Tired of holding on to the secret that she knew of Max’s whereabouts, but unable to bring herself to tell Boyd, Janae decided to visit the missing father and husband and remind him of the pain he’d caused by just walking out on his family. Max was stung as Janae told him that she wasn’t doing this for him, but because she loved Steph and Boyd and couldn’t continue to watch them suffer. Janae’s visit did the trick as, not long after, Max walked into the bar, to be greeted by a hug from Boyd. At the hospital, meanwhile, Steph and Toadie were just getting used to the idea of being a couple when Max walked back into her life, ready to pick up where he left off. But Steph wasn’t quite ready to simply forget the pain that he’d caused her and start playing happy families again. By the end of the week, Max was confiding in Boyd, Toadie in Karl and Steph in Susan about their feelings, and Toadie came to the conclusion that Steph had just been using him until Max came back. Steph, on the other hand, realised that it was Toadie, and not Max, that she wanted to spend her life with. Unfortunately, when she went to tell him this, Toadie lashed out and told her that they could never be together, so she decided to try and make things work with Max instead, though he failed to realise that he had been her second choice.

After spotting Frazer winning at online gambling, Ned decided that it might be an easy way to make some money whilst he sorted out his employment issues. After winning from his first tip, he decided to buy a new suit and try his luck with a few more bets, sneaking into number 30 to try and steal some of Frazer’s information. His little plan fell apart when he was caught by Will, who reported back to Frazer. Frazer quickly warned Ned off taking up gambling as a profession, but Ned lied that he already had a job at a gym nearby, and the gambling was just a hobby to fill in time. Frazer believed him, but once he was out of earshot, Ned was straight on the phone to Stuart, asking to borrow money and claiming that it was for a birthday present for their mother.

Following his disastrous date with Rosie, Paul turned to old flame, and baby belt investor Letitia McNair to take his mind off things. Surprisingly though, it failed and it looked like he really had fallen for Rosie and couldn’t simply take his mind off her by sleeping with another woman. During Rosie and Frazer’s first date at Lassiter’s restaurant, Paul did his best to sabotage it by forcing the staff to be rude and play loud music. But even rejecting Frazer’s credit card and forcing him to do the washing up didn’t dampen Rosie’s spirits, as she joined him in the kitchen and the pair had a wonderful time together. Elswhere, Karl’s new self-sufficiency drive took a new twist as he bought some chickens for the back garden, including a rather loud rooster named Springsteen, which proceeded to wake the entire neighbourhood up each morning. By the end of the week, his plans for an organic veggie patch were coming to fruition, though due to his claims that he was suffering from a groin injury, Susan ended up doing all of the work.

At the garage, Janae was stunned to see anti-gay graffiti sprayed on the building and began to suspect that Pepper had lashed out at her mum, only to later realise that vengeful Rex Colt had been behind it. Harold grew increasingly over-protective of Kerry, and, when Sky went away to a team-building camp in the bush, he struggled to keep his opinions to himself whenever Dylan was left alone with his daughter. Across the street, Rachel was back from her month-long work experience placement in Shepparton with a new hairstyle and an eagerness to get back together with Stingray. After secretly meeting up with him, she was convinced that he’d have moved on, but he made his feelings clear and kissed her.