Red Ranger 1

I've heard that. I will say that I have absolutely no memory of it and I think I was paying attention and always believed that Pippa and Ian weren't married. (I'm not sure the Pauline Fowler comparison above is apt either, given she'd been Ross for, what, seven years maybe? So not exactly most of her life.) So I suspect it's yet another example of someone's faulty memory falling into the fan consciousness and being treated as fact because the episodes aren't around for us to check.

I don't think they did, although I'm sure someone will insist otherwise. She was always Pippa Ross if a surname was given in later appearances.

It's not like it was done away with completely: There's always been a Diner on the show since the concept was first introduced, so it's not that different to Neighbours burning down and rebuilding the Lassiters complex multiple times.

Episode count this week:Only Irene, Marilyn, Justin and Mali managed three episodes. I loved Cash's confusion at finding Felicity drinking Eden's coffee and the way Felicity really couldn't be doing with all this drama.Cash would, in most circumstances, have a good point that if Eden wants Levi to make an effort to see her, she should do the same.Rose's detective skills came into good effect as she worked out exactly what's got Mali bothered: All she doesn't know is what the secret about Mackenzie is. I'm kind of liking the way Cash is continuing to be an unofficial mentor for Rose as senior constable. (What happened to his shirt though? He's wearing one when he comes home but it's nowhere to be seen in that scene!) Her community service attendee was a bit of a nightmare but Rose seemed to have a positive impact in the end. (I'm also relieved that they seem to have been only weeding: Justin's "**** it in the heart" advice initially left me believing they were killing wildlife!) Nice to know that Justin has finally finished the community service which seems to have been going on about a year. I'm trying to remember how long I predicted it would take before all the breaks he's had... Somehow, John has ended up joining Roo in the ridiculous camp and decided it makes perfect sense to not spend an anonymous donation because they don't know who it's from, even though the surf club will probably go out of business without it.Sounds like Cash is still in touch with the mystery donor then...

Mackenzie really does have her head in her clouds, practically begging Levi to tell her what their future holds and, not surprisingly, getting nothing.What did she even want him to say? That he'd leave his wife for her, but not yet? Or that he'd carry on sleeping with her in secret for a bit, then dump her when it gets a bit much and go back to being "happily married"? I kind of like that Mali is not making any attempt to hide how disgusted he is with Levi, and I think perhaps Mackenzie is the one that will have to get used to the cold atmosphere unless she wants to live alone. Felicity's mercy mission caused them a few problems as well. So, Tane had to find another bed for the night but probably not the gym unless Mali was too lazy to walk five paces and stick his head round the door.Did he check into a motel? That's quite a turnaround from John, from thinking they shouldn't ask too many questions about the donor to being desperate to know the truth. Maybe he just couldn't stand the possibility that Roo knows and he doesn't? It seems to have reignited her own curiosity anyway...

Mackenzie is definitely putting Mali and Tane in a difficult position now. Is she really expecting them to stay out of the house for however long Levi's in town for? Mali at least has Rose's to escape to but what's Tane going to do, sleep in the gym? Levi's lucky he didn't get a "Is that what we're calling it now?" from Mali when he claimed he was giving Mackenzie a check-up.I understand how Mali feels but his interjections have fallen on deaf ears until now, what did he think was going to happen? Dana decides to keep her counsel where Irene's concerned about her crush but reckoned without Rose's detective skills.Rose suddenly appearing in front of her at the bar like that was a funny moment.She tried to avoid Xander but in the end couldn't help continuing to be a friend. Guess there was no chance of Harper's date being the love of her life, huh? Shame because she did indeed look stunning, as she usually does. Derek was a bit of a tool. Tane could tell by the name that it was doomed. (No offence to any Dereks, it's just not a name you see in Australian soap operas that often!)

Personally, I enjoyed today's episode: I think the cast are strong and likable enough that just sticking them together and letting them play off each other is a good experience.Theo definitely doesn't seem to be backwards in embracing Valerie's lifestyle (and, indeed, Valerie), to the point that she's the one trying to advise caution.At least we got some references to her therapy, which seems to have helped her to an extent but not enough that she doesn't keep relying on drugs for a quick fix.Elsewhere, progress for Justin and Leah after awkwardly heading off to separate rooms. Tane, Xander, Harper and Dana isn't a combination we see very often but they sparked off each other well and it was nice that, for all the teasing, everyone ultimately supported Harper trying her hand at a dating app.Dana meanwhile seems to have stumbled across a dating opportunity of her own... It's nice to see Irene with younger characters that go to her for advice again. I think Kirby was pretty even-handed with regards pointing out that Remi and Bree have both lied to each other for their own reasons. Bree's reasoning made sense but it feels like she's compounding her mistake a bit by not letting her mother meet Remi: Hopefully that will be rectified.

Hard to get a handle on Valerie.It's pretty much confirmed the drugs aren't prescription given her statement they don't have a list of ingredients, although the show remains typically vague otherwise.She's obviously got demons but she also seems determined to involve Theo, not that he needs much encouragement.Leah and Justin apparently went home to change before their date night but presumably didn't take much notice of what Theo and Valerie were up to? (Had Theo come down at that point?)Kirby seemed to be protesting a bit too much with her insistence that she's not jealous (Remi didn't really seem convinced), but now she's got a good reason to mistrust Valerie. Yep, Bree returns and it turns out both she and Remi have been keeping secrets from each other, for pretty much the same reason, not that either of them really seems willing to admit it.Some communication problems there perhaps!

Episode counts this week:The only characters to manage three were Irene, Justin, Mackenzie and Mali. Possibly the first definite evidence that Valerie may not be an entirely positive influence.I wondered if that was some sort of medication she was taking at the start, but given she gave some to Theo, probably not.The mood swings aren't exactly a good sign either.It feels like we've been here before with Theo trying to do everything and getting burned out.I'm not sure how long he's got to go on his apprenticeship but, while I understand him not wanting to drop it again, I can't see him keeping this up for long.Until the end, Valerie actually seemed fairly reasonable, being polite to Kirby and offering to take a rain check so Theo could meet her on his own.I'm not quite sure what Kirby's problem is, since Theo's only hung out with Valerie a couple of times and she's not really got the right to give an opinion on that again. Kirby storms away in the opposite direction to the house but is somehow inside it in the next scene? Did she go all the way round the front and through the door there? Xander and Harper actually made a cute pair so I was a bit disappointed that they decided to keep it platonic (let's face it, neither of them's exactly spoilt for choice!), although they made a decent point about male/female friendships being just as important.(And hey, who knows who'll be dating who in a year or two's time?) I was expecting Rose's obsession with Xander's date to create more tension with Mali but he took it in his stride and didn't object to her delaying their breakfast for a conflab with Kirby either: Maybe he's just accepted his lot in life!

Thanks for the correction, Dan, knew I should have double-checked that! I got the feeling Justin was hoping Theo would say no to Valerie moving in, but he turned out to be very enthusiastic for it.Whether Justin has really decided to trust Leah and Theo's judgement or is just keeping his peace for now, I'm not sure. I like that, having apparently accepted that Tane isn't going to change his mind, Felicity is trying to put her money where her mouth is and just be a good friend to him.Harper definitely seems to have been superseded as his go-to person! I'm not saying Felicity's motivation is entirely altruistic, because she probably wants Tane to stick around as well, but she's right that he'd be giving up a lot if he just up and left. A lot of people failing to arrange dates here, with Mali, Dana and Xander all failing to properly think things through. Xander standing in the living area as Dana tries to convince Harper to go on his impromptu date was rather embarrassing and rather funny.

The whole "It's been a while since we last spoke" would definitely seem to rule out Alf or John: I'd think it would be someone that's been gone from the Bay for a few months at least. No, Roo doesn't know, she just knows that Cash does, and she's kept even that much from John. Mackenzie should have a think about why she's getting defensive: For all the "I'm not married" schtick, she knows she's doing the wrong thing. And she's now finding that being "the mistress" isn't all that easy after all, since it involves waiting around for her married lover to make time for her. Tane and Mali both had a go at giving her a dose of common sense, but she's obviously not in the mood so they seem to have given up. I was actually expecting Tane to twist the conversation and make a point at the end, but seems he was genuine about calling a truce. I notice that, even though Mali didn't break her confidence, he didn't do anything to stop Mackenzie blurting it out! That did seem to be a quick turnaround from Valerie, who went from being head shipper on deck for Leah and Justin, to feeling a bit left out now they're making progress.Maybe she expected Leah to need her for longer? She was another one that was rather defensive in response to a few subtle questions from Justin, who definitely looked like he was feeling the odd one out when Leah and Valerie went off together!

Seemed to be some promising progress for Leah and Justin. So...apparently she didn't actually give him an answer when he asked her to move in, given that she just turned up with her bags?! Meanwhile, Mackenzie and Levi seemed to be living in a fantasy and that rather blunt reply to her flirty text may be the reality check she desperately needs. Eden did have the right to make whatever statement she wanted, so I'm glad Cash and Remi kind of cottoned on to that and let her do it. Remi seemed to come round to her way of thinking a bit too quickly but maybe he understood she was just being balanced. So, with Cash admitting he knows who the donor is, are we to assume that's the person he was speaking to on the phone last episode? I've toyed with Dean, Nikau (probably using Bella's money...) and, yes, even Jasmine, but how would any of them know the amount needed? Is there anyone obvious I'm missing who those involved are likely to have spoken to? At least Roo backed down with John a bit, even if she wasn't willing to let him say "I told you so."

I continue to side more with John than Roo, even if John was a bit over the top at times, and I think there was a very good case that Roo was misusing surf club funds to satisfy her personal curiosity.Again, Irene just seemed tired of the whole thing.So I'm glad Roo accepted that she should use her own money if she wants to hire Cash to look into this, and I think it's fair enough that John decided not to splash money about on expensive equipment, because I continue to think that not wanting John to treat money required to make up a shortfall as extra money to play about with was the only valid point Roo was making. I think Remi and particularly Cash were being very unreasonable here.Eden's not saying anything about helping someone get away with something, she just wants to make sure that the responsibility is allocated fairly, for all Cash's claims of lawyers spinning things to let people get away with big crimes with a slap on the wrist. (Yeah, and most of them were members of the regular cast...) I'm glad that, whether they entirely agree with her or not, Felicity and Levi are giving Eden the respect of trusting she knows her own mind. That said, I think Remi is equally within his rights to make a statement from his perspective. One of those daft scenarios where characters act more suspiciously by trying to cover something up they don't need to: It's not like Levi and Mackenzie were in bed or something when Eden showed up, so why not just let her in and say Mackenzie popped round for a chat, rather than hiding her? After many of us were beginning to think we'd imagined Eden referring to Levi leaving his "sisters" when he first showed up, it's nice to get confirmation that, yes, there is two of them. Also glad we got a reminder of Eden growing up in a funeral home, because I was beginning to wonder if this new back story had overwritten it, so thanks for the consistency, show!

Alf's episode count:Suspended. Never has the fact that Cash and Harper both ended up with a chaotic younger sister who's now more responsible but just as chaotic been more obvious: I could just see Xander thinking "Oh boy, not another one" during his first encounter with Dana! Nice to find out that Harper does have a bit of history beyond being a social worker and Dana's sister.Not sure Facebook stalking her ex is an entirely healthy way of dealing with things! I'm assuming, although it's not clear, that this would have been their wedding anniversary? Well, fair play to Levi for at least going to see Remi before his assignation with Mackenzie.Turns out it's not as bad as it looked, he just needs to adjust, I guess.So, it turns out Eden knows Levi's married, which hasn't been clear until now.Good job she does, because Mackenzie and Levi seem to have given up caring.They just seem to be digging themselves a bigger hole now.

Valerie gives Leah and Justin another push and this one seems to have worked out okay, with them deciding to take things slowly (but hopefully it won't take "forever" as Justin suggested!). And we get a bit of back story from Valerie as she opens up to Theo.So, it sounds like she really doesn't have anywhere else to go.Well, I guess she's in the right place:Summer Bay, capital of waifs and strays! Remi is being almost ridiculously stubborn. I guess I should feel some sympathy for the pain he's in but he just seems to be pressing ahead without any real plan.Yeah, Leah being listed as Patterson-Baker, a name she hasn't used since before Eden knew her, was downright weird: I suspect the props department are still using an outdated resource!

Justin did eventually realise that hanging around outside Leah's house wasn't a good look.And just as he's decided to back off and leave things be, Valerie steps in to bring everyone together.It's hard to figure Valerie out at this point:As Theo points out, instead of going home, she's ended up going to see her new friend Leah.Does she not have anywhere else to go?(We get a reference to a death in the family here.) Maybe sorting Leah's life out is all she's got to do at the moment.Of course, it's possible some of it was about spending time with Theo... I can't really blame Justin for not knowing how far to take it at the end, hopefully it's not too big a setback. Quite a lot going on elsewhere.It doesn't say much for either Cash or Roo's investigative abilities that he needs Dana to fill him in on the Hendersons and the significance of the size of the donation...although her career as a detective's plucky girl assistant didn't last very long. (She suggests both Simon and Banjo as the donor so...does that mean they're not?) And then she gets roped in as an advisor by Xander as well! Cash was reading way too much into that hug so it's good that Felicity filled him in and that she seems to have taken a healthy attitude to it all.

Roo continues to try and be as absurd as possible, with even Irene having got fed up of her dog-with-a-bone attitude.She definitely deserved that serve from Rose for pretty much wasting police time with wild suspicions.I'm glad that Cash went and had a word with Rose first and gave her a bit of a pep-talk: I like that their friendship's continuing although I'm not sure what it says for her and Mali that they were unable to communicate.Anyway, it seems Cash is on the case.Hopefully it'll turn out to be a lot of fuss about nothing. Mackenzie spilled the beans to Mali eventually, which he kind of took in his stride.It seemed to add to the tension between him and Rose though: Even Mackenzie grimaced when he made that comment about her finding time to have coffee. Irene tried to give Justin some tough love about stalking out Leah's place of work, but probably didn't intend for him to stake out her house instead.

Roo continued to be utterly ridiculous, dubbing a donation "suspicious" just because she's (irrationally) suspicious of it.Did she really expect the committee to agree with her bizarre argument of "We shouldn't spend an anonymous donation because we don't know who it's from"? About the only sensible thing she said was that the money was needed to cover normal operating costs and John shouldn't be treating it like extra money for them to splash about.Maybe if she'd focused on that, instead of insisting the money shouldn't be spent at all, she might have got a few more takers.I was slightly confused when it was referred to as sponsorship money: How do you sponsor something anonymously? Isn't the idea of a sponsor that their name's plastered over everything? No sympathy for Mackenzie here, how did she think this would end up? She threw herself at a man she knew virtually nothing about, then decided to sleep with him despite knowing he's married to "get it out of our system" (does that ever actually work?). I guess I do respect her for belatedly putting a stop to things. Unfortunately, despite the episode drawing a line under Levi, there's still that feeling that he's a regular now so he'll probably be back. Mali went from enthusiastically celebrating Rose's promotion to sulking about her lack of free time pretty quickly! Even though her pep-talk was a bit lame, I liked Felicity's enthusiasm when first rocking up at Salt: There's always that feeling that Jacqui plays scenes a lot lighter than they might seem on paper and makes her character a lot more likable than she could be.

Alf's episode count this week:Five, for the second week running. Storing them up before this break? You can see the money's being saved elsewhere: Only Marilyn and Justin manage three episodes, and for the second week running there's no sign of Irene at all. I'm actually considering digging out her last appearance to see if there was a line about her going away that I missed. Mackenzie just went from being kind of innocent in all this to not being innocent at all. Frankly, Levi's right that there's no reason for him to tell his patients his marital status, but once Mackenzie kissed him, he really should have clued her in then, not kept coming back for more. Mali's advice seems to have backfired big time. And yeah, I have to agree that for someone just out of hospital, Mackenzie doesn't seem to know the meaning of the words taking it easy. Roo is being utterly ridiculous now. I can understand curiosity but she's looking a gift horse in the mouth and imagining problems that aren't there. If she's going to refuse to spend legitimately donated money, then she's just as big a problem for the surf club as Henderson is. It takes a lot to get Alf and John in agreement but she's managing it. I'm hoping that's not the last we see of Banjo, it's a bit of a sour note to end on if so, for us as well as Dana. I can understand Justin's desperation but he really did have Theo too low down his list of priorities there.

I get his concern, but how did Mali think that "house visits" comment was going to land? Again, I get where Mackenzie's head is even if I don't think it's a very healthy place to be: She's been through a scary experience and become attached to the person that helped her through it. (She's even continuing to make jokes about him being her doctor, so that's clearly at the front of her thoughts.) But what is Levi playing at? Is Mackenzie really so irresistible that he's willing to risk his career and, it now seems, his marriage in order to sneak around with her? Felicity really did assume a lot about that hook-up rather than reading the room and seeing how awkward Tane was. To be fair, Tane did seem to be sending out mixed messages, especially with that comment on the rings. In the circumstances, I guess getting away and putting some space between them isn't the worst idea. Roo was lucky Tane and Felicity were likely to agree to just about anything to get out of that meeting! This new surf club triumvirate is at least giving us an alternative to Alf and John butting heads. So, $30,000 donation. Am I barking up the wrong tree to wonder if Banjo might have made it to make up for the trouble his father's caused?

Maybe. If I thought it was true. Awkwardness abounds between Tane and Felicity, from their small-talk at the start, to her not being sure whether or not to say anything later and settling for an awkward smile and walking away grimacing. I was actually quite enjoying Dana being the irritating little sister, although she didn't really think the consequences through: That said, neither did Harper! (Not really any reason for Dana to close her eyes except so she couldn't see Felicity right there?) I did like Felicity's low-key reaction but in the end...her and Tane falling back into old patterns of behaviour? I don't think it was Kirby's place at all to tell Remi about Bree's family and she's lucky it didn't blow up more than it did. Similarly, Remi lurching out into the corridor to prove a point is likely to have done more harm than good. I was glad Alf pulled Marilyn back into line and stopped her scheming to get Leah and Justin back together: They need to sort this out themselves. I must admit I'd completely forgotten about the surf club losing the sponsorship money and had to check back to find out what Alf was talking about when he talked about losing $30,000! I guess that's the secret Dana's been told?

Cash might be prepared to paint on a smile and insist he's happy for Rose but he wasn't fooling anyone, least of all her. I do like that they remain friends throughout all this and at least she gave him a reasonable pointer in the right direction, which is probably a good thing since he just seemed to want to sit around and wait for someone to tell him what comes next. Leah's friend seems nice enough: I can't quite tell if she's meant to be younger than Leah or not, given that Leah's in good shape for her age! It wasn't the most sensitive for Leah to go and see Justin and then pretty much refuse to discuss anything. I don't want to be suspicious of what Valerie did to end up in a clinic for eight months: She's apparently well enough to be discharged, it should be immaterial. But it's a soap, so it's probably going to come out at some point! Bree is still playing guard dog with regards Remi's friends visiting him, but to be fair, she does seem to be going along with the treatment plan and trying to get him well again rather than keeping him in a bubble. Have we heard much about her parents before? Seems like it's not something she wants to deal with either way.

Not a surprise that Rose got offered Cash's rank: What else were they going to do, offer it to one of the extras? I wondered if that news has crystallised Cash's thoughts at a point where he seemed to be indecisive about whether to accept the reduced rank or not. I think both Xander and Rose made good points: Xander chose to get out of that sort of career and seems happy enough, but Cash has made an impulsive choice that he may come to regret. Elsewhere, Rose seemed rather embarrassed at how ineffective she was where Simon Henderson was concerned, getting out of there quick sharp when Alf drily commented on him being above the law.About the only good thing is that, now people are asking questions, he might be a bit more reluctant to throw his "gifts" around.Of course, he may feel the damage is already done. Theo did rather resemble a ping pong ball here with Justin and Leah sending him back and forth between them, so it's probably for the best that Leah's decided to take the bull by the horns at the end.

Alf's episode count this week: Five! Possibly to make up for this, the only characters to make three were Marilyn, Justin, Eden and Levi...and now it's Irene's turn to not appear at all! (Did I miss another line?) I really hope Rose actually followed up on that call to Simon and didn't let Kirby monopolise her for the rest of the afternoon.(Good intentions, Kirby, but really not a matter of life and death.)She even turns up at the surf club later on, but instead of giving Alf and John an update, she just decides to play irritating big sister to Xander.It seems she may have spooked Simon given his response: Is this his last shot before withdrawing or is there more to come? Roo getting herself semi-officially signed up is the first sensible thing anyone's done about this. Felicity really shouldn't have listened to Eden: There's a big difference between drawing a line under a broken marriage and rushing straight to another guy for "fun". (Which...has never really been Felicity's thing anyway? Certainly not for a long time?) The chats between her and Xander were interesting: Felicity's been doing quite the apology tour recently, and she's right that they've always been colleagues rather than friends, with both of them preferring to go to Mackenzie for anything personal. This may have changed...but hopefully it is just friends, for all Rose's eyebrow wriggling. I can't remember how long ago I first said that, with Rose here, they don't really need Cash to be the resident police officer anymore. Apparently he's decided the same thing? A bit throwing his toys out of the pram but there you go.

Dana to the rescue again, solving the mystery while Alf is grumbling about the state of fishing. Is it going to be as simple as that? Putting a stop to Simon's sabotage would help but they still don't seem to be doing anything about putting the committee back together.I'm not sure whether John's encouragement to Banjo was genuine or just brown-nosing. Mali spells out to Mackenzie why her dalliance with Levi is daft but she apparently still thinks a bit of fun is worth opening up a can of worms, prompting him to give up and back off.The girls' day was okay and I continue to enjoy seeing Felicity in a positive frame of mind, but Eden telling her to date again seems way premature.