Kate Ritchie as Sally Fletcher 1988-2008
Mixed feelings from the Bay this week, as Home and Away bade farewell to perhaps its most loved character of all-time and its most recent unbearable nuisance all in the space of two days; Sally Fletcher sadly leaving for pastures new and Sam Holden understandably murdered. It was a big week.
Sally's final episode was a sad, but slightly subdued affair. As I said last week, her exit seems primarily designed to honour her contribution to the show and has consequently lacked any real drama. But saying goodbye to a person who you have seen almost every weekday for 20 years is never going to be that easy, and it's hard to imagine that anyone else will ever maintain that level of involvement in a soap I watch ever again. It's sad to lose one of those little constants in life.
Sam, meanwhile, washed up on the beach, dead, giving us our first big Home and Away whodunnit since the brilliant Angie Russell got bumped off a few years ago. Apparently held down by one person, injected with an overdose of heroin by someone else and then dumped into the ocean, my dream scenario is that it was a big conspiracy by all the townsfolk. The people of Summer Bay cruelly and sadistically taking the trash out of their perfect little town, Hot Fuzz style. But that would never happen, of course, so instead we'll have weeks and weeks of slowly surfacing evidence that implicates every individual suspect in turn until someone relatively unimportant is revealed to be the killer. It's alright, though. I'm sure it'll still be rad. And at least Sam's dead, right?
Elsewhere in Summer Bay: Melody inexplicably assumed she was in a serious relationship with Geoff because he said they were friends. Noel tried to further convince Ric to fight by stealing all his furniture. Aden's shifty dad tried to stop Aden remembering the tiny little matter of his molestation.
Does Neighbours hate women? Well, no, of course it doesn't. But when I look back at the other week and I see Miranda painted as the bad guy for being pissed off about being saddled with $80,000 further debt and then this week I see Rosie painted as completely unreasonable for being scared of having a child I do start to wonder...
Sadly it seems like it's almost over now - Rosie feeling the pull of motherhood after all - but I really enjoyed the concept of the story. Call me a coward, but the idea of having a child is scary, right? The constant, non-stop, matter-of-life-and-death responsibility, the financial pressure, the way it changes the rest of your life. It's a scary thing. And if you're the woman who's going to give birth to it...hell, quite frankly it amazes me that every woman isn't as mortally afraid of motherhood as Rosie was back when the week started. So I must say I found it slightly ridiculous when the usually ultra-cool Frazer came in with his big "if you're not into it, I'll leave you and raise the baby on my own" ultimatum. Seriously. They've just gotten married, an abortion was never really an option (it's Neighbours) and Rosie had only just found out she was pregnant. Jesus. Give the woman a little time before you freak out and start throwing around big ultimatums like that. You have nine months until the baby arrives and you think week one is the appropriate time to throw out "I'll leave you if you don't start acting rationally!". Strange.
It takes me back to the potential anti-feminist nature of Neighbours. Rosie was painted as cold and irrational just because she wasn't sure about having a child. Yeah, I wonder how many essays are already out there about soaps having a massive left-wing agenda. Lots, I imagine.
Elsewhere in Erinsborough: Toadie joined Libby's "Irreplaceable Dead Spouse Club" for a while but made up with Steph anyway. Paul took yet another hobbled step back towards his old self, remembering that being a prick is what Paul Robinson does. Susan got all MS'y again and Rachel got in trouble at school.
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