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Weekly Reviews > Episodes 4328-4332 by Jamie

UK Broadcast: Monday November 10th - Friday November 17th 2003
Written by: Phillipa Burne, Chris Hollow, John Upton, Judith Colquhoun, Jeff Truman.
Directed by: Jeffrey Walker, Chris Adshead.

The first episode of the week opened with Steph packing to go into hospital for the removal or her tumour. With her meagre support group of Jack and Libby, she then had to face a tearful Summer and make up more lies about why things didn’t work out between Max and herself. Summer’s convinced that Steph’s leaving has made her sick and when Libby says he just has a cold, she replies with a heart-breaking “No: He’s got a broken heart.” Jack and Libby stick with Steph all the way to the hospital where the operation, it seems, is a success. The lump was easily removed but Dr. Marley still recommends a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Fine – until she mentions one of the potential side effects – Steph could be left sterile. Back at Libby’s apartment Steph is tired and distant. Libby reminds Steph that she once thought she couldn’t have kids and how devastated she was. Steph comes back by saying, “You don’t even know if I’ll be alive in five years’ time.” When pushed on harvesting some of her womb and ovaries just in case, Steph replies that why bother when she’s ended things with the only man she ever wanted kids with anyway? To placate Lyn and Joe, she comes over to the Scully house to visit but bails before she can tell them anything. Joe gets sceptical as to Jack’s activities when he is doing homework in the middle of the night… Jack still finds more time to wag though and took Steph to a beauty spot, where they used to come as kids. He finally summons up the courage to ask her when the treatment starts, she turns on him saying that it doesn’t – she’s not going to have chemo. He is so stressed by Steph’s revelation that he cannot concentrate in an exam and storms out, much to Joe’s anger and Susan’s frustration. Later, in conversation with Libby Steph tells her too that treatment isn’t worth the stress; Libby tells her that she’s been offered a teaching post in Adelaide and will take it. Karl comes to her to see if what Jack’s told him is true. She finally breaks down and says there’s no point anymore, Karl correctly sees her fear and he holds her telling her she’s much too loved to give up as she sobs into his shoulder.

Carla Bonner was incredible this week; her role has never been stretched so far before, not even in the times of Woody, and it hasn’t hurt that she’s been supported by a fantastic cast. Alan Fletcher is always brilliant, but it’s been a while since he’s had anything other than comedy banter with either Joe or Susan so it’s a welcome return to challenging stuff, on which he has thrived. He’s also been brilliant as a chummy older friend for both Jack in this storyline, and Boyd in his, catching up with them in the street to dispense advice. Also good is how Jack Scully is a layered character; yes he’s scum to his girlfriends but he’s genuinely upset for, and cares about, his older sister. Libby, however, may as well not have been in the few scenes that she was in. Yes, Jack couldn’t have been the sole support for Steph at the hospital but Libby’s appearances over the last few weeks have been nothing, really, but pointless cameos. It’s also getting harder and harder to ignore – despite flattering camera angles – that Kym Valentine is pregnant. This week finally saw Libby announce her imminent departure. Maybe when she returns she can properly rejoin the story and Erinsborough life a bit more fully, instead of being annexed away in an echoey apartment.

Max, as we know, is taking things with Steph badly. He’s sick, can’t concentrate and Summer feels useless and unable to help because everyone treats her like a kid. (“I know what love is like, I watch daytime TV”) Max patiently explains that he’ll be fine as long as has she and Boyd. Later Summer cries when talking about Steph with Izzy. Izzy doesn’t exactly make things easier; she strays from the party line and calls Steph selfish, saying that at the first sign of trouble she got out, and that the Hoylands are better off without her. She later says the same to Max.

Izzy and Harold are in business! Despite her not having the whole $25,000 asking price for her 20% stake in the business, it seems Lou has stumped up the extra and now Izzy is full of new ideas to “set the place on fire”. While working there one afternoon she has a run-in with Susan Kennedy: Izzy was practically telling Summer that Lyn was an alcoholic gambling addict, something which understandably Susan took objection to. Susan stands her ground in light of Izzy’s patronising apology and lies and refuses to accept any peace-pipe offerings. She leaves her wallet on the side in her haste.

Izzy Hoyland is a fabulous creation; flirty, beautiful and perky but with a real self-serving streak. The way that she is playing Harold and Lou is brilliant, but makes us feel all the more angry for Susan not being believed by the others. Susan is a little frustrating at the moment. After being cold and distant from Libby after her affair with Taj she is now being cold, distant and rude to Izzy (as it turns out with good reason). It just seems that Susan isn’t a very nice person at the moment; something which we know is not true but may well be a necessary precursor to future storylines…

Things looked rough for star-cross’d lovers Boyd and Sky at first this week too. Boyd was stuck in the dilemma of wanting to still be the popular boy at school, which meant impressing Erin and his footie buddies, which in turn meant alienating and disassociating himself from Sky. She, in turn, got pretty sick of being ignored and Boyd not defending her when the others called her “freak”, so one lunchtime she pulls him into a shed to talk things through. So far so fine, but Erin heard voices and recognised Sky’s from the other side of the door, before long there was an audience waiting to see who was pashing in the shed. Finally, Boyd did the right thing and strode out to meet Sky’s tormentors: “She’s not a freak, she’s my girlfriend” before planting a smacker on the surprised Sky’s lips.

Stephanie McIntosh is a wonder. She’s resuscitated the lifeless corpse that was Boyd Hoyland and given him dimensions that we care about, despite her dialogue sometimes being a little over-scripted and self-aware. Kyal Marsh, for his part, is handling the role competently but is constantly put in the shade by his co-star.

Meanwhile at the Scully house proper, Lyn is coming to terms much better now that her PND has been diagnosed. She and Joe both reassure Oscar, with Joe telling him that he’ll get so much love from Joe that he won’t notice the difference, and later Lyn tells Oscar that “I will love you my little boy”. She finally confides in Susan about her PND, and asks her advice and support before her appointment with a counsellor later that day. She’s embarrassed because she feels like she’s “learning to be a mother all over again”. She gets anti-depressants from the session and feels like things are picking up.

A welcome break from Lyn’s doom and gloom of the previous week, but the storyline is still progressing and isn’t getting stale while Lyn’s daughter gets centre stage.

The week also saw Connor, Stuart and Toadie run into some trouble with a coffee machine for Lou. Despite Connor’s protests that it’s “dodgy with a capital L. O. U.” they go ahead with the pickup in an abandoned warehouse and meet with Erinsborough’s very own mafia. After some intimidation and wrangling, the machine is installed in Lou’s Place as direct competition to Harold’s Coffee Shop. Connor and Stuart also explored their alternative sides with their respective holistic dates doing yoga and the like. Taj, their for-one-week-only new best friend, went on a date with Edwina to a golf course. She admits that Jack hurt her pretty badly, but the two have a good date nevertheless.

The mafia storyline (whether or not it promotes healthy racial stereotypes) is an enjoyable piece of fun and something at which the number 30 lads excel. We’ll see where it progresses but it is fairly safe to say that it has more mileage in it than, say, Stuart’s other storyline of the week with the yoga girls. It’s boring, the girls can’t act particularly well and while Connor farting may be funny for a split-second, the overall feel of the storyline is stodgy and going nowhere. It’s hard for the audience to care about yet another pointless, not particularly pretty, not particularly believable or interesting character who Stuart is falling for.

Steph took centre-stage, and rightfully so, but there is plenty more to look forward to from the Hoylands, be it Max finally finding out the truth about the break-up or Izzy’s further feuding with Susan. It will also be interesting to see whether, now that Boyd and Sky are dating, their watch-ability will stay at its high level, or decrease like so many “will-they-won’t-they” couples. It’s very exciting that such a relatively new family can have so many fingers in so many storyline pies; something to watch with interest.