(Friday 24^th April – Friday 1^st May 2020)

Bratty Bella calmed down a bit this week when she made friends with Nikau and also got a telling off from Dean for the way she has been behaving.  She decided that rather than repeating Year Eleven at school, she is going to study Photography at TAFE.  Sounds positive but I am sure she will be stropping about something else by next week…

Speaking of strops, John has seriously got his knickers in a twist when it comes to the Parata family.  He made it his mission to dig up some dirt on them.  And he succeeded.  He discovered that Ari has a criminal past and his brother (Gemma’s husband and Nik’s father) was killed in an armed robbery in which an innocent woman also died.  Or something.  It’s quite complicated.  Convinced that the family are a bunch of crooks, he presented his evidence to Marilyn, determined to rid them from his house.  Unfortunately for John, Marilyn stood by them, resulting in him sleeping at the caravan park!

Against her better judgement, Alex cleared Ari for work so he can start bringing in a wage for the family again and help them get back on their feet at last.  I do like these new guys.  I think.  They have potential anyway.  And Marilyn clearly does too.  After John rushed to tell tales after seeing Ari accusing Dean of telling his family’s secret, Marilyn still wouldn’t listen.  She then lost it with her husband after he attempted to bribe Ari into leaving the Bay.  Oh, John, you just don’t understand what your wife has been through, do you?  Or why she is so desperate to help this family.  Also, if you judged everyone in Summer Bay by their past, I don’t think you’d have any friends.  I’m not sure you’d even be friends with yourself, for that matter.  Maybe that’s why he loves Marilyn.  She’s always been pretty amazing, dating way back to the eighties…

It’s a sad week for Willex fans as Alex the Super Doctor packs up her office, including a framed photo of her and Willow and finishes her last shift at the hospital.  The next day, she tries and fails to meet up with her ex to say goodbye as Willow is too heartbroken to face up to the fact that Alex is actually leaving for good.  I think you can tell a lot about how someone handles a breakup and sadly, as much as I wanted them to work out, they probably are in different stages in their lives.  If Willow can’t even reply to a text message or say goodbye to Alex (when they haven’t parted on bad terms), it doesn’t exactly reek of emotional maturity, does it?  Possibly not someone to settle down and sign mortgage papers with.

Anyway, it’s a poor turnout for Alex’s goodbye considering she’s saved the lives of half the residents in Summer Bay or their loved ones.  This woman has done so much good during her time in the Bay – she’s helped Ben, Bella, the Morgan Family, not to mention everyone affected by the siege (so, everyone) – and she made friends with all of Willow’s ‘family’ and only Jasmine could be bothered to have lunch with her, say goodbye or even acknowledge that she was leaving.  I mean, where the hell was Irene?  Or… anyone?  Summer Bay is a fickle place sometimes.

However, one person that does turn up is Willow!  Right at the last minute, she races towards Alex and tells her that she’s changed her mind and wants the whole relationship, future, house, mortgage and everything.  Hooray!  And they celebrate with a passionate… hug.  Right.  Short lived joy rings throughout the Willex fan based as for a moment, it looks like Alex’s exit is going to be granted a reprieve but sadly, she is too sensible and realises that nothing has actually changed.  They still love each other, they still want to be together but in the long term, Willow still doesn’t want to move away or to settle down.  They have one last night together before Alex slips away, leaving Willow to wake up to a goodbye note.  She is heartbroken, turning to bestie Dean for support.

I am very sad that this story has ended, although very glad that it happened.  It was a really lovely relationship and rectified a lot of the mistakes that happened ten years ago with Charlie and Joey, the last time Home and Away made an attempt at a lesbian relationship (which ultimately ended with one of them cheating on the other with a man and involved a hell of a lot of homophobia despite the best intentions from the actresses).  But this one was genuinely a very positive story.  It was received well, the actresses, Sarah Roberts and Zoe Ventoura were amazing.  The ending was a bit rushed and they could easily have found a better reason for them to have to part ways as Zoe was only a guest star.  Also, I seriously hope that now they have seen just how popular their romance really is, they’re fighting like hell to get her back!  But overall, I would say, this has been a really positive story.  I certainly enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, Tori was unsure whether she is doing the right thing about returning to work.  Well, it’s a shame she didn’t have these doubts earlier, quite frankly, before Alex had to leave town!  You’ve ruined a wonderful relationship, you know!!!  Anyway, she did go back to work and to everyone’s surprise, so did Jasmine.

Leah continued to struggle but when Justin broke the news that although Douglas has been charged with attacking Colby, he can’t be charged for kidnap as she won’t make a statement, she bravely sat down with Justin and a policeman and told them everything that happened to her.  His ex-wife has also made a statement that Douglas was physically and mentally abusive and it was Leah’s website that gave her the courage to escape.  She confided in Justin that she knew when Douglas was planning the wedding that she had to escape.

Just as an aside, has Leah not noticed Mason has vanished…?

Due to the Coronavirus, Home and Away has had to suspend filming

Home and Away will now air on Channel 5 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.15

There is a sneak peek episode on 5Star at 6:30pm on the same days

These reviews are based on the Channel 5 episodes