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Weekly Reviews > Episodes 4423-4426 by Rhys

UK Broadcast: Monday, April 5th – Thursday, April 8th, 2004
Written by: Katrina Foster, John Hanlon, Peter Mattessi, Chris Hollow
Directed by: Jeffrey Walker, Gary Conway

Good Friday resulted in only a four-day visit to Ramsay Street this week, but that had no impact on the neighbourhood’s drama…

Although the Kennedys’ troubles dominated much of last week, Karl’s departure meant that only Monday’s episode featured Susan as she tried to come to terms with living life without her husband. Her vulnerability was highlighted when she snapped at school kids, Summer and Lisa, and later dismissed their attempt at an apology. Lyn, also, was feeling the effects of the Kennedy’s break up, and had to bite her lip on several occasions when in Izzy’s presence. However, an invite to a Scully/Hoyland dinner at No.32 seemed a decent enough opportunity to try and ease the tensions between the warring neighbours. Izzy had other ideas, though, and turned up late declaring she was off for a meal with Gus, leaving Lyn speechless and only further undermining Isabelle’s guilt in her eyes. Gus was still acting strangely, by blowing hot and cold with Izzy, flirting with Stephanie and he replaced an Easter drinking glass decorated by Summer for Max, with one made for him on the kitchen shelf.

Making Mansions’ production team made their presence well and truly felt at No.26 this week and soon renovation work was in full swing. However, one member of the Scully household appeared to be spending less and less time at home. It’s no secret that actor, Shane Connor, who played Joe Scully was asked to leave the set of Neighbours last Autumn following disagreements with the production team, and anyone still in the dark about the off screen drama will no doubt have read magazing articles published in the UK these past few weeks confirming that Joe is to leave. Knowing, perhaps, as we do the trouble behind the scenes, watching the renovations story this week became a real insight into how Neighbours set about juggling the characters and plot to accommodate Joe’s absence. Whether it helped or hindered the continuity aspect is debateable, but at least Neighbours’ shooting process of filming location scenes a few days prior to studio scenes allowed Joe to appear in a limited number of building site scenes in the same episodes where he should have appeared in studio-based ones. Any material due to include Joe in an indoor set was redrafted to use Gino Esposito instead – hence the hairdresser’s rather inappropriate presence at times at the Scully house. It will be next week before a cover story is revealed so as to justify the gradual disappearance of Joe, but it’s certainly going to take some getting used to that Ramsay Street has yet another involuntarily singled partner!

Fortunately, the crew of Making Mansions have also been involved in other stories, which, too, have helped detract from the complications at No.26. Sindi continued to act oddly around Toadfish this week, on the one hand flirting and making him jealous, and at other times being cold and selfish. Two comic moments ensued, however, when Sindi found herself stuck in a porta-loo in Ramsay Street – minus toilet paper, which Toadie had to hand her through a gap in the door. Later in the week, some late-night filming caused havoc when Ms. Watts accidentally shoved her foot through the Scully’s living room wall. Another encounter with Toadie was needed to rectify the situation, and it became obvious that the junior lawyer was more than a little interested again in Sindi, despite his protestations and dismissing of her. This was further highlighted when he had recurring dreams of Dione in her wedding dress. Despite the frequency of the dreams, he never managed to catch a glimpse of her face, and he confided in Stuart his fear of forgetting what she looked like. Viewers may have heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday when another dream finally showed Dione turning round to Toadie, only to reveal the face of Sindi! Despite the corniness of such dream sequences, this particular idea was well executed in that it had a particular role to play in the plot, and little touches such as using Sindi dressed in Dee’s wedding dress, complete with head decoration and blue streaked hair added some real authenticity to it.

Drama was the key ingredient at the Bishops’ house this week, also. Although Harold was finally convinced by some of his customers that he had suffered a change of attitude, more worrying news was dawning when a furious Liljana ordered her mother, Svetlanka, out of the house. The confrontation occurred after Lil overheard her mother trying to woo Serena back to Perth to nurse her supposedly ailing ‘Bubba’. Annoyed that Serena was being manipulated as she was, Lil demanded Svetlanka leave and stop ruining people’s lives. True to her witch-like character, the Serbian matriarch couldn’t resist one last dig at her daughter and son-in-law, by revealing a terrible secret that neither David nor Serena knew about: Liljana had become pregnant as a teenager and only married David as a means of securing a father for the illegitimate child. Lil was horrified that her mother could try and cause so much hurt, and was even more baffled by David’s announcement that he knew all along and that Svetlanka couldn’t use such tactics to split them up. Of course, this was all an act to save Liljana’s pride, and once his mother-in-law was off in her taxi they couple had to sit down and try and absorb this shock revelation. They did, with Lil confessing that although she did initially only make moves on David as a means of having some support for her and the baby, but after the child was stillborn, she realised she did love the young accountant after all and they made plans to marry. Such a story can be very risky for a soap opera where the characters are, by and large, well established. However, it’s likely this ‘spanner in the works’ was plotted prior to their arrival five months ago and as such there was no such worries with regards to continuity and already publicised historical information. The only thing long-term viewers of Neighbours have to accept is that David and Liljana met and married very soon after David’s first appearance in Erinsborough in 1988, and that Serena was conceived quick sharp so as to account for her recent sixteenth birthday!

Sky and Boyd’s journey to adulthood continued towards the end of the week with Boyd getting more and more anxious about Sky’s apparent sexual experience. He found luck on the contraceptive side at the local pharmacy, much to Connor’s amusement, as he assured Boyd that he could come to him about any ‘delicate’ matters or advice. Connor’s happiness was no doubt due to his mother sending him a secret family ale recipe, which qualifies as Connor’s ‘unique skill’, enabling him to remain resident in Australia on a new visa.

However, back on track, Boyd made arrangements to go to Lou’s empty house with Sky and he decked out the living room with candles. Sky was a little bemused when she arrived, intending only to watch DVDs. However, Boyd’s intentions became obvious when he started coming onto her and getting too heavy for her liking. She was horrified that he had misread her signals and for thinking she had already had sex with her previous boyfriend. After a talk with Serena, Sky realised she shouldn’t have been so harsh with Boyd and she returned to No.22 to watch videos with him, assuring him that when the time was right, he was the one she wanted to sleep with. So much for taking it slowly, then, because by the end of the episode the TV went off and the lights were out…