The situation between Ned, Elle, Izzy and Paul grew more complex this week, if that were possible. With Ned and Elle still going ahead with their plans to leave Erinsborough and move to Hobart, Izzy made one final desperate attempt to split them up and keep Elle in Erinsborough, by her father’s side. When Ned turned up at the bar to say his goodbyes to Izzy, she took him into the office and seduced him. This was the final straw for Ned, who, the next morning, decided that he couldn’t going away with Elle if he still had such strong feelings for Izzy. Just as they were preparing to leave, Ned announced that he couldn’t do it, leaving Elle devastated. But it seemed that Izzy’s plan had backfired when Elle announced that she was going to return to Tasmania anyway as she couldn’t cope with seeing Ned everyday on Ramsay Street. Although Paul and Izzy talked her into staying, the whole situation threw up yet another drama when Ned turned up at number 22 and told Izzy that he wanted to be with her. Digging herself in even deeper, Izzy agreed with Ned, but said that they had to keep a lid on their feelings, until she worked out exactly how to deal with Paul. But as Ned left, it was clear that Izzy hadn’t quite planned for this eventuality.

At Lassiter’s, Paul was busy getting his revenge on Lou and Harold by launching his new boutique café, Lucinda’s. Naming it after his daughter, as well as offering her a job there as co-manager, helped to convince Elle to stick around after the dramas with Ned, but the rest of the town weren’t quite so easy to convince. Lou made it quite clear that he wasn’t about to give up on his livelihood without a fight, while Toadie and Connor helped the General Store to fight back by giving them the surplus stock from Bounce, which, it was revealed, had been forced to close down. Possibly because nobody was working there, they didn’t say. Sky and Dylan’s relationship was threatened when Paul offered Dylan a co-manager’s job at the café. Sky made it clear that, if he accepted, things would be over between them, so Dylan turned it down. However, as he pushed the hotdog cart around the uni, he began to realise that it was never going to be the beginning of a great career, whereas working for Paul could be the start of something big. After a few words from Harold, Sky was convinced that Dylan’s involvement with Lucinda’s café needn’t be the end of things between them, but when Paul came into the General Store and started to gloat, it looked like Dylan and Sky’s relationship was about to enter a tense phase. Meanwhile, after returning with Steph, Lyn was shocked to find out that she no longer had a job at the salon. Realising that working for Paul might be her only hope, but also aware that it would look bad to the rest of the neighbours, she approached him about getting a job behind-the-scenes, so that nobody would have to know. Paul quickly turned her down, telling her that if she wasn’t proud of the company she worked for, then he couldn’t employ her.

Sky and Boyd started their uni courses this week, but it didn’t look like it was going to be plain sailing for either of them. In the beginning, Sky was delighted to be amongst free spirits with a desire to learn and a passion to fight for a cause, but she soon realised that it was no longer the 70s and those around her were more interested in partying and drinking than standing up for their beliefs. Not to be beaten, Sky set about trying to get a slot on the uni radio station, in the hope that she could still find ways to spread the word. Janae, meanwhile, was struggling to contain her jealousy as Boyd met lots of interesting new women on his uni course. After following him to uni on a couple of occasions, Janae spotted him chatting to a group of girls. After Boyd left, Janae walked up to one of them, Georgia, and warned her that Boyd was taken and they’d regret it if they didn’t stay away from him. Later that day, Boyd told a confused Janae about all of the girls suddenly giving him the cold shoulder. Although Dylan quickly realised exactly what was going on, Boyd never considered that his girlfriend would stoop to such a level, but when Dylan made a loaded comment about Janae and her jealousy, Boyd reminded her that if she ever did interfere like that, their relationship would be over for good.

Finally this week, Stingray was still desperate to get onto a film studies course at the uni. Having completed his short film on happiness, he used a novel approach to get it to the attention of course leader, Josh Nelson, by building a robot complete with DVD player and viewing goggles. Although Josh seemed impressed, it remained to be seen whether Stingray’s plan would work. Meanwhile, Katya continued to be a thorn in the sides of both Susan and Karl. As she questioned just how professional Karl’s interest in Susan, Rachel and Zeke was, a malicious comment by Izzy – about Karl’s interest in younger women – could have provided the trigger Katya needed to fight for custody of her brother and sister…