There are only four episodes of Neighbours left in 2024, and I have a feeling that it’s all going to kick off in that final week, so let’s make sure we’re all caught up before we head into whatever Unmissable Drama they have in store for us to finish off the year.
After this one, I’ll be back for one more round-up, and my silly made-up Annual Awards, and then I’ll be signing off so I can chase my absolutely cuckoo-bananas little nephew around for two weeks over Christmas.
Remi Forces Cara to Face Her Infertility
Cara is snapping at everyone in the wake of the devastating surgery which means she can no longer carry a baby. Everyone’s noticed, but they’re cutting her quite a lot of slack considering what she’s been through. However, when she absolutely loses it when she finds JJ kissing Nell in the living room, Remi has to say something.
It’s the mother of all overreactions, considering they were both fully clothed and not doing anything outside of normal teenage behaviour, so Remi calls her out on it. Cara breaks down and realises that she has to start dealing with the fact that she can no longer have a baby.
It seems she’s finally starting to deal with her feelings and it’s all going well until Cara drops the bombshell that she’s assuming Remi will now step up to have a baby instead. Remi has to deal Cara another blow by telling her that she doesn’t want to be pregnant again – she didn’t enjoy being pregnant the first time, and she’s not in a position at work where she’d want to be taking time off.
It’s such a huge assumption for Cara to make that Remi would be willing to get pregnant instead, considering it was never even on her radar until Cara floated the idea. I hope this doesn’t cause too much of a rift between them, as I really like the Varga-Murphys as a couple.
Karl Comes a Cropper and Paul Pulls Some Strings
Susan receives a phone call from Italy informing her of a motorbike accident, and at first she can’t tell if the person on the line is saying Karl or Mike is the injured person, because those two names sound so similar.
It soon becomes clear that it’s Karl who’s had an accident, and is having to have emergency surgery on a badly broken leg. Susan wants to fly to Italy immediately to be with him, but that would leave Eirini Rising with nobody in charge.
Paul and Toadie both go into white knight mode and do their best to convince the residents to allow Terese to return to her role as manager. It’s a tough sell at first, but eventually they agree to allow her to come back. Coming straight off the back of saving Sonya’s foundation, Paul is earning some major points with Terese, and we all know what he wants to cash those points in for, although he is being fairly restrained in that arena at the moment.
His restraint is only tested when he sees Terese and Toadie hanging out at the Waterhole, and can’t resist gatecrashing. He can only fend off the Paulness of his nature for so long.
Yaz Does some Mental Gymnastics
I’m still not exactly sure why Yaz seems to be unaware that her brother Keith (Heath) was the sort of psychopath who thought nothing of a spot of light fraud and attempted murder, but maybe it’s because the apple clearly hasn’t fallen very far from the tree.
She’s becoming more and more unstable, snapping at Holly while they’re trying to work together, and lying her head off to get a meeting with Tess at the prison. She tells Tess she’s a lawyer employed by Keith’s family to reopen his case and try to explore Holly’s involvement in his death, but Tess isn’t particularly interested in cooperating. Instead, she warns Krista what’s going on. Of course, Krista doesn’t realise that it’s Yaz who’s behind it, but it seems there’s something she wants to keep from coming to light.
Yaz also shows one of the police officers a video that Keith made that implicates Holly but has absolutely no evidentiary value whatsoever.
Honestly, I know nobody probably wants to admit their brother was a slime ball criminal, but Yaz is really doing some mental gymnastics trying to pin all the blame on Holly, telling a story where Holly manipulated Keith to do what he did and that she intended for him to die. I just don’t see how she thinks a flaky hotel receptionist managed to mastermind this whole elaborate plot that wound up with several people being kidnapped.
I cannot wait for whatever unhinged revenge plot she’s cooking up, I really hope it’s deadly explosive Christmas lights.
Nicolette is Loved Up
Speaking of Yaz, Nicolette is massively loved up after her first date with Yaz, but Yaz seems to be blowing very cold on the idea. She has a change of heart though, and Nicolette panics and brings the most enormous picnic for their second date, and the two of them seem to be getting on genuinely well.
I can’t get the read on Yaz over Nicolette – I can’t see how she’s useful to her plot, but she didn’t seem all that interested in her at first, until she realised she knew Holly. I’d quite like Nicolette to somehow get drawn into her nefarious plot and have to choose between her hot new love interest and the safety of the entire suburb where she lives, which includes her business, and her mum, brother and daughter. Nic being Nic, I can’t confidently predict which one she’d choose.
Leo Channels His Dad
Krista and Leo are still fighting about Seb and what to do about his disappearance when Krista receives a text from a mystery number, claiming to be Seb and asking for thousands of dollars. Leo cautions Krista not to send anything, but like an old person being asked to send £200 to “Kevin Costner” in gift cards, she sends the money straight away, and then has second thoughts afterwards, when another sum of money is demanded.
Meanwhile, Leo has gone full Paul and hired dodgy PI John Wong to track Seb down. He decides he has to go by himself to take a look at where Seb is hiding out, for reasons that remain rather unclear to me, but Paul then sees Seb sneaking around the Waterhole and collars him. Seb informs Paul that if Leo has gone to the address he was given then he’s sure to be in danger.
It’s Terese’s turn to come to Paul’s rescue, and the two of them team up to go and find Leo themselves, instead of doing the sensible thing and telling anyone else like, you know, the police. It couldn’t be more obvious that this rescue mission is going to go badly.
It’s Official: Max is a Creep
I knew Max was a creep, and he showed his proper creepy colours this week. He’s admitted to Sadie that he’s into her, but despite her telling him she’s not interested because she’s with Byron, he keeps pushing it, making her feel really uncomfortable.
Byron ends up hearing a confrontation between Sadie and Max, finding out that he’s been chasing her. I love the way Byron reacts to this, he isn’t mad at Sadie at all, instead he steps up to try to protect her and get Max out of the house.
Max shows just how clueless he is when he admits he was trying to organise a day out with both Byron and Sadie because he thought Sadie would see Byron and him side by side and know who was the “quality product”. Byron is the quality product, Max, you absolute teaspoon. He’s a sweet prince and you’re a slimy brat in dungarees. Max needs to get into the sea immediately.
A Few Random Notes
As usual, here are a few random notes I took while watching Neighbours this week:
- So cold-shoulder tops are out, but Yaz is doing a cold-forearm blouse instead? What an odd garment.
- Why does this policeman talk so slowly?
- Is Leo in his villain era?
- “Are you stupid or is it just the way you talk, look and act?” Sadie to Max. Perfection.
- Nicolette’s panic picnic looks amazing. I want to go on a date with her.
- Jane’s jazzy bumbag is everything.
- Toadie on Terese’s cactus being from Paul: “I should have known – a little prick from everyone’s favourite… hotelier.”
