Tonight’s episode of Home and Away in Australia saw Felicity’s departure after three years on screen, as Cash made the difficult decision to switch off her life support.
Felicity (Jacqui Purvis) made her first appearance on the show exactly three years ago, on 19th August 2021, and today saw her time in Summer Bay came to a tragic end after her brother Cash (Nicholas Cartwright) agreed to switch off the life support machine, which has been keeping her alive since she was rushed to hospital last week.
Keep reading for a full tribute to Felicity’s three years in Summer Bay.
Just one week ago, Australian viewers saw Cash and Eden (Stephanie Panozzo) celebrate their engagement, as Felicity, Remi (Adam Rowland) and Xander (Luke Van Os) pulled out all the stops and organised a surprise party on the beach outside Salt.
Felicity spent much of the afternoon flirting and dancing with her ex-husband Tane (Ethan Browne), and when Tane appeared to appreciate the attention from his former partner, it seemed like there was a chance that they could get caught up in the romance and rekindle their relationship.
Their closeness soon caught the attention of Dana (Ally Harris), whose sister Harper (Jessica Redmayne) is secretly pregnant with Tane’s baby after a one-night stand.
When she pressed Xander on whether he thought they might get back together, he told her that he didn’t think they’d ever stopped loving each other.
As the party wound down and the remaining revellers headed upstairs to Salt, Felicity invited Tane for one more dance. However, before they had a chance to do so, Flick’s vision began to blur.
She raised her hand to her head after experiencing a sharp pain, before collapsing to the ground in the final moments of last Monday’s episode.
She was rushed to hospital, and when Bree (Juliet Godwin) realised that her eyes weren’t reacting to light, she sent her straight for imaging of her brain and arteries.
Bree soon confirmed that Felicity had suffered a brain aneurysm. She was taken straight to surgery to clip the aneurysm and prevent further bleeding, but Bree was forced to inform Cash and Tane that even if Flick survived, she may have suffered irreversible brain damage.
In the end, the result was even more tragic. While the initial surgery successfully stemmed the bleeding, Felicity suffered a secondary bleed shortly after.
As Bree rushed to try and stabilise her, Levi entered her room and ran his pen up the sole of Felicity’s foot, prompting a shocked reaction from Bree when there was no reflex action.
The lack of response suggested that Felicity no longer had brain activity, something which was soon confirmed by a series of neurological assessments.
Cash was beside himself when given the news, and urged Bree and Levi to re-run the tests, refusing to leave Felicity’s side until they had done so.
As Cash got some space, Levi explained to Tane and Eden that, while the second series of tests was standard procedure, it was simply to make 100% sure that nothing had been missed – however, he was already certain of the devastating truth: Felicity was clinically dead.
After the second test gave confirmation, Cash was told that he could have more time with Felicity, but that he would soon have to make the final decision to turn off her life support machine.
With Felicity still breathing and her heart still beating – solely thanks to the machines she was hooked up to – Cash couldn’t believe that the doctors were ready to off her life support, and he refused to leave his sister’s side, urging her to wake up.
In today’s episode, Cash finally accepted the truth and made the heartwrenching decision to switch off his sister’s life support.
As he lay tearfully by her side, he told Tane that he wasn’t ready, but Tane placed his arm around his shoulder and told him: “I know. But it’s time.”
When Bree asked Cash and Tane whether Felicity had ever considered organ donation, Cash realized that Felicity’s death could help someone else live, and he agreed to Bree’s suggestion.
After Tane gave Felicity one last kiss on the forehead, she was wheeled through the hospital corridors on an honour walk, a ceremonial event held to commemorate patients whose organs are to be donated after their death.
Staff from across Northern Districts hospital lined the corridor as Felicity was wheeled through for her final goodbye.
The residents of Summer Bay then finally began to grieve. Eden burst into tears as she told Remi, “I can’t believe she’s gone. I’m never going to see her again.”
Tane also broke down in the garden of the farmhouse as he struggled to accept Felicity’s death, just days after confessing that he still loved her.
Felicity made her first appearance on the show exactly three years ago today, on 19th August 2021. Brother Cash had already arrived in town two months previous, as the latest Senior Constable drafted in at Yabbie Creek police station.
When Cash returned to their rental property to find Flick arguing with a neighbour, he found that they had been served an eviction notice due to Flick’s loud music and argumentative nature.
At the time, Flick was working in a bar where she met Tane. The two spent the night together, with Tane shocked to find out the identity of her brother the next morning. The Newmans were soon kicked out of the property with their belongings left dumped on the driveway, and Cash arranged for them to stay at the caravan park.
Flick was soon making her presence known, and gatecrashed Cash’s date with Jasmine (Sam Frost) in order to introduce herself. Jasmine was thrown when Flick told her that her and Cash’s father had been murdered, but Cash soon filled Jasmine in on what had really happened.
Cash and Flick had grown up in the country with their parents Anthony and Jennifer. Jennifer had died whilst the kids were young, leaving Anthony as a single parent with the farm to run. In 2006, when Cash was 12 and Flick only 9, Anthony committed suicide after the farm was hit hard by a drought.
The Newman kids were lucky enough to be fostered by close family friends Gary (Peter Phelps) and Katherine Morrow, but Flick had always been in denial that their father would choose to leave them, instead believing that he had been killed.
Although Gary and Katherine loved her unconditionally, Flick never accepted them as parental figures, and left home as soon as she was old enough to do so.
With Tane cooling things off with Flick, relations turned sour between the pair when Tane started receiving roses and accused her of stalking him. As things deteriorated further, Cash took out an AVO on Tane on Flick’s behalf, only to find her the prime suspect when Tane was drugged and left for dead in a chemical attack.
With evidence found in Flick’s van, the police were preparing to arrest her when she suddenly disappeared. It was later revealed she had in fact been kidnapped by her friend and colleague Anne (Megan Smart), who had been the actual perpetrator of the attack on Tane, jealous that he had not shown her any attention whilst at the bar.
After their shared kidnap ordeal, Flick and Tane made up and started seeing each other again. Flick declined the annual invite from Cash to mark the anniversary of their father’s passing, not wishing to go to their hometown where she’d be surrounded by all those who believe the ‘lie’ about his suicide.
On Cash’s return, he brought with him Anthony’s autopsy report to show Flick, and whilst it was difficult for her to look at, Flick finally accepted the truth about his death.
Flick was taken aback when Tane commented that he could see them having a future, with her later explaining that she’d never seen herself as the type to settle down.
She warned him that should couldn’t promise she’d ever want to do so, and never envisaged having children, but Tane assured her that it wasn’t a dealbreaker and they’d take things as they come.
When Mackenzie attempted to let Flick go from her job at Salt, Flick learned that the restaurant was in serious financial difficulties. She suggested that Mac run an illegal poker night after hours, something that had been done at her previous workplace in the city.
Although the evening was a huge success, Mac’s plan to hold more backfired when a scrupulous player, PK (Ryan Johnson), took advantage of her ignorance of poker and made out that the house owed him money.
Flick was terrified when two of PK’s thugs, sent to trash the restaurant, stabbed Tane, and was one of many suspects questioned when PK wound up dead.
Cash was forced to arrest Flick when the truth about the poker nights came out, but Mac covered for her by telling the police that Flick was under the impression that they’d acquired the appropriate licences.
Flick panicked when she learned that Mac was planning to hand the restaurant over to her if she was imprisoned, but after Mac got off with a good behaviour bond, Flick offered to use her inheritance to buy into Salt and became an equal partner, solving the debt issue.
Flick had stayed at the Parata house to care for Tane following the stabbing, and was stunned when he asked her to move in permanently. She later welcomed her old friends from Lyrik—Bob (Rob Mallett), Eden (Stephanie Panozzo), Kirby (Angelina Thomson) and Remi (Adam Rowland)—to Summer Bay after they paid a spontaneous visit, and went about organising a gig in Salt for the restaurant’s relaunch.
With the exception of Bob, who was soon replaced by Theo (Matt Evans) as lead singer, the band stayed on to play regular gigs.
Flick supported Cash after he was shot as a result of an investigation into a local bikie gang, having him move into the spare room at the Parata house, bringing the siblings back under the same roof.
When Tane proposed to Flick at the lighthouse, she initially froze and had to take a moment to gather herself. She said yes, but later confided in Cash that she had felt pressured to do so with all her friends there to witness it.
Working through her issues, Flick agreed to get married a few weeks later, but was thrown when Cash invited foster father Gary to the bay, in the hope they could patch things up.
Flick hadn’t spoken to Gary since she left home, feeling ashamed of how she had treated him and Katherine, but she was finally able to make peace with him.
After some last minute nerves, Flick was excited to head off for her wedding with Eden, but ended up involved in a horrific car accident after the ute was tampered with by the bikie gang who were intent on getting revenge on Cash.
Tane saved Flick from the burning wreckage after the car ploughed into a petrol station, but she was left traumatised with Eden in a coma.
Flick went off the rails in the weeks that followed, hitting the bottle, and told Tane that she no longer wanted to marry him.
After getting caught drink-driving, Flick skipped town and found herself hitching her way to Gary’s farm.
Whilst there, Gary took her to visit her parents’ graves for the first time, where she was finally able to put some of her painful past to rest.
She asked Tane to join her up there, and the two got back on track, with Flick later proposing to Tane on the beach.
The pair married in an intimate Maori ceremony in Episode 8000, with only Cash and Eden there as witnesses alongside the celebrant, kaikaranga, and poi dancers.
Only a few short months later, Felicity was drugged and assaulted whilst attending a Battle of the Bands event that Lyrik were taking part in.
Flick’s belief that Tane wouldn’t want to be with her as a result put a strain on their marriage, and she was horrified to later receive a message from her attacker, Jeremy (James Dyke), with a video of the assault.
Jeremy threatened to release the video unless she stumped up cash, but after Flick parted with over $10,000, Jeremy’s demands only increased further.
Flick lay a trap for Jeremy, staking out the location of the next money drop, and was able to take photos of him to pass on to Cash who promptly arrested him.
Felicity later panicked when Tane brought up the topic of children, and she reminded him of what she’d said previously about never wanting kids. Tane had hoped she might come around to the idea, like she did with marriage, but Flick warned him that it was unlikely.
Despite his assurances, Flick could see that Tane was struggling with the idea that he wouldn’t be a father whilst married to her. Worried for their future, she told him that she would like to try for a baby with him after all.
However, Flick continued taking her contraceptive pill. When Mac discovered her secret stash, Flick claimed that she just needed a little more time to get her head around the idea of motherhood.
It didn’t take Tane long to find out Flick’s subterfuge, and it marked an abrupt end to their marriage.
Flick struggled to see Tane go on the rebound with one-night-stands, and became jealous of his growing friendship with Harper (Jessica Redmayne), but eventually seemed to accept that their relationship was over.
When Flick had a one-night-stand with a Salt customer, Marshall (Nic English), she was horrified to find the next morning that he was Tane’s lawyer, representing him following his abduction of baby Poppy.
Having teamed up with Harper to try and convince Tane to talk to his lawyer in the first place, Tane accused Flick of interfering in his life once again.
Flick was later swept off her feet when Rory (Joshua Orpin) arrived in town, and the two quickly embarked on a passionate relationship. Cash was deeply concerned when he realised that Rory was the leader of the notorious River Boy gang from Mangrove River, where he had just taken on a new position as Senior Constable after the previous incumbent, Franklin McGrath, was murdered.
Rory, his sidekick Dingo (JK Kazzi) and the rest of the River Boys were top of the suspect list, and Cash begged Flick to end things immediately.
Flick confronted Rory about being in a gang, but was swayed as he talked about the boys being there for him following a tough upbringing.
Despite further warnings from other friends, Flick continues to see Rory, but was floored when he later confessed to killing McGrath and disposing of the body.
Flick’s mood was lifted when she learned that Cash and Eden had become engaged, and quickly set about organising a surprise engagement party on the beach. There she shared a charged slow dance with Tane and it seemed as though they could be about to rekindle their romance.
Alas it wasn’t to be. That evening, she and Tane reflected on their relationship where he promised to always be there for her. Flick asked Tane to dance again, but as she shared a final appreciative nod across the dancefloor with Cash, her vision blurred and she collapsed, never to regain consciousness.
