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Weekly Reviews > Episodes 4224-4228 by Steve

UK Broadcast: Monday 2nd June - Friday 6th June 2003
Written by: Judith Colquhoun, Helen MacWhirter, Ray Harding, Ben Marshall, Martin McKenna. Directed by: Tony Osicka, Gary Conway

Various complicated romantic problems came to a head this week as important decisions were made and an impulsive moment led to one love triangle becoming more confusing than ever...

There were many significant developments in the love triangle of Toadie, Dee and Darcy this week. With the date that would have been their first anniversary fast approaching, both Toadie and Dee began to reflect on the situations that they had found themselves in. Despite it being Sindi's birthday, Toadie realised that he couldn't continue their sham of a relationship and finished things with her. Meanwhile, Dee was feeling extremely unhappy with things and Darcy made every effort to cheer her up with a picnic at Lassiter's Lake. While there, they discussed their past relationship, even wondering what their children might have been like. After spending the day together, they shared a kiss that evening. Dee wasn't thrilled about this development and told Darcy that it should never have happened. The next day, while collecting some of her belongings from number 30, Dee found Sindi was there after letting herself in. Toadie had simply lent Sindi his key so she could retrieve an ear-ring, but Dee didn't hang around long enough to find that out. Heading home, she booked herself on a ferry to Tasmania, in order to visit her gran and try to work out how to cope with recent developments.

It's great that things are finally moving along in this storyline, after weeks of all of these characters treading water. While it is obvious that much of it has been for the purpose of getting Mark Raffetty and Madeleine West out of the way for their pantomime break, it was still interesting to see how Toadie and Dee handled their anniversary so differently. It also looks like this is the end of Marisa Warrington as Sindi, as least for the time being, which is a shame as she was a very vibrant character who added a lot to the storyline.

The week's biggest development was the union of Max and Steph. Having decided earlier in the week to travel separately from Alex, Steph visited Libby at her new country cottage. While Libby tried to convince Steph to go back to Erinsborough and Max, Steph announced that she was going to continue her journey around Australia. Meanwhile, back in Ramsay Street, Max was having trouble with Boyd who was organising a party at number 32. After finally agreeing, Max decided to stay and chaperone the event, roping in Toadie and Darcy aswell. After a relatively trouble-free evening, Max was clearing up the house the following morning and headed out to take some rubbish out. Moments later, the sound of a motorbike was heard - and Steph appeared. The couple finally shared a kiss - witnessed by Lyn, Summer, Boyd and Heather. While Summer was thrilled that her dad and Steph had finally got together, Boyd wasn't so happy. He admitted that he didn't think it was right for his dad to be dating someone so young but after a chat with Heather, he tried to make an effort. Similarly, Lyn voiced her concerns about the couple to Susan. However, Max and Steph were oblivious to all this, as they enjoyed a picnic together and their first day as a couple.

After a painfully long build-up, Max and Steph finally gave in to their feelings -something the fans have been waiting for for months. The moment was very nicely played out - and the grins on the faces of both characters couldn't have been wider. It's good that the situation isn't entirely perfect - Boyd's dislike of the relationship will add an interesting angle, but it's very nice to see some happy characters in soap.

Having admitted his fear of flying to Karl, Joe was in two minds over whether he really wanted to take the flight to New York to visit Flick. But when Valda started dropping some none-too-subtle hints about taking the ticket herself, Joe made the decision that he'd have to get over his phobia. After some visualisation treatment from Karl, Joe seemed to have started to get over his problems - even telling Susan that his biggest problem would be sitting with Karl for 18 hours. Unfortunately for Karl, it seemed that all the talk of flying had set his nerves on edge...

Again, this was a means to an end - writing out Alan Fletcher and Shane Connor for a few weeks while they were in the UK. Many of the scenes were nicely done, playing well on the differences between the characters of Karl and Joe. It was good that although both characters have moved on from the feud that used to exist between them, there is still a certain awkwardness that is highlighted from time to time. The dream sequence was a less desirable part of events, but was short and certainly less cringey than Neighbours dream sequences of years gone by.