold and the photos were a beautiful touch.  Amongst the photos we didn't see I guess there are ones of Brody, Raffy and her grandparents. 

Amusing how Marilyn, Roo, Tori and Irene were 'fighting' over who should accompany Jasmine to her scan. Jasmine admitting she hadn't yet told Wendy or Ian was a bit odd, is she afraid they'll try and take over?

Good to see Leah getting back to her old self when she had a go at the photographers, then rather tender scenes between her and Justin with her making the moves and him just accepting them and taking them as they were meant.   Her asking if she could just share a bed with him was a brave move on her part. I did wonder what happen if he turned over in bed and touched her when she wasn't ready, he couldn't sleep in one position all night, it's not possible. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I found myself moving back into a more neutral point of view with the Astonis today, maybe because Ziggy wasn't there spitting venom and so both Ben and Maggie's perspectives were allowed to breathe.Given Roo's statement that Maggie couldn't just tell Marco to go away, it was odd that at first that seemed to be what she was doing, but she did eventually pull out the threat about telling his parents about his poor business decisions.Mind you, unless he manages to get a cash injection from somewhere else, it seems like they'd find out sooner or later.Maybe the penny finally dropped that even if Ben doesn't forgive Maggie, she won't go running to him instead.Maggie pestering Ben or acting like everything's normal were unlikely to achieve a desirable result, but if he'd had his way they wouldn't even have talked, so at least they've done that.I said yesterday that Maggie's actions didn't erase her and Ben's life together, but it seems as though for him it may have done just that, as he struggles with the fact that she was keeping things from him the whole of their marriage.I don't think either of them really want to split up, but sometimes when the trust is gone, it's gone.I think it would be a mistake for Ben to end things, but it's his choice.I think all Maggie can really do is keep giving him openings without expecting a quick fix.

Douglas got 25 years?! I mean, I'm glad he's been put away, and kidnapping someone and making them your slave and potentially more is pretty serious stuff, but it's beginning to feel like this show hands out the minimum possible sentence to some characters and the maximum to others with nothing in between: It's like there's nothing between "community service" and "ten years". Anyway, it brought up some stuff for Leah but thankfully there's no step back, as she and Justin continue moving forward.

We got to see a bit more of the nursery and those photos: We haven't got a good look at it, but I think the one top right is Justin, Tori, Mason, Brody and Raffy.The one that's got me stumped is top left, which seems to show two men, a woman and a baby.One of the men looks like Robbo and the baby's presumably Grace, but the other man could be Justin or Mason and the woman could be Tori or Jasmine: I even thought it might be Ava at one point but I think she's too tall. (Thinking about it, it could be Robbo's parents..? I suspect there are some photos they're going to focus on and some they aren't.) Anyway, Grace was absolutely cute today, especially when she was lying on her tummy watching Tori.