I normally do my round-up on a Friday, but I was away for the weekend to see a play that ended up being cancelled, so I’m writing this on Monday instead. I’m so glad I took notes because there’s very little I could actually remember from last week’s episodes before I went through them. The weekend obviously acts like my brain’s equivalent of shaking an Etch A Sketch. Anyway, now I’ve remembered, let’s get on with this week’s Ramsay Street Round-Up.
Mackenzie and Vera Call a Sort of Truce
It seems we’re going to be seeing much more of Vera after she and Mackenzie call a rather strained truce. The shared house is having problems with their heating, and Vera refuses to fix it, telling them she can’t afford it. Mackenzie goes into legal mode and tries to threaten her with taking legal action, but this doesn’t really make Vera budge – either from her stance on the heating or from her sun lounger.
Eventually, Mackenzie offers Vera limited use of the pool, plus a regular dinner with the housemates, in exchange for her fixing the heating. The others are initially baffled as to why Mackenzie chose that particular bargaining chip, but Mackenzie says that she senses Vera is lonely.
Is Vera about to become a full-time cast member? I kind of hope so, I love her. Ramsay Street needs a firecracker of an older lady to brighten things up again, and Vera is perfect. She’s a Neighbours character cast from a classic mould and I hope she’s here to stay.
Kiri and Nicolette’s Working Relationship Starts Swimmingly
Leo went from having no investors in the vineyard to having too many. In the wake of Vic doing a runner with the cash he was going to inject into Leo’s business, Kiri offers to step up and become Leo’s partner instead. Meanwhile, Nicolette and Byron also decide to throw in what money they have and still buy a share of the business.
Faced with the prospect of both offers, Leo eventually tries to persuade them all to go in together, which is going to be tricky considering the history between Nicolette and Kiri, but they both agree to keep things professional.
On the first day working together, Kiri gives Nicolette a succession of unpleasant jobs to do, such as cleaning the toilets and taking out the bins, while everyone else gets to do the more fun stuff, like laying the tables. Eventually, it becomes too much for Nicolette, and she unleashes her fiery side.
I’m with Nicolette on this one. How she treated Kiri during their relationship was wrong, but in entering into a professional agreement, Kiri has agreed to set that aside, so she can’t then use her position at the vineyard to make Nicolette’s life a misery as some sort of revenge. I never thought Kiri would end up being more immature than Nicolette, but here we are. Kiri needs to grow up.
Logan is a Lying Liar
Melanie and Remi both have a major case of the heebs about Logan, as he keeps lying about his background. Melanie tries to confront him about the lies he’s been telling, but he flies off the handle at her for not respecting his privacy. For once, I’m siding with Melanie here – as his employer, she has every right to ask him questions about his background, especially if things aren’t adding up. But maybe this wouldn’t be happening if she’d done even the slightest check of who he was before she invited him to Erinsborough.
Having hit a brick wall with Logan, Melanie tries to warn Aaron that not all is what it seems with his new friend, but Aaron also gets annoyed with her. Instead, Mel uses the keys she swiped from Logan’s bag to go and snoop in his caravan, and she finds the suitcase of David’s clothes that Aaron just donated to the Foundation. He walks in on her and blows his stack, then he tries to head off any fallout by returning the suitcase of clothes to Aaron, telling him that he bought them for him because he knew he’d regret getting rid of him.
Remi keeps digging, and she eventually tracks down Logan’s real identity – he’s a doctor who studied with David. Armed with this info, Melanie talks to Aaron again and finally gets it through his dense skull that Logan is a lying liar. Aaron asks Leo if he recognises Logan’s real name, and Leo remembers a fellow student who was obsessed with David and stalked him.
Aaron confronts Logan, and Logan finally tells the truth. He was obsessed with David, and reading his obituary sent him into a spiral, then he saw Melanie’s truck with David’s picture on the side and decided to come to Erinsborough. He gives Aaron a sob story about wanting to bond with someone who loved David like he did, and he even says that he might have been David’s husband, “if David had understood himself sooner”. EXCUSE YOU? Get in the bin, you absolute psycho. What a thing to say to someone’s widow!
There are so many red flags during this conversation that it looks like some sort of Communist summer fête, but I fear that Aaron is going to end up forgiving Logan and bonding over their love of David. Don’t do it, Aaron. Run for the hills, and don’t give Logan time to pop his trainers on and come with you.
Wendy is Even More Tragic Than Usual
You all know that Wendy really grinds my gears, but lately, she’s been even more tragic than usual. She’s wearing Sadie’s clothes, trying to use young-person words, and lying about the fact that she’s married with a daughter, in order to appear cool to her new uni friends.
Cara has signed up to do some IT courses at the university, and she rumbles Wendy’s young person act, and she gives her some grief for it. It’s not any of Cara’s business, but she’s absolutely right that Andrew and Sadie are going to be devastated if they find out that she’s pretending they don’t exist. I don’t understand this particular flavour of a midlife crisis – people can still be fun to be around once they have a partner and a child, it’s not like you hand your personality in when you sign the marriage register.
Because Cara doesn’t want anyone to know she’s doing the IT course, she agrees to keep Wendy’s secret as long as Wendy keeps hers. I fear this is all going to end in tears.
Gearing Up For a Tragedy
I haven’t read any spoilers about Toadie’s exit. I knew he was leaving, but I didn’t know how, and I kind of assumed they’d parcel him off to Queensland or wherever else they tend to put heritage Neighbours characters out to pasture. But after this week I am starting to think Toadie’s exit is going to be more final.
Nell goes over to spend the evening with Dex, and just as they come in from the sunroom, the ceiling collapses. It used to be his house and the sunroom was built by his brother, Toadie feels responsible, so he agrees to help Cara fix it and they bond over their love of cheesy rock music. I feel like we’ve been robbed of what could have been a really cute friendship between Cara and Toadie – it’s about time Cara had a bit more of a social life outside of Remi, Dex, and idiot child, JJ.
Cara keeps getting called back to work, leaving Toadie to work alone, and he keeps having these strange sort of flashback moments while he’s in the house on his own. He also recaps his entire life story for Cara, and it’s never a good sign for any character when they start to go through their greatest hits. I can see what’s going to happen here – my guess is that Cara will be called away, and Toadie will get squashed by some falling masonry and there won’t be anyone there to help him. Poor Terese is going to have to commission a new plaque, isn’t she?
A Few Random Notes
As usual, here are a couple of my random notes from this week:
- When Aaron says he’s going to donate David’s clothes to charity, the correct response is not awkward silence, lads.
- Oh, no – Aaron and Logan are at the fun fashion montage stage of their relationship.
- Melanie, the answer is not breaking and entering.
- Loving the mention of Shane’s wee machine.
