February 7, 2020 – The Soap Dish

Monday 3^rd – Friday 7^th February 2020

Yashvi is worried that Dipi is getting too settled at the Canning house, prompting Shane to beg her to come home. When that doesn’t work, he demands that Gary persuade her to move out. When Sheila and Clive go off to New Zealand, Shane is livid over the idea of Gary and Dipi living alone together. Dipi is livid at the insinuation that she would cheat on her husband. When she breaks down on her friend, Kyle walks in and is a little alarmed at how close his Dad is to Dipi. An argument soon ensues between Gary and Shane as Shane continues to feel jealous of Gary’s closeness to Dipi.

Terese, meanwhile, has to frogmarch Roxy to work and face up to Shane, who has taken over management of The Waterhole in Sheila’s place. Shane is pretty cold with her but they cope.

On her way to her exam, Yashvi’s car breaks down and starts smoking. Zenin has tampered with it. She calls Ned for help. Helping Kyle out at the Buddy Club, David is shocked to find a gun in little Caden’s bag. Kyle is sure it’s just a toy gun and fires it into the air. It’s a real gun. Kyle is an idiot. The police are called and Kyle has to awkwardly explain everything to Toadie, although he plays down exactly how the gun was fired, thankfully into a tree. At first Caden says he found the gun, which has been printed on a 3D printer but it later transpires that he took it from his sister’s car. Ned recognises the name of Caden’s sister, Greta – she was part of the fight club and it doesn’t take long for him to realise that Zenin believes he knows he is part of the 3D gun printing gang that the police are trying to hunt down. That’s why he has been after him. He tells Kyle the whole story. Yashvi wins her place at the police academy. Oh and Caden is played by Kai Baker, the real life son of Rebekah Elmaloglou, who plays Terese Willis.

Eager to study psychology and understand her father, Harlow asks Finn to tutor her. Despite his initial reluctance, he throws himself into the first session but when the conversation turns to his past, he is left with food for thought. Is this the beginning of him turning evil again? He confides in Bea and Susan that he doesn’t think he can continue tutoring Harlow. The session took him to a bad place and made him think about his father and how he may have ended up the way he did.

With Chloe’s blessing, Aaron and David press forward with their plan to have a baby with Lisa, who they have known for approximately thirty seconds. Unfortunately, she then discovers she is already pregnant by her ex. So she ties up all her loose ends with Hendrix and co. and heads home again. Well, that was short and unremarkable.

Worried about how sad his son is, including that for a moment, David regretted being gay because of the difficulty he and Aaron are having with having their own children, Paul decides to put Lassiters in for having a float in the Mardi Gras parade. However, with Chloe in charge of it and her not being his favourite person, he shoots down all her ideas. He eventually accepts Sheila’s idea, which he previously rejected when he thought it was Chloe’s. I literally cannot wait for Neighbours to go full Mardi Gras! This show is the epitome of rainbow. I love it so much!

Hendrix has other things on his mind, however, when he discovers that Harlow gets quite distracted when she sees him topless, even though she continues to find him shallow and intensely annoying, as do we all. He blows it, of course by preening and showing off, meaning that she and newly returned (as if she never left) Mackenzie quickly realises that he knows. (I’d need a whole new blog entry to tell you how happy I am that Mackenzie is back as a full time character). But anyway, Harlow plays him at his own game and comes on way too strong, completely panicking him into confessing that he was just trying to tease her. Harlow wins! She later takes pity on him when she witnesses him having an awkward conversation with Chloe. They’re soon back to bickering though and I remain convinced that they will be dating by the end of the year. If I was a teenager, I would be ‘shipping’ it, if that is still the word the kids use!

Stupid storyline of the week: Kyle and his CPR/sex doll. So, Karl teaches Kyle CPR using a CPR doll called Bianca. Kyle takes the doll away and thanks to some unfortunate timing and Kyle personifying the doll a bit too much, moronic Bea and Finn and later, Toadie, get the wrong end of the stick and think that Kyle is so lonely that he’s using a CPR doll for sexual gratification. So Toadie stumbles into a very awkward conversation with Kyle, who is absolutely mortified and hurriedly hands the doll back to Karl. Hilarious. If that’s your sort of things.

Channel 5, 1:45pm and 5:50pm

Soap Blog Monday 3^rd – Friday 7^th February 2020

Alex and Willow are cuddled up in bed, talking and enjoying the happiness of their first time together when Irene, Colby and Bella come home. Willow panics, which Alex finds amusing and it’s not long before Bella bursts in on them and gets the shock of her life! At Willow’s request, she sends Colby on his way and Irene heads up to bed, allowing Alex to leave undetected. Bella is eager for all the gossip but Willow doesn’t want to talk!

The next day, Bella is full of questions but Willow rather harshly shuts her down. Alex is hurt when she discovers this, worried that Willow is ashamed to be with her (echoing the very same question posed by Joey Collins to Charlie Buckton – RIP – ten years ago). Willow assures her that she isn’t but she is scared of being rejected by Colby and Dean. Alex suggests that she separate Bella from them and answer a confused teenager’s questions – after all, it wasn’t her fault she walked in on them. Willow does the right thing and Bella is completely accepting, not to mention elated to see Willow so happy. She promises to keep the relationship under her hat until Willow and Alex are ready to come out.

Bella pushes Willow to call Alex after their misunderstanding earlier but just as she’s about to, Alex turns up. They sort things out easily and Willow decides she is going to tell Colby and Dean the truth.

Colby attempts to sort things out with Mac but he is quickly shut down, seeing through him – he is only interested in being her boyfriend when it’s convenient. He continues to pine for Mac and wants to make things up to her. When Mac finds out from Alex that Bella hasn’t even been living with Colby and he’s still been ignoring her, she dumps him. By text. He abandons Bella to try and sort things out properly. She isn’t interested. And at this point, I can’t say I blame her. Meanwhile, things aren’t going all that much better for poor Dean, who is sad and lonely without Ziggy who is being worked to the bone.

Alex takes the afternoon off in order to be there for Willow when she tells Colby and Dean about their relationship. Unfortunately, Colby and Dean are too self-centred and caught up with their own problems to even notice that Willow is trying to tell them something. When Colby and Mac break up, Willow ends up having to support Mac while Dean lends a listening ear to Colby. Dean calls Colby out on how unfair he has been to Mac, not even bothering to call her while Bella has been unwell; he had time to communicate with other people. Dean tells Colby that he needs more in his life than to just be Bella’s brother or he’ll end up alone. Colby approaches Bella to make plans about her future but she just wants to be with Colby.

Willow frets to Alex about having missed the chance to come out to Colby and Dean. She does however, tell Irene that she and Alex are together and is met with genuine happiness. Inspired, Willow decides to just go for it. While in a very sweet moment, Irene gives Alex a free dessert and welcomes her to the family (you’ve got to love Irene), Willow meets the boys on the beach but again, they are too caught up with their own girlfriends to even listen to her! When Alex visits the house, Bella and Irene suspect that it could be love. I think they might be right. Willow frets that she has disappointed Alex who is compassionate, revealing that she got drunk and emotional and came out to her family over Christmas dinner!

Colby meets up with Mac and ends their relationship for good as he cannot be a reliable boyfriend, thanks to Bella. Dean consoles a devastated Mac. Well, he knew this was going to happen before their relationship even started!

Ziggy phones Dean, stressed that she is failing on the track. She bonds with her female driver, who married to Ziggy’s boss. She then stays behind while the others go to the pub so she can continue to practice and make her times up. Having had all his calls ignored, Dean comes to see Ziggy who is not pleased to see him! She calms down and asks him to wait for her so they can spend all of five minutes together. He watches her work and she gets a lot of praise from her colleagues. He opts out of lunch with her colleagues and heads home. Ziggy’s new friend advises her that when it comes to racing, only the strongest relationships survive. Concerned, Ziggy asks Ben to go round and check on Dean. Dean tells Ben that he’s certain that Ziggy will get the job and leave him behind. He is clearly upset about it but he won’t hold her back.

Worried about Tori missing out on the beginning of Grace’s life, Jasmine begins a Memory Book of Grace to capture everything she is missing for when she wakes up. Their love bubble bursts when the AFP sends round a lawyer to go through their testimony. As they talk, Robbo gets more and more wound up. When she wants to talk about the murder of his family, he refuses to talk about it in front of Grace and throws the lawyer out. Jasmine tells Irene what happened with Robbo and the lawyer and fears this case is never going to end. Me too, Jasmine. Me too.

Encouraged by Jasmine, Robbo arranges with Lance to make the statement away from the house and away from Grace. The couple are surprised by a visit from Robbo’s parents. They fall in love with Grace but are not impressed by their living conditions. They ask Robbo and Jasmine to move back to the farm with Grace, permanently in order to make a fresh start.

Justin struggles to maintain hope for Tori’s recovery, especially as he doesn’t get to see her that often as the hospital is so far away. Leah pledges her support to Justin. They end up on a double date with Maggie and Ben. Both men, who have been going through such a difficult time are grateful to their partners. Mason joins the party and brings up the subject of Tori but Justin walks out, not wanting to deal with potential decisions they may have to make for her.

The next day, Mason and Leah discuss Tori and Justin. Mason receives a call from Tori’s specialist, forcing him to have a conversation with Justin about making decisions for Tori’s future. The doctors have called for a family conference, as she is not responding to treatment. The boys end up in a row in the middle of the Diner. Justin breaks down on Leah, terrified that the doctors will say there is nothing more they can do for Tori. Mason enlists Robbo’s help to get Justin to the meeting. They need to start making decisions and Justin is Tori’s next of kin. Justin shows up at the last minute and the boys head off to the hospital together at the last minute.

Ryder is coy with Roo over how his ‘relationship’ with Jade is going. Despite how unpleasant she is, he continues to ask her out. Dressed up in a new and rather garish shirt, Ryder takes Jade for a picnic on the beach. Onto a sure thing, Ryder hurries home, presumably to get condoms and in the meantime, Jade bumps into Roo who invites her round for dinner. Jade is hideously rude to her.

Martha and Alf start out happy in their new living situation. He even drinks her healthy smoothies. Yes, really. Alf Stewart. However, he soon gets under her feet and the pair of them quickly start sniping at each other. As Martha takes up art classes and makes friends, Alf begins to feel shut out of the new life she is carving out for herself now she has moved to Summer Bay. Roo encourages Alf to get on with his own thing instead of sitting around and waiting for her. However, when he then becomes unavailable, Martha completely freaks out. Alf understands her mental health battle and pledges his full support. On her day off, Super Doc Alex visits Alf and Martha to help put some things in place to make Martha’s transition to the Bay easier.