I somehow watched three episodes of Neighbours this week and thought I was done, so it came as quite the shock to me today to realise I had one more to watch. Clearly, I already felt I had enough to talk about after Wednesday’s episode!
Haz Mackenzie Killed Her Boyfriend?
After Mackenzie bizarrely manages to run Haz over in a stationary car, he goes into cardiac arrest. Luckily, Dr. Karl is on-site to do CPR, and nobody nearby has a drill he can go to town with, so Haz makes it to the hospital alive, but in a coma.
Mackenzie is obviously devastated – they might have broken up, but Haz was her first serious boyfriend since the death of her husband, so I imagine it’s a tiny bit traumatic to have run him over.
As news of Haz’s condition spreads, Holly immediately regrets telling everyone that Haz is “dead to her” for his role in bringing Wade into all of their lives. Her yelling at Wade that he’s an “arsehole” was pretty iconic though, I enjoyed that. In a bid to make up for the “dead to me” comment, Holly asks Mackenzie if there’s anything she can do to help, and Mackenzie tasks her with tracking down Haz’s family. That’s going to go awfully well, isn’t it, considering this is the same family who disowned him because of his antics?
And everyone seems to have pretty much forgotten about that aspect of Haz’s personality now he’s in hospital. “I should have trusted him,” Mackenzie wails. Yep, you should definitely have trusted the guy who’d been lying about his past for months, and who chose ruining people’s lives as an actual career option. I suppose he can’t tell any lies or create any deepfakes while he’s unconscious though, can he?
The only thing I’m enjoying about this storyline is the fact that it brought dearest Trevor back into our lives, after being AWOL for quite some time. Byron and Sadie sneaking him into the hospital in a little wagon was very cute, and I hope it means we’ll be seeing a little bit more of Trevor from now on, even if Haz doesn’t deserve such a sweet prince.
Dex Finally Gets Half a Storyline
We’ve all been wondering when Dex was going to be given something to do, and he did briefly have some action this week. He wags from school and, considering the slack that JJ’s been given, his mums aren’t too hard on him and they all enjoy a game of basketball together. Unfortunately, we all had to endure Wendy in a cheerleading outfit as part of this storyline, but thankfully it was a brief sighting.
Things in the Varga-Murphy household seem to be looking up until Dex hears Cara and Remi talking about how they made Felix promise not to contact JJ. He immediately runs off to his brother, thus causing a further breakdown of the relationship between JJ and his mums. Admittedly this wasn’t Dex’s own storyline, he was merely a player in someone else’s, but it was nice to see him have something to do for once, even if it was throwing a grenade into the middle of his family.
Paul Decides to Roll the Dice a Seventh Time
After Terese and Toadie decide to try to get their relationship back on track, Paul is feeling low, so he turns to his tried and tested way of cheering himself up and decides to get married. There are so many excellent jokes about how many times Paul has been married, it seems like everyone is having a pop at him about it. My favourite lines were Leo telling him to get a good prenup, and Paul declaring that he “gets married all the time”. I enjoy that the writers acknowledge that his wife tally is pretty laughable at this stage.
Chelsea throws an extravagant engagement bash, where she wears a hideous, ill-fitting white dress that looks like it’s made out of a bedsheet and a few pins (my mum would have said that it “fits where it touches”), and reveals to everyone that she’s brought her own, equally grotesque, engagement ring. Everyone at the party looks uncomfortable, and that’s before the proverbial hits the fan.
Krista Remembers!
Krista has been suffering from memory loss after the hit to the head, but she finally gets a flashback that triggers the memory of why she was in Chelsea’s room in the first place. She gets in touch with Penny and Jeffrey, and they both help her fill in the blanks – she’s now certain it was Chelsea who locked her in the sauna and caused her to lose her baby.
Krista marches straight to the engagement party with Jeffrey and confronts Chelsea about what she did. Chelsea has nowhere to go and can’t deny it any longer. Paul’s reaction is to pull the tacky engagement ring back off her finger and tell her to pack her bags.
Cara goes to confront Chelsea and get some sort of explanation, but all Chelsea can say in her defence is that life has been hard for her. Come off it, Chelsea. Everything unpleasant that’s happened to you has been your own doing.
Whilst it was delicious to see Chelsea publicly shamed and humiliated in this way, I’m a little bit disappointed there doesn’t seem to be any further consequences. Cara lets Chelsea leave, and now nobody has any clue where she is. I wanted her to go to prison, at least for some sort of negligence or assault, if not for manslaughter. I am, however, pleased not to have her around anymore.
Melanie Has a Revolutionary Idea
It’s a big week for Melanie, as she makes an uncomfortable peace with Terese and Toadie, and finishes her community service. It leaves her wondering what to do next, which is when she has the revolutionary idea to take her drinks van to some music festivals. Quite honestly, if this has only just occurred to her then she has no business running any kind of catering truck.
She keeps abbreviating her plans for the future, spouting nonsense like “MGHGB” for “Melanie Gets Her Groove Back” or whatever the heck it is she said. She makes me die from secondhand embarrassment, I wish she’d just calm down a bit. I’m glad she’s going away for a few weeks, I just wish it was “MFGAF”, or “Melanie Finally Goes Away Forever.”
Terese is a Nightmare to Work For
Susan is nervous about her first day at work, to the point where she’s unable to pick between two almost identical outfits. She’s excited to be working with Terese, but her first day doesn’t go exactly as she expects it to. Terese has her doing menial tasks that aren’t really part of her job and, when Susan actually does do something that comes under her job description, Terese comes along and changes it all.
This would be bad enough, but what’s worse is that while Susan has been left feeling disheartened about her new career move, Terese can’t stop waxing lyrical about how great they’re working together and how they’ve just slipped into a routine. Sparks might be flying at Eirini Rising before long because we all know that neither Terese nor Susan are women to be trifled with. This is going to be interesting.
It’s also fun to see a new set, in the form of the Eirini Rising office. Apparently, there’s going to be a salon and a gym there too. I wonder if we will see those sets and if they could be two job opportunities for Sadie and Aaron. I’m really looking forward to seeing Eirini Rising develop as a new hub of Erinsborough, and it’s going to be fun to see which heritage characters we might have moving in.
