2023 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

I suppose I should have guessed that Levi was Eden's brother from the surname...but I must admit I have trouble remembering what Eden's surname is! So we get a bit of back story from her, and I notice she referred to Levi abandoning his "sisters", suggesting there's at least one more.Even though she implies she hasn't seen him since he was eighteen, she apparently knows he's a heart specialist, unless she just knows that was what he planned to be? Levi apparently recognises her from behind after not having seen her for fifteen years: How likely is that?

Mackenzie contacts Dean but doesn't fill him in. Well, it saves a guest appearance, I suppose! She apparently also thinks she's Izzy's favourite auntie: Coco might disagree.

Leah is being very frustrating.Not only is she refusing to get help, she's actively making things worse by deliberately keeping herself awake to avoid the nightmares.I'm left feeling that Alf's advice backfired and she's treating postponing the wedding as a fix-all.That said, I'm not sure Justin deciding to keep it quiet is helping either and feels a bit like a pride thing.At least they were honest with Theo, even though it puts him in a difficult position.

 

Edited February 13 by Red Ranger 1

[pembie]

John quitting the surf club makes sense to me at least with him being banned from teaching classes there’s nothing really for him to do

Mac is looking quite healthy for someone who’s had a heart attack I think just that one tube Silly that she’s not told Dean though eye rolling moment 

Edens got a mystery brother of course she has Doctors and cops I end up disliking both these types of characters in this show eventually 

finally a Tane and Felicity free episode they are quite rare these days 

Edited February 13 by pembie

[Slade]

Talking about Mackenzie going on a diet.  She doesn't strike me as a person that just munches Pizzas but given she runs a restaurant I've often wondered what she eats.  Although, it's probably going to be a little while before she can start exercising.  I can understand why she's stressing so much about this given the fact they don't know what caused the tear in her heart.  The cynic in me wonders whether Levi fancies her.  I've got mixed feelings.  Part of me thinks Eden getting wound up at him being around is a good thing but the way she's reacting, she's obviously very hurt.  It does make Eden a little more interesting.  She must be happy she's got Cash all to herself.

So Justin goes to the effort of repairing Leah's car and she bites his head off for not going through insurance...yeah...insufferable.

[H&Alover]

Bree didn't pick up on the fact Levi has the same name as Eden, but Fowler is a pretty common name. so I'll give her an out there.

My ears twitched when she said sisters, we really don't know much about her family do we?   Remi would have know Levi from back when he knew Eden at college so he must have known what he was going to do in later life when he revealed to Eden 'guess who Mac's cardiothoracic surgeon is'?  Hardly a surprise really as otherwise why would Remi mention it.    Cash looked absolutely stunned as he had no idea she had a brother. 

 Actually if I was Cash I'd be very hurt that Eden didn't feel she could trust me enough not to open up about him, they've known each other long enough.   She knows about all his family troubles.  She doesn't have to go into all the gory details right away, could just have said it was and still is very painful to talk about.   Not always a given but girls do tend to side with their  mums and boys with their dads. 

Eden said she was 15 and Levi 18 and now she's what 31/32 so he'd be 35/6 so it's been 27/28 years since they have spoke or been in contact, he seemed to see her even if she wasn't overjoyed to see him.  Levi recognising Eden from behind after all those years, guess it must be a family thing, I'd know that bum anywhere     Notice Eden did the usual desperate lift button pushing when of  course  the lift hardly ever appears when anyone does that.  

Back to the reason Remi was at the hospital -  to speak to Bree, glad she opened up to him and as I thought it wasn't about her telling her story to his mum and dad, it was the conversation they had back at SALT and her realising she wanted to do  more in her career.  

Levi has been so reassuring with Mac who was panicking a tad, though understandable, about whether she was ready to be moved back into a 'normal' ward.  Btw do they have normal wards in NDH or do they class being in a room yourself as a ward?   Mac does have a pretty healthy diet food wise - not we see anyone actually eat much do we? - so she may eat on the run at times and she had been known to knock back the booze at times.  

Leah may have kind of got Alf's advice the wrong way but yes maybe postponing the  wedding will take some pressure off.   I think Justin is right, if asked he can say everything is going along OK - it is only October after all don't forget - so no panic about  yet ditto with Leah if she is asked.  It was right they filled Theo in, he does live there after all.   The accident was Leah's fault.   I have said it before, although no confirmation yet,  but she is suffering from PTSD so would be 'insufferable'.   Leah's always been an independent women, always worked, has her own business, mainly brought up VJ by herself so to admit she's that vulnerable would be seen as a weakness. 

 That was one hell of a  shock we saw Justin's mythical garage  actually open!  Wonder the roll up doors hadn't stuck and the padlocks hadn't rusted. 

[Red Ranger 1]

It’s perhaps easy to judge when looking in from the outside but this does seem like a feud with only one person in it, given Levi has apparently been offering Eden olive branches and having them ignored for about 15 years (if she hadn’t seen him since she was 15 and she’s about 30 now), and it sounds like he’s even in touch with their mum, so it’s not like she’s holding it against him. I’d venture to suggest that even holding a grudge against her father for that long would be unnecessary if he wanted to make things up. That said, I think Levi is being a bit naïve in claiming he didn’t take sides: Wanting to keep in touch with their father is one thing, but it sounds like he went to live with him, which does feel like him choosing a side. Maybe he thought his father needed him more but he still should have considered the effect it would have on Eden. When Eden walked in on her boyfriend having a drink with her estranged brother, my brain went “Oh my god, it’s Nick, Lou and David!” (One for people who’ve seen the 1991 season…) I like Remi taking her mind off things in the aftermath.

I took some pleasure in seeing Alf, after all these years of belittling and berating John for doing his job, having to roll his sleeves up and do it all himself. Dana gets more plus points by not only respecting John as a teacher despite his flaws but going to bat for him, and even getting Marilyn, who was inevitably on Alf’s side to start with, to acknowledge he hasn’t been treated that fairly. Despite Marilyn’s attitude, I did quite like her and John slipping back into the old routine of reading the paper together.

I’m glad Mackenzie is softening towards Felicity: Flick’s treated her badly but they’ve been friends for too long for this to be the end, so I hope we see her visit soon. Mind you, she’s got other things on her mind now. The eviction’s come a bit left field but I’m guessing someone noticed that Tane’s the lease holder and he’s not living there anymore.

[Foellfan]

Or Tane could've rung it in, even one of the whanau?

I understand Eden with Levi because I think it isn't so much he sided with Dad 

Spoiler

and given if the spoilers be true he has the same morals as said father.

 

I'm on Eden's side with Levi, his flippancy of 'it didn't hurt us' only applies to him as he ran away

Spoiler

and if the future indicates it correctly...like father, like son.

; divorces are incredibly tough on kids anyway but even more so if there's animosity between the parents and also it's clear Eden and her sisters were left to pick up the pieces where Mum was concerned.

I did laugh at Cash's 'Waltons esque' naivety but I think if you've never truly seen tough family life or sometimes I think the reality can blunted if you've experienced loss, it's not something that will be easily recognised and I don't think he should've gone behind Eden's back on that; also, I wonder with Eden whether she actively kept him away from it all because she wanted one thing that was pure and untouched by the trauma and sadness of home?

Edited February 13 by Foellfan
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[H&Alover]

Eden did say their mum was devastated by the break up and it appears when she said sister's she meant it as his sister's not sisters' if that makes sense, that is how I'm reading it as another sister hasn't been mentioned.   Anyways we don't know the full story, was dad  a serial cheat or leave mum for this other women?  It's always sad when children feel they have to choose between one parent or the other and if siblings are involved there could be a conflict of opinion.   They were teenagers so able to chose, unlike if they were  a lot younger they don't get to choose.   Eden hasn't mentioned her a lot, if at all, but no sooner do we meet Levi he mentioned he talks to her a lot. so obviously she doesn't blame him.  He say mum had been  updating him about what Eden had been doing.   From the sound of it he had been offering olive branches but she chose to ignore them.  

Nice to see Mac is looking better, but still no visitors even if she is now out of ICU.

Not sure why Cash looked bemused when Mac introduced him to Levi it was as if  he was expecting him to know who he was.   Hence his awkward walking up to him and having to explain he's Eden's boyfriend.   They did get to talk about matters and I suppose got to hear Levi's side of things, but were sprung when Eden walked in on them.  How, though, was Cash going behind Eden's back?  That was a rather rushed decision for Remi to whisk Eden off, could that be partly Bree's talking to him about  her thoughts  that  she wants to do more with her life like  maybe going travelling.  Then  Cash got that call from Felicity and this time he did have to rush home as they were being evicted from it. 

Before I go further -  have the Surf Club and or the writers forgotten Alf hasn't had an unbroken record of working with and for the Surf Club, John was temporary President a couple of years ago when Susie persuaded him to run  and he won.  I know he soon stepped down when it came out Susie  had stolen the Surf Club's money but even so. Tiny niggle I know but wouldn't that have counted?

Anyways back to the present, it was comical seeing John sitting in his deck chair reading of all things Naval Gazing.    I couldn't argue with any of your points Red, they were my thoughts exactly.  John may not always seem to be that busy when we see him but it's what we and now Alf has realised it is what we don't see, he just does it.   He couldn't resist telling Alf about the swimmers going near the rip tide though.

Maz had jumped to conclusions but to be fair she does know what John can be like she was married to him, but then finding out via Dana what had really happened and why he'd lost his job changed her mind.   Now he's got two ladies on his side  and ready to fight for him to be put back is his rightful position.  Wonder how and if we'll see Dana tackle Banjo about his attitude. Bold step for John when he asked Dana how she thought he was as an instructor, did he come across as a bully and she was honest said he could come over as bossy but not a bully.   

 

Edited February 14 by H&Alover

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm rather disappointed in Tane here. Cash offered to move out and Tane indicated he was happy for them to stay on, and now he's pulled the rug out from under them by cancelling the lease without giving them any notice.Okay, it seems the eviction was a bit melodramatic and the landlords are happy for Cash and Felicity to take over if they want but still.And it led to poor Xander being messed about again and having to cover for Felicity at work.I winced at Felicity boxing up all that stuff: I've got a horrible feeling (which the promo seemed to partly confirm) that she intends to give it to Tane to remind him of happier times.Constantly ambushing him is not going to get a good result.

Dana's talk with Banjo went pretty disastrously at first although I liked her summoning Irene and Marilyn for a council of war.She managed to put her case eventually but, as I speculated a while back, Banjo's largely irrelevant and it's the unseen Pa Henderson who wants his pound of flesh (although Banjo still came across as a bit of an idiot).I continue to feel it will serve him and the committee right if their Napoleon complex sees the surf club going down the gurgler.

Edited February 14 by Red Ranger 1

[Foellfan]

I think Tane might well be trying to clean up as it were as Flick isn't getting the message perhaps?

Though I did laugh at her screeching about 'Going behind my back, how gutless', uh, pot/kettle Felicity?

Okay, so Banjo is under Daddy's thumb but he's still a bit of a wet leaf to be honest. I'm glad Alf and Mali working together too.

Meant to mention this from the Justin/Leah thing I could understand him being slightly concerned by her postponement as earlier on she'd basically said it was his fault she was in this condition.

[c120701]

6 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Before I go further -  have the Surf Club and or the writers forgotten Alf hasn't had an unbroken record of working with and for the Surf Club, John was temporary President a couple of years ago when Susie persuaded him to run  and he won.  I know he soon stepped down when it came out Susie  had stolen the Surf Club's money but even so. Tiny niggle I know but wouldn't that have counted?

There was also the period when John first started working at the club where they couldn’t decide what John’s role was and Alf seemed not to be President anymore, then they finally decided Alf was President and John was Manager.

I thought John had the juice bar concession, hence the naming - why would the committee sign off on JP’s Juice Bar if it was the club’s own concession.