New in town this week was Janelle Timmins, mother to Stingray. Within hours of arriving, Janelle had managed to upset Lou and Harold, by conning them into giving her refunds on their food as well as Lil, Susan and Sindi, just by… existing. One person who was delighted to see her, however, was Stingray. Before long, Janelle had re-introduced her son to all of the bad habits that he’d managed to shake off since moving to Erinsborough. Janelle was also in town to take advantage of her nephew, Toadie, and his legal skills, as she planned to get compensation from a car accident she’d supposedly been involved in. But Toadie and Sindi were convinced that the woman was no good and tried to talk everyone else around. Stingray was less-then-impressed, attacking anyone who had a bad word to say about his mum, and Janelle also managed to win over Lyn, who offered her the use of number 26. With her husband, Kim, having skipped town, Janelle had another reason for turning up, which became clear when she asked Stingray to go back to Colac with her, and help look after the rest of the family. Janelle is definitely one of those characters that you either love to hate, or just plain hate. Personally, I like the characters that stir things up for a while, but hopefully, if she’s going to be around for longer, they’ll tone her down a touch, to avoid people turning off in their droves.

Elsewhere, Liljana and Luka set out to track down Luka’s birth father, Ivan Petrovic. Luka’s behaviour grew increasingly odd over the course of the day, beginning with convincing Lil that Serena shouldn’t join them, as he wanted to be alone with his mother. When they arrived in the town of Penchurch, they stopped and asked a local if he’d heard of Ivan, which led them to the man’s grave. Luka found it difficult to cope with this discovery and began asking Lil more questions. She was forced to lie and pretend that Ivan had been a decent man who she’d been deeply in love with. Luka accepted this and started talking about what life could have been like if the three of them had had the chance to be a real family. Back in Erinsborough, Lil told David how awful she felt about lying to her son. Unfortunately, Luka overheard this, stole David’s briefcase and set fire to it. Serena and David were beginning to worry about Luka and his behaviour, but Lil simply put it down to the emotional strain he’d been under recently. Surely, though, it can’t be too long before Luka’s dangerous behaviour is actually witnessed by a member of the family…

A typical Neighbours misunderstanding took place this week. In a regular Ramsay Street tradition, someone had a ring, someone mistakenly thought they were about to propose and word got back to the apparent recipient of the proposal that they were about to be proposed to. This time, the lucky couple were Toadie and Sindi. Toadie had agreed to buy, and courier down, a ring for his brother, Stonie, who was preparing to propose to his girlfriend. When Lou saw the ring, he got the wrong idea, told Stingray, who told Sindi, and she spent the rest of the week panicking about how she would react to the proposal. Susan told her that she had to be honest with herself, and work out whether she wanted to get married, or whether she was just in love with the idea of being married.

Sky’s problems were beginning to get on top of her, and she believed that her only solution was to leave town altogether. Serena tried to convince her to stay, turning to Lana for help. Lana wasn’t keen to listen, but eventually realised that it wasn’t worth throwing away such a good friendship. She and Sky managed to patch things up, but Boyd wasn’t quite so easy to convince. Serena did her best, and did Lana, but both were met with curt replies when they attempted to get Boyd and Sky back together. Meanwhile, Izzy was finally forced to face up to her feelings about her miscarriage. As Karl had to leave town suddenly to help Billy, it was left to Steph to look out for Izzy, who was busy trying to get Jack Scully back into bed. Izzy finally broke down and told Steph how unhappy she was. The following day, Susan walked into an empty Coffee Shop and nearly left, as she realised she’d be alone with ‘Jezabel’. Izzy decided to be completely honest, even telling Susan that she was welcome to take Karl back, as she deserved him far more. As Izzy’s feelings came pouring out, the two women who had spent so long at loggerheads finally found some common ground, and Susan provided a shoulder to cry on for the woman who’d stolen her husband. Some fantastic acting from Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Jackie Woodburne made Izzy’s breakdown incredibly moving, even leaving the viewers feeling some sympathy towards the woman who has been lying for so long.

Finally this week, Connor struggled to balance his relationships with Carmella and Maddy. Fortunately, after witnessing a new side to Connor, Carmella realised how much Maddy meant to him, and she told him that they should try and convince Lori to give them more access. Whether Lori’s new boyfriend, Nick, will be so keen on the idea remains to be seen. Meanwhile, following Libby’s sudden departure, Lyn was left to pick up the pieces when Alessandro returned to town to see her. Alessandro refused to believe that Libby would just vanish like that, so Lyn concocted a bizarre plan in which various residents pretended that Libby’s life was like that in a Brazilian soap opera. Alessandro still wasn’t convinced, so Lyn just had to be straight with him, and he was forced to accept that he’s missed his chance.