We’re at the end of another week, and still nothing’s happened to Toadie. The way that all the news and soap gossip sites reported Toadie’s exit, I thought it was imminent. I’ve thought it was imminent every week for three weeks now. I’m point blank refusing to read spoilers, so I’m completely in the dark about how and when it’s going to happen. Does anyone else feel like it seems to be taking ages for Toadie to leave? (Not that I’m trying to get rid of him.)
Toadie aside, there’s still plenty to round up.
Dex and Nell Are Upset, and Only JJ Didn’t See it Coming
Finally Nell makes Dex and JJ come clean about why they’re being so weird with her. As I’ve been predicting for weeks, JJ’s silly notion that he was doing the right thing by pretending to both Dex and Nell that he didn’t have feelings for Nell has backfired spectacularly, and now they’re all upset with each other.
Dex is hurt that JJ hid his feelings for Nell from him and encouraged him to pursue Nell, and Nell is upset that the two of them are fighting over her, especially since JJ knew that she liked him.
It was all only ever going to end up this way, especially since JJ was completely ignoring any say that Nell had in the matter of which brother she might be interested in. Now JJ is saying to Dex that they need to make amends for how they’ve been treating Nell. Sorry, mate, but I think you should be doing the lion’s share of that work because most of this is your fault.
We Have Some New Cartoon Villains
It’s been a while since we had a proper moustache-twiddling villain, but we’ve got two in the shape of Tess and her second-in-command (whose name is Heath but I initially heard it as Keith, so he’s Keith now, and I will hear no objections).
I think Keith is supposed to be attractive, but he does absolutely nothing for me, I’m afraid. He seems to have turned Holly’s head though, despite being in a relationship with Tess that’s a lot more than just being colleagues.
I knew Tess was up to something, but I was struggling to care about it, and now Keith has turned up I’m only marginally more interested. They’re trying to sabotage Krista somehow, and she’s oblivious, reporting back to them with all the eager-to-please energy of a Labrador.
Amazingly, they managed to find an actor to play Keith who’s as wooden as the actor playing Tess, so it’s a bit like watching a woodwork demonstration whenever the two of them are on screen.
Aaron’s Latest Drama
Logan has contacted Aaron out of the blue to tell him there’s a chance he might have passed Hepatitis B on to him. This sends Aaron into a spiral, and he’s too embarrassed to tell Nicolette. Remi helps him get some tests done, but it will be a while until he finds out if he’s been vaccinated, or if he might have contracted it.
Nicolette tries to be supportive, but I thought she came on a bit heavy when she said he’d been having so many good days and that she was worried he was going backwards. Grief isn’t linear, and you can have good days and bad days for years. I know she’s trying to help, but she’s very full-on sometimes.
She’s also very full-on with Kiri now they’re back together, which is getting right on Leo’s tits.
A Racist Ruins Wendy’s Win
Wendy wins a mentorship at university, but her excitement is immediately dampened when some racist Karen-type has a go at her and claims her being awarded the scholarship is purely a diversity box-ticking exercise. I think it’s an interesting idea for Neighbours to explore racism against people of Asian heritage, as I think it’s an aspect of racism that we don’t see portrayed on screen all that often.
The comments about the mentorship send Wendy into a spin. First she believes it, and it completely ruins her satisfaction at having won it. Then she tries to minimise it, not wanting to cause a fuss. She gets very differing advice from Andrew, Cara and Quinn, who obviously all have slightly different takes on it due to their proximity to the issue. It leaves Wendy not knowing what to do, but I’m hoping she’ll stand up to the racist mini-Karen.
Holly is Doing a Holly
Holly is still sneaking out to party every night. She’s turning up to work late, tired and disheveled, and her friends are all starting to worry about her. Mackenzie decides to tell Karl about her concerns, and rather than having a casual chat with Holly at home, he decides the way to go is to plonk her on a chair on the coffee shop patio and grill her about her life choices, while her friends all look on with sad, judgey faces. It’s probably not the way I would have handled it, and I can’t imagine that Holly is going to react too well to it.
Toad’s Being Weird
Toadie is continuing to be strange, doing a lot of walking around looking stressed, and staring into the middle distance. The conversation he had with Melanie about their marriage seems to have got under his skin and he goes to confront her about it again, telling her that he disagrees that their marriage was destined to fail.
Later on, Melanie finds him in tears in front of Sonya’s mural, and he gives her an earful about how nobody can cause him any trouble any more. I just can’t tell where this storyline is going. He’s being so weird, is this how he’s going to leave? Is he going to weird himself to death?
A Few Random Notes
As usual, here are a few random notes I took while watching Neighbours this week:
- I think we all need to see Rowdy Rodders.
- Holly is as subtle as a bucket of custard.
- The sexy new man is about as sexy as a stapler.
- Keith? Is his name Keith?
- Where is Keith’s top lip?
