Departing Cast: Connor O'Neill, Stuart Parker, Isabelle Hoyland, Lyn Scully, Oscar Scully

Notable Guests: Robert Robinson, Cameron Robinson, JP Valasco, Guy Sykes, Teresa Cammeniti

After celebrating its 20th anniversary with a reunion and a plane crash in 2005, Neighbours started 2006 with a bang with Harold leaving Paul Robinson to die after strangling him.

2006 was a darker season for Neighbours, with shootings, car bombs, fire, hit and run, fake wedding, baby swapping, and mind manipulation. Some of the show’s favourite characters departed, an old face from the 80s returned and the Paul Robinson's sons were introduced. 2006 marked the 5000th episode of the show as well as three weddings (one of them fake), two births, new arrivals and a reunion for one of Ramsay Street’s favourite couples.

Paul is found by Izzy lying on the floor after Harold had attempted to strangle him. Paul survives and at first Harold struggles to return to his normal life, as he wrestles with his conscience but renews his determination to make Paul suffer by secretly tormenting him which makes Paul develop anxiety. Harold begins to fear he no longer knows who he is, and realizes all the hate is turning him into Paul. Harold proceeds to leave town. However, Lou searches for answers regarding Harold’s disappearance and later begins to suspect Harold’s dark deed. Harold returns to Erinsborough informing Lou he is coming back to finish what he started. Harold later confesses to Paul, who bounces back and is determined to punish Harold but decides not to press charges.

Susan has a battle on her hands with Zeke and Rachel’s older sister Katya. After Alex's death, Zeke becomes mute, and uses cards to communicate, so Susan decides to take him to Karl. When Katya learns of the past relationship between Susan and Karl, her reaction is not one of understanding. Soon after this, Katya initiates court proceedings so she can have custody of Rachel and Zeke, but Susan soon gives up the children to Katya because she realises they need each other - Katya proves to be a poor guardian, as she is strict at first but then she tries to be cool and let the kids stay up late, which affects their education. Susan notices this and when she calls round she finds that Katya wasn't there and Rachel was having a party, but then she finds Zeke unconscious on the sofa, discovering that he's been drinking alcohol. After this Katya realises that she wasn't doing a good enough job and they all move in with Susan, where Katya and Susan finally bond.

Steph discovers that her cancer has returned. Karl explains to Steph that treatment would pose little danger to her unborn child, but Steph wants guarantees that her child will not be harmed and when they coan’t be given, she decides not to have treatment until after Charlie’s birth. In a desperate act, Max decides to get a legal and medical intervention and have Steph assessed for mental incompetence. However, when Dr Helen McNamara turns up at the house, Steph is horrified to realise what Max has done behind her back and she throws him out of the home. Steph starts to develop a growing attachment to Oscar, which leads to Steph taking her younger brother from Paul and Izzy’s place, to the park. After rewinding Paul’s home security video they notice Steph leaving the house with Oscar. Stuart finds Steph and Oscar in the park, and she starts to cry, realising how much worry she’s caused everyone. Stuart convinces Max that Steph is showing signs of mental illness and he should catch it before it gets any worse. Max then arranges for Steph to be taken away by the police for an involuntary 72-hour assessment. Steph’s trust in Max is shattered and having convinced the psychiatrists that she is sane, Steph goes away with Lyn for a few weeks at a health retreat.

Stingray finds it hard to deal with Serena's death following the plane crash, but he begins to bond with Rachel. Rachel kisses him, but Stingray is forced to let her down, pointing out that she is only fourteen. Stingray's confusion over Rachel and a new job at Scarlet Bar gradually makes him become dependent on alcohol. Rachel quickly notices that he's hiding beer bottles, and she tries to tell him that he has a problem and needs help. Stingray ignores her, and over time his feelings for Rachel are also growing - Rachel then admits to Susan that she is attracted to Stingray, and that they kissed. A shocked Susan reminds Stingray of the legal implications of him seeing a 14-year-old and tells him to stay away from her. Despite his own feelings, Stingray follows Susan’s advice and, when Rachel turns up on the doorstep, he breaks her heart and slams the door in her face.

Just as Harold has regained a sense of normality and got back to work at the General Store, Paul decides to open up a rival café, Lucinda's, run by Elle and much to Sky's disgust, Dylan, over at Lassiter's. As the café war gets underway, things turn nasty when Paul steals Harold and Lou's butcher and much to Harold's dismay, Lou retaliates by obtaining an events licence so they can sell alcohol to uni students during orientation week. Harold and Lou can't compete with Lucinda's, as Paul keeps undercutting them at every opportunity and eventually, they find themselves unable to pay their rent. As landlord, Paul has the power to evict them from the premises and gleefully takes the store over himself, installing Elle and Dylan there to run that business too, while Lou vows to fight to the end to get the store back.

Upon her return, Steph is still adamant that her marriage to Max is over and they agree that he should move out. However, Boyd wasn’t about to see them throw their marriage away and after angrily telling them both to stop being so stubborn, they realise that their marriage was worth saving. However, as they celebrate their reunion, Steph confides in Susan that her health isn’t as good as she's been making out and she's beginning to experience symptoms from the cancer. Steph manages to keep it from Max for a few weeks, Steph’s health problems finally get on top of her and she collapses in front of Boyd. After being admitted to hospital, where Karl informs her that the cancerous growth was getting bigger and time was running out, Steph still decides to wait another couple of weeks until the baby can be safely delivered by caesarean section and convinces Boyd not to tell Max for now. It isn’t until Steph has a dream in which a teenaged Charlie is coping with life without his mum around that she comes to her senses. As soon as she wakes up, she announces that she wants to have the baby delivered and begin her cancer treatment. Max arrives in time from the airport to help Steph through the labour and by morning, Charlie Hoyland is born. A delighted Max and Steph have a few precious hours with him before she is taken away to theatre for her cancer operation. Steph then undergoes treatment for cancer and after radiotherapy; she is given the all clear.

Boyd begins a relationship with Janae and begins some summer work experience as receptionist at the surgery. During his first week, he is faced with a massive ethical dilemma when he reads Janae ex-boyfriend’s Mike’s notes and finds out that he’s just been diagnosed as HIV positive. As he tries to find out exactly how far Janae has gone with Mike, he arouses her suspicions with his questions and she steals his key to the surgery and breaks in, reading her own file, followed by Mike’s. Although Janae has lied to Boyd, saying that she and Mike only kissed, they have infact had sex without any protection. A worried Janae decides that the only course of action was to break up with Boyd, so she lies again, claiming that she's still in love with Mike. However, Boyd catches up with Janae just as Kim is taking her to be tested. Janae tells Boyd that she might be HIV positive and that he should be tested too. Boyd then bursts in on Janae’s consultation with Karl, who has already jumped to the wrong conclusion, believing that Boyd has told Janae about Mike’s diagnosis, and it looks like Karl is about to pull the plug on Boyd’s career. Fortunately, realising that Boyd was going to stand by her no matter what happened, Janae tells Karl that she stole the key and broke in, causing Karl to give him another chance. Fortunately, the results of Janae's HIV test are negative and both Boyd and Janae are able to move on from this.

Angie Rebecchi’s return to Ramsay Street sees the re-igniting of a family feud between the Rebecchi and Timmins families. Angie and Janelle take their feud very seriously – and finally decide to settle it in the boxing ring. The two women decide to go along with it with Janelle spurred on by the belief that Angie once cracked on to Kim years before in Colac. After a few weeks of training with Janae, the day of the big fight dawns but moments after it starts Janelle is floored as Angie taunts her about stuffing her bra. As Janelle stops to defend herself, Angie delivers a knockout punch and before leaving, also drops the bombshell that it was Kim who came on to her – and she has a witness, Toadie. Janelle is disgusted by Angie's claim and refuses to believe it, so Toadie is then dragged in to verify his mum's claims. Toadie was too young to have remembered anything specific, though, and can only recall witnessing a heated argument between Angie and Kim. It finally all comes into the open that Angie had simply pinched Kim on the bum as a joke and, thinking Janelle would react in her typical possessive, jealous way if Kim didn't act like he didn't appreciate being pinched inappropriately by another woman, he had staged an argument with Angie over it. Even with things sorted over what exactly had happened with Kim, Janelle still refuses to patch things up with Angie, and Angie, tired of the fighting, decides to pack up and move on. Just as Angie's taxi is pulling out of Ramsay Street, Janelle stops it and finally admits the real reason she hated Angie so much was because she had taken her big brother away from her when Angie married Kev. Angie decides not to be run out of town by Janelle and stays on a little longer in Ramsay Street.

Meanwhile, Janelle has finally had enough of Kim after he loses his job as a barman, after missing one shift too many, and it looks like the family will be split up again. However it isn’t until Zeke confronts Janelle with a simple question – does she love Kim? – that Janelle realises that she can’t see him leave again. Instead, she heads to Lassiter’s, where Kim is helping Dylan run a hotdog cart, and proposes, suggesting that a second wedding, more elaborate and romantic than the first, might be just what their relationship needs. Although Kim is delighted, he begins to realise that he is going to have to work ridiculously long hours on the hotdog cart in order to just pay for Janelle’s dress. However, when one of Stingray’s new uni friends, from his film studies course, approaches Kim about some pirate DVDs he’s made for his son, Kim stumbles upon a way to make some easy money and unbeknownst to his family, he starts using the hotdog cart as a cover for a pirated DVD business.

Paul Robinson’s son Robert turns up in Ramsay Street pretending to be his twin Cameron, Robert is first seen in a hospital talking to a doctor, enquiring about a patient - who is Robert’s identical twin brother Cameron, who is unconscious. It turns out it was Robert that placed the bomb on the plane and is going to Erinsborough to finish the job and get revenge on his father. Robert turns up in Erinsborough, pretending to be Cameron. Elle is surprised to see her brother, however, she fails to realise that it’s her other brother, Cameron’s twin, Robert. His evil deeds continue in Erinsborough - his first victim is Dylan, and Elle is shocked when things start going badly wrong at the General Store – which the two of them are managing after Paul stole it from Lou and Harold. Robert engineers a food poisoning outbreak by planting bacteria in the fridges, and takes money from the till to make it look like they’ve been robbed. With Paul’s confidence in Dylan at an all-time low, Robert’s next act also put Elle’s life at risk, as Rob tampers with some shelves that Dylan has built at the store, causing them to collapse on top of her. Although she is uninjured, it's the final straw for Paul, who sacks Dylan.

Bree’s school project marks the beginning of a series of events that will change her life forever – Bree asks her father for a DNA sample for a school project, but when Karl gets the results back; he's forced to tell Kim that he isn’t Bree’s biological father. A furious Kim confronts Janelle, who protests that she has never cheated and so, after lying to Bree that the original tests have been messed up, the whole family has their DNA tested. The results are the same – Kim is not Bree’s father. However, a bigger shock is in store as they find out that Janelle isn’t her mother either. Looking for answers – and getting none from the Colac hospital where Bree was born – they track down Louise Fletcher, the midwife who had assisted with the birth, where Bree must have been swapped with another child. Louise gives Kim and Janelle the details of the other family, but they decide not to follow it up and not to tell Bree the truth. Soon after, Janae accidentally opens one of her mother’s letters, which is from Louise and learns the truth about her sister’s parentage. She gives her parents the ultimatum that either they tell Bree the truth or she will. After several days of tension, Janae blurts it out to her sister, who gets confirmation from Kim and Janelle. Bree is left in a state of confusion, but quickly makes the decision that she wants to find her real family. Although Kim and Janelle are anxious that they might lose Bree, they agree to drive her to Colac. However, once there, Bree suddenly changes her mind and a relieved Kim and Janelle take her home.

Ned’s relationship with Paul’s daughter, Elle enters a rough patch - Stuart finds Elle using him as a shoulder to cry on, and the pair start spending a lot of time together, but when she tries to seduce him in a hotel room at Lassiter’s, he admits that he could never cheat on Sindi. However after a night out together, Stuart and Elle end up sharing a kiss, witnessed by a shocked Ned. Although the brothers briefly fall out, Stuart began to realise that he can’t just sit around waiting for Sindi, and it looks like a decision had been made when she sends through divorce papers for him to sign. When word comes through from Oakey that their father had hurt his back and would be out of action for several months, the Parker brothers argued over which of them would return home to help out. Stuart put his plans to go for his sergeant’s exam on hold and packed his bags. However the issues with Sindi are still waiting to be resolved, so he calls her and reminds her of their shared dream to bring up a family in the country. He asks her to join him in Oakey and then nervously waits for her response. The following morning, she calls and agrees to give the marriage another try and so Stuart hitches a ride with Angie and Big Kev and says a final farewell to Ramsay Street and the House of Trouser.

Janelle’s deal with publisher Melody Jones starts moving forward. However, Bree has to help her make a few rewrites of the book The Bogan's Tipped Hair. This leads to Janelle receiving some good news as the book goes on sale a few weeks later, and Janelle is invited to appear on her favourite chat show, Rove Live, in order to promote it. Things then take an unexpected turn, when Janelle admits on live television that Bree is actually the author. Bree, who has joined her mother for moral support and is standing in the audience, is brought up on to the stage where she admits that her mother is telling the truth. Despite the deception, the publishing company is delighted and sales go through the roof.

Sky attends art classes at Eden Hills University and becomes attracted to her art teacher, Jean-Pierre Valasco. She sleeps with him but the next morning, Sky instantly regrets her actions, and has to break the news to JP that she is still in love with Dylan. Unable to keep her betrayal from Dylan, Sky decides to confess all to him straight away. But Dylan's reaction is far from understanding and he promptly ends the relationship. Sky sinks into a deep depression in the days after the break-up, and she begins to lose any respect she had for herself – particularly when her arch nemesis Izzy takes great pleasure in pointing out that Sky has turned out to be quite similar to her. Believing that she is no different than any other girl out for fun with men, Sky adopts this persona and goes out clubbing with her new friend, Elle, flirting with every man in sight. After that fails to cheer her up, Sky turns to Stingray for comfort - Stingray is having relationship problems of his own since falling for Rachel, and as he and Sky share their problems, they end up having a one-night-stand. The following morning, both Sky and Stingray regret it but vow to use the event as a new starting point for their lives. And after Harold vents his utter disgust at his granddaughter for her frivolous exploits of late, Sky resolves to win back Dylan as a result, and it looks like she had finally cracked him when she takes him out to the superdome one afternoon. But at the last minute, Dylan backs off and tells her he would never be able to forgive her for her infidelity - and even friendship is out of the question.

Lou finds a website advertising Russian brides and gets in touch with a woman named Mishka. Lou arranges for her to fly to Australia, but when Mishka does not turn up at the airport, Lou is convinced that she has seen him and ran away. However, Mishka turns up at the house and they both realise that they've been lying about their ages. Mishka settles in and tells Lou and Harold that she has always dreamed of living in Australia and seeing Shane Warne. Lou tries to get Mishka to quit smoking and he asks Karl to hypnotise Mishka. Mishka tells Karl that she has a husband and son back in Russia and Karl encourages her to be honest with Lou - she tells Lou that her husband is a political prisoner and she had to get a fake passport in order to leave Russia, so she is an illegal immigrant. Mishka and Lou fake a building inspection on the General Store which leads to Paul selling the General Store back to Lou and Harold, without realising that he had been double-crossed. Mishka and Lou begin brewing their own vodka, 'Old 997' and use both the General Store and Number 24 to sell her wares. When Harold first catches wind of the racket, Lou and Mishka tell him it was actually industrial cleaner and after a quick demonstration on a stained piece of clothing, Harold is sold on the idea. But after he sees Mishka drinking some of the 'cleaner', Harold believes that she has a serious drinking problem and tells Lou that she should seek help immediately. This forces the duo to own up and tell Harold the truth, which leads to Harold telling them they had betrayed his trust and he wants them to move out, however they stage a break in and don’t realise they actually fended off a real burglar. Harold then lets Mishka and Lou stay and tells them to donate their vodka profits to charity. Two men from the Russian Embassy then arrive and Mishka is told that she can stay in the country if she goes with them to sign some papers. Mishka does not return as she has been kidnapped, so Lou flies to Moscow, but she tells him to go home. She pushes him down the stairs to save him from her husband, who has been freed, meaning that Lou does not remember much of his trip and he tries to move on from Mishka. However, Mishka turns up after getting a job with a Russian airline and they get back together. Mishka discovers that the airline is cutting the Moscow-Melbourne route and so decides to apply for Australian residency, with her and Lou trying to convince officials that they've been together for a while. However, in the end they decide to be honest and it works, until Mishka tries to give the officer a bribe and she is then taken away and sent back to Russia.

Robert gets a job at Erinsborough Hospital and meets Katya. He struggles as he has little experience with women, when he and Katya grow close. Robert tells comatose Cameron that he did not think about falling in love and so he will have to get rid of Katya, rather than let her mess up his plans. He takes Katya for a picnic at a secluded cliff top, and watches as she admires the view from the edge but before he could push her, she slips and is left clinging on to a branch. Robert is forced to make a snap decision and pulls her to safety, realising that perhaps he didn’t want her out of his life after all. Robert then turns his attentions back to Izzy - he records several conversations with her on his mp3 player, then uses a computer programme to patch them together and make it sound like Izzy had been flirting with him. The plan works perfectly, as Elle hears it and forces Robert to play it to Paul, who immediately throws Izzy out. As Izzy attempts to work out how she’d been set up, she warns Katya to be careful. As Katya then starts to question him, Robert realises that he is getting too close to confessing everything to her, and he ends their relationship.

Out of the blue, Connor receives a call from Lucia, explaining that Carmella has been missing since Christmas Day, and asks him to track her down. Connor eventually finds her residing in St Clare’s Convent, about to take her vows to become a novice nun. Carmella is stunned to be confronted with Connor, who she still believes had perished in the plane crash, and he sets about trying to find out whether she is truly ready to devote her entire life to God. He eventually convinces her to come and stay with him in Ramsay Street, just to have a taste of her old life before she commits to anything. During a night out at a club, Connor and Carmella share a kiss. Realising that she felt no emotion during it, Carmella’s mind is made up and she returns to the convent for her vestiture ceremony. Connor later receives a call from Carmella, who’s been at a country hospice to say goodbye to her regular patients before leaving to work at a bush hospital for a month. She explains to Connor that one of the coma patients, Robert, looked exactly like Paul’s son, Cameron, who she’d met briefly whilst staying at number 30. Realising that Cameron has a twin, who the family believed to be missing in England, Connor races over to number 22 where he bumps into “Cameron” outside and tells him the news. He is invited into the house, where Robert pretends to phone his father, before asking Connor to stay for a beer. As Connor insists that he really needs to go, Robert grabs him and tells him he has to stay. Soon after, Robert emerges from the house, and drives out of Ramsay Street in Connor’s ute. The whereabouts of Connor then remained a mystery, until finally Toadie received a parcel from him, postmarked China.

The Kennedy family's beloved sheep, Cassie dies - Karl and Susan are united in grief and hold a special burial for Cassie in the back yard. After the ceremony, Lyn shocks Susan by pointing out that it was quite obvious she has feelings for Karl again, and Susan initially angrily insists that she could never forget Alex so quickly. Susan gradually concedes that she has started to fall for Karl all over again, and is beginning to think about getting back together with him. When Karl invites Susan to dinner while Jenny is away in Canberra, Susan thinks the dinner is signifying a renewed interest on Karl's part too. However, Susan is left disappointed when he spends the dinner talking about how pleased he is that they're friends again and then reveals that Jenny has asked him to move to Canberra.

Kim and Janelle’s "re-wedding" arrives; Kim is tied naked to a surfboard following his bucks' night, while Janelle is just praying that, for once, something can go right for her family. Unfortunately, her prayers are not answered, as the police have found out about the DVD pirating and turn up in Ramsay Street, just moments after the wedding party has departed. At the wedding venue at Lassiter's, the police arrive and are stalled for just long enough to allow Kim and Janelle to complete their vows, and for the groom to do a runner through the back door, leaving his devastated family behind.

Having disposed of both Dylan and Izzy, Robert’s next victim is Elle. When he hears that his sister is heading into the countryside to a vineyard, Robert plants a bomb in her car and says his goodbyes to her before heading off to the hospital to dispose of Cameron. However, once there, he finds the bed empty. Cameron is hiding in the corner and, as soon as his brother walks in, he knocks him out, steals his clothes and leaves. But Cameron’s timing could not have been worse, as, back in Ramsay Street, Paul and Izzy have worked out who's been behind all of the recent events and call Elle just in time for her to escape the bomb in her car. Cameron arrives just in time to be arrested, as he claims that he's innocent and has been in a coma for the past two months at St Luke’s Hospice. Robert, meanwhile, wakes up in the room at the hospice and quietly slips into the bed, formerly occupied by his brother, where Paul, Izzy and Elle track him down and are told that he’d been there all along and has yet to wake up.

It was this set of complex events that led to Gail Robinson's return to Erinsborough, coming face to face with Paul for the first time in over ten years at the bedside of Robert. Gail angrily accuses Paul of ruining their children’s lives. Unable to turn her back on Cameron, Gail heads to the police station to speak to her son, and afterwards, is sure something was amiss. Paul insists on Gail staying at her old home, number 22, although she comes into conflict straight away with Paul’s new love, Izzy, who accuses Gail of being a bad mother for producing such an evil son. Paul manages to assure Gail that he doesn’t see it that way and the pair catch up on old times when they are finally left alone. Elle, pleased to see her mum, can’t quite understand how Cameron could do something like this, but Gail shows her daughter a mole on the arm of comatose Robert, and Elle is forced to accept what has happened.

Susan's feelings for Karl come to a head on Alex’s birthday, when her plans to visit some of her late husband's favourite places with the Kinski kids fall by the wayside, after Karl has to rush up to his father's farm and Susan felt she should be with him. When Susan gets to Tom's house, Karl is thrilled to see her as he is increasingly worried about his father's mental state. The house and land are untidy and Tom himself is unkempt. However, he blames it on old age slowing him down and Susan and Karl set about tidying the place up. They share a touching moment when they come across an old fence post outside where they had measured all the kids' heights growing up, and are delighted to see that Libby is continuing the tradition with Ben. But things take a more dramatic turn overnight as Tom starts rambling about Libby still being a little girl, not knowing who Ben is, and trying to light a fire in the middle of the living room. It becomes clear to Karl and Susan that Tom is going senile and will need round-the-clock care. Karl arranges a place for Tom at the local nursing home the following day and after settling him in, returns to the farm with Susan for one last look around. When they come across a lamb cornered by a snake, the pair manage to scare the snake off and comfort the lamb before deciding to take it home as a replacement for Cassie. The moment results in Susan and Karl kissing.

Janae and Boyd split up over his growing closeness to fellow student Sasha Hennessy and Janae's jealousy. Boyd goes away for a few weeks, after winning a placement at a rural hospital, due to his excellent grades. On his return Boyd has a new determination to do well at university, but admits to Max that he’s found it hard to think about anything but Janae. Boyd then pays Janae a visit, but she refuses to get back together with him. In a final act of desperation, Boyd buys an engagement ring, before shocking Janae by getting down on one knee and proposing. After thinking it over, Janae accepts, but Max is horrified with this development, with Max telling his son to cancel his engagement or find somewhere else to live. Boyd and Janae end up turning to Ned Parker for the use of the spare room at number 30. After a few set backs, the wedding goes ahead, with Janelle, Max and Steph arriving just as the register is being signed and, although Janelle and Steph are delighted for the young couple, Max can’t hide his disappointment. Back at number 30, an impromptu party is held for the newlyweds. However, Max turns up with proof that Janae used a fake birth certificate and the union isn’t even legal. Boyd stands up to his dad and said that he doesn’t care, they are still married in their eyes and he will never split them up.

Robert, having convinced everyone that he is reluctantly getting to know Paul, suggests a father and son camping trip, and Paul happily agrees. The only person unable to trust Robert is Katya and, after she successfully convinces Gail, Izzy and Elle of her doubts, they head to the national park and find the campsite, but no sign of Paul. Robert has already drugged Paul and trapped him in an old mineshaft, before exposing himself as the mastermind behind all the recent crimes when Paul wakes up. Robert then leaves Paul in the shaft and collapses the entrance, leaving his father behind to be buried alive. As Robert returns to the campsite, he is questioned by Gail, Izzy and Elle, but claims to have been out chopping wood, and the three women are suspicious. Robert became agitated, throws a shovel at them and runs off. A full-scale search for both Paul and Robert begins; Gail comes across an old photo of her and Paul lying on the ground which Robert threw at Paul before leaving him in the shaft. Paul has managed to poke the picture through a tiny hole in the shaft and when Gail finds it, she cries out for Paul and is relieved to hear him calling back at her from underground. Paul is eventually found tied up and the rescue team pull him to safety, but there is still no sign of Robert. In order to get him out of hiding, Izzy jokingly suggests that Paul and Gail should get married again, knowing that Robert would hate it and try to stop it. Much to Izzy’s horror, they decide to go along with the idea.

Gail and Paul’s third wedding ceremony then goes ahead, even though this one is purely designed as a ruse to catch Robert. A newspaper article is written about the nuptials are seen by Robert. He makes his way back to Erinsborough on the day to disrupt proceedings. Meanwhile, Gail and Paul put so much effort into the wedding that it looks and feels real, and they are quickly caught up in the emotion of it all. Gail is particularly touched when Paul breaks away from the prepared vows and speaks from the heart about how blessed he is to have found her again. The ceremony is interrupted, however, when an impatient Paul begins calling out for Robert to show himself – an act which finally prompts Robert to shoot at his father from the bushes. However, the police have predicted such a move and Paul is wearing a bulletproof vest. Robert is arrested, and Gail faces one of the most difficult moments of her life when her “Robbie” calls out for her support and she turns her back on him.

In the weeks that follow, as Gail returns to Tasmania, Cameron is released from prison and Paul dumps Izzy, Elle comes to rely on Dylan for support, but starts to realise that his feelings actually lie with Sky and their unborn child. Desperate to keep him in her life, Elle blackmails his mother, Janelle, paying off a huge debt she owes for copyright infringement. Although this works briefly, it soon becomes clear that Janelle only has so much influence on Dylan and can't stop him from going back to Sky if he wants to. And so, Elle turns to her father, whose own emotions are already very confused, and he suggests faking a serious illness. After a quick look in the medical dictionary for some symptoms, and after Paul blackmails a lab technician to alter the test results, everything is in place. Elle breaks the news to Dylan that she is seriously ill and he, on the verge of dumping her to get back together with Sky, promises to stand by her. When Cameron foinds out, his insistence on helping his sister with day-to-day activities almost breaks her, and when he puts himself in charge of her medication and she has to swallow a chemo tablet in front of him, Paul rushes her to hospital where she has her stomach pumped, lying to the doctor that she’s taken one of her cousin’s tablets, believing it to be a vitamin. After surviving that drama, Elle replaces her tablets with placebos and begins to wonder if the whole lie is really worth it, but Paul encourages her to keep going. Cameron again starts trying to help Elle and presents her with two tickets for them to travel on the Orient Express. This generous act is too much for Elle and she admits everything to her stunned brother, who immediately disowns her and their father.

Paul discovers that he is being sued for copyright infringement, after he invests in a baby belt that's been designed by Steph - he had to think quickly and, with the seed planted in his head by Izzy, he decides to pass the blame on to Lyn, who has recently started work as his personal assistant. After signing over the entire idea to Lyn and making her believe that it's a promotion that she’s worked for, she is left stunned when she is served with a writ. It doesn’t take long for her to realise that she’s been set up, but as she angrily tells Paul that she has enough dirt on him to bring him down, he suddenly kisses her, impressed with her new tougher attitude. Lyn is quickly won over by Paul, who blames Izzy for the whole mess and agrees that they should work together to beat it. And with Paul now single – having got rid of both Izzy and Gail – Lyn realises that she finally stands a chance with the man she’s fallen for. Although it's obvious to her family and friends, Lyn fails to realise just how far under Paul’s spell she has fallen.

Max, whilst backing out of the car park at Lassiter’s and talking to Steph on his mobile phone, runs into Katya. Although not badly hurt, it's the final straw for Katya, who's already extremely fragile after her relationship with Robert. Katya ends up spending a couple of weeks in the psychiatric ward, where Max is the only man she will talk to, and the pair develop a close friendship. Max encourages Katya to sign up to a class in Tibetan, and they go on a weekend retreat together, to improve their skills. Once at the retreat, Max and Katya are surprised to realise that it isn’t a language course, but rather a spiritual course. During the first afternoon, both Max and Katya meditate and find themselves fantasising. While Max happily thinks about the opportunity to play for his favourite football team, Collingwood, Katya dreams of kissing Max and realises that she's falling in love with him. The next morning, Max and Katya decide that they’ve had enough and run off. Once in the car, Max decides that they should take the scenic route home, but it ends in disaster when they get lost and the car breaks down. A deluded Katya starts to believe that it's all a set-up and that Max shares her feelings. A stunned Max backs off, telling her that she’s got the wrong end of the stick and Katya is left humiliated by her mistake. He decides not to tell Steph, hopeful to save a fragile Katya from any further embarrassment. Katya later phones Max as she’s received a letter from Robert, telling her that he's going to come and get her soon. Max calls the prison, who assure him that Robert is still locked up and they have no idea how he got the letter out. Max then goes to tell Paul what has happened, and Paul phones the prison only to be told that Robert has escaped. Katya, meanwhile, is on the way to her Tibetan class and Max races to meet with her, just as she accepts a lift from Robert’s identical twin, Cameron. As Max races towards the scene, he phones Katya, asking her if she is alone. When she mentions that she's in the car with Cameron, Max warns her to get out and run. A confused Cameron tells her that she’s forgotten her bag and starts to chase her and Max, who's driving up to the scene, swerves the car to a halt, crashing into Cameron in the process. At the hospital, they all realise that Max has run down the wrong twin, and Robert had just been hiding from the guards and hadn’t escaped. As they all wait for news, an angry Paul warns that if Cameron ends up dead, so will Max. Sadly, the following week, Cameron passes away during an emergency operation, leaving Max to try and come to terms with what he’s done.

With the success of her first book, Bree decides to do a reading in the park, where she befriends a young blind girl, Anne Baxter. Anne tells Bree that she is her biggest fan and when people start to walk out of the reading, Anne defends her. Bree invites Anne back to the Timmins house and when she is getting a CD, Anne feels her way around the room. She is interrupted by Janelle, who tells her to go home. Bree brings Anne to the house again soon after, and Anne gives Janelle a CD. Bree then invites Anne for a sleepover and Janelle tells her that she does not know how to behave around a disabled child, but they start to bond and Anne is delighted. Janelle accidentally knocks Anne's bag from the table and finds a dictaphone. She listens to it and Anne speaks about getting to know the Timmins family better. Anne catches her and she runs out into the path of Harold’s car. Anne explains to Janelle that it is her way of recording a diary. After Anne steals Bree’s boyfriend Zeke, Janelle tells her that stealing a man from a Timmins girl is the worst betrayal of all. Anne then reveals that Janelle is her birth mother, and that she and Bree were the babies swapped at birth. Anne begs Janelle not to get in touch with her parents as they would take her away. Bree announces that she wants to meet her real parents and Anne agrees to go home and speak to them. Bree and Janelle go to the house and find it abandoned. Bree calls Anne, who tells her that she and her parents are on their way to the airport.

After Paul dumps Izzy, she moves in with the Hoylands but, when Steph finds out that Izzy has been the catalyst for Paul framing Lyn for patent infringement, she's once again left homeless. When Karl comes into the bar one evening, exhausted from working to take his mind off problems with Susan, Izzy provides a shoulder for him to cry on and drives him home, realising he's in no fit state to do it himself. Back at the flat, she gives him some of the sleeping syrup that he'd been given to try out by a colleague, but, without realising, gives him too much. When Izzy walks into the bedroom to say goodbye, Karl, in a confused state, mistakes her for Susan and, with Izzy unaware of this, the pair end up sleeping together. The next morning, Izzy is happy to have found love again, but as she makes breakfast, she overhears Karl on the phone to Susan, thanking her for the night before. She quickly realises what's happened and manages to get out of the flat without Karl knowing she's there, only leaving an earring behind. Karl, however, works out that something isn’t quite right and confronts Izzy, who lies that she had taken him home, but nothing else had happened between them. Meanwhile, Susan finds the earring and realises that Izzy has lied and she had been in Karl’s bed that night. Susan confronts Izzy, who admits that it's true, and she lied in the hope that Karl’s life wouldn’t be ruined for a second time, insisting that Karl had actually wanted to be with Susan. A few days later, following some routine tests, it's discovered that Izzy is 3 to 4 weeks pregnant and Izzy, who'd been told her chances of conceiving were extremely slim, is left stunned, and she sets about changing her life, deciding to leave Erinsborough. Realising that her secret is in danger of coming out, she asks Paul to tell anyone that asks that the baby is a result of a one-night-stand with a stranger. Following a small gathering at the bar, to say her goodbyes, she boards the bus that would take her out of town for good. Back in Ramsay Street, Susan answers the phone at the Hoyland house, only to be told that Izzy’s first ultrasound will need to be rescheduled. Susan races to the bus stop just in time to ask Izzy whether Karl is the father of her baby. Izzy tells Susan that he isn’t, and to speak to Paul if she doesn’t believe her. Of course, Susan goes straight to Paul who backs up Izzy’s story, then phones the woman herself to say a final goodbye.

On her return back to the convent Carmella admits the truth to her Mother Superior - that she sold her cousin Teresa’s baby to acquire the money to give to Connor the previous year and has become a nun to try and make amends. She is then told to leave the convent and to consider her future.

The marriage of Kim Timmins' mother, Loris, falls apart and she moves to Erinsborough. She gets in touch with Janae and gives her money as a gift for her recent marriage, then Loris hires Ned as her personal trainer and she tells him that she would like a fling with a younger mans, before offering to invest in Ned's business. Loris buys the Timmins house when it goes up for sale, as well as purchasing a 49% share of Lassiter's hotel. She also goes to see the family, but Janelle throws her out, but she does make one friend in Erinsborough, in the form of Harold, as the pair develop a close friendship. Loris then tracks down Anne, telling her that she was the one who swapped the babies, as she was so angry with Janelle, and she brings Anne back down to Erinsborough.

When Toadie moves out of number 30, taking up a legal case in Sydney, he leaves it to Ned to find some new tenants for the rooms. With help from Katya, he selects four new housemates – Rosetta Cammeniti; Carmella’s older sister, professional gambler Frazer Yeats, P.E. teacher Pepper Steiger and mysterious drifter Will Griggs. Frazer and Pepper pretend to be a couple, hoping it would give them a better chance of getting a room, but are later found out. As they settle in, Carmella also moves in across the street at the Bishop house, having taken a break from the convent to reassess her life. Her presence is a source of jealousy for Katya, as Ned struggles to work out which woman he wanted to be with - finally settling on Katya. Unbeknownst to his housemates, Will is being followed by mysterious benefactor Alan Napier, who sends him money and stops him in the street one day to hand him the keys to a house in Eden Hills. Although Will visits the house, alone, and is moved to find photos and objects from his childhood, he decides not to stay. Seemingly desperate to get away from his past, Will manages to get himself a job at the Scarlet bar. Fellow housemate Rosie is struggling to hide her growing feelings for Will and desperate to avoid dealing with them, she instead pushes him towards her sister, Carmella. Carmella is strongly attracted to Will and agrees to go on a date with him. Although she finds herself impressed and they share a kiss, Carmella refuses to take things any further, as breaking her vow of chastity would mean that she couldn’t return to the convent. However, Carmella then seeks comfort with Will and they enter into a physical relationship, meaning that she can never go back to her old life.

After being arrested and charged with manslaughter over Cameron's death, Max is released on bail. Elle, meanwhile, is horrified when her father returns from Tasmania ready to forgive Max for his crime, and, after seeing her brother’s killer going about his daily business, decides to get her own revenge. Elle sets about slowly making him think that he's losing his mind. First, she steals some football tickets in the bar, and replaces them with cardboard, then she moves Charlie’s pram out into the road whilst Max is inside Grease Monkeys getting coffee. But, when Elle then offers to cover one of Boyd’s shifts at the bar, and starts changing some of Max’s food and drink orders, Max becomes suspicious and concludes that Elle has been behind all of the recent events. The final straw comes when Elle manages to sneak into number 32 and steal Charlie, while Max is in the kitchen. As he rushes to the garage to see if Steph has taken the baby with her to work, Elle returns him and manages to make it look the baby had been there all along. With nobody listening to his suspicions about Elle, Max hires a private investigator, then loudly speaks about his new car in the bar. Elle can’t resist one last attempt to tip Max over the edge, and moves the car to the other side of the car park, closely watched by P.I. Ray McQueen. Ray then phones Max and assures that his suspicions have been correct. Max can’t resist gloating in front of Paul and announcing that, this time, he has evidence. But, unfortunately for Max, moments after Ray’s call, Elle caught him spying on her and paid him to keep his mouth shut. Therefore, when the report arrives, it provides no proof of Max’s accusations and, finally fearing that he's going insane and risking his family’s safety, he admits himself to the psychiatric ward. As Max starts taking medication to calm him down, his behaviour beomes more and more strange. Although Elle, suffering badly with guilt, visits Max to explain that he was right all along, it's too late for him, as he's already decided to leave Erinsborough. That night, he simply walks out of the hospital and boards a bus, with no indication of where he might be going.

Carmella’s cousin Teresa ends up in Erinsborough hospital, after she falls unconscious in the car park. Carmella visits her, but Teresa, suffering from depression over Carmella selling her baby and Teresa cutting herself off from her family, asks Carmella to steal her baby back. Carmella visits the family and they tell her that the baby died and that they had written to Teresa. Carmella tells Teresa, and she throws Carmella out of her room. Teresa hears about Sky’s difficult pregnancy and asks Carmella for information; Sky is then admitted to the hospital after fainting, because she was not eating properly and living with the secret that her baby's father might be Stingray and not Dylan. The two women share a room, and Terese starts to see Sky's baby as a replacement for the one she lost. When Teresa is told that she can leave, she fakes a collapse and is re-admitted. Teresa talks about Sky giving up her baby for adoption and drives Stingray away, then tells Sky that she cannot have anymore children and suggests that she could adopt Sky's baby. Though Carmella tells Sky about Teresa's lies, Sky forgives her new friend, realising how lonely she is. When Sky leaves the hospital to look for Stingray, Terese, who's since been admitted to the psychiatric ward, follows and finds Sky in the park, where she has gone into labour. Teresa raises the alarm and she accuses Sky of being an unfit mother and risking the health of her baby. Teresa is restrained and taken back to the ward, but she sneaks out and goes to Ramsay Street. She steals Carmella's hospital uniform and when Carmella spots her, Teresa tells her that she is going to see her baby and throws boiling water in Carmella's face. Teresa goes back to the hospital and starts a fire, which causes the hospital wing to be evacuated. Sky gives birth to baby Kerry and she is also evacuated outside, but when she is taken back to see her baby, the cot is empty. Teresa is found nearby, pushing an empty pram. She is taken into police custody to face charges of arson. It then emerges that Stingray had taken the baby, then passed out drunk, and Dylan had found them - he'd spent a couple of days with the little girl before anonymously leaving her on Harold's doorstep.

After finding out that Max has disappeared from Erinsborough, Lyn returns from a trip away with Paul to support her daughter, and waits anxiously for Paul to come back too, noticing a strange shift in his behaviour when he does return. After learning that Flick has spotted Paul with a mysterious blonde, Lyn then convinces herself that he's cheated on her and she's about to be dumped. Therefore, she is stunned when he presents her with an engagement ring and asks her to become his wife. Lyn accepts, though decides to keep the news low-key, worried about how some of her friends and neighbours would react. Paul announces that he can’t wait long to marry her and wantes to bring the wedding forward to just before Christmas, unaware that he's hurrying things in order to ignore his growing feelings for Rosetta. Further complicating matters, Lyn then offers Rosie a business traineeship with Lassiter’s, unwittingly bringing her love rival closer to Paul. Only days before the wedding, as Paul shows Rosie around the complex, the pair get trapped in the wine cellar, where they share a kiss. As the day of the wedding dawns, Lyn happily prepares for her big day, unaware that Paul and Rosie are both being plagued by thoughts of their kiss. At the church, Lyn is alarmed when a distracted Paul pauses before saying ‘I do’, but everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the pair are finally pronounced husband and wife. At the reception, he goes on to make a touching speech about finding love and holding on to it, before the pair head off to spend the night in a hotel suite. But, once there, Paul realises that he can’t continue the charade any longer and tells Lyn that they can’t stay together as he is bound to break her heart, before explaining that he kissed Rosie and would do it again. As Paul leaves, Lyn phones Steph and Susan who rush over and comfort her. And, as she regains her composure, Lyn realises that annulling the marriage is the best solution, before announcing that she will be leaving to go on the honeymoon to the Maldives and taking Oscar with her.

Another face from Katya’s past comes to Ramsay Street, criminal Guy Sykes. Katya is shocked when Guy arrives in town with DVD footage of her committing crimes. Guy tells her that he has a kidney problem and needs $10,000 for private medical care. When Katya offers him $200, he blackmails her with the DVD and she agrees to steal one car to get the money for him. Guy continues to blackmail her and she steals another car, she also spots a wanted poster for him and warns him that she will go to the police. Guy does not believe her and then demands another $10,000. Guy tells Katya's boyfriend, Ned that he and Katya went to nursing college together and he befriends her sister, Rachel. Katya calls Guy and lies that she has the money for him and they need to meet. Guy is led to believe that he is going to be paid the money that he harassed Katya for, but she instead takes a gun from her handbag. In the struggle, Katya is accidentally shot. Guy leaves her and takes the bag Katya was carrying, which he later discovers has green paper and few real banknotes in it. Guy visits Katya frequently at the hospital, and she remains in a low response state until Guy prepares to shock her with a defibrillator to "encourage" her to fully regain consciousness and for her to tell him where she has hidden his money. Guy is stopped by Zeke, and Katya wakes up and shocks Guy in the back with the defibrillator pad - Guy then disappears. Katya is sent to prison, but released on bail in time to spend Christmas with her family. However, the season finale involves Guy coming to Ramsay Street and holding Katya, Zeke, Toadie, Steph and Charlie hostage with a gun. Zeke hits Guy and knocks him to the ground and as everyone leaves, Guy grabs his gun and shoots Toadie in the back...

Summary by Kyle

2006 Episode Summaries | 2006 Magic Moments | 2006 Opening Titles