It was Christmas about two seconds ago, and all of a sudden it’s the end of the second week of Neighbours for 2024, and time to do another weekly round-up.
Nicolette is Unwillingly Doing a Scavenger Hunt
I can quite often be guilty of not giving the TV my full attention because I’m mucking about on my phone, or struggling to successfully count to an embarrassingly simple number in my crochet, but I even rewound a few bits of the current Nicolette drama, and I’m still confused.
She starts finding keys hidden in shoes by the front door, and when she eventually takes the bait, it leads her to an empty room where a bag of posh lingerie is waiting for her. She initially thinks it’s someone called Sasha who’s tracked her down, but it’s actually Sasha’s ex, Veronica.
As far as I can work out, Sasha, who was Veronica’s husband, was a big deal in the church Kiri attended, but was actually a bit of a sleaze ball, and Nicolette wanted to prove this. She started flirting with him, to prove that he wasn’t averse to cheating on his wife, Kiri found out and it blew up both relationships. Now Veronica has found Nicolette and is trying to enact some sort of elaborate vengeance in the form of a weird lingerie-based scavenger hunt.
This is the big secret that Nicolette has had with Paul since the jump forward, and she’s absolutely desperate for Jane not to find out what she did. Is anyone else a bit confused by all of this? Why is she so scared of Jane finding out? It’s probably not even in the top ten of stupid or morally dubious things Nicolette has done. We all remember that time she sold an entire baby to Paul, right?
So what if she lead a gross-sounding man on in order to prove that he was a bad egg? It’s not the nicest or most sensible thing to do, but it’s really not that bad, I genuinely don’t understand what the big deal is. If I’ve got any of this wrong, please explain to me what’s actually going on, because it makes very little sense to me.
The Terese/Toadie/Melanie Situation Gets Messier
Nell asks if Melanie can come to a counselling session with her, and after their session the counsellor asks Toadie to step in and speak to Melanie himself. It brings up a lot of uncomfortable emotions that Toadie never dealt with when he and Melanie split up, so he’s left feeling upset and confused about what his feelings mean. Rather than talk to Terese about it, he bottles it up because he knows it will upset her, but it’s too much for him to handle on his own. The scene where he let it all out to Andrew was really lovely, Andrew said all the right things, assuring Toadie that he was allowed to cry and that it wasn’t embarrassing to be upset, and Ryan Moloney yet again proved what a fantastic actor he is.
Unfortunately, Toadie is still in turmoil, and Terese knows it has something to do with his conversation with Melanie, so when she sees Melanie hugging Toadie at the complex, she’s devastated. Toadie runs after her and explains properly that he’s just dealing with emotions he repressed before, but for some reason he decides that the appropriate place to have this conversation is in front of the giant mural of his dead wife. I think I’d have at least steered Terese to the rotunda or something.
Haz He Lost His Mind?
Holly is still trying to make Haz like her as much as she likes him, and she’s also still sore at Karl for interfering. Karl writes her an apology song which is one of the worst things I’ve ever had to witness, and that’s saying something, because I saw a man having a great time (if you know what I mean) into a bin in Birmingham city centre once.
Holly eventually realises that Karl is right for a change, and she deserves to be with someone who enjoys her company, rather than with someone who perpetually seems annoyed by her and is forever making eyes at someone else. So Holly dumps Haz and finally, Hazzy is a thing of the past.
Rather than giving things a go with Mackenzie, who he really wants to be with, Haz channels all of his energy into being a weird jittery mess, made worse by the fact that a woman approaches Byron while he’s walking Trevor, and tells him that she was Trevor’s owner before he ended up at the dog rescue centre. Haz is thrown into absolute paranoia, and starts removing all trace of Trevor from social media, and hiding the poor dog inside, refusing to even speak to Trevor’s previous owner. He’s gone fully off his rocker and I’m finding him very tedious. Why does everyone always react with concern when Haz is behaving like an absolute teaspoon, instead of just telling him to have a word with himself?
Haz needs a holiday, and it’s not even because I think he’ll benefit from the time away, it’s just that I’m absolutely sick of him and I want him to go away for a bit.
Sadie Is Off to Clown School
Sadie and Wendy are still at odds about Sadie’s university enrolment, so Sadie threatens to move out. Andrew once again proves himself to be the sane one in the Rodwell marriage, and manages to smooth the way between them by getting Sadie to do her make-up to show Wendy how serious she is. So, looking like the creepy Pierrot clown doll I had in the 1980s, Sadie trots over to show Wendy that she can already glue a single gem to the bottom of each eyelid, so she’s surely going to be a fantastic make-up artist, and Wendy accepts that the reason she wants Sadie to go to university so badly is because she didn’t go herself.
Wendy finally realises that that’s something she can address now, and starts looking into university courses, while giving Sadie her blessing to go off to finish her transformation into a clown. I am so excited to find out what Wendy’s going to study because I can only think it’s going to be some utterly unhinged subject. If it ends up being Business Studies or something normal, I’ll be really disappointed.
Leo Outs Himself as a Bit of a Creep
Leo has been hanging around with Krista a lot, and he’s made it very clear to everyone that he’s pretty keen on her, despite being warned off by David, as Krista is still in a delicate phase of her recovery.
Sadie is minding Abby for Leo while he’s working, but he’s late returning and not answering any of Sadie’s messages. Sadie has to leave for an information session for her clown make-up course, so when Krista comes along, Sadie leaves Abby with her and heads off. When Leo gets back, he’s understandably mad that Sadie would just palm his kid off on someone else, but his main problem seems to be that Krista is emotionally unwell and unstable, and he doesn’t trust her to look after his child, all of which Krista overhears.
This whole situation is a mess, but I think the person who comes out of it looking the worst is Leo. Yes, Sadie is wrong to leave a child in her care with someone else without getting permission from the child’s parent, but Leo should have been back on time, or should have answered his messages when he knew he was running over.
Also, he’s been sniffing around Krista for weeks, clearly wanting to be more than friends with her, despite him thinking she’s not emotionally stable. I’m not saying that people with mental illnesses shouldn’t enter in relationships, but there’s something distinctly creepy to me that he is clearly fine with the idea of dating Krista, but doesn’t think she’s mentally capable of sitting on a picnic blanket with his child for ten minutes. Also, he knows she’s pregnant with her own child, so what does it say about his opinion on her as a future parent?
As much as it’s nice to see Leo part of a storyline that doesn’t involve him acting as a messenger between Paul and David, this storyline has made him look like a proper creep, and he needs to do better. Not cool, Leo.
