Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Trixie and Lou were preparing for the opening night of her Asian tour of Hello Dolly. With Lou suffering from flu and spending a lot of his time in the hotel room, Trixie was doing a lot of running around to get things arranged at the last minute. The news that the opening show had been cancelled due to only 15 tickets being sold was not what she wanted to hear. However, she returned to the hotel and led Lou to believe that she’d been performing, unable to face telling him the truth. Later, she was in for a nasty shock when the director’s assistant, Billy, informed her that the show had been cancelled altogether. Once again, Trixie tried to lie her way out of the situation, but Lou already knew the truth. Trixie explained that she had only lied because she felt ashamed, but assured him that something would come up. The following day, Lou was beginning to pack up when Trixie came back, claiming that she’d found work in a themed club, but Lou was less-than-impressed to realise that it wouldn’t be paying anything until the club’s profits could afford it. Lou informed his new wife that she would simply have to stop chasing pipe dreams and return home with him. However, that night, she realised that she couldn’t face everyone back in Erinsborough saying ‘I told you so’ and so she quietly slipped away, leaving only a note. Lou returned to Erinsborough alone, pretending to Harold and Max that he’d come back due to his illness. But it can surely only be a matter of time before the truth comes out…

Although the character has not gone down well with some fans, I personally found the pairing of Lou and Trixie to be very refreshing. After years of being stuck in the background, it was great to have Lou back on top of the action, and hopefully this will continue, despite Wendy Stapleton’s departure.

The problems in the Kennedy marriage began to filter through to the rest of the street, as characters stood divided over where their loyalty would lie. The divide was most acutely felt in the Bishop household, as Liljana struggled to contain her upset toward her employer, Karl. Despite her lack of facts about Karl’s feelings or actions, she created an atmosphere in the surgery by being rude and standoffish with her boss. David, sitting opposite her as Toadie’s legal secretary, tried to calm her down, warning her that her actions could cost her her employment. But Liljana’s strong opinions and support of Susan meant that she simply could not back down, so when a sympathetic David asked Karl to dinner, Lil was horrified. The evening only got worse when Susan turned up to lend Lil a book and Lil tried to explain that Karl’s presence had nothing to do with her. Although Susan understood the situation completely, Liljana felt terrible and took her anger out on David, telling him that she didn’t want someone like Karl in her house again.

While Liljana’s actions could possibly be described as over-the-top, it’s what we’ve come to expect from her in the last few months. The storyline is another sign of how the characters in the show are finally starting to develop different personalities and react in different ways to the same situation.

Toadie and Sindi continued to struggle with their feelings for one another this week. Following his dream, where he saw Sindi in Dee’s wedding dress, he attempted to distance himself from his ex-girlfriend. He even attempted to explain to her that he was not interested in her and wanted her to stop coming on to him. Sindi was hurt and confused, and confided in Valda that she wasn’t sure of her feelings for Toadie, describing him as ‘the one who got away’. By the end of the week, it seemed that they were no further on in sorting out their feelings. Toadie mocked Sindi’s attempts to present a tv show with no camera crew, only for he to then attempt to get out of his car without taking off his seatbelt, much to Sindi’s amusement.

The relationship between Sindi and Toadie is certainly quite reminiscent of that between Dee and Toadie, but Sindi is a very different character to Dee. Also, it seems that many of Toadie’s insecurities about being involved with an attractive woman are now gone and so he might actually find this relationship to be a lot happier from the beginning, if the pair of them can ever get their act together.

Also, Sky and Boyd’s night of passion came to an abrupt end this week, when Max walked in on them half-undressed. Max was taken aback when Boyd matter-of-factly told his father that he knew what he was doing and that he and Sky had used protection. Meanwhile, Gus began to worm his way into the household more and more, with only Izzy starting to feel slightly uncomfortable at his forcefulness. At the pub, Connor brewed up the first batch of his grandfather’s beer recipe, which went down well and could provide the key to him staying in Australia. Meanwhile, Stuart started his police training and immediately found himself targeted by the senior officer in charge.