A beloved Home and Away couple call it quits on their relationship and Leah makes her return to Summer Bay. Elsewhere, Tane finds himself in hot water over the abandoned baby
There’s plenty of drama happening in Home and Away this week.
Mackenzie decides to take the afternoon off and makes plans to spend time with Levi. But when he catches up with Eden, she confides in him the trust issues she still has following their father’s affair.
With his own affair playing on his mind, Levi can’t help but snap at Eden the next time she takes a swipe at their dad. After he vents to Mackenzie about his sister’s closed heart, she pulls him into a kiss. But as they draw apart, they see Alf passing by and fear he just busted their affair.
Mackenzie chases after Alf. But Alf has the Coastal News article on his mind. She reports the good news to Levi – but he’s still rattled. They can’t relax for a moment in this town.
Mackenzie suggests they get away and escape somewhere they can be themselves. This is an offer he cannot refuse, and they will be on their way immediately following his quick peace talk with Eden.
Elsewhere on the soap, a new guard arrives for his shift at actress Stevie’s and her distress is palpable. She begs for Cash to stay, and even when he does draw a boundary, she calls to complain that new guard Paul is already boring her.
The next day, he wakes to a series of voicemails from Stevie: Paul’s been poisoned, she frets – and she’s there all on her own. He runs to her side, and the culprit turns out to be a bad kebab, but Stevie’s fear of her stalker is obvious.
When Eden calls, Cash has bad news for his girlfriend – he can’t leave Stevie after the night she’s had. Stevie’s astonished to see Cash arriving with a load of groceries instead of actual food. They share a joke about how many left-overs she will have and Cash departs, well humoured and relieved from duty.
But he returns home to an emotional Eden. She feels betrayed he abandoned her during such a tough day, only to go babysit some celebrity. Cash admits there’s a few kinks in this new job, but he is going to make sure she feels like his number one priority.
Cash arrives from a shift as Stevie Marlow’s bodyguard and Felicity grills him for an update. And soon enough they’re set up with popcorn in front of Stevie’s movie “Death Throes”.
Despite claims of boredom, Cash finds himself drawn into the plot. Suddenly, he pauses the movie – he recognises some graffiti on screen. “2346” is in eerie, dripping numbers in front of him. Numbers that he’s seen before in the police reports Stevie showed him…
Also happening this week on Home and Away, the scathing article about baby Maia from the journo who tricked Dana into speaking to them is released. The article labels Rose incompetent and worse, names Tane for his “obsession” with the baby.
Tane is in the spotlight, his motives questioned for being by the baby’s side. The same journalist returns and gets the jump on Mali, figuring Tane is still at the hospital.
Sure enough, he turns up to find Tane feeding the baby. Tensions rise, and they fight, interrupted by Rose. Roo confirms that the Coastal News will reprimand the journalist. They inspect a table of items donated for the baby.
Roo comes across a bracelet engraved with the name ‘Poppy’. They take it to Rose, who accepts it as evidence for the baby’s real name but doesn’t share the same conviction that Roo does – that it’s from the baby’s mother.
Harper and Tane weigh in, Harper is convinced that it likely came from the mother to show she still cares, but Tane vehemently disagrees. If the mother cared, she would show up.
Felicity presses Mali for an update on Tane, but he’s not giving much away. She stumbles over the Coastal News article and decides it’s worth checking on him.
When Felicty gets to the hospital, she catches Dana mid apology to Tane for opening her big mouth to the journalist. But Tane does not accept the apology, sending her away in tears.
Meanwhile, Rose gets a call from Sarge, who assigns her a difficult task. Sure enough, the journalist has made a complaint, and Rose has to action new orders – from now on, nobody except for health and social services staff can stay around the baby.
Though frustrated by this, Rose is clear with Tane – he needs to leave on his own accord, or she’ll be forced to issue him with an AVO. An angry Tane returns to the gym where Dana tries again to apologise, but Tane isn’t hearing it.
Thanks to her, he has been forced away, and the baby is on her own now. Dana could not feel worse. Dana’s crushed after her actions resulted in Tane getting into hot water.
There’s heartbreak in store for Bree and Remi this week. Bree showers Remi with love, grateful he gave up his bike. She’s organised a physio, and is blissfully unaware that Remi actually roped Justin in to stash his bike for him.
When they run into Justin in the Diner, his mention of the bike pricks Bree’s ears, but she pushes down the niggling feeling that something isn’t right. Remi covers his dishonesty, doubling down on his lie.
Subtly, he asks a favour of Eden to silence Justin but she encourages him to come clean. And he reluctantly agrees, Bree deserves the truth. Remi is finally honest with Bree – he lied about the bike, and never had any intention of getting rid of it.
Bree is seeing red. Remi literally looked her in the eye and lied to her about his motorbike, after their promise to be honest with each other. He tries and fails to repair, asking Bree to tell him how to fix it.
But for Bree, the answer is obvious. It starts by getting rid of the bike. However, Remi has reservations. Riding is a part of who he is. This really dries up Bree’s patience. Tired of him telling her what he thinks she needs to hear, she’s clear – it came down to him choosing either her or the bike. And he didn’t choose her. It’s over.
Also in Summer Bay, Justin is nervous about Leah’s imminent return – he remembers all too well the state she was in last time she came back from the clinic. When she gets back earlier than expected, it prompts Justin to confess he is worried for history to repeat.
She understands and reassures him she has all the clarity she needs. Plus, she’s wearing her engagement ring, and she’s never taking it off again.
Later on, Valerie and Theo flirt over breakfast, but she’s resistant to the public affection – she fears Justin and Leah could find out about their relationship.
Speaking of Leah, she asks the boys to go for a surf so that she can have time with Valerie. When they’re gone, she speaks candidly to her friend – the clinic were asking about her. She failed to mention to Leah that she had discharged herself, and now her counsellor is worried about her.
Valerie protests, but Leah feels indebted to her for all her support. Valerie insists she feels 100% safe here, way more so than at the clinic. She promises to check in with her counsellor regardless, but later she’s emotional when she orders Theo to get more pills.
Valerie’s frustrated that Theo won’t give her a pill, but he stands strong. Desperate, she goes through his bag, his guitar case and then shares in detail her trauma and blame from her parents for the death of her brother.
This is enough to crack Theo, who agrees to get her a pill. But Theo’s sympathy backfires when Valerie’s high takes effect just as Kirby arrives.
He tries to defend Valerie’s emotional state, but Kirby is furious at the person Theo is becoming, and their argument is observed by Justin, who later has questions. He knows Theo’s hiding something. And it involves Valerie.
