Red Ranger 1

Okay, I can get Mackenzie. She's got a handsome doctor who's been a bit more attentive towards her than he should have been and she probably needs a distraction. But what the hell's in this for Levi? Is Mackenzie really that irresistible that he's willing to risk his career and possibly his home life to cop off with her? (From his phone call it's clear someone lives with him: Maybe a daughter, maybe a partner.) As Mali says, no-one's going to be fooled by her being out of his care for a matter of hours before he rocked up at her house evidently prepared to sleep with her. There doesn't even seem to be any real connection between them, they just fancy each other. Does Mackenzie really want to risk all that hassle for the sake of a bit of lust? Justin took a while to get the message that Leah didn't want to come with him but backed down fairly easily in the end.At least Leah has some sort of plan now, even if it's a rather vague one: Get fully recovered (whatever that means), then worry about sorting things with Justin. The surf club stuff is a bit confusing: Do they not have any procedure for replacing committee members that resign? Or is the idea that there's no longer enough members left to appoint replacements? In which case, they really should have started looking into it when the first ones went...

Marilyn might have got a bit prissy about Alf breaking Leah's confidence, but it wasn't really fair for Leah to have put him in that position without even having the decency to ask him to his face, which she kind of understood when he explained to her. (I did love Marilyn being sent out of the room to let the grown-ups talk!) Justin did stick to the rules...for about a day.He may have been satisfied with Alf simply passing his letter on, but given that he went to the house rather than handing it to him in the Diner or something, he was probably hoping Leah would jump out at the sound of his voice.If so, that may have backfired.I'm finding Leah's logic a bit lacking.She says she couldn't bear it if she hurt Justin, but what's her solution? Never see him again? Bree's behaviour becomes more and more controlling as she issues a stark warning to Kirby.If she doesn't pull it back soon, I think someone should probably have a word with the hospital hierarchy about just how appropriate she's being.Whilst I don't think her intentions are anywhere near as sinister, I do wonder how much of what she's doing is behaviour she observed from Jacob. Tane and Harper deciding not to be friends for an episode kind of feels like a way of giving them something to do this week.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that Tane's so short of friends he's reduced to confiding in his soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law! To be fair to him, he's simply giving Harper what she said she wanted, and if Harper's changed her mind, she should say so.(Dana's suggestion that she let Tane use her for rebound sex is not to be recommended though!) It didn't take Alf long to fill in Justin, although despite what Marilyn said, I don't think he ever actually made a promise to Leah.From the sounds of that phone conversation, it seems Roo is in town, we're just not seeing her? Bree continues her campaign to be the most annoying character on the show at the moment.She refuses to admit she might have been wrong about Levi and is now taking it upon herself to obsessively protect Remi instead of letting people do their job.

Allf's episode count this week:Four. Roo didn't appear at all: Did I miss a line explaining she was somewhere else? Tane's mixed messages continued, at least to start with. I'm not sure he really needed to follow Felicity again, but at least it led to them having a chat and him admitting that this was about more than her messing up and he hadn't been honest about what he wanted.Somehow, unless one of them's leaving soon, I still can't quite believe that that's it, even though they seem to have been left in a place where they can't get back together without one of them doing something they don't want.Tane making a move on Harper was a pretty self-destructive moment.I remember him trying to hook up with Mackenzie on the rebound once, and it's not really the best way to keep a friendship! Xander maybe had a point about Harper needing to protect herself. In amongst all the angsting, I can understand Marilyn and Alf not wanting to trick Leah or whatever, but has no-one bothered to ring the clinic and ask them if it's okay for Justin to send her a letter? Is it just partners who are banned from contact? Bree is becoming more and more irritating. Maybe I should be more sympathetic but she needs to be either a doctor or a girlfriend and stop throwing her weight around and thinking she knows better than those who are more objective.

Ah yes, that's right, I'd forgotten.

If Mackenzie wasn't keen on being the centre of attention, then she didn't really get her wish, what with everyone crowding around her and Levi making her the focus of his speech! Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind and was touched by what everyone had done and how much they cared.Of course, she seems to have decided they care a bit too much, as, after he's basically annoyed her into going, she decides to plant a kiss on Levi, who took his time pulling away.Well there's an ethical minefield for them.(In fact, the situation's pretty clear-cut: He met her as her doctor and, for all the socialising and mutual acquaintances, that's what he still is.) Theo might as well have said "Hey, you remember this time last year when Remi and Eden were out of action after the season cliffhangers? Well..." There was an odd moment when he talked about those that couldn't be there and Irene leaned over and patted John on the hand: It felt like it was meant to signify something but I can't think of anyone close to John it could be referring to. Gina?! That was some definite mixed messages from Tane. As Felicity said, why would he follow her? I get that he cares but it was just likely to make things worse. Okay, being fair on him, maybe he didn't know why she left. Despite what some write-ups suggested, he seemed to spend very little time with Harper at the event. Weren't he and Felicity actually sat at the same table earlier on? I can see why Justin would feel hurt that Marilyn's heard from Leah and he hasn't, but what good did he think ringing up the clinic and losing his rag would do? It takes Alf to point out that if Marilyn's written to Leah maybe he should try doing the same.

Could it have been a hire car?

The story of what happened to Remi and Eden seems to be slowly filtering around the Bay: Ironically, Levi is one of the last to get the full story, which seemed to be a bit of a jolt for him! Well, he and Eden talked without it descending into shouting, slammed doors and insults, so I guess that's progress of a sort. Nice to get a rare reference to Mackenzie's other siblings.I think she knows that her friends care about her, but I guess she's not entirely comfortable about being put on display.There's a certain irony that she left hospital when Levi told her not to and doesn't want to go when he tells her she can! This fundraiser is happening awfully quickly? It's only a week or so ago our time that Xander first mentioned it, goodness knows how long it's been in-story, probably only a couple of days or so! John was good value with his trying to wrangle a discount from the charity event and then denying he'd do such a thing, along with a few other choice remarks which didn't help things but were entertaining nonetheless.

Yeah, I meant to comment on Remi being described as in his 20s. I assume that was a guess by the paramedics, since they'd have stated his exact age if they knew it.Bree seemed to get less and less professional as the episode went on: She had a point about getting proper scans done of Remi rather than making assumptions about the full extent of his condition, but even though Levi's kept him alive, she's still determined to blame him for everything and has now given Eden (who isn't exactly slow to see the worst of Levi) an incredibly slanted version of events.It feels like she needs someone to be angry at, and since the people who actually caused Remi's injuries are out of her reach in lock-up, Levi will do. I notice he's now listed as a regular, so I guess Eden and Bree will both have to get used to him being around. Cash did well to spot the bracelet but it was some good old-fashioned police work from Rose while he just looked blankly at her that put the pieces together, and not a moment too soon since Wes seemed pretty keen to carry out his plan to get rid of Eden.Since this is probably the last we'll see of our season cliffhanger antagonists, I'll mention here that the guy that played Mickey was previously John's counsellor when he was dealing with repressed memories of his father's death back in 2017! I wasn't expecting Eden to collapse at the end:Exhaustion/malnutrition or something more sinister? Mackenzie was fine with the news of the fundraiser despite Mali's concerns, but seems less keen with the idea of leaving hospital.I liked her scenes with Mali where they discuss their quasi-sibling relationship and she points out the number of people whose advice she ignored. And Levi even managed to refrain from sniping at the mention of Xander, so I guess that's progress!

I'm guessing we're 8 weeks behind in terms of when this episode was shown, but thanks to the vagaries of Channel 7's schedule, Channel 5 is 41 episodes behind the Oz broadcasts, which is slightly more than 8 weeks. This will, of course, fluctuate wildly during the course of the year. So, yep, Remi isn't dead, which is pretty much the only good news, especially since he's not exactly fighting fit.Despite the randomness, the peril is actually being handled quite well, with Eden in a fairly powerless position, only able to beg and plead to get what she wants (and leave a bit of a clue).The cast was fairly small, with Alf just getting a one-scene cameo to reassure people that he's still on the show, meaning we don't really get to see many people's reaction to what's happened to Remi and Eden. Cash has done the right thing in calling for help, but unfortunately they're barking up completely the wrong tree in assuming Eden is just lying somewhere waiting to be found rather than having been kidnapped. I did quite like Tane and Felicity continuing to be amicable. Tane talking to Bree and Dana was a bit random, but I guess he is helping organise the fundraiser.

I assume the role was played by a pair of twins, standard practice with a character that age because of restrictions on how long an infant can work and the chances of one of them misbehaving when it's time to do a take. (These days, NSW child labour laws have been tightened up so much that there seem to be dozens of different babies playing infant characters!) The lack of a surname is a bit more of a puzzler: Maybe their parents wanted privacy so asked for their surname to be left off?

Interesting idea, nice to see a fiction with older characters.

To be fair, I don't think there was ever any formal diagnosis of dementia and it's possible being in a less stressful environment helped. And he did have Sally and Shannon there, so he wasn't running the house completely single-handed. But yeah, he did seem to get more clear-headed with every appearance!

I've always said the problem with Sally was that they made her deputy principal way too quickly, when she'd only been a teacher a couple of years or so. By the time she made principal, she'd served under about three different principals and been acting principal more than once, so it felt like a natural career progression and probably long overdue.She hadn't been a student there for the best part of a decade, some of the comments on here seem to imply the students were only a couple of years younger than her!

It was pretty much entirely ignored apart from a throwaway remark about her having problems with her first pregnancy. I don't know if we're meant to assume medicine had moved on in the intervening years?

Thanks for the info. Not too long ago this would have affected me, but I'm still watching in the evenings on 5Star, which remains unchanged. I was thinking ahead to my week off next month, then I realised that's the week after the show goes off air for Christmas: I didn't realise how close it was!

I guess Jake's return in 6041 is an option.

That matches pretty much exactly what happened last year, when the UK went on a break on Friday 18th November and returned on Monday 2nd January. I'm reluctant to make predictions because a lot of things happen that I don't see coming, but I would be very very surprised if Channel 5 chose to get the blocks out of synch in order to big up the First Look showing. I seem to remember going into a panic a few years back about them doing something like that, when the blocks ended up out of synch following Prince Philip's death, but they did it right. Even Hollyoaks has kept the blocks on the main channel up until the point it was dropped.

I thought Neighbours was going to be dropped daily? (Or four days a week anyway.)

I didn't realise they were changing the blocks. I guess the equivalent is Home and Away dropping the sole remaining Channel 5 showing and having the 6pm 5Star showing be the "main" one. I do think Hollyoaks was a bit ahead of the pack, since for several months now they've been dropping the week's episodes online on Monday, meaning even the E4 "First Look" showings have become secondary.Home and Away has moved slightly in that direction by having episodes available online as soon as they're shown on 5Star in the 6.30pm slot. I must admit, I've been watching the show on 5Star at 6pm for the last few weeks thanks to changes in my working hours and not really thought that much about the fact it's not the main channel.

I guess Shane and Angel are the big one. I know Dieter Brummer was desperate to get out of there by the end, but it feels like Angel could have just left with him. She was gone within a few months anyway, and the show had to find another character for her to go off into the sunset with, who seemed a nice enough chap and all but viewers would probably have rather seen her stay with the guy she had three years of history with.

I could probably be here all day but: Aden and Nicole-It seemed to be set up when she first came in and they were always close and finally got together just before he left, but instead he got a miserable exit while she hung around for another year or so and, while I appreciate the show giving her a happy ending, it never felt her and Angelo would last...and they didn't! Maddy and Oscar-Incredibly sweet together, the first person the other went to when in a jam, and left just a few weeks apart, but instead of a happy ending, they got killed and maimed after being subjected to a terrible break-up that required a lot of leaps of logic and out of character behaviour. VJ and Billie-Built up well, ideally suited for a young family unit, and instead all the potential got thrown away with the short-sighted decision to kill her off.She could have stuck around for another few months for them to leave together, and we'd have been spared some of the borderline insulting storylines we got instead. Heath and April-I ummed and ahhed a bit about this one, but it always felt like they married the wrong people. April actually seemed to like Heath in a way Bianca never really did, and Heath brought out a lively and playful side to April in contrast to the downtrodden and needy person she was with Dexter. (I have to echo Nick and Jade as well. They are definitely near the top of my list of "Characters who got back together off screen in my head".)

There was a period about a year in where Tom and Pippa were down to just Sally and Steven as foster children, although Carly moved back in pretty quickly and was in and out for the rest of her time on the show.

They were halfway through taking Sophie on at the time. After that, I guess it would be Tracey Turner? I misread that as Sally's first day at school for a second! That would be 928. Her name was Tara and no, we'd never seen her before.

What?! I know there's some countries where it's legal and possibly even encouraged in some cases (it's how the old continental royal families ended up so in-bred), but I didn't realise Australia was one of them! First cousins in legal in the UK, with certain exceptions, so I've never been bothered by that, but aunt/uncle/niece/nephew definitely isn't.