Recap
Karl telling the love of his life that he rang Jenny and is seeing her next week; Karl and Susan flirting; Susan reading the report on Katya and seeing some sections blacked out by Toadie who tells her it's inadmissible evidence; Rachel being electrocuted (the second electrocution in No 28 - remember Jane Harris?); Zeke calling 911/999/991/some emergency number and not saying a word.
Number 28
OH TALK FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
Zeke eventually asks for an ambulance for Rachel. Hoo-flippin-rah..
Lassiters where Susan questions The Loyalty
Toadie tells Susan that he blacked out the evidence because the court can't hear it; Susie ain't buying it. Toadie admits that it probably is admissible, but there are implications, and it's not relevant to Rachel and Zeke. Susan quite rightly tells him that it's not his decision to make, and he shouldn't be censoring information about Katya. Susan calls Toadie's loyalty into question, and says she thinks he and Katya are getting too close.
Susie insists on knowing what was blacked out if Toadie really isn't playing favourites here. Toadie does his wide-eyed face that makes him look like he's on speed.
Ramsay Street where Janelle is breathing. Breathing. Breathing.
Janelle sits, buddah-like, and Kim tries to get her to relax. It's rather like a new-age birthing session.
KIM: Nice, easy, rhythmic breathing.
Out of the corner of her eye, Janelle spies Angie practising her punching
KIM: Feel the breath all the way down to the bottom.
Oooh - Karl and Susan fantasy moment.
Angie punches the bag and Janelle's eyes are wide open. Kim's calm statements are interspersed with close-ups of Janelle's eyes flashing open in a startled rabbit-in-headlights manner, and Janae tries to help her mum with her breathing.
KIM: Close your eyes and shut out all other distractions.
Then shut up, Kimmy boy! Angie punches harder and harder and tells Connor to stand still with the punch bag. The wrestling / punching music begins, and you knows it's going to be bad. Angie knocks Connor over, and Janelle gets up, cross.
JANELLE: I'm outta here.
JANAE: Mum, just ignore it.
JANELLE: I intend to. Inside. With a cuppa.
KIM: The breathing, love, remember the breathing, okay?
They run into the house as Katya (boo, hiss) approaches Angie and Connor, asking after Toadie. Angie knocks Connor out completely.
Number 28
WomanOnThePhone™ - who, incidentally, sounds nothing like TelephoneChipmunk™ - tells Zeke how to revive his sister. He 'can't' do the actions that he's being told to, so WomanOnThePhone™ tells him to get an adult. He goes to get an adult - and Rachel moves her mouth.
So. Not dead then.
Ramsay Street where Zeke may have Killed Again
Katya is telling a conscious Connor that she really needs to see Toadie. Zeke runs out - Rachel's not breathing!
How ironic if he's killed her by not talking.
Hee!
The Timminseseseses where we find Mince. Or Worms.
Janae is making a protein drink for her mum, but Kimmy thinks it looks kinda weird, like. Janae insists that it's full of important nutrients...before dropping in a handful of raw mince. Or worms, I'm not sure.
Janelle walks in, then seeing her family, grabs her stomach and says she feels ill, and Janae gives her the drink - the fight's this afternoon, and she has to drink if she wants to win. Janelle suggests she should toss the whole fight thing in, and Kimmy agrees. Janae thinks she's a wimp and a loser.
But Janelle's freaked at the way Angie punches the bag.
JANAE: She's got a right cross, that's it. You've got speed, agility. Fitness.
Really?
Kim supports her backing out, but Janae is so ashamed. "Imagine it - my mum, a wuss." She thinks that backing out will destroy the Timmins name. Destroy the family! Destroy our lives! Destroy......okay, stopping now. Janelle realises that she can't live with that.
JANAE: She's old. She's slow. You're young. Ish.
Janelle will do it, and Janae demands that she drink. Now she really will spew. Ooooh, nice.
Erinsborough Hospital where Karl is the Only Doctor
Katya (boo, hiss!) does some hospital talk about Rachel (who is on the trolley with no oxygen mask, by the way, and given she stopped breathing I'm surprised) but it's nothing like the stuff you get on ER or Casualty. Karl comments that her pupils are dilated, so she should go straight to emergency. Her pupils are dilated, and yet she has NO monitoring equipment attached to her? Remarkable.
And ridiculous.
Karl asks how long she stopped breathing. Zeke says a few minutes, and Fletch does some wonderfully soft facial expressions recognising that he's talking again - but doesn't comment. Katya (boo, hiss!) tells Zeke to call Susan and he obliges. Aw.
See, I can't help it if Susan scenes keep coming up in the episodes I'm summarising. It doesn't make me a shipper.
Lassiters where Susan has more Earrings
Toadie has told Susie what was in the report, and she looks shocked, shaking her head. Toadie admits that it might prejudice a court against Katya (boo, hiss!), but says that it will damage people in the long run. He goes on and on and on, and thankfully Susan interrupts and asks him to give her some space. She needs to think.
He leaves her at the table looking done in.
The General Store where Angie is Practising
Connor and Toadie are in The General Store kitchen as Angie comes in and practices her punches. Connor thinks she's funny, and Angie reassures him that she could kill him if she wanted to. Kimbo enters the kitchen and asks Angie to stop the fight.
KIMBO: It's disgusting; two grown women carrying on like a couple of kids. It'll end in tears.
ANGIE: But not mine.
Hee!
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Mist
Janae tries to help Janelle calm her mind and body.
JANAE: Imagine yourself as a mist, drifting over the mountain.
JANELLE: Mist?
Janae repeats the word mist, but does some drifty, new agey hand movements - which are pointless because Janelle's eyes are closed.
JANELLE: Yeah I know what mist is. Harmless fluffy stuff that can't fight to save itself.
Too funny!! With their plaits like that, Nell and Eliza really do look like mother and daughter. Janae encourages her mother to think that she's a tiger instead, and Janelle starts growling which is rather strange and freaking me out.
The General Store where...
...Angie tells Kimbo that she'll kill Janelle in the fight. Connor hands her some food.
CONNOR: Here you go. Here's your steak. Raw. Just the way you killed it.
Angie says that Janelle's asked for this - after all the years of put-downs, she's going to pay, and Angie will prove how wrong she is. She picks up the steak and sniffs it.
ANGIE: Oooh. I love the smell of raw blood in the morning.
The Timminseseseseses where we have Repetition Theory
Janelle is doing press ups with Janae's encouragement, reminding her mother all the times that the Rebecchis have treated them badly. Not that Janelle needs much encouraging.
Janae tells her mother that this is the day she must step into the ring and tell Angie that she's better than her. Say it! Janelle repeats Janae's words:
JANAE: I am better than you!
JANELLE: I am better than you!
JANAE: I will fight!
JANELLE: I will fight!
JANAE: I am a Timmins!
JANELLE: I am Timmins!
JANAE: Now go get her!
Janelle runs out the front door. Janae stands in the room. Janelle runs back in.
JANELLE: Are you comin'?
JANAE: Ooh.
Mother and daughter run out the house.
Somewhere with a Boxing Ring. TSB in disguise?
Toadie is introducing the fight - in the Red Corner is Angie Rebecchi, and in the Blue Corner we have Janelle The Tiger Timmins. Janelle falls into the ring, tripping over and into the ropes.
The women agree that they're fighting by Colac rules, so they don't need no referee, thanks. Janae gears up Janelle, and Toadie gears up Angie - and their families remind them what they're fighting for, but Janelle's getting butterflies...
Erinsborough Hospital where Karl and Susan Kiss
In secret, obviously. We don't get to see that scene.
Susan wants to know how Rachel is, and Karl says she's okay - and it got Zeke talking, too! Susie comments that she was thrilled when she heard her step son on the phone.
Cut to Katya (boo, hiss!) talking to the kids and offering Rach some water. She jokes with Zeke about Rachel's hair not going frizzy from the shock, and Susan stands in the doorway, listening. Rach thanks her sister, and apologises for treating her like the odd one out. Katya tells her that she doesn't want to see her go off the rails, and she loves them so much. They agree to be good sisters, and bring Zeke in on the joke, too. Susan watches, smiling, tearful.
The Boxing Ring where we go round In Circles
We get a long shot of Janelle and Angie dancing round the boxing ring, Angie cross because Janelle won't stop moving long enough to hit her. Janae encourages her mum to keep Angie moving, and Kimbo reminds her of Ange's right jab.
Janelle stops for one second to return an insult of Angie's - who slams her right in the face. Woman down! And out, by the looks of it. Connor and Toadie cheer. Janae and Kim are gutted, and enter the ring to pick Janelle up from the floor. Janelle agrees that Angie won this one - but at the end of the day Janelle won what counts.
She brings up the fact that Angie made a play for Kim all those years ago; Kim tries to stop her, and Angie can't believe that's what Kim told her - because it was Kim who made a pass at her, and she knocked him back.
If looks could kill, Janelle would have just shot Kim at gunpoint.
The General Store where Karl still Loves Susan
Karl sits at the table, waiting for Susan, and who should come in but Jenny. Who he claims he was waiting for, but we all know the truth. The store is remarkably empty, and I miss the jukebox of The Coffee Shop. 'Sea of Love' would be great right now.
Karl tells Jenny he'd like to give them another go, but Jenny is surprised, given that he was so smitten with Susan before. And still is now. Karl admits he wasn't over her, then, and wasn't ready for another relationship, but he's moved on. Moved on, and a-wanderin' through Denial City by the sounds of it. Jenny's quite rightly not convinced.
KARL: Susan's a very large and important part of my life. She always will be. And yes, she's still in my heart. Like, all day, every day.
He tells Jenny that they're residual feelings as he walks down the avenue of Kidding Yourself.
Erinsborough Hospital where Zeke Talks
Zeke tells Susan why he hasn't spoken this whole time - he wished that his father would die instead, when his mum was dying. And it came true. Susan tells him that his words couldn't have done that, and his voice has now saved Rachel's life; Zeke agrees. Susan tells him he's wonderful, and she'll always listen to anything he has to say.
The General Store where OMG
Jenny tells Karl that she's worried he's not fully over Susan. See? She's such a Kusan shipper. I love her already. Karl tells her he has baggage - it comes with age, and he can't undo the past. But he wants to make them work, and Jenny confesses that she will fall for him, and it leaves her open to hurt. Karl says he'd never intend that, and he wouldn't go through this unless he was convinced he was 'emotionally available.' What, desperate? Aren't all his secret kissing sessions with Susan enough?
He says he's available to her and only her - she can think about it and call him if she likes. She says that won't happen; what will happen is this: she kisses him.
You know what disturbs me most about this scene?
I really like them together.
</runs to watch Kusan happiness to remind self of eternal love>
The Boxing Ring where...
...Janelle knows that someone's lying to her, and Kimbo swears it's not him. He thinks she's the sexiest thing in Colac.
KIM: You're ten years younger and heaps spunkier.
JANELLE: Fifteen.
I love her! Janelle says that Angie has witnesses and she's going to check them out. And if she finds out that Kim was lying his life won't be worth living.
Erinsborough Hospital where Susan will do Whatever It Takes
Rach and Katya banter about hospital food, and she refuses to eat it. Susan mentions she'll be having home cooking again soon, and Katya looks unhappy about that. Katya (boo, hiss!) goes to see how long Rach will be in here for, and Susie follows her out.
Susan tells Katya that she knows everything, and if she has to expose her to a court, she will - if it means keeping the children. She has nothing but respect for what Katya has overcome, but she truly believes that she's the best person to raise the kids. Katya tells Susan that she wants her siblings to hear this from her - not in court. She begs.
KATYA: I don't want them to hear it in some court
SUSAN: Of course.
Susan almost looks ashamed of what she just said. Aw.
Line of the episode:
CONNOR: Here you go. Here's your steak. Raw. Just the way you killed it.
Best performance of the episode:
Has to go to Nell Feeney for the comedy!
Best 'Rock On' moment:
I'm surprising myself by saying the Karl / Jenny kiss...
The scene that TPTB forgot to include:
The scene where Karl and Susan kissed a lot in the hospital. A lot. Really.