Aussie Soap Round-Up (w/e 18th April 2008)

° In Home and Away, Sam actually murdered Johnny. Bloody hell! A large part of me still thinks this whole business about Sam having some dark secret is a massive stretch, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely suckered in by it anyway. It's great stuff - not least because Sam's days on the show are surely numbered now she has killed a man in cold blood. Summer Bay is pretty forgiving of rapists, sure, but murder? That's just not cool.

° Belle and Drew had one of the best arguments I've ever seen on Home and Away or Neighbours. It was great. In a brilliantly heated exchange they threw a laundry list of prior misdeeds at each other that only served to highlight how ridiculous their relationship was in the first place. Completely gripping, yet completely ludicrous. I loved it. For posterity:

"Ugh! You're a journalist! You disgust me!"
"At least I can hold down a job. You're a quitter."
"But at least I have ethics!"
"You slept with my mother!!"
"But you made out with your stalker."
"You ran him down with your car and left him for dead."
"Err...well...you're a slag!" *runs out of town*

Hahaha. Classic. I'll be disappointed if Drew returns now, because that's one hell of a note to go out on.

Elsewhere in Summer Bay: Bartlett became the new principal of Summer Bay High and gave Miles a job as his first order of business. Morag presumed Martha would sleep with Roman on their first date but surprisingly turned out to be wrong. Geoff developed an interest in girls. Rachel and Tony reaped the benefits of some naturalistic writing: who doesn't want them to succeed as a couple by this point?

° In Neighbours, Declan blew the whistle on Rachel's relationship with Angus after Didge was wrongly identified as the girl in question. It was awesome. I mean, I've always liked Rachel, but in this storyline she has been completely unbearable; illogical, irrational, selfish, whiny and utterly naive. Yet strangely, despite his initial protestations, the more Rachel acts like she is fourteen years old, the more Angus seems to be interested. Any empathy we may have had with the guy when this situation first started - back when he still believed Rachel was legal - has surely completely dissipated. What a dickhead.

° Libby finally kicked Darren to the curb after Janae revealed the truth about their kiss to the entire street. Happy days. After six weeks or so since her return, it finally feels like Libby is back for good, finally relieved of the hideous tumour that was Darren.

Elsewhere in Erinsborough: Carmella and Marco are stuck in an interminably boring "will they, won't they?". Fitzy's moving into Number 30 to cement his regular status. Rosie's scared to death by the idea of motherhood. Ned is using his brain for once and realising that the Soap Relationship is a tumultuous thing.