Neighbours – Ramsay Street Round-Up

*UK PACE*

It’s a slightly truncated round-up, as I have yet to see Friday’s episode. There’s been quite a lot going on, though.

Hendrix’s Slightly Weird Memorials

Not content with tearing my heart out and stamping on it when Hendrix died, Neighbours went all out to do it all over again as the residents of Ramsay Street said goodbye.

I’m all for memorial services being individual and tailored to who the person was, but setting up a cardboard cut-out of the dead person next to a DJ booth. At the same time, the guests munch on hash browns has to go down as one of the oddest ways to memorialise somebody. Hendrix wanted a party, and a classic Neighbours party is just what he got in the form of approximately six people shuffling around awkwardly to music that was slightly too quiet for dancing.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, the second simultaneous memorial was taking place, with no bells or whistles whatsoever – just a few people standing on some rocks, followed by a very precarious depositing of ashes into the sea in an alarmingly high wind. Despite all this, it still reduced me to a blubbering mess again. Can we please stop with the sadness just for a little while? Because I need to rehydrate.

Zara Casually Kidnaps Corey

Corey is unraveling, and he’s snatched Zara from the nature reserve where she and Sadie were doing a spot of Mystery Inc-style detective work. While they’re in the car, Zara finds his stash of drugs and pops almost all of them into Corey’s water. He must have the constitution of a horse because he still manages to drive a fair way and run after Zara when she’s able to escape the car. Later on, she came steaming into Ramsay Street in the car, with Corey drugged and tied up in the boot, and is met with surprisingly little fuss. I suppose when you live in Ramsay Street, things like this don’t seem out of the ordinary.

Goodbye Harlow

Harlow has been mulling over the possibility of moving back to London to live with her Aunt Harriet for a while. After Corey has bounced back incredibly quickly from his near overdose, Harlow confronts him about Pru’s video. It turns out that Pru was trying to blackmail Corey’s dad so she’d be let back into the Order. With that resolved, Harlow decides she’s moving to London approximately three minutes after Hendrix’s memorial finishes, and so we have another trademark Neighbours rapid departure.

Mackenzie Powers Through

Mackenzie comes home and immediately sets about opening all the wedding presents that were sent to her and Hendrix so she can write thank you cards. She’s acting like she’s coping really well, but her dad and Toadie suspect that she might be putting on a brave face. Toadie has been exceptionally kind and gentle with Mackenzie since Hendrix’s death, and I couldn’t love him anymore for it. I have a feeling he’s going to need to be there for Mackenzie when she has her inevitable breakdown very soon. And he will be because you can always rely on the Toad.

Amy’s Sudden Crush

I’m not the only one who’s noticed that Toadie is adorable, apparently, as Zara becomes fixated on the idea that Amy has a crush on him. However, I’m a little bit confused by this storyline – does Amy actually have a crush on Toadie? Because we haven’t really seen any evidence of that. It would make more sense if she’s just conscious of people thinking that she’s too attached to him, but going by Amy’s past history, she doesn’t usually give much of a toss about what other people think.

The upshot of Zara making fun of Amy is that she signs up for a dating website, which has the potential to cause some major high jinks.

David’s Drama

For once, a Neighbours character has a decent excuse for going on holiday so close to where they live that their housemate can drive up and join them for one night. David and Aaron have gone away for a break before David is due to be sentenced for letting Gareth die. Nicolette joins them, and they all go out on a boat on the last morning of the trip, which predictably all goes wrong when they run out of fuel and end up stranded. David is stressed because he had to get to a bail check-in before they head home, and he could go to jail if he skips it. Nicolette finds some spare fuel, and they head back to shore to try to get David to the police station in time.

Just before they’re due to set off, a police officer turns up and says he’s there to investigate whether David’s excuse for being late is true. But, unfortunately, he also takes the opportunity to act like a really suspicious creepazoid. Seriously, red flags were going up all around my living room when this guy was on screen.

Sure enough, when David gets back to Ramsay Street, he gets a visit from Sergeant Rodwell (I still can’t call him Andrew), who says there’s evidence that David is now a flight risk. I am super annoyed that I won’t see Friday’s episode until Monday because I just know that the police officer is a wrong-un, and I need to know what’s happened!