Home and Away looks set to bring foster children back to Summer Bay House, as Roo continues her journey to become an emergency foster carer.
While Summer Bay has been busy concentrating on Tane’s abduction of baby Poppy, along with Mali and Harper who were also potentially facing charges after learning of Tane’s location, the whole saga appears to have had a profound effect on Roo.
When Roo first visited Tane and baby ‘Maia’, as he had named her at the time, in the hospital to drop off some donations left at the surf club, Tane had slated the baby’s mother for leaving her on the beach.
Roo pointed out that the mother could have been struggling, and Maia had clearly been cared for, but Tane wasn’t willing to compromise on his viewpoint. If you’re a mum, then you figure that out or seek help.
Tane’s stance touched a nerve with Roo, who knew full well how it feels to be completely overwhelmed with a newborn.
Roo gave birth to daughter Martha back in 1988 when she was only 17. Although she didn’t go as far as abandoning her child, she faced the horror of Martha’s father Brett Macklin (Gerry Sont) briefly taking off with her, and later made the difficult decision to give Martha up for adoption after they both agreed they were unable to provide a stable enough environment.
Roo spent a lot of time visiting Maia at the hospital over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime Tane’s plans to become an emergency foster carer in order to look after Maia himself were thwarted after realising he’d need to be a permanent resident of Australia.
When Roo asked Tane if he’d thought of starting the process to become a resident, he explained it would be no good as it would still take a minimum of three months.
As Roo pondered that there must be someone in the local area who could take care of Maia, Tane asked if she would consider it herself.
Roo was initially thrown by the suggestion, and admitted to Alf that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to be an emergency foster parent—how would she be able to look after that little girl and avoid falling in love with her?
Alf could have given Roo the benefit of his own experiences as a foster parent at this point, but instead just told Roo that she needs to be doing it for the right reasons.
After much careful thought and research, Roo announced that she was going to go ahead and apply, the plan being that Tane could later apply himself after becoming a resident.
Before Roo’s application could be processed however, another foster family in the area became available and the authorities decided to place Maia with them.
Just as Tane absconded with Maia, her biological mother Sonia (Olivia Beardsley) turned up, and it was Roo who ended up being a support to her.
After Sonia was eventually reunited with her daughter, Roo visited the pair at home and was happy to report back that they were doing much better now that they had the help they needed.
When Roo next saw Tane, she abruptly told him that Sonia and Poppy were happy, before she chastised him for taking off with the baby.
Whilst Harper tried to defend Tane, Roo explained that he should have seen the look on her poor mother’s face when she learned what had happened.
Roo later struggled to find any sympathy for Mali after learning he was facing charges too, and Alf told her that she should just concentrate on the fact that Poppy is back with her mum and not the finer details of what happened.
In the final episode of last week, Marilyn (Emily Symons) was concerned that she hadn’t managed to get hold of Roo for the entire day, having tried calling her several times and leaving messages, and commented that she hadn’t seemed herself since seeing Sonia and Poppy.
Alf informed her that he knew Roo was going out somewhere, but even he started to wonder what was going on when they returned home later that evening to find Roo hadn’t yet come back.
In Monday’s episode, Roo made a safe return to Summer Bay, with Alf telling Maz that he’d heard his daughter come in shortly after midnight. The following morning, Roo told Alf that she wanted a chat.
She explained that she wished to continue her plans to become an emergency foster carer, feeling inspired after successfully reuniting Sonia and Poppy. She’s spent the past few weeks attending informational sessions in the city to find out more about it.
Telling Alf that she may be called upon to look after children for anywhere between a day and a number of months, she asked if he would be happy for her to bring the children to their home at Summer Bay House.
While a surprised Alf quipped that he thought his child-rearing days were well behind him, Roo assured him that she would be the primary caregiver.
Alf gave Roo her blessing, but told her that she should have a chat with their houseguest Marilyn first.
Maz was delighted by her plans, expressing how nice it would be to have some little ones in the house again.
Alf seemed surprised by how easily Maz agreed, perhaps hoping her own mixed experience with children might lead her to encourage Roo to take more time to think through her decision.
Yet within hours, Marilyn and Roo were fine-tuning Roo’s application, planning the house inspection, and even discussing ideas for transforming Ryder’s old room into a space for a child – and the speed of their progression was clearly concerning for Alf.
The pair were then surprised to find Alf had left the house without so much as a goodbye.
At the end of the episode, Roo entered the surf club to overhear her dad talking to someone on the phone, expressing his concern that Roo was rushing into things.
“It’s like another one of her little projects,” Alf told his interlocutor. “Roo needs to slow the hell down and think about what she’s doing. These are kids’ lives we’re talking about!”
Is Home and Away about to return to its roots and have foster children back in the bay, or will a concerned Alf talk Roo out of her plans?
