Red Ranger 1

Harper's proving to be a selfish brat as she basically admits she's not telling Tane because it's easier for her if he doesn't know. Looking back, she seemed to expect him to fall madly in love with her after one spontaneous hook-up, so I guess she's got a lot of immature fantasies going on where he's concerned.And after one aborted attempt to tell him (in the surf club, with people about!), she's snapped back to "just let me enjoy this". Carl was a raging hypocrite, insisting family comes first while putting Perri at risk in order to make a quick buck: Apparently he's too much of a coward to actually do the robberies himself. Tane did right sending him packing from the gym but didn't really achieve anything by following him outside to indulge in macho posturing, other than putting Carl's back up and causing him to see Tane as the only problem. I was amused at that article claiming Tane effectively getting away with kidnapping a baby got a "mixed reaction": Maybe they just meant on here! I'm not sure why Alf was so surprised at Mali losing his temper with Kirby: The way she was going on like a dog with a bone would have tried the patience of a saint! I guess we should be glad she just pestered him about it rather than actually entering behind his back. Given that during one of Irene's previous absences about half the Bay died or left and she didn't notice, I'm not expecting any reaction from her to major developments when she gets back this time.

As I recall, the line was included and, given how many times the episode got repeated, we all commented on it quite a few times. The word has been cut on other occasions though (Liam referring to Gypsy's forgettable boyfriend being a memorably terrible example).

Re Elaine Smith, an interesting anecdote is that she'd already left the show and they planned to play out Daphne ending up in a coma as a result of an off-screen accident and ultimately dying with a body double (I remember my mum laughing when Daphne was brought into hospital with only the top of her head visible), but she offered to come back and do the scenes herself. So at least she knew what she was getting into! Anyway, when Tane asked Mackenzie what Felicity would say, I must admit I was left musing that neither Felicity nor Mackenzie have ever been the type to just turn up for work and plough on at upsetting times, and so it proved. I have to admit I didn't really see Perri's reaction to Tane's haka the way others did; to me, it looked as though it made him uncomfortable. Of course, now he's got something else to make him uncomfortable... In a way, Cash is still burying his head in the sand. Getting rid of Felicity's thing was a kneejerk reaction because he just needed to do something, and Eden was quite right to push him to call Gary, because he needed to be told some time (although in the end it was Tane that got him over the line). Felicity ordering all those dresses for Eden is a reminder of everything they're going to miss out on. Harper continues to be a wimp and Xander is absolutely right, it's just one excuse for not telling Tane after another. Seeing Harper and Dana at home reminded me that, even though we saw Rose react to it and we got that scene of them starting to piece things together, we've had absolutely no response from them to Irene going to rehab. I presume they've noticed she's not living with them?

As ever, different actors respond differently to that situation. I remember Holby City's George Irving reportedly didn't like when his character became a patient and he had to spend scenes lying unconscious, feeling he was being treated like a prop rather than an actor.When Esther Anderson returned to the show for a dream/near death experience, she commented that Charlie lying prone with tubes in her wasn't a good last image of her. Visiting her is fine. Like i said, Cash wouldn't have been happy if she'd made it clear she was there to "say goodbye". (Nothing wrong with that either, of course, but Cash might have seen it otherwise.) Which is why I said that if Harper really didn't want to get pregnant by Tane, the only 100% certain way to avoid it was to not have sex with him.

So, pretty much as I thought. The whole "I want to die" thing was an off the cuff, light-hearted comment in a brief Q&A interview long before she was actually leaving, not some deeply thought-out desire, and despite Digital Spy's clickbait title, her actual comment on leaving the show was simply "I wanted an international career, so I had to make the decision to leave and take the plunge", with no mention of asking to be killed off (which is what she said in Inside Soap as I recall). All of which people have built up in their heads into more than it is, pretty much putting words into her mouth, or at least taking the words that were there out of context.

Is that what's happened here though? I'd be grateful if you could point me towards an interview, because all the articles I can see on Felicity's exit are notably missing any comment from Jacqui, which leads me to suspect she simply mentioned in passing to a journalist once that she'd quite like to be killed off, because that's how she was feeling that day, and it's been jumped on by defenders of the storyline to justify giving Felicity a rather mean tragically early death rather than the long and happy life that the character wanted even if the actress might not have done. And even if she did want that, she can still be wrong. You'd know if you actually bothered to read my original post properly. Cash wouldn't want Mackenzie going to say goodbye to Felicity, because he didn't think anyone should be saying goodbye to her. As we saw today, when he was trying to get Tane and Eden to stop saying she's dead. Alf's episode count this week:Two, and he was credited on Friday for no appearance. Tane was in four. Felicity was in three but spent the entire week comatose and/or brain dead. Theo didn't appear at all: Is he the new occupant for Alf's cupboard? I don't know if it's a case of "be careful what you wish for" or not, but I wonder if Jacqui was really satisfied that her exit from the show involved lying down with her eyes closed for days while everyone else did the meaty acting. As Tane said, we should remember her happy and dancing, not like this. It was done as respectfully as possible (it's certainly preferable to the sordid gang murder that many people were predicting prior to the Oz broadcast), and I did feel emotional at her final guard of honour and those closest to her saying their goodbyes, but this is not how her story should have ended. Tane outright says he's not Felicity's next of kin anymore.Not clear if the show's trying to make out they got divorced when we're not looking (even though there's not been enough time for it), or if Felicity simply changed her records to list Cash. Harper continues to be utterly pathetic and show why she isn't even close to being a worthy successor to Felicity, which is what the show seems to have decided she is.Yes, that wasn't the day to spring a surprise baby daddy reveal on Tane, but she's had weeks to get a grip and deal with it and she still prefers to bury her head in the sand about the mess she's made of her life.Yeah, yeah, might have been on the pill. If she really didn't want to get up the duff by a man who loved his estranged (now dead) wife and not her, then the one sure way to avoid it is to not have sex with one, and she couldn't manage that. I had the fright of my life when I saw her doctor: For a moment I thought it was Sarah Thompson.

How certain is this "Jacqui wanted her character to die" thing? I've got a feeling it was simply an off the cuff remark made in an interview a long time ago, not, as seems to be implied on here, a case of her marching into the office and telling the writers and producers to do it. The only recent interview I've seen didn't mention the circumstances of her exit, with her just talking about how much she enjoyed being on the show. (Anyway, actors aren't always the best judge of how their character should leave.Remember Kyle?) As mentioned last time this came up, it's not a year from the marriage, it's a year from the separation, which would be (late) October last year. Because he doesn't believe Felicity's dead and is still insisting she's going to wake up. (Again, I'm having bad flashbacks to Greg Marshall here...) When Perri and Harper came bounding up full of energy at the start of the episode, I wondered if they'd been told about Felicity.Turned out Harper had but Perri hadn't.Tane didn't really treat him fairly although at least he had a reasonably rational reason: In a way, it helped having one person around that didn't know what was going on.That said, the result was Perri being hurt and confused, so Harper was right to tell him, even though it meant going against Tane's wishes. In fact, Harper was actually slightly less annoying than usual...up until that scene in the car. Is she seriously crying because Tane's upset that Felicity's dead?! Talk about self-absorbed! And it'd be nice if she cared enough about Cash (you know, her old friend that put himself on the line to protect her and her sister) to actually go and visit him at the hospital, instead of indulging in her favourite past-time of mooning over Tane. Kirby was being a bit stubborn but, to be fair, Mali had acknowledged that her pushing him helped.And Alf seemed to agree with her, although he also recognised it was Mali's decision.

I don't agree with that at all, and I don't think that really reflects her character arc. It's more a case of "Suffer constant trauma and misery punctuated by brief bursts of happiness and attempts to rise above it all by finding enjoyment where you can, only to have your bright future snatched away from you by a cruel twist of nature." The Felicity we saw in that last episode, and in the months leading up to it, was not someone who wanted to die young, it was someone who was hoping for a long and happy life. As she said to both Tane and Cash in her last conversations with them, that was her dream.That's what she deserved and that's what she should have got.

Not every dramatic exit has to involve someone ending up dead on a slab. If they're determined to keep Tane around and use Harper to give him a family to make him seem relevant, then we should have seen Felicity find out, give them the hell they deserve and get out of town, not have her conveniently drop dead so they never have to look her in the eye and face up to what they've done. Anyway, I like how they kept the momentum going over Felicity even with all the key players not in the episode.It makes sense that Mackenzie would be as affected by this as anyone: No matter how much they fought, deep down she and Felicity were always there for each other, and as she said, now that's gone and she's faced with having to cope on her own again. That note from Felicity was so her and really does underline how full of life she was. I'm not sure about Mackenzie going to "say goodbye" to Felicity, mainly because I can't see that going down well with Cash... And even the stalwarts at the Diner are affected, with Alf even being allowed out of his cupboard to join them.I kept wracking my brains to think when Leah was in the same situation: I'd forgotten that it was with Justin! (In fact, I remembered when they were the other way round first!) While Mali's issues extend beyond what's just happened, it obviously doesn't help. Kirby was in annoying mode a bit when she wouldn't give him the sketch back but seemed to make up for it later. I'm not sure anyone's doing Abigail any favours by covering up for her.The surf club have got their money back but Levi's basically enabling her and has got no way of knowing that she's not going to do anything like this again.John went a bit far covering it up too, and just when Alf was being understanding for once!

As I often think in these cases, “Good execution, terrible idea.” I think all the emotion rang true and the scene of John and Justin getting the news was a nice touch: Everyone in town loves Felicity, even those that don’t always like her. But boy, the show really does like putting young women through hell and then killing them, and this is the worst example since Billie. The show should have fought tooth and nail to have Tane and Felicity leave together (as I’ve said before, there’s no legal way they could be divorced, so I think Tane’s “She’s not my wife anymore” is just symbolic), not randomly split them up and then killed her; Tane feels like he’s past his sell-by date already, and even with the show trying to give him new things to do recently, I’m not interested in him sticking around without Felicity (especially if they go down the easy route with Harper). Even if she didn’t get back with Tane, our last sight of Felicity should have been her driving out of town with that big infection grin on her face ready to take on the world, not lying on her back with tubes and machines. I’ve been reminded recently of Judy Nunn’s dissatisfaction that, after over a decade on the show, her exit consisted of one panicked look and dropping down dead, and that’s basically what Jacqui Purves has got. I’m not sure if seeing Felicity lying in a hospital bed being poked and prodded is more or less dignified than a time skip to the funeral. Especially with the prospect of Cash channelling Greg Marshall, although to be fair he’s not gone down the route of taking it out on people Felicity cared about yet: He snapped at Eden once and immediately apologised, then lost his temper with Levi but no-one likes him anyway. Is it me or did Levi misuse the term “clinically dead”? I thought that meant the opposite of this: When someone isn’t breathing and their heart isn’t beating but there might still be brain activity. Not much else going on except a very brief recap of Irene, and John finding someone was light-fingered at the surf club. (Is the Australian dollar not worth very much at the moment? I was aghast at the idea of Levi carrying a couple of hundred bucks around with him, and now John treats $480 as if it’s small change!) Levi probably should have found a place other than the room Rose was in to make the call if he didn’t want her hearing!

Really not looking good for Felicity.I can understand Mackenzie and Tane interpreting Eden's glass half full update as an all-clear but it really wasn't as simple as that.It's interesting that Tane is the one keeping it together, at least in public, and Cash is the one falling apart. I guess it's because, as Tane says, even though he still cares about her deeply, there's a distance from it now. At least one good thing seems to have come from it with the thaw between Eden and Levi.I wasn't surprised she was civil with him at the hospital, because there's more important things going on at the moment, but I wasn't expecting her to accept help from him so readily, or be so fine confiding in him about her friendship with Flick, or for them to have such a frank chat about the still AWOL Abby. Just when I thought Dana was getting some perspective with her concern for Felicity, she goes back to thinking the world revolves around Harper and her schoolgirl fantasies.It's Harper's own silly fault that she's up the duff by a married man who doesn't live with his wife but still loves her.The universe shouldn't rearrange itself to give her what she wants.But apparently it is.

My preference continues to be to have the proper blocks be the lunchtime/6pm showing, although I accept that's mainly down to me sticking to a broadcast model from 30 years ago! I only watch the 6.30pm "First Look" showing in special circumstances but I know some people see it as the main broadcast. I think there's still quite a few soaps that haven't moved over to early streaming and those that have can be a bit controversial: Channel 5 makes the episodes available online after the 6.30pm showing, which I guess is a reasonable compromise.

Felicity was the one organising the party, so she invited her. Eden didn't know the party was happening until she got there.

In essence, yes. We tend to start a new season six weeks behind Australia.

Alf's episode count last week:Two (and he was credited on Tuesday for no appearance).Alf's episode count this week:None! Okay, seriously, is he being kept locked in a cupboard at the surf club and only allowed out for an hour's walk a day? Tane has good intentions but he's really pushing it too hard with Perri. Teaching someone about their culture when no-one's done it for them is laudable in theory, but he can't expect Perri to instantly feel the same about things he doesn't know about that Tane does.I'm not entirely convinced that going behind his back and telling Harper about his reading problems was a good idea, but Perri's agreed to be assessed so that's something. Meanwhile, Harper has come up with yet another excuse not to tell Tane about the pregnancy.Or, indeed, anyone apart from Dana.At least she accepted Dana wasn't to blame for Xander finding out and it turns out Xander managed to cover well with Rose...except Rose now knows, which actually was Dana's fault! That's it for Irene's latest alcohol relapse then. The last one was the year before Justin came to the Bay so no, he hasn't seen it before. Part of me's glad, because it felt like it was dragging with constant scenes of her friends trying to reason with her and getting lies and abuse in return. It's a shame that she didn't follow the usual model and give the insufferable Harper a slap before coming to her senses: Instead, all it took was a disapproving glare from Bree! It's an even bigger shame that, probably down to episode counts, important parts of the story have been glossed over: We see Harper and Dana starting to realise there's more going on with Irene than they knew (and I agree there's a similarity with Ailsa's history but as I said a while back, there shouldn't be: 20 or so years ago, it wasn't something Irene hid, because she knew the danger of treating it like something in the past rather than an ongoing battle), then they're not in the next episode and we never get a pay-off: Presumably at some point we'll get a throwaway line about how they know where Irene is and how they've been given the run of her house again, but that'll be too late. Oh well, despite her reverting to normal between episodes, I guess we should be glad Irene actually has to go to rehab rather than the usual "One AA meeting and I'm cured" resolution, and I did like her chat with John. That was a spontaneous proposal from Cash and I'm not surprised that Eden looked rather caught in the headlights.I was disappointed to hear about Felicity locking herself away and refusing to talk to Cash, so I loved that she was immediately pleased about the proposal and even more about the engagement: That's what she and Cash are like, they argue and then they move on. She definitely seemed to be on Cloud 9 throughout the week, coming out with lines like "Happy things from now on"...so obviously it's being set up for yet another disaster to be dropped in on her with her latest medical emergency, because this show seems to love torturing Felicity, especially when she's at her happiest. Personally I blame Dana for spending the whole party death glaring her for daring to breathe the same air as Tane. Oh, and we finally meet the mysterious third Fowler sibling! It feels a bit like the show doing its usual thing of introducing an unruly teen sibling, except we don't do high school students anymore, so she has to be college age instead. It's a shame Levi didn't make her walk to the beach.

When Alf made that comment about stopping going to 18th birthday parties 100 years ago, I thought "Yeah, Ryder noticed..."

Hmm, didn't think of that but you've got a point. Then again, maybe Tane's not all that hot on paperwork!

Going to be away for a week, so watching ahead on First Look. Again, good intentions from Tane, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with teaching someone about the culture they were born into, but he can't plonk Perri in the middle of all this and expect it to instantly mean something to him. As it was, there was a specific reason for his meltdown, but he was heading that way anyway. Interesting that Mackenzie was the one that spoke to him and tried to understand, almost as if she's taking on the "mother" role that Harper seemed earmarked for. More of Remi and Bree complaining about the lack of alone time. However did they keep their relationship quiet for so long yet now they're incapable of being in a room alone for more than half a scene? A shame Felicity isn't talking to Cash, although she's not in the episode and they seemed fine in the promo so maybe it's not as bad as he thinks. She was never going to be pleased about Rory going to jail but Remi gave Cash some good advice. The proposal: What the hell, Cash? There was no build-up to that at all!

Yes, we saw her unpacking a new box of them when she was setting the table. Hindsight's 20/20 and John has good intentions but that didn't work. I wondered if he'd confront Irene or go to her friends first but either way, I don't think that would have been my opening gambit. There was a brief moment when he produced the bottles where Irene had this horrified look on her face at her facade collapsing, but she quickly doubled down with the defensiveness. I'm glad John managed to shut Marilyn up because she was kind of talking nonsense. Justin probably has a point about them not being able to help Irene unless she wants them to, but it's hard to just sit back and do nothing. Irene did seem to snap back to her old self next morning with her apology to Harper, although how much that was part of the act I'm not sure. I don't blame Tane for not knowing Perri's birthday, it's a bit early for them to be having that conversation! Perri seemed a bit clueless at times: Mackenzie tells him you don't drink before work so why did he tell Tane he had done, especially when he didn't? (Not that he ended up doing any work!) Tane's well-intentioned but Perri's a bit overwhelmed and lost as it is. Okay, so Harper's last excuse for keeping the pregnancy from Tane was that she wasn't sure if she was keeping the baby or not, but now she apparently is so what gives? Alf's appearances are a bit weird at the moment: He only seems to appear in a scene or two each episode, usually in or around the surf club. I suspect Ray Meagher was on limited availability when these were filmed.

Well, you know, I'm sure a lot of people could come up with lists of iconic characters from the 80s and 90s that they'd like to see again, but most of them would be pipe dreams, whereas Ava being around does feel like a possibility (especially given we've seen her this year) and having her in the household would shake things up and let us see a different side to Justin and Leah. With John returning to take over the role of chief naysayer, it seems Leah's more or less fallen in line with Marilyn's approach of "Go along with it until you're absolutely sure it's the wrong thing." I don't blame John for making a stand, but it's not going to penetrate Irene's defensiveness. It's hard to see how much of her manic behaviour is down to the drink and how much isn't! I'm glad Mali acknowledged he's made some poor choices lately, and he didn't even mention the fact he withheld evidence related to a murder case from the police.So, off to another set of lectures from his family, maybe these ones will sink in. Bree was being precious again and it was frustrating seeing Remi seem to change his views again to fall in line with hers, at least until she remembered where they live and accepted that of course people are going to want to know if they're dating again or not.

I think Cash did the right thing taking Felicity to see Rory, because otherwise she was just left in limbo.She seemed calmer in the aftermath, and even though there was still a trace of bitterness towards Cash in the aftermath, I think she recognises that the situation is what it is and Cash did the right thing. There did seem to be a bit of regret from Rory towards her: Maybe on one level he did care after all. We've mentioned in the past that he was at least interested in her before he had an agenda with her. I both am and am not pleased to see Justin back.I like him and all, but I was kind of hoping that he'd bring Ava back with him once she'd finished her exams, it seems a bit of a waste to set that up and not deliver.I understand Leah's concern (and we see that, for all her protests, Irene is doing extra drinking in secret) but it wasn't a smart idea to send Justin to talk to her and it was an even less smart idea to have him try and trick her into it. I thought Xander was really sweet and funny trying to be a supportive boyfriend and expectant father to Dana without letting it on that he "knew". I'm glad that it wasn't strung out too long and the penny dropped quickly about it being Harper who was pregnant.Hopefully Dana will manage to stress that Xander needs to keep that one quiet.And hopefully he manages to find something convincing to tell Rose!

To be fair, I think you have to give Rory credit for sticking to his values and throwing himself into the lion’s mouth with his “brother”. That puts him way ahead of Brax, who used to treat his “Boys” as cannon fodder and happily throw them to the police as a scapegoat if it kept him, and occasionally his family, out of trouble. Of course, it would have been better if Rory hadn’t murdered someone in the first place, which has got Dingo into a lot more trouble than if he was just up on a GBH charge. His relationship with Felicity has never really rung true so I don’t really buy her being heartbroken over a guy that she’s been dating five minutes. Why the hell did Cash choose Rose of all people to interview Mali? It was obviously going to be a damp squib, unless that was actually Cash’s plan, to keep his mate out of it. Given forensics would tie him to the bag of evidence, Mali’s very lucky not to end up charged as an accessory, for real this time. This isn’t like when he only went to Tane to get him to give himself up, he was quite happy to keep quiet about what Dingo had done, and indeed has done. At this point, Rose really should stop caring about his whiney attempts to play the victim because he really does seem to be heading down the wrong track. I’m not sure why they spent a week pretending Harper might not keep the baby only for her to decide that actually, she will. Ironically, it feels like we’re in the same situation as back when Felicity was with Tane and Cash was a wreck, where the supposedly wild and irresponsible younger sister is more together than her older sibling: Dana has a good job and a steady relationship while Harper’s pregnant by a one-night stand with a technically married man who’s shut down her attempts to be with him!

Alf's episode count this week:Two. Well, all sorts of things coming to a head.I'm not convinced these River Boys are any worse than Dean's time: Before they decided to make him and Ziggy the Golden Couple, I remember Dean offering to prepare a "welcome" for Robbo in prison.I'm finding Felicity's suddenly head over heels attitude towards Rory rather annoying and unrealistic: I guess she was the same with Tane, but it feels like it's just there to make the betrayal when she finds out what he's keeping from her hurt more than it would if he was just someone she was casually seeing.Cash insists on strict security and then decides to brief Rose in the surf club within earshot of Mali... To be honest, it's probably a good thing he did, because if Mali hadn't chosen that precise moment to get cold feet and turn up at the River Boys' hideout with the bag, his raid would have been a bit of a damp squib.(Mali obviously wasn't going to hand it in himself...)To be fair, the police arrived mere seconds after we first heard sirens, so they probably just turned them on at the last moment for effect, and Cash did have at least one extra car hidden to block Dingo's escape. As for Mali, despite getting his fingerprints over everything else in the bag, he did at least make sure not to touch the crowbar. Mackenzie was being a bit annoying so it's a shame Levi apologised to her: Does she really expect everything to be plain sailing and hearts and flowers?

Credit to Tane for clocking that Perri has trouble reading and writing, it was admirably perceptive of him.I assume he was being polite when he said it was "clever" of Perri to get into trouble at school rather than admit he needed help.I guess that's a battle for another day. Well, Dana basically said what I said to Xander: It might have been the accident that brought them back together but they're together now because they want to be. Sometimes we all need dumb luck! The honeymoon period seems to be well and truly over between Mackenzie and Levi. It was a bit odd that we just jumped to her knowing Perri was staying there, as if something got cut. I don't think Leah's handled things particularly well in being so confrontational with Irene. While Marilyn's policy of sitting back and seeing what happens might not work in the long run, it's pretty much all they've got for now: Apart from being a bit snappy (and you'd be hard-pressed to notice the different there), Irene isn't showing any obvious signs of problems.

Leah didn't snatch John's phone from him, she asked for it and he made an excuse to end the call. So after a few fairly half-hearted attempts, Harper seems to have decided to give up on telling Tane about her pregnancy and make the decision herself.I'm slightly surprised: Given how she acts like a dog on heat around him (even Perri seemed to pick up on it), I'd have thought she'd jump at the chance to snare him. After all Tane's jumping the gun, it seems Perri isn't interested in school, which is a good job because there isn't a set anymore! Perri seems surprisingly cheery at all this. To be fair, Tane's been firm with him when he needs to but the hard parts of parenting may be to come. Bree's excuse for not wanting anyone to know she was back with Remi was incredibly weak, and I'm glad Remi acknowledged that he was doing something he didn't like just to keep her happy, which is no basis for a relationship.It looks like they've sorted things out for now, see how it goes.Xander was being a bit overly literal. Dana could have phrased things better, but does it really matter how they got back together if they're happy? Irene's argument wasn't entirely without merit: I'm reminded of 20-odd years ago when she tried to interfere with Flynn teaching Noah to control his drinking rather than give it up completely and was told to stay in her lane. So if she could do that, then fine, but she doesn't have a very good track record of being able to stop, so Leah's concern is understandable.(Marilyn seems determined to have as little of an opinion as possible again.)Irene being an alcoholic really does seem to be a secret except among those who've known her for decades: Was it Olivia who didn't have a clue last time round? Not sure why Harper and Dana haven't asked more questions about her not having alcohol in the house. Irene once said it was dangerous to hide it but apparently she's forgotten that lesson as she got older.