Red Ranger 1

I did smile a bit at Tane pretty much forgetting Harper was there and focusing on the baby.I might actually be softening towards them a bit, since I didn't find them too bad there, but just because they managed to have a conversation when they tried their hardest, it doesn't change the fact that they wouldn't be together without the baby. Dana seemed to be focusing on that because it saved her from catastrophising over her long distance relationship. It is a shame that Xander cancelled their first weekend together but John had a point that she needs to be able to manage for longer than that. It seems everything's forgiven with Bree then, with Roo getting a taste of her own medicine by getting railroaded by Remi here. Of course, Roo can't just be straight with Alf, she has to come up with an over-complicated plan that even left John and Justin groaning. After all that desperation to rehearse, Remi ends up sending Theo away so he can enjoy Bree's carnal delights...

Well, Theo noticed Kirby's photo had been altered instantly as well, so kudos to him. He and Eden did their best to perk Kirby up, but I guess when you're down like that, nobody can give the confidence back to you. A shame that it seems to have scuppered Remi's hard work. I must admit I rather enjoyed seeing Lyrik perform again, and I liked Rose trying to give them encouragement while doing her job. Alf's idea to set up a bait shop in the caravan park is a good one but it wasn't long before Roo was doing her usual thing of taking over. So, are Marilyn and Bree all good now or something? Last time we saw them together, they were still being stand-offish, but they were positively friendly there! Although people abuse it horribly these days and refer to "one month anniversaries", the dictionary definition of the word is "the date when a specific event occurred in a previous year". Yes, it was January 2024 Oz time.

Tim says he hasn't had a relationship with a client and Nerida says he did, and we don't really know either of them well enough to tell which (if either) of them is telling the truth. But we know he behaved badly with Abigail, so frankly it's only fair she submits a complaint, even if Cash railroaded her into it somewhat. It was a bit of a slap in the face for Cash to hear Abigail describe his motives for going after Tim so dismissively while he's trying to pretend he's being noble and good rather than arrogant and controlling. Kirby gets a slap in the face that definitely wasn't deserved but it's nice that her friends rallied round her. It's a shame it's taken the shine off something that both she and Mali were looking forward to, they may end up wishing they'd never gone to that ad agency. It was a nice touch that Eden instantly realised the photo had been altered. Remi, as he said, wasn't really paying attention, and while his problems are more minor in comparison, he was obviously about to snap. I was wondering how the heck Levi decided this was his and Mackenzie's anniversary and wondered if it was meant to be the anniversary of when they first met but nope, he thinks it's the anniversary of the fundraiser event when they had their first kiss. Er, patently not, since we're still on the same season as that: In terms of the Oz broadcast, it was only ten months earlier!

The bottle shop did cross my mind but I'd largely ruled it out, but yeah, that may be what I was thinking of when I thought Alf had run three bait shops. At this point, I'm still not sure I trust either Cash or Tim. Frankly, for all Eden's attempts to invert it, Tim might make a more convincing innocent party if he did report Cash, and it's hard to take his claims he'd never sleep with a client seriously when he's pretty much one step away from it already.On the other hand, Cash is quite clearly delusional and it does feel like he's using Abby.His shutting down Rose demonstrates that he's only interested in listening to people that agree with him.Eden rushing round to pressure Abigail was a spectacularly bad idea which always had the chance of pushing her closer to Cash. Alf's new lease of life didn't last long then.By the sound of things, the landlord's rent increase may not have been as unreasonable as they all thought. That's a pretty high-handed thing for the ad company to do with Kirby and Mali.Does it not occur to them that if the clients pick out a photo to use, that's the photo they want used?

Alf's episode count this week:Four. It's hard not to see Eden as someone caught between two pretty awful suitors, to the point I was pretty relieved that she seemed to kick them both into touch here. Cash is a complete nutcase at this point, whose grasp on reality is bordering on non-existent, but Tim comes across as fairly slimy and selfish as well. Just how long was Tim's car parked outside the Lyrik house for him to have only just noticed his glove box had been tampered with? (I should probably look at what the timescale of the last few episodes has been but it seems like an eternity ago that Tane was dragging Cash out of there.) Cash has been looking for dirt and he thinks he's found it, but he's only been hearing what he wants to for a while now and he's certainly jumping to conclusions by calling it a "pattern of behaviour". On the other hand, while Tim pleads innocence, he seemed to quickly deduce who Cash was talking about, so it seems like there's a story there. To be frank, Eden probably could have questioned him in a more diplomatic manner which didn't help. Tim's solution of going and picking a fight with Cash doesn't exactly make him seem the calm and rational type: Cash has done more than enough to get reported, so why do this? Rose really does have her hands full dealing with that kindergarten. Elsewhere, John seems to have given Alf the kick up the behind that he needed and even got a grudging thank you out of it. Marilyn did seem to be being a bit melodramatic about Alf moving. I thought someone else was going to chime in on Alf's bait shop history. My instinct is that he's had three of them: He ran one back in the 90s with Jesse, which got burnt down around 1999. This current one next to the third Diner was set up in 2008 (the year the current Diner first appeared) and he was originally meant to be running it with Ric. I feel like there was one in between but I can't remember any details so I might be imagining it...

That was a pretty swift exit from Xander, and a pretty involved one as well with the show making a point of giving him moments with Dana, Rose and Mackenzie. A reference to Jasmine would have been nice when Xander and Rose were talking about how Summer Bay has been the making of them, but you can't expect miracles, I guess. It was nice to see Dana's softer side come out again with her support of Xander and her chat with Mackenzie about Abigail, and then her and Rose keeping each other company. Well, it seems we're having a trial for Lyrik's second/third/fourth/whatever coming anyway, with Theo agreeing to sign up for a month. I guess a lot will depend on the workload and what they can do in that time. I wasn't expecting Alf and Roo to give up so easily at a few grumpy online comments.John seemed to be running around with his halo on, giving a despondent Alf an unexpected pep-talk.

Abigail wavered but didn't give in, although she probably would have done if she'd had drugs readily to hand. It was nice to see Dana showing her caring side to someone who isn't Harper, John or occasionally Xander, and making use of her own history to have some insight into Abigail's mental process. Eden, after years of cutting Levi out of her life, suddenly finds herself the outsider in the family. Remi got given the opportunity to ask some pertinent questions but isn't going to tell her what to do. Bree decides not to go back to work yet, which is probably for the best. I'm still not all that keen on her refusing to tell anyone other than Remi the truth. Roo's being rather dogmatic about Alf needing to keep the bait shop, but having been dragged back there, I guess she needs something to do.

I'm sure Abby's name will continue to be misspelt all over the internet, given that the correct spelling was confirmed last year and it wasn't enough to stop it. Well, the right choice for Theo it seems, but not really for Abigail. She did look very different from her usual casual attire dressed up for her date, shame it went to waste. Justin did seem to be pushing Theo down a certain path, even if the final choice was left up to him.Of course, the ending suggests he may have a point, since it seems Abigail isn't above temptation (and the promo suggests it goes even further). It didn't really occur to me that Kirby was breaking a confidence but she was kind of put on the spot. For all his promises to Tane and Harper, Cash is continuing being stalkery, although he seems to be just on the right side of the law this time. Or maybe not, given that phone call. But he seemed to be using his personal laptop for things that are publicly accessible rather than the police computer, which he could have probably done just as easily at the library rather than insisting on doing it in front of the police. Alf and Marilyn's scenes felt very much like them needing to fill their episode quotas somehow.

I pointed out last year that we saw Abby's name written down in a text message but ho-hum, maybe people will remember this one. So it turns out Cash didn't know about Tane and Harper, but he's too busy being a crazy jealous ex to care, because apparently Tane can move on but Eden can't. It's hard to tell whether Cash has even the slightest point here, given that Tim's not exactly a saint and it's hard to tell whether he was deliberately putting Cash's buttons or not. But he's still coming across a lot better than Cash, who really is all kinds of ridiculous. Even if the constant insistence that Tim makes Eden happy feels like a case of "Tell don't show", it's none of Cash's business and he needs to process the fact that Tane is being more level-headed than him. Remi was being more than a little presumptuous.His intentions were good (and I was amused that he had the self-awareness to exclude Tim from his "You people are the ones that make my life happy" speech), but while Eden will probably be happy to ditch Salt, both Kirby and Theo actually quite like their day jobs and the people they have them with. Bree was being a hypocrite in turning down Remi's money after sneering at him last episode for not wanting it, but I guess she backed down quickly. No Leah at the party, even though they said she was coming last episode, and Theo didn't get there until after the big announcement. Maybe he wasn't available for the exterior scenes. I can see where Justin's coming from, but Kirby is right that this is a different situation: Valerie was fully embracing the drug lifestyle and encouraging Theo to do the same, whilst Abigail's in recovery and trying to stay clean. Still, Justin's not the first person to question whether they're in the right place for a relationship, and he's the first without an agenda.

I realise I might be letting my personal feelings cloud my judgement but I have a hard time believing Harper would ever be Tane's first choice. If you look at everyone he's ever had serious feelings for, not just Felicity but Mackenzie and Ziggy too, Harper doesn't really seem like his type, he's always preferred women with a bit more life to them, and I don't think Ari dying has changed that. I'd venture to say that, if Felicity was still an option, I'm not sure he'd be with Harper even with the baby as an incentive. Alf's episode count this week:Three. Well, Rose and Remi both did their best to pull Cash into line but stalkerish is definitely the word. His insistence that he's protecting Eden seems completely delusional, and I'm glad Remi well and truly called him out for messing her about and still acting like he has a say in how she lives her life. He's actually managing to make Tim look like the better option and it's not like Tim or Eden have done anything to be proud of, for all the show trying to build them up. I actually had quite a bit of empathy for Remi here.I'm very aware that I'm comfortably well off (if nothing like a millionaire!) for reasons that have nothing to do with me and everything to do with the family I was born into. I felt that Bree's "poor little rich kid" jibe was a reminder that, mental health issues or not, she's not actually a very nice person, so I don't know why Remi ended up apologising to her. So, Alf may be losing the bait shop for all his bluster. Kirby's found herself in the awkward position of being a kind of mutual agony aunt to Abigail's two suitors.It was typically tone deaf of Mali to insist you can't just switch off your feelings to the woman he apparently did just that with!

I'm guessing they're having Cash go off the deep end again in order to make Eden look sympathetic, because while Cash doesn't have any reason for playing the victim, Abigail most certainly does. Eden and Tim definitely deserved both those serves she gave them, and Eden's "No conflict of interests now, right?" attitude was rather self-serving. I can understand them wanting to make sure she was okay, but on balance, rocking up at Abigail's place wasn't a bright idea.Meanwhile, Mali finds himself caught in a lie. I can understand him not wanting to tell Theo the real reason he lied, but it feels like he doubled down on it by trying to manipulate Theo into staying away from Abigail instead of backing off and accepting it's her decision who she wants to spend time with.It fell flat anyway, because she went straight to Theo after her latest run-in. Rose was debating whether she could discipline Cash not so long ago and now she gets to find out.Pulling Tim over for a driving offence is petty but not crossing the line.(Incidentally, Abby tells Eden that it was Cash who told her about her and Tim, when in fact it was Kirby that decided to open her mouth in public and blow the whole thing wide open.But I guess Eden needed to find out Cash knew somehow!) Now, however, Cash is hurtling over the line, still acting as though breaking up with Eden was somehow him doing something noble and self-sacrificing, and ignoring the fact that he's the one that wrecked Eden's life and snatched her future away from her for spurious reasons. I'm not too impressed with Tim either, but there's no doubt that Cash has treated Eden worse than he has.

Middle Adam was pretty much over the line!

Cash really was having a laugh here and I'm glad Mackenzie carefully pointed out to him just how ridiculous it was.Mind you, it seemingly didn't stop him having another go, only to find out Eden isn't sitting around pining for him after all.(Cash and Tane seem to have a time share arrangement on the house at the moment.No indication whether or not Cash knows about Tane and Harper.) Not that Eden's any sort of saint of course, and it's dumb for her to be going back there.I'm not sure why Tim's being given a load of pats on the back for solving a problem that he caused in the first place or why anyone's taking his claim to have wanted to do the right thing seriously. I guess Levi was backed into a corner despite really not liking Tim. Mali definitely crossed a line lying to Theo about Abby. Er, I guess at least he felt bad about it?

Alf’s intervention didn’t really have the desired effect with John and Dana but Roo seemed to have better luck. I guess offering John free food was a definite advantage, probably coupled with part of him actually wanting to make up with Dana. I think it had gone on long enough and I liked the reaffirmation of the fact that the show’s elder statesmen have become surrogate parents to the younger characters. So Tane and Harper have decided to do the “relationship thing”. At the moment it feels like it’s got disaster written all over it, and I guess it remains to be seen whether it’s Tane or the show that’s desperate for him to be in a prominent couple again and has just grabbed onto the nearest available candidate. At best, it feels like a case of “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” I’m glad that even Alf and Roo, who tend to indulge her a bit too much at times, thought Marilyn was making a mountain out of a molehill. (Roo’s still playing catch-up, of course, which was a nice touch.) I’m not sure why Marilyn was looking so triumphant at the end: Yes, Leah told the truth and it wasn’t a disaster, but nothing’s really changed aside from Marilyn’s conscience being clear. I get where Levi’s coming from, thinking about how Abby (yes, H&Alover, it’s the one you didn’t include!) was just a short time ago. But he really needs to stop pushing the issue and give Abigail the room to make her own decisions, even if it means her making a mistake. I’d have thought him going into a panic about her going out early only to find it was nothing to worry about would have been a wake-up call, but he’s still pushing, and I’m not sure Mackenzie going down to double team her really helped.

I kind of want John and Dana to make up, because I do like their friendship, but I wasn't keen on Xander piling in with a "Get over it", even if John's response of rostering them apart was a bit much.No wonder Alf was thrown; John was being even more grumpy than him rather than being his usual smiling punchbag. I guess we'll see if Alf's intervention worked out. I was scratching my head at Remi and Bree being drafted in as confidantes for Tane and Harper.At least Bree sensibly handed the baton over to Dana, but with Cash not in the episode, Tane's a bit short of friends.I guess Tane and Remi had a bit of a connection through Felicity and Lyrik, but I really am struggling to remember Bree and Harper having a conversation except for when Bree gave her an ultrasound. Anyway, they're soon back to their own problems. If I was Remi, I'd have made more sure Bree actually does see a counsellor this time, rather than shrugging it off in a "Storyline's over" manner. It felt like even the writers have given up paying attention to Tane and Harper.As far as I can remember, Harper has always gone along with Tane's "just friends" stance, meaning despite his claims to the contrary, he basically just tried to have sex with someone he doesn't even know has been practising writing "Harper Parata" on her pencil case (or would have done if anyone in this show ever used their married name). Harper then says she's been honest with him about how she feels, leaving me thinking I'd forgotten something, only to promptly admit to Dana that she hasn't. Anyway, that scenes with the photos painfully underlined the fact Tane doesn't love her: Felicity's dead, his family are either dead or in other countries, the baby's all he's got left and he's desperately trying to solidify his position with the woman who happens to be carrying it in a painfully unromantic "Let's give it a go" fashion.

I think I'm right in saying that the UK soaps are reducing episodes for budget reasons rather than viewing habits. Unless I've missed a lot, Home and Away seems to be doing surprisingly well in that department. Anyway, I think, in the streaming era, watching multiple episodes of a series in one go is how a lot of people watch shows!

I did think of that, but to be fair, he wasn't meant to be completely illiterate, so I think he could manage a note with two simple words on it. (And the "I'm sorry" note in particular was badly punctuated, with no apostrophe and a capital S.)

Alf's episode count this week:Three. Well, things definitely moved fast between Perri and Kaia there, but I guess being faced with the prospect of Kaia disappearing forever forced Perri to confront what he actually wanted.I get that Kaia's way of handling things meant leaving Perri in danger, but he'd potentially have been in even more danger if she'd stayed or taken him with her.At least this way they've both made it through to the other side, and Carl's taken the life they both wanted away from them for too many years already.So yeah, maybe they deserve this. Of course, they couldn't leave it there and you could just smell the desperation on Tane when he made a move on Harper.(Let's face it, he has to be desperate to make a move on her.)With Perri gone, she and the baby are all he's got left in the Bay and he's throwing himself at them even though he'd never view her in that light if she wasn't pregnant. John probably could have explained things better to Dana before they got to this point but yeah, there was no need for her to go on the attack like that (and she promptly tries to blame it on Xander, who fortunately took it on the chin).People forget John's got feelings sometimes and her words obviously hurt him, but I do hope they get over it quickly. Not sure what to make of Leah's deception with Justin. I do think his ego's fragile enough that he'd have been anything less than pleased at her finding the rings, so it was ever so slightly patronising of Leah to make him out to be the hero. Marilyn certainly didn't seem too happy about it. I wasn't remotely surprised that Alf apologised to Bree for Roo (especially given Roo's not in the episode to defend herself, I'd forgotten she tends to be in less episodes than most of the mainstays), but I was disappointed in him all the same. There's still the feeling that Bree's doing the bare minimum to handle the situation, giving an evasive "I wish I could tell you", when she actually could tell people, and she only isn't out of selfishness.

At this point, I have to wonder what the show thinks it's doing with Bree.Whilst there can be no doubt that she's better than she was a few weeks ago, she still isn't taking any responsibility beyond genuine but inadequate apologies.Her hiding in the garden like a coward while Remi enables her by acting like her bodyguard and then going behind her back to play on Alf's sympathies in order to stop Roo taking the appropriate steps isn't solving anything.She's still running away from anything approaching responsibility or consequences.I was nodding in agreement with Roo throughout.Whilst the whole "she took leave rather than be suspended" thing still makes no sense when she was already suspended, the hospital do need to make sure that nothing like this happens again, and Bree claiming she's not ashamed of her diagnosis and then going out of her way to hide it from everyone, including colleagues and superiors who need to know what the problem is in order to help her manage it, with a selfish "it'd hurt my career" justification, really isn't showing her in a good light. The problem with Dana is she just doesn't know when to stop, literally. John doesn't help himself by responding with quips and meaningless comments (although I did like him checking with Mackenzie that she doesn't think Dana's right), but Dana just charged in all guns blazing, saying things she might have meant in the heat of the moment but will probably regret later. Well, despite Mackenzie tag teaming with Kirby on being obsessed with Abigail's love life, at least things with her and Mali seem to have been sorted painlessly.

I was impressed with Abigail here. When we got that first scene of Mackenzie and Mali talking about how better things are at home, I was expecting Mackenzie to walk into Abby being back to snapping at everyone and sulking, but instead she seems to be handling it maturely and putting on a brave face. Still, it's good that Mali broke down the barriers and convinced her to accept help, even with Tim stoking her abandonment issues. So, last episode we had Kirby deciding that Theo likes Abby, and this episode we have Mackenzie deciding that Mali likes her: I'm not sure anyone saw that love triangle coming! Alf tearing strips off Marilyn should happen more often, if she was trying to do the right thing, but ironically it turns out she made the right call. Five minutes of Roo being back and Alf's already opening up. To be fair, Alf went from initial scare to complications to crisis to on the road to recovery so fast that there was no way Roo would have made it back in time even if they had called her.It was inevitable she was going to find out about Bree's screw-up eventually. Rose continued to be on eggshells around Cash but I was pleased that he made the same point I did: She's never been afraid to bawl him out when she thinks he's doing things wrong before, so she just needs to stop being self-conscious and get on with it. Hopefully her finally calling him "Constable" is a step in the right direction.

Well, I can understand Levi not being happy with Tim but I don't see how coward punching him was the best way to handle it.He got his point across a lot better when he switched to using words, noting that Eden was scared of Abigail finding out.Eden did the right thing putting a stop to things but Tim ditching Abigail as a client helped no-one, except maybe covering his back if the true comes out.It leaves Abby upset and at a disadvantage and it means she's got even more reason to turn on Eden when/if the truth comes out. Rose seems to be struggling with how to handle Cash.I thought she was just being nice at first but it's got to the point where he thinks he deserves a rollicking and she can't give it to him.I guess she still thinks of him as someone senior...which is ironic, given that when he was her superior, she didn't have a problem being blunt with him when the situation called for it! Theo and Perri did get to chat but Theo stayed nicely neutral.At least it's been enough to convince Perri not to close the door completely.I notice that neither Harper nor Kaia, who only appeared in the opening scene, were credited so presumably that was moved from the previous episode, although goodness only knows what the cliffhanger was meant to be.

It was Jane that tracked Kaia down, having heard she was alive from a social worker at a refuge she stayed at. Remember, Kaia didn't know she was supposed to be dead, so she wasn't exactly hiding. Harper said she didn't know anything about it until Kaia turned up in court. So, Kaia and Perri get a chance to talk and it seems to be going well at first but he's had his whole wordview overturned and there's a lot of processing to come before he can even begin to come to terms with her being back.It's a shame that Theo was out of the loop because he might have offered him some decent insights.After all, his mother stayed and that didn't make anything better, and Dimitri is nothing like the monster Carl was.I had to laugh at Harper's doe-eyed insistence that Tane would do anything for Perri.Except, you know, turn up and support him while he was giving evidence against Carl like he promised, or indeed stick around and help with the funeral arrangements the other week, rather than making it pretty clear Perri's behind the baby in his priorities. Eden attempts to do the right thing and then decides not to bother.I shook my head at Remi insisting that Eden likes Tim.Even if she does like him, I don't think she likes him that much, she's just enjoying having sex with a good-looking guy.They did at least attempt to work out how it's going to work but Levi's right, they're not going to keep this quiet forever.While she doesn't know, Eden keeping Abigail hanging isn't helping either, although at least she has Theo to talk to.And yes, we finally get a clearing of the air between her and Remi, albeit a rather sarky one!

Well, if, as you say, Channel 7 don't consider the 40th anniversary important, they're not going to choose that for an end date! I think it will keep going so long as it's financially viable and brings in an audience. As far as I can see, it's considered in a healthy enough state at the moment, but these things can change suddenly, it feels like there have been a lot of cancellations of long-running shows that seemed secure in recent years. But as ever when this sort of thing comes up, I'm not seeing any reason to panic just yet!

Alf's episode count this week:Four. For the second week running, Rose was only in one. Well, good news for Perri on the court front, with the mouthy prosecutor pretty much disappearing between episodes.(He was credited, but I think all we saw of him was the back of his head.)Of course, there's a bigger emotional hit to come.In one respect, it's easy to judge Kaia, and in another respect, it's easy to exonerate her.That must be the scariest threat anyone could ever give a mother, but was there really nothing else she could do? Anyway, they've both had to live with her choices and both been victims of Carl.Kaia's got Perri out of jail at least. It probably wasn't smart in the circumstances for Harper and Jane to bring Kaia to Salt like that, it was a bit too much like an ambush. Nice to get some involvement from Mackenzie, it's easy to forget she was basically a mother figure to Perri until Harper muscled in. Abigail definitely seems to be coming on leaps and bounds now, and it was nice that the three siblings were able to have a moment of normality. I wonder if we'll ever see Abigail and Remi together again: She was giving him a hard time when she first came in but they don't seem to have met since her epiphany. Maybe it was easier for Eden to act out when Abigail was doing the same, but now that Abigail's being nice, she's realised how much she's screwed up.So will Levi deal with this reasonably and maturely? Not if the promo's anything to go by... Meanwhile, Leah and Marilyn's attempt to kill Alf with kindness was a dismal failure so it's time to bring out the big guns. Martha? Hah. you must be joking, there's as much chance of Sally turning up... EDIT: Oh yes, and nice to see Hannah Waterman, still best known for her regular role on EastEnders 20-odd years ago!

Well, even if he's found guilty, it's still best for Perri to front up.Ironically, Rose may have given him the push to stick around and fight, and I suspect she knew full well what he was doing and decided to be discreet.The prosecutor seemed to be violating all sorts of protocol by asking questions when it's not his turn to cross examine and heckling witnesses, but he inevitably got under Tane's skin.Of course, at the end we seem to be presented with Stock Plot For Writing Out Unwanted Foster Child No 7: Estranged parent turns up looking for reconciliation (being dead is not an obstacle). Well, it's better than Perri going to jail, I guess! So, Cash found a third option besides disappearing off to the country and being unemployed.He says he's fine with Rose being his boss, but he still took her desk! Still, it was nice to get a focus on their friendship, in what was basically a mirror of when Rose first worked there, after their set-to last week. It feels like we should be intrigued by Alf but frankly, him snarling at John is pretty much just Tuesday around here.