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Weekly Reviews > Episodes 4358-4362 by Rhys

UK Broadcast: Monday, January 5th - Friday, January 9th, 2004
Written by: Jeff Truman, Ben Marshall, Piet Collins, Chris Hollow, Helen MacWhirter
Directed by: Tony Osicka, Jovita O’Shaughnessy

Stalking, sneaking and seducing were the order of the week for Neighbours’ season return to the BBC...

Stephanie’s continuing treatment for cancer fuelled the early part of the week. Izzy, keen to show she wasn’t as insensitive as she appeared, organised a ‘high tea’ supper in Steph’s honour, but the apprentice mechanic was busy exhausting herself at the garage, against her family’s advice. Young Boyd re-lived the shock of finding his late mother a couple of years previously by discovering Steph collapsed behind a car she was working on. Rushed to hospital, it was revealed she had suffered from extreme dehydration as a result of the chemotherapy. Izzy, at first angry that the Hoylands had ‘forgotten’ about her party soon became concerned for Steph and rushed to the hospital with a picnic of food. However, her enthusiasm was cut short by Jack who had a go at her for being selfish. The confusing on-off saga between Jack and Izzy continued during the week, with Izzy choosing when and when not to act flirty and provocative with the young Scully lad. Jack, tired of this, picked Izzy up on it, only for her to criticise him for wanting more out of their ‘no strings’ relationship.

Criticised for not having been at the garage supervising Steph, Stuart was becoming more and more involved with the Life Mechanics movement. Tricked by Jonothan Verne into leading one of the meetings himself, Stuart was soon made to feel an integral part of the group. He continued to drive away his friends and neighbours by accusing them of wanting to quash his chances of happiness, not realising their mission is to try and make him see the group for what it is. Despite his devotion to Life Mechanics, even Stuart had cause for concern when he discovered that Jonothan actively recruited ‘planters’ to sit in the meetings to generate enthusiasm among newer members in order to increase donations. Stuart, however, accepted Jonothan’s explanations about them.

One of the key plots to develop this week was that of the relationship between Trixie and Lou. Although it’s well known that the pair will be married within a few weeks, the relationship has so far developed at an acceptable pace. However, if their current close friendship is to develop to the stage of sincere love and wedlock, it seems likely that the relationship will have to gather pace pretty soon, and that may hamper its believability to us viewers who regard Lou as one of the iconic figures of Neighbours. Lou, ever keen to help (especially ladies with whom he has the eye for) allowed the Tucker females to rent No.22 until they got back on their feet. Trixie’s flirtatious nature certainly charmed Lou this week, but he did appear a little apprehensive by her suggestions of a more sexual nature. After conferring with Connor, Lou assured Trixie he was worried about Nina’s reaction to him seemingly filling the role of her estranged father, Nick. As well as her broken marriage, Trixie also had to deal with Nina’s manager, Melody Jones, when it was revealed that Nina had falsified Trixie’s consent on the contract. This caused Nina to miss vital terms that allowed Melody to assign Nina’s own songs to other artists. Trixie and Lou, however, joined forces in breaking Nina’s link with Melody.

Still reeling from the embarrassment of her parents giving her a telling off in front of Taj, Serena embarked on her mission to win the heart of Master Coppin by dragging her cousin, Sky, along with her to a new nightclub, ‘Out’, in town where she knew Taj would be. Managing to fool the bouncers into letting them in, the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves, Serena especially knowing that Taj had spotted her. However, the girls received some unwelcome attention from a pest who tried to hit on them. Asked for ID by a bouncer within the club, Serena and Sky fled for the exit and were all set to walk home. Serena, however, decided to stay outside and wait for Taj to appear. Sky, grounded as a result of suspicions about Karl and Izzy, opted to walk home alone. All seemed well until the pest from the club drove past and spotted her. He kerb-crawled, following Sky for a long while, before beginning to get more aggressive. Panicking, she ran to a warehouse’s outdoor yard, hiding behind a bin, dropping her mobile phone in the process. The guy eventually left, and Sky was forced to make her way home, to the reception of her furious cousin who had made it home with Taj a while beforehand. Harold heard the shouting and demanded to know the truth. In keeping Serena out of trouble, Sky had to take all the blame and had her grounding extended, though she did confess to Harold about the prowler.

While his daughter was out trying to grab her man, David was receiving some bad news from Toadie, who had taken over his legal case in Tim’s absence. It transpired that David’s partner, Thomas, had knowingly duped David into ploughing huge investment sums into the ‘business’, when no such partnership or business existed. Despite having lost all his capital, one piece of good news for David was that as he’d never been made an official partner, he wasn’t responsible for the firm’s debt. He left the meeting pondering his future, and the very last thing he needed was Liljana promising Lou that her husband would be interested in a spare share in his racehorse. And, despite giving out bad news that morning, Toadie’s work went from strength to strength, with help from Sindi. She more than proved her worth in helping Toadie win over a notorious solicitor and his client and helped prepare Toadie for an important case by reading through notes with him.

And, finally, rearing its ugly head again was Karl’s alcoholism. Taj, now having moved in with the Kennedys, made the ‘mistake’ of offering Karl a bottle of wine as a thank you gift. Having the situation about Karl’s drinking explained to him, Taj felt embarrassed and uncomfortable, though Susan assured him it didn’t matter. One can only imagine Taj’s surprise, then, as he entered the house late one night to discover Karl at the breakfast bar concealing something. Whether or not Taj figured it was a glass of wine remains to be seen, but there’s a lot more mileage still to come from this story. The most fantastic thing about it, so far, is that the story had been bubbling away for weeks and weeks without ever losing pace, but only appearing often enough to remind us that it’s still a present factor in Karl’s life. So often in Neighbours, stories like this have either risen from nowhere over a matter of episodes, or have appeared once, and suddenly have matured into something totally incomprehensible whilst off screen. One scene of note from Taj’s time with the Kennedys was when he moved his belongings into the house. Karl, already flustered by the idea that the boy who’s affair with his daughter drove her away was moving in, helpfully instructed Taj that “you’ll be sleeping with Libby…” before correcting himself, and explaining he would be having the room next to Libby’s!

Notes: Thursday’s opening scene of Nina, Lou, Connor, Trixie and Jack in the driveway of No.22 marked Delta Goodrem’s last scene as Nina for the foreseeable future, as the actress and singer began treatment for Hodgkin’s Disease which continues today.

The BBC broadcasts of this week’s episodes saw another variation to the corporation’s presentation of Neighbours’ closing credits. The new format appears to be a fixed style for use everyday regardless of whether a promotion is to be used or not, and features the same still of Ramsay Street and condensed white text.