2025 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Dan F]

41 minutes ago, H&Alover said:

But Eliza didn't set fire to anything in the bay did she? 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Poor teddy.

So yep, the Fowlers' mother turns out to be played by Tammy Macintosh, who I mainly know from Farscape and All Saints, the latter of which saw her appearing alongside Georgie Parker. (I had completely forgotten until someone else alluded to it that she and Peter Phelps played a couple on the show...somewhat controversially, since she was meant to be a lesbian!) I think Eden had pretty much twigged what Cash was doing, and that is one of the few occasions when a public proposal is justified! I think Abigail's kidding herself somewhat by thinking she can hide everything from Deb, especially with Deb now heading back to the Bay with her (to coin a phrase). I thought her dismissing Imogen as dull was a bit catty, if not entirely inaccurate.

Meanwhile, things don't sound good for Eliza and it's hard to see what the option is. They can't keep her locked up for her whole life so maybe they can teach her how to control her impulses in a non-destructive way? But yes, we're back to Alf and Roo being the too extremes. Roo needs to face the fact that she did the best she could and it's up to other people to look after Eliza now. But Alf writing off the whole idea of fostering because of one bad experience just underlines how far he's come from his "This house always takes in those who need it" days: The only waif and stray he cares about these days is Marilyn.

[Slade]

I thought Harper getting annoyed at Tane hanging around all the time was very understandable so I didn't have too much of an issue her asking him to leave, although I think him having Archie on certain days is a good idea and works well.  I did like the fact she put her foot down with him when he objecting to her helping Roo out re Eliza.

I know you can argue it's not her fault, but I did think Eliza was fairly sociopathic and her receiving professional treatment was the best course of action.  The description for the episode on Channel 5 seemed to indicate she was going to go out with a bang but as already mentioned, it was pretty anti-climatic.  Roo certainly didn't deserve Eliza saying she was worse the the other foster parents she had.  Whilst she has been in denial and still is, I commend Roo for how she's conducted herself.  She showed her nothing but kindness and compassion and was always prepared to give Eliza the benefit of the doubt.  Harper was the only other person also prepared to give her a shot as well.  I found the conversation Roo had with Alf re Eliza quite gruesome.  The experts saying that Eliza can never lead a normal life and thus never integrated into society.  I agree that they should at least try and do something as, yes at some point she's going to be an adult and until she commits a serious crime there's nothing anybody can do until then.  I do feel really bad for Roo and thought Alf was very harsh to deny her fostering someone else.  I'm sad in a way.  I thought Eliza was a fascinating character and whilst not necessarily the nicest person, I thought she was one of the best characters, certainly we've had since...Heather and found myself looking forward to any episodes she was in (Ah, that wonderful image of her above from Dan F). You never know maybe she and Heather might team up some day return to Summer Bay to seek revenge on all those who wronged them.  Marilyn's attitude isn't a surprise, given (yet again) what happened with Heather.

Leah's is going through her cycle of being a complete cow.  Even Irene was getting fed up with her whining and blaming everyone but herself re Theo.  It will be interesting to see how Theo and Sonny fair at Bree's.

I have to admit I've quite liked the Cash/Eden stuff over the last few days.  I liked that he went to the effort of getting the other characters for the surprise.  I especially liked Mackenzie's reaction when Cash was trying to square getting the time off for Eden.  Like Mackenzie I was also surprised Eden's mum was OK with her.  When they first met I thought Eden's mum was going to say "You're the one who stole Levi from his wife" or something like that.  I didn't know the actress was on Farscape or All Saints.  I recall her from Wentworth.

[H&Alover]

22 hours ago, Dan F said:

 

Oops forgot about poor teddy.   no houses, Diner, caravans, Salt though. 

[H&Alover]

I did recognise the name Tammy  Macintosh from Farscape, loved that series she played Jool.

Deb is a real whirlwind isn't she, not what I was expecting seeing as she's the ex wife of an undertaker so maybe I'm stereotyping her that she'd be rather a sedate type, but she may have changed since James left her.   It seems Cash and Deb haven't met as she said it was good to see the face behind the voice, do families not send photos of the  new people  in their lives  to relatives anymore, it's so easy to do with mobiles.  I had the feeling Eden knew Cash was planning something, a sin having Remi and Kirby pitch up,   but not having her mum turn up.  Do we know why she wasn't there for their first engagement?  Abbey was rather stunned to say the least seeing mum for what it seems from what Deb said has been quite  a while.  Levi did tip Mac off that  Deb doesn't know about Abbey's drug problem.  Abbey did spend most her time trying to escape mum and her interrogation. Why didn't Abbey just tell Mali mum didn't know she'd been on drugs so he didn't reveal the secret which we saw him do in the trailer/promo. 

Deb approves of Mac and maybe not a nice thing to say about Imogen but she did come across as rather set in her ways with her having a 'plan' for her and by extension Levi's life. 

Cash bit the bullet somewhat by admitting it was all down to him they'd split last time but now he wants it to be forever. 

Peter and Tammy have reunited then and as Deb and Gary they seemed to be getting on very well.  Good there be  a romance there in the future?  I wonder if she'll also met up with her other co-star when she gets to the bay? 

There was a brief mention of Flick.

Eden got to sing 'her' song for them.  Eden and Cash were hardly subtle when they sneaked off for some alone time so no surprise when they were greeted by cheers when they reappeared. 

Then a complete change  of mood with Roo and Alf.  Eliza had a whole range of problems it seems,  a  few Roo may have been able to handle if she'd had the right back up but that many even experienced foster carers would find hard to deal with and Roo was a total novice.   Roo as is her wont is still burying her head in the sand thinking/hoping she can help Eliza at some time. Wanting to visit her and return her music box sans Alf's knife and pills.  Eliza is going to need long term help and she may well have to be institutionalised for a  long time.  Did all these problems come at once or develop over time?  Was it as Roo thinks due to early childhood trauma?   Eliza  did kind of   care for Roo as we saw by that card.

The old age question arises if someone like Eliza can be rehabilitated  enough to be let back into society, we've seen so many times how it can go so drastically wrong. Alf was seeing it  from the complete  opposite point of view, but of course Eliza had hide his pills putting him in danger.  He was never  the foster parent though was he, that was Pippa and Tom.  He was OK with accepting Eliza in at first and willing to give her  a chance but as I've said before she had so many complex problems it would deter you from taking someone new on.   I'm no expert but would SW really put someone in so  quickly after what Roo has been through? I'd want to take a breather. 

Edited June 25 by H&Alover

[Dan F]

4 minutes ago, H&Alover said:

Eden and Cash were hardly subtle when they sneaked off for some alone time so no surprise when they were greeted by cheers when they reappeared. 

Well given they were heading "upstairs" when Gary's house is a bungalow, it was probably a roof-top performance. 

30 minutes ago, H&Alover said:

He was never  the foster parent though was he, that was Pippa and Tom.

He and Ailsa were foster parents in the 90s. Though, from memory, I think out of all the kids they took in over the years (Blake, Karen, Aaron etc.), Curtis was the only one who was officially 'fostered'

[H&Alover]

17 minutes ago, Dan F said:

Well given they were heading "upstairs" when Gary's house is a bungalow, it was probably a roof-top performance. 

He and Ailsa were foster parents in the 90s. Though, from memory, I think out of all the kids they took in over the years (Blake, Karen, Aaron etc.), Curtis was the only one who was officially 'fostered'

Hope it's a flat roof.

My memory must be going.  Blake was a bit of  a trial though wasn't he?  But maybe shouldn't say it but Alf was younger then and Alisa was a tough one and didn't take any nonsense. 

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Not much good Abby being annoyed with Mali when she couldn't even be bothered in her phone call to tell him not to mention her addition and recovery.  What was he supposed to do - mind read?    But, as usual, she panicked.  You'd think having spent most of her life living with her mother she'd know how to handle her better than just trying to shut conversations down all the time.  

[c120701]

On 18/06/2025 at 16:27, Red Ranger 1 said:

Well, 1996 started with Pippa, as pretty much every version for the first ten years did (but ironically not the first version, where Tom's on his own with her following) although I accept Alf, Ailsa, Irene and Marilyn are right at the end (Donald's kind of in the middle). Fair point on original 2000, which starts off with a bunch of youngsters and has Alf, Ailsa, Donald and Irene virtually at the end.

True, but Pippa’s the Leah of this scenario (Leah’s the same age now as Pippa was in 1996). I’m very surprised Leah & Justin aren’t at the start of these titles to be honest (although could be in one of the other versions).

If the security are stood outside the Pier Apartment as they are at Sonny’s motel room how long is it going to take for the River Boys to work out where Theo & Sonny are?

If they needed a story to explain the Pier rebuild this would’ve been a good opportunity to have it burn down… albeit a little late. Like the cast I wish we could see the back of that awful coffee cart, it’s sad that the show clearly aren’t able to film on/next to the Pier itself anymore. I don’t think realistically the Diner could justify the staffing for both locations, nor would they ever need the number of covers they have across both unless they had coach trips again.

[Red Ranger 1]

2 hours ago, c120701 said:

True, but Pippa’s the Leah of this scenario (Leah’s the same age now as Pippa was in 1996).

Weren't many of the others about the same age as Leah is now as well? (Except for Marilyn, who was considerably younger!) Roo might be a closer match for Pippa in some ways. Actually, other versions that I've seen online do seem to have the older characters scattered about more.

I think most of the blame has to lie with Abby here. Instead of a panicky message telling Mali to stay away, all she needed to do was leave a message saying "My mum doesn't know about my addiction so don't mention that" and everything would have been all right. I don't think Mali should be expected to blindly obey an order to stay away without any explanation. I'm guessing Cash and Eden would have stayed on with Gary? Because otherwise, Eden's absence kind of stood out.

While I'm glad Alf and Roo have agreed to disagree, I continued to find Alf unnecessarily hardline. He seemed to misrepresent what he'd said to the ever-cloying Marilyn as well: He didn't tell Roo not to take a break from fostering, he said she shouldn't be doing it again at all, and he still seems to have stuck by that at the end. We seem to have missed the chance to see Roo and Deb together then, with them both apparently having left town. Maybe at the wedding?

No surprise that Leah took the wrong message from what Roo said. She didn't twig that she's the Alf in this scenario, laying down the law to an adult relative who needs space from her.I really hope Levi is on his way to get security and hasn't just given in to her.