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Weekly Reviews > Episodes 4308-4312 by Rhys

UK Broadcast: Monday October 13th - Friday October 17th 2003
Written by: Helen MacWhirter, Anthony Morris, Noel Maloney, Judith Colquhoun, John Davies. Directed by: Chris Adshead, Jovita O'Shaughnessy

A new neighbour entered the world unexpectedly causing both joy and heartache for those involved...

By far the most dominating story of the week was that of the birth of Lyn and Joe's fifth child. Away for a few days by the coast, their holiday was cut short when Lyn began to feel pressure in her chest and found it difficult to breathe. Upon Joe's insistence, they began the drive back to Erinsborough, but had to stop en route because Lyn was finding it near impossible to get her breath. Once back in Erinsborough, Karl confirmed that the baby had turned itself around again and was pressing against Lyn's diaphragm. Despite being warned she may have to have the baby delivered by caesarean section, Lyn was adamant she could encourage the baby to return to its normal position with some excersises. The following morning, Doctor Veronica Olenski confirmed the baby had rotated and Lyn could have a natural birth. However, only hours later, Lyn was back in hospital for the third time - the contractions had started. In some of the most convincing birth scenes seen on the programme, Lyn endured a comparatively complicated labour, and the baby ended up being delivered using forceps - something that upset Lyn greatly - but was necessary because of foetal distress.

Contrary to the expected, a baby boy was born to the Scullys, and not a girl as anticipated. After a "wetting of the head" ceremony at Lou's Place, the Scullys' male friends decided on the name Oscar for the newborn. Despite protestations from Steph and Jack, Lyn seemed fairly happy with it. In truth, however, she spent most of the post-birth hospital scenes in a state of numbness and quiet contemplation. Right from the outset, it became clear the Post-Natal Depression that is to affect Lyn was to be set in motion immediately. Joe mistook it, however, as ³baby blues² which Lyn has traditionally suffered from. It became clear to the viewers, though, that there was more than just tiredness to blame, and that her reluctance to breast-feed the baby is covering a more sinister problem. There's no doubt the scenes involving Oscar's birth were some of the best acted ones ever seen on Neighbours.

The writing, directing and editing all worked together in harmony to provide truly wonderful episodes. Indeed, the birth episode itself is almost unique in the show's history, in that it devoted its entire content to that of the birth story - with almost every scene featuring Lyn and Joe. This was a format that would have greatly improved other landmark episodes such as Madge and Helen's deaths. Thankfully, under the new production regime, this format will be adopted for similar episodes in the future. Ironically, the one slightly poorly-received element of the entire week involved Lyn and the baby! In true ³cheesy Neighbours² fashion, the age-old format of a dream sequence was used. Neighbours is no stranger to dream sequences, and although this one was pretty tame by some standards, it didn't really fit comfortably into the episode and gave the impression that the sequence was a piece of additionally recorded film just slotted into the episode. Strangely, it almost mirrored the dream experienced by Libby some eighteen months ago when she, too, had visions of the Neighbours crouching and cooing over her with gifts and advice!

Despite a new son and depressed wife at home, Joe still found time to attend the gourmet cooking class at Lassiter's, much to Karl's annoyance. Joe, however, was very hurt and upset when he overheard Karl tell the tutoring chef, Gabriel, that Joe wasn't a friend, but rather ³just a neighbour². Susan was horrified at this when Joe told her, and agreed with him that her husband is a snob. Watching Joe's scenes this week were, sadly, tinged with the knowledge that Shane Connor has been axed from the role very suddenly. Although nothing has been scripted or decided as yet, it has been strongly hinted by unofficial sources that the character may be killed off. It remains to be seen if this is the case, but either way it's now increasingly difficult to watch the character in the family context, knowing he may soon be gone.

Although it dominated much of last week's airtime, Stephanie's breast lump wasn't really explored much during the last five episodes. The only brief nods we got to it were when Lyn, Susan and Libby were joking about breastfeeding their children and how their husbands realised their bosoms had more of a biological function as opposed to just decoration. The uncertainty and worry on Steph's face was clear to see. Similarly, she snapped at Jack when he made some jokey remark about her developing her relationship with Max. It was, actually, quite refreshing to have a break from this story - so as not to bombard the viewers with too many heavy and depressing scenes in one week - plus it adds to the realism that such a lump is often dismissed of being cancerous until the patient continues to suffer with it.

The inquest into Dee's death also took place this week, and it was great to see another appearance by Sgt Joanne Douglas in the courtroom scenes. The ruling, however, didn't please Toadfish one bit, as Stuart was found innocent of any cause behind the accident. Toadie wouldn't accept this and in a fit of rage told Stuart he was taking him to court in order to sue him. Libby, who returned from Grandpa Tom's and made up with Susan, made Stuart realise how unreasonable Toadie was being, and insisted he stand up to his rights. In following her advice, Stu told Toadie exactly what he believed to be the truth: that he was driving the car and lost control of it when he leaned over to kiss Dee. He used the sentence ³You killed her² which resulted in a stunned look from his one time friend, and a slam of the door in his face. In true Neighbours fashion, another story is being resurrected. This time, the saga of "Will they? Won't they?" between Libby and Stu. She suggested they find a flat together, despite Susan and Karl's concerns that they wouldn't be able to live together having both admitted months ago that they fancied one another.

In another attempt to try and find something interesting for the character of Connor to do, the storyteam obviously thought it a good idea to have him uncover some old love poems, composed by Lou in his early years. Connor decided to sell them to unsuspecting punters, with the suggestion that they could woo anyone with them! Lou, needless to say, was not pleased when he found Connor selling them in the middle of the night and sacked the kindly Irishman. Max, annoyed with Lou for not turning up to work without prior warning, took pity on Connor and trained him in the art of bar work at the pub.

And, continuing the slightly more 'edgy' tone set for certain stories, Sky and Boyd continued to get on extremely well, though they would probably not admit it! Harold and Max, though, were not keen on either seeing the other, and tried in vain to halt their growing friendship. The kids were aware of this, though, and deliberately wound-up their elders by suggesting they were going to shoplift and smoke dope.

Also, Jack accepted Edwina's offer of a ride in her car, and although we only saw them kiss on screen, it was pretty obvious that they slept together. Jack later went round to see Nina, hair all ruffled - probably as a subtle indication of his recent romp - who confided in her boyfriend that she felt she was ready to take the next step and have sex with him, also. Although she confided in Taj that she was a little worried about Edwina's presence, she has no idea of Jack's infidelity. It's occasionally hard to believe it's still Neighbours one's watching with such open references to sex and scenes that leave little to the imagination. However, although it would be wrong to think we want risque scenes dominating the programme, in a storyline such as Nina's virginity, it's a welcome re-addition and harks back to Neighbours of old.

Notes: It's interesting to note that for the first time in more than two years, Dee's full name of "Dione" was mentioned on-screen. In this case, by the coroner, when delivering her verdict. Sgt Joanne Douglas is continually wrongly credited in the closing sequence as "Joanna".

To read a full summary of Monday's episode (Oscar's birth) click here