There’s been some good stuff on Neighbours this week, so let’s waste no time and get straight into rounding it all up.
Karl is All Over the Shop
After Darcy gave Karl a huge knock to his confidence, he’s been a bit all over the place. Susan takes him to Eirini, hoping to remind him of how much he’s valued there, but all it does is convince him that he doesn’t want to go back. He feels like he let his patients down by letting Darcy in, despite the fact that it was only Karl who had any real reservations about him and it was everyone else who trusted him blindly.
Susan feels like he’s going to regret it if he resigns, so she enlists Remi to try to help convince him to stay by having her pretend that she’s interested in taking over from him as the resident doctor at Eirini. I’m not sure how this is going to backfire yet, but it obviously is, because it’s an ill thought out scheme and this is Neighbours.
Meanwhile, Karl has realised that the tram is going to be serving its 82,000th customer very soon and so he throws himself into a publicity stunt to mark the occasion, it’s something about free pies that involves him getting JJ and Dex to do a lot of pastry-based maths. I’m wondering if this storyline is a way to unveil a new guest star with a bang?
Aaron Gets the Wrong End of the Stick
Aaron’s romance woes continue as he’s fully convinced that Rhett and Colton hooked up at the pool party. Rather than, I don’t know, having an adult conversation with one or both of them, he sees them chatting in the street and goes off at the deep end, getting really mad that they’d hooked up behind his back. They have to point out to him what a hypocrite he’s being because he’s been openly dating both of them at the same time, so he has no right to get mad if they also see other people.
But, the truth is, they didn’t hook up with each other, they’ve apparently just bonded over their frustration over Aaron’s inability to crap or get off the pot.
Things are frosty for a while between Aaron and his two squeezes, but eventually they magnanimously call a truce with him. Aaron spends some time with both Colton and Rhett but it’s seeing Rhett with his daughter, and their two girls playing together, that seems to set off a little spark in his brain.
Jane reads him the riot act and tells him how ridiculous he’s being – walking around with a face like a wet week over the fact that he has two men who he’s attracted to practically dry humping him in public every time they see him. As if that’s a problem. Aaron realises that he needs to make a decision – he says that he has fun with Colton but he feels like he has a connection with Rhett. It’s been so obvious that Rhett was the right choice for so long that I was cheering Jane on when she was telling Aaron off for dithering so much. He needs to choose Rhett pronto, set up an insanely cute blended family and send Colton and his tiny clothes off back to Queensland.
Lydia Comes Unravelled
Byron is rushed to hospital with head injuries, having been beaten up. While trying to get their heads around what’s happened, Jane and Nicolette stumble across some sort of public shaming of Byron – his escort pictures are up all over the complex, but the phone number on them is Taye’s. They sit down with Taye, Cara and Andrew and try to figure out what’s been going on. Taye’s recent work as a sex worker comes out, as does Lydia’s blackmail.
Later, Cara sees Lydia talking to a kid who turns out to be her son, and she starts to put two and two together. It turns out that her son didn’t want a repeat of the family drama that occurred when Lydia was Byron’s client and after seeing saucy texts on her phone and seeing her talking to Byron at the complex, her son jumps to the conclusion that they’re hooking up again. He doesn’t realise that Lydia is seeing a different sex worker this time. So her son publicly shamed Byron and gave him a good beating to keep him away.
Lydia eventually has to admit what her and her son have done, and she’s charged with sexual servitude.
I also need to note that most of the police work here was done by Cara, and Andrew served a purely ornamental role at best. He truly is useless, and Cara is going to run rings around him once she’s qualified.
Saskia is Unhinged
I knew as soon as Max’s sister came to Erinsborough that there was something not right with her. This persistent bullying problem she claimed to have didn’t ring true to me, and her behaviour this week would suggest I’m right.
She’s throwing herself at Byron, despite him telling her that he is not interested in her in that way and trying very hard to set some boundaries. I have no idea how nobody has noticed yet that every time Saskia comes near Byron he looks like a rabbit in the headlights. He is terrified of her.
Wendy is trying to take Saskia under her wing at school, and gifts her some earrings (which I think is highly inappropriate behaviour from a teacher, but what do I know?), but Saskia later gives her some sass, and Wendy is clearly wrong-footed by her swift change from a shy and insecure kid into a salty little madam.
Wendy is not the only one who’s on the receiving end of some of Saskia’s odd behaviour. Saskia does not like Sadie at all, mostly because she’s Byron’s ex and he clearly still holds a torch for her. As some sort of revenge, Saskia sneaks into the salon and switches some skincare products so that Sadie ends up treating Nicolette with something that she’s very allergic to.
Saskia either has some mental health issues of some sort or she’s just downright unpleasant. I have to say that I’m enjoying this storyline immensely and I can’t wait to see what she does next, although I have a feeling that poor, silly, defenceless Dex might be one of her next victims, which is going to make me mad.
I have to say that I really enjoy it every time they give Nicolette a comedy storyline because she’s an absolute hoot. Props to Hannah Monson for her comedy timing, she genuinely has me in stitches. “IT’S BURNING!!!!!”
A Few Random Notes
As usual, here are a few random notes I took while watching Neighbours this week:
- I love that Paul is still wearing a suit in Italy.
- Why does Colton wear a uniform when Susan and Terese don’t?
- Is every garment Colton wears mini length? That robe he’s got on is practically obscene.
- Wait. Is he naked?! Naked yoga?! Absolutely not. Why is it necessary to be naked? Nobody wants to do a down dog behind someone’s sweaty testicles.
- Naked yoga and a Barry Manilow tribute would make me move out.
- I swear Aaron also called Rhett “Brett” this week.
- Oh, the casting department have found another “kid” with a receding hairline.
- Pick Rhett. Pick Rhett. Pick Rhett.
