You’ve got to be a strong-willed individual to live in Summer Bay. On paper, the seaside town doesn’t really have a great track record: shootings, stalkers, cults, horrific weather events, gang violence, corrupt cops, a worrying amount of car crashes and other roadside incidents, though weirdly, not many drownings for a beachside community. John Palmer must be proud.
So yes, Home and Away, in its 30-year run has delivered us with many epic and dramatic storylines to keep us on the edge of our seats, or at least have us questioning why anyone would live in Summer Bay long-term.
But there’s one storyline that continues to live rent-free in my head, from the years I started sneaking in watching Home and Away when my parents weren’t home, and that was the ’00s storyline of the Sutherland twins and their psychic connection.
Firstly, here’s a quick refresher on Home and Away’s Sutherland family, and the twins’ psychic connection:
The Sutherland family first hit Summer Bay in 2000, with Rhys Sutherland and his wife Shelley taking over the caravan park. The couple moved with their three daughters, Dani (Tammin Sursok), and twins Jade and Kirsty (played by Kate Garven and Christie Hayes).
Now, of course, being on a show like Home and Away, many dramatic things happened to the Sutherland family, like the time they got trapped down a mine shaft after a probably landslide or some other tumultuous weather event. However, the twins share a special connection, being twins and all, and they use their psychic twin powers or telepathic connection or whatever it was, to somehow contact each other and get out alive.
Plot twist: the Sutherland twins aren’t REALLY twins
Later on, it could be months, maybe years down the track, I can’t really remember on account of being around 12 years old myself, Kirsty and Jade Sutherland are delivered an absolute bombshell in the form of Kirsty’s real identical twin sister, Laura.
Yep, the twins find out there was a mix-up at the hospital where they were born, and the real Sutherland twin, Laura, (also played by Christie Hayes) was swapped out with baby Jade.
So of course this drama bloody rocks the Sutherland family, right? Jade is horrified her parents aren’t her real parents, Kirsty’s confused AF because her whole life Jade has been her twin and it turns out she has an identical other half out there. And to be fair, she’s also probably confused because she’s dating a guy who assaulted her older sister Dani, super normal. Meanwhile everyone’s like, how TF could such a mix-up happen? Like, what drunk midwife was on duty that night?
But for me, I was left with one burning question and Home and Away has never answered it for me.
HOW DID JADE AND KIRSTY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER DOWN IN THE MINESHAFT IF THEY DIDN’T ACTUALLY SHARE A SPECIAL TWIN CONNECTION?!
If you’re wondering what happened from this moment, the families kind of integrated together and dealt the best they could with the chaotic situation, with Jade eventually leaving to get to know her bio parents better, and Kirsty later falling pregnant to Kade who went to prison (shocker).
But still, even to this day, I’ll be doomed to forever think about this glaring plot-hole and how it left so many unanswered questions.
My DMs are open, Home and Away scriptwriters.
