Incredibly another week has whizzed past, so here I am, yet again trying to make sense of the things the people in Erinsborough do. I will never truly be able to understand why they make the terrible decisions they do, but here we are.
Bye Bye Byron
Byron told Jane that he was thinking of leaving, and she immediately guilt-tripped him into staying. Then she did a U-turn after Aaron told her how sad Byron had been lately, and suddenly they’re both leaving town, with Jane joining Byron and Trevor on the first leg of their journey – just a man, his mum and his mate’s dog, going on some sort of Eat Pray Love trip so Byron can find himself. I absolutely knew this was how it was going to go down – the very next day the two of them are throwing a leaving party and then they’re gone. It’s always the way with Neighbours, nobody ever makes slow exit.
The leaving party is pretty cute, especially Sam and Isla telling Byron how much they’re going to miss him. I’ll miss both of them too. Trevor has obviously always been adorable, and Byron really grew on me as a character, especially his relationship with Nicolette. Somehow Max seems like a good replacement for both Byron AND Trevor though, he has pretty major Golden Retriever energy.
Sadie and Taye Part Ways
Sadie and Taye were supposed to be keeping things casual, but Taye has caught a major dose of feelings for Sadie. She is still firmly in the “no strings” zone though, and Taye is distressed when Sadie starts getting notifications from a dating app. At first he tries to act like a player, getting himself back on dating apps and flaunting it in front of Sadie. I’m not sure if he thought this would make her jealous, but she remains distinctly unbothered, so he goes back to mooning around the house and pouring his heart out to Max.
Eventually he can’t take it any longer, and he waits until 4am, when Sadie returns from a night out, to go over to her house and tell her that he wants them to be exclusive. It’s quite a weird way to choose to broach this subject but, even so, Sadie’s reaction to treat it like a joke is also strange. Why would someone barge in at 4am to prank someone by pretending to have feelings for them? That would be an odd and very unfunny joke.
She realises from how mortified Taye is that he’s actually serious, and despite him insisting that he can keep things casual, Sadie decides it’s the end of the road for their friends with benefits arrangement. Finally – someone doing something sensible, for once.
Due to factors which I will talk about later on, Max may well find himself single very soon. Erinsborough does seem to adopt the “Fleetwood Mac” approach to dating, where everyone just swaps partners within the friend group, so I am putting in a request right now for Sadie and Max to become a thing. I think that would be cute, and he did have a thing for her when he first arrived.
I Still Don’t Care About the Bronze Bell
Paul, Krista and Annaliese really care about this Bronze Bell prize, whereas I cannot seem to muster any interest in it whatsoever. There’s still this whole power struggle between Krista and Annaliese, with each of them trying to impress Paul, and Paul not being honest about why he’s pitting the two of them against each other. And I’m going to stop there because it’s SO BORING.
The only spicy aspect to this whole thing is that Annaliese gets stinking drunk in the Water Hole (probably not a good idea to get absolutely trollied in your place of work) and then hits on Leo, not knowing that he’s Krista’s husband. He is discreet about it, but you can bet that Krista is going to find out at some point and be furious with both of them.
There is some entertainment in the form of Nell and Nicolette’s protest after Paul decides to evict the Foundation with less than a day’s notice. The two of them do a little spot of malicious compliance by emptying the contents of the Foundation into the middle of the complex right when Paul, Annaliese and Krista are trying to impress the posh jewellery man. What I don’t understand is why nobody realised that turfing a charity out at short notice might not be the best look when you’re trying to win an event pitch, unless you’re pitching to a psychopath.
Cara Oversteps
Cara thinks things might finally be on track for her and Remi when Remi suggests they have dinner together to get to know each other. Things are going really well, so Cara completely misreads the signals and tries to kiss Remi, leading to Remi backing off even further away than she was before. I could see this happening a mile off – I know it’s a complicated situation for both of them, but I don’t really know what Cara was thinking.
Remi is having fun bonding with the boys, so at least that part of the family dynamic is going well, but then they find out that Remi has changed her name at the hospital, ditching the Murphy bit, so they no longer all use the same surname. The boys are really hurt, feeling like Remi is ditching their family, and Cara is furious with her for not considering how they would feel about her doing that.
I know I rag on JJ and Dex quite a lot for being so catastrophically dim, but they’ve been very cute with the way they’ve been trying to support both of their mums through all of this.
Thanks, Neighbours. I Hate It.
I absolutely detest this storyline to the point that I can’t even be bothered to write too much about it.
Holly and Andrew have been trying to keep away from each other for numerous reasons, like the fact they’re both already in relationships and also that having the horn for your daughter’s best friend is gross and icky.
Meanwhile, Wendy is frustrated because her and Andrew, despite being on better terms with each other, haven’t done the honky tonk for a while. She decides to remedy this, and when Sadie goes scuttling round to see Holly and Max in order to leave them to their bedroom antics, Holly is overcome with jealously.
Not knowing how else to get Andrew’s attention, she takes a leaf out of the Izzy Holland Book of Emotional Manipulation and pretends that Gavin Bowman has been hassling her again. Of course, Andrew comes running to protect her and the two of them end up kissing, in broad daylight and where either of their partners may see them. UGH. I just hate it.
The only thing I’m enjoying about this is that the seemingly pointless storyline from earlier in the week, where Andrew was a total jobsworth with Rhett, may well come back to bite Andrew in the butt if the end of Thursday’s episode is anything to go by. Rhett just happens to be there when Andrew and Holly kiss – Rhett getting revenge by blabbing is something I would find very entertaining.
A Few Random Notes
As usual, here are a few random notes I took while watching Neighbours this week:
- I hate Taye speaking about himself in the third person. My nephew does that, and he’s two.
- Max calling Taye a doorknob 😂
- Why the heck was that Lassiters meeting necessary? People came in off shift for that? It was two minutes of chat and it could have been an email.
- I’m delighted at Nicolette being forced into a uniform. I hope it’s frilly.
- They’re trying to impress the jewel guy with the piano bar? Good luck with that.
- Has Krista’s wedding day make-up artist come back? Because her blusher is insane again.
- Why do people keep saying Annaliese is a 90s version of Krista? As far as I can tell the similarity starts and ends with them being blonde women.
This week on Ramsay Street was filled with drama and emotion, from touching breakups to complicated love situations, making Neighbours as exciting and unpredictable as ever!!