Max’s proposal to elope with Steph and the kids and have their much-hyped wedding in secret away from the prying eyes of Lyn and Valda very nearly went to plan, when their attempts to collate the necessary officiators in the middle of a country town. However, a guilty conscience led Steph to confess to Lyn that they had decided to escape while they could, and the street’s residents set off to track them down, finally managing it just in time to see them exchange their vows. Lyn was upset that she had missed the chance on seeing her daughter’s lavish ceremony, but ultimately relieved to have seen the vows as Steph wanted them. Lyn’s father, Charlie, seized the opportunity to use the original mansion wedding location, and proposed to teenage-sweetheart Valda in front of his granddaughter’s congregation. Valda, though embarrassed, accepted and they were married a couple of hours later, with the wedding guests invited to the original wedding. The wedding episode was superb – one of the reasons being its sole focus on the ceremonies, and the inclusion of the majority of the cast. Sadly, neither Holly Valance nor Kate Keltie were back in their roles as Stephanie’s younger sisters for the episode, and the reasons behind Shane Connor’s dismissal meant Joe Scully was absent from his daughter’s wedding also.

However, Lyn got to see her husband after all when she decided to take a break to visit Joe in Bendigo following the wedding (in reality allowing Janet Andrewartha a period of leave to appear in theatre). Leaving Jack in charge of the family home and business following his recent spate of self-inflicted problems probably wasn’t the wisest move, especially when corrupt copper ‘Mac’ managed to influence Jack into giving her a large sum of cash intended to pay the building site’s electrician. When Mac became awkward about paying back the money as promised, Jack got even more suspicious of her. She later arranged a staged-robbery at the building site so that Jack could recover insurance to cover debts. This story is fantastic in the way that both Stuart and Jack are falling prey to Olivia’s devious nature and Jekyll and Hyde type persona. How soon will it be before ‘Mac’ and policewoman MacPherson are discovered to be the same person?

Karl’s forty-ninth birthday fell this week, much to his dismay at nearing fifty. He was also concerned when he realised the true state of his finances over the past year. Izzy managed to ease his worries a little by organising an intimate evening for the two of them, and Karl was overjoyed when Susan managed to persuade Libby and Ben to pay him a special visit. Libby also received her own intimate evening when Darren revealed he wanted to take their relationship to the next level, and the child-like games between the two of them trying to hide their true feelings ended.

Lou’s time in prison became even more unbearable when Harold became very unwilling to help Lou organise ‘protection money’ for himself, inside. When David decided he would go behind his father’s back and inform the authorities of the underhand politics of prison life, he may as well have signed Lou’s death certificate. Darcy warned the shamed publican that the other inmates had discovered someone had grassed them up to the authorities and they promptly gave Lou a bashing. Thankfully, Darcy used his influence as doctor on the inside to save Lou from a far worse beating than the bruises he got, and claimed it was to compensate Lou for the robbery the dastardly doctor committed at the pub the year before. However, Harold had the task of persuading Lou that it was David who had acted in good faith in informing the prison. Toadie, meanwhile, continued to work tirelessly to get Lou’s appeal ready.

Elsewhere on Ramsay Street, the tattoo on Stingray’s bottom which read ‘Shazza 4 Ever’ was revealed to be in memory of his late pet guinea pig from when he was younger. Serena was shocked, but relieved it wasn’t the stamp of an ex girlfriend. Also, Sindi and Liljana decided to go halves on an expensive dress so that they could share it without paying the full price each. However, knowing the two women’s outlandish spirits, how long their carefully drawn up arrangement will remain civil is anyone’s guess…