Best/Worst character exits

[cymbaline]

Unless you're Alf, characters come and go on Home and Away. Some vanish without any explanation, some fizzle out, some have a good send-off, others are a bit underwhelming, others exit in a wooden box. Do you have any notable ones, or ones you'd like to quibble with?

Best (in no particular order)

• Haydn Ross (as a main character): I like this one because it was a slow build. Haydn's relationship with Michael had been deteriorating over time, and there was no obvious way their deadlock could be resolved. Even after he left, it took a while for the scales to fall from Michael's eyes re. Lois Crawford. 
• Sophie Simpson: This was another slow-burn and all the better for it. I wonder did the writers know Rebekah was planning to leave when Sophie had her baby? She always struggled with being a single mum, despite Pippa's efforts to help out. Before she left for her new life in Perth, she got to say goodbye to the most important people in her life.
• Blake Dean: It was nice to see his sister Karen again, and for them to rediscover the closeness they'd once had. It made sense that he'd try to get her back onto the straight and narrow after all that had happened. 
• Dodge: Although he was never in the main cast, Dodge is one of the most memorable recurring characters from the early years. It's fitting that his body was never found following his tumble off the cliff with Steven. It's highly unlikely he'll ever be resurrected but I like to think of a parallel universe where he shows up yet again to cause trouble for Stevo. 
• Adam Cameron: Adam was something of a pointless character by the time they wrote him out. But they gave him a good exit when the time came for him to move on. It felt right that he should save young Sam from a fire as one of his final acts before he left the Bay. 

Worst

• Finlay Roberts: Finlay is a textbook case of a teenage character running out of road once they've left school. Her exit feels very rushed, as if the producers had suddenly noticed she was still hanging around for no particular reason. Her departure was worked out over the course of just one episode. She received a letter near the beginning of the episode, informing her that she had been accepted onto a course (elsewhere, naturally). By the time the end credits rolled, she was gone. 
• Greg Marshall: This exit feels a bit pointless because Nicolle Dickson (Bobby) had departed just one month before Ross Newton. And if anybody can remember back far enough, they'll recall Greg being very eager to get to know his son Sam. He even tried to gain sole custody of him. Roll on 2 years, and suddenly he has his wish. Only what does he do? Almost before Bobby's cold in the ground, Greg's gone back to driving long-distance trucks and Sam has been fobbed onto Fisher. 
• Curtis Reed: In 1995 Curtis embarked on a brief, passionate relationship with daredevil Italian student Laura Bonetti. It ended in tragedy when she came off second-best in an encounter with a speeding train. 2 years later, a woman who looked exactly like Laura came to Summer Bay and Curtis fell for her. They left together but it's hard not to think it was all a bit messed up.
• Sarah Thompson: Sarah was the most grounded and sensible teen from the early years. Apart from a brief fling with bad boy Nathan Roberts, she never really caused many problems for anyone. After failing to keep a close eye on young Duncan while she was studying for her HSC, she fell out with Alf. Even though she was near her exams, she had to hurriedly return home to her father's farm and sit her exams elsewhere. A sorry end for a nice girl. 
• Angel Parrish: Even though I quickly tired of "Shangel" and feel they cannibalised the show, I've added Angel's departure to this list. We had to endure the ups and downs of Shane and Angel's romance for 2½ years, until its tragic demise. Shane was barely cold in his grave before she had her bags packed and was heading off to the UK to start a new life with a new beau. 

[j.laur5]

Pippa- Her character had no proper goodbyes to anyone and she did not even have proper farewell scene with Sally her longest foster child and no mention of past foster children or no mention of ether husband I don’t and episode wasn’t even centre focus.

[adam436]

Joel and Natalie Nash are up there as one of the worst for me. 

I had no issues with the affair story so much, but did we need the added complication of her being pregnant?

Then months later, he dumped new lover Judith (who was to leave a few weeks later herself anyway!) to get back together with Natalie and he was going to raise the product of Natalie's affair as his own child. This was all a week or so after he had just been badly injured in the landslide too.

[CaptainHulk]

On the thumbs down side

 

Jai Fernández- Just when you think we're getting A Pip/Sal dynamic with Miles, He's packed off to Japan on an exchange trip without a word again (I know Jordan Rodriguez jumped at the role on Dance Academy but they could have done better)

Matt and Rob , naturally though at least Rob lived in town til 99 but wasn't seen.

Kyle - Bit foolish but since he got away with virtually leaving Casey to die it was karmic. But stupid too, putting himself on the cross for a woman he knew for five minutes who would have lost her kids anyway due to some other idiocy.

Lynn going back to her crappy family never really sat well With me.

 

[cymbaline]

Nick Parrish: He went off on a trip to find himself and decided that packing his own things was so last year. He simply rang Fisher to tell him he wasn't coming back, and that was the last we saw of him.

Marilyn Chambers: (1st exit) This one has aged like milk, knowing what we do now... Alf wasn't wrong when he expressed his doubts about her hasty engagement to a much older man. When Heather showed up, he probably wondered had he sustained one too many head injuries over the years. 

Lachlan Fraser: The rigmarole about sending him to the USA for treatment for his brain tumour, then having him run off with someone else just felt a bit too tortured. 

Carly Lucini: Was Carly really heading off to her "happy ever after"? Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Ben was an abuser, it's safe to say life with him would never be easy. Carly herself was taking a huge step into the unknown and perhaps felt forced into going with Ben. She had long hated all things army, yet was now going to have to try being an army wife. She was still very young and now found herself pregnant but with no family to support her.

Grant Mitchell: Grant's final months had more starts and stops than a beginner learning how to drive a manual car. First he went off to help wean his sister off her drug habit, then he went away and came back from Timboon, then he got a job and lost a job at the school. Perhaps the moral of the story is don't cast somebody who wants to be a pop star?

[CaptainHulk]

On 26/05/2025 at 20:32, cymbaline said:

Nick Parrish: He went off on a trip to find himself and decided that packing his own things was so last year. He simply rang Fisher to tell him he wasn't coming back, and that was the last we saw of him.

Marilyn Chambers: (1st exit) This one has aged like milk, knowing what we do now... Alf wasn't wrong when he expressed his doubts about her hasty engagement to a much older man. When Heather showed up, he probably wondered had he sustained one too many head injuries over the years. 

Lachlan Fraser: The rigmarole about sending him to the USA for treatment for his brain tumour, then having him run off with someone else just felt a bit too tortured. 

Carly Lucini: Was Carly really heading off to her "happy ever after"? Even if you don't subscribe to the theory that Ben was an abuser, it's safe to say life with him would never be easy. Carly herself was taking a huge step into the unknown and perhaps felt forced into going with Ben. She had long hated all things army, yet was now going to have to try being an army wife. She was still very young and now found herself pregnant but with no family to support her.

Grant Mitchell: Grant's final months had more starts and stops than a beginner learning how to drive a manual car. First he went off to help wean his sister off her drug habit, then he went away and came back from Timboon, then he got a job and lost a job at the school. Perhaps the moral of the story is don't cast somebody who wants to be a pop star?

Lachie did get an off-screen death after a 2nd haemorrhage about 3mths into his marriage and they had a memorial service in the bay for him.

[adam436]

On 27/05/2025 at 05:32, cymbaline said:

Lachlan Fraser: The rigmarole about sending him to the USA for treatment for his brain tumour, then having him run off with someone else just felt a bit too tortured. 

It just very clumsily put together. I suspect the producers weren't planning on Richard Grieve leaving so soon, as James came in to essentially pick up Lachie's story arc. Sending Lachie to the USA was probably just a temporary solution until the writers worked out a permanent one. 
 

  

7 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Lachie did get an off-screen death after a 2nd haemorrhage about 3mths into his marriage and they had a memorial service in the bay for him.

It wasn't really needed though. He had left and moved on with someone else, and Chloe had already married and separated by James.

Other regulars like Dan Baker and Beth Hunter departed the show and then died off-screen months later (Beth's was in Summer Bay, but we never saw the actress), but at least they wrapped things up in terms of relationships etc. 

Edited May 28 by adam436

[cymbaline]

I've just been reading the synopsis for Vinnie Patterson, whose heyday was after I'd stopped watching H&A. His exit and off-screen deaths are pretty messy as well. Were they hoping Ryan Kwanten might come back?

[adam436]

15 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

Were they hoping Ryan Kwanten might come back?

The short answer is yes. I read somewhere Ryan told the producers he would come back for Ada Nicodemou's exit, but of course that never happened. 

[cymbaline]

They could still bring him back on a Zimmer frame when Ada finally decides to leave. Nobody will remember or care that Vinnie is supposedly dead.