Loveday Writing

The episode kicks off with the gang building a crib for Ainsley’s unborn baby girl, Evie. Ainsley reveals through her narration that the gang seems to be divided lately – Liz and Harry are gainfully employed with rich social lives, Heather and Ben are taking on extra household chores in lieu of bill payments as they are now both unemployed, and she doesn’t know where she sits on the “housemate economic scale”. When Lachlan visits Ainsley as she is finishing work, he tells her that he put Evie on the waiting list at St Alena’s Ladies College, an elite private school, without consulting her.

Afterwards Ainsley asks Ben for his opinion on the public vs private school issue. Ben tells her that his daughter, Mia, goes to St Alena’s, and he feels that he can’t really complain as his ex-wife pays for the tuition. Later, Ainsley goes on a tour of St Alena’s with Lachlan and Mel (as Lachlan and Mel want their own daughter to attend the school) where she brings up the issue with them, but they dismiss her concerns.

Meanwhile, Harry and Liz meet up in the park during their lunch breaks to discuss the current state of their lives. Harry tells Liz about his and Xavier’s recent hook ups with the DJ they met in the previous episode, as well as an off-screen hook up with a political strategist named Jason. Harry admits to Liz that he thinks that everyone wants to hook up with Xavier and he is the “price of admission”. Liz tells Harry that she is hooking up with Stuart.

Meanwhile, the housemate divide that Ainsley feels has also been noticed by Heather, albeit in a different way. Heather tells Ben that the housemates have been reacting differently to their request to do extra housework in lieu of bill paying. According to Heather, Ainsley and Xavier are “appropriately embarrassed” whereas Harry and Liz seem to be enjoying it too much. Ben doesn’t believe her, which leads to Heather telling him to watch their reactions when he tops up their drinks. Ainsley and Xavier politely decline, but Ben tops them up anyway, whereas Liz and Harry hold up their glasses without acknowledging or thanking him.

When Mia arrives for dinner, Ainsley asks her for her opinion on St Alena’s. While Mia is polite and points out the positive aspects of the school at first, she does admit she struggles to fit in and that some of the wealthier girls can be bitches. When Heather says that Mia’s observations confirm her belief that private schools are breeding grounds for arseholes, a heated discussion begins with everyone. Xavier is against private schools, getting into a fight with Liz, which comes to a head when he questions if she is trying to justify privilege, ignoring Harry’s request to drop the subject as he wants them to get along. Liz leaves to go and see Stuart.

When Liz goes to see Stuart, she tells him about the situation and feels that Harry didn’t defend her. Harry calls her and when he realises she is at Stuart’s place, he expresses his anger at her confiding in Stuart and not him, telling her that she is delusional for thinking she can have a fling with her ex-husband. She in turns call him out for being in an open relationship that is clearly making him uncomfortable, and is only having threesomes to make Xavier happy.

Meanwhile, as Ainsley wanders around the unfinished nursery, Simmo comes out of his tent, and she asks him for his opinion on the matter. Simmo tells her that he had what he calls a “hybrid” experience – he went to a religious school that cost a lot of money but wasn’t as expensive as a ‘proper’ private school. Ainsley then starts to experience pain. Simmo gets Heather to check her out, with Ben also waking up to help. Heather realises Ainsley is having contractions and when Ben asks her if the baby would be ready to be born early, Heather expresses her doubts due to Ainsley only being 27 weeks into her pregnancy, but keeps these doubts to herself.

Ben drives to Lachlan’s street to pick him up and take him to the hospital. Ainsley responds to treatment but is kept in the hospital overnight for observation. The next morning, Harry and Liz declare a ceasefire on their conflict to help Ainsley out. When they return to the hospital, Ainsley’s baby’s heart rate rapidly decreases and she is sent to the operating theatre for an emergency c-section. Unfortunately, Evie passes away after the doctors get her out and try to resuscitate her.

Lachlan arrives afterwards, with Heather telling him he has to be strong for Ainsley before he goes in to see her and Evie in recovery. Afterwards, Ainsley asks Heather to look after Lachlan as the loss hasn’t hit him yet. Heather takes Lachlan home, telling him to take a shower and she’ll make a coffee for him, before she takes him to his appointment with Mel. When Heather comes upstairs with the coffee, she knocks on the bathroom door but he doesn’t answer. When she comes in, she sees Lachlan staring at himself in the mirror. She hugs him as he starts to break down.

The episode ends showing Ben sleeping in a chair outside of Ainsley’s room, with Ainsley looking out the window and still holding Evie in her arms.

As I said at the beginning of my review, this was the best episode of Five Bedrooms I have ever seen. I honestly didn’t see Evie’s early stillbirth coming and while the episode turning into a tragedy was rapid, it was written well enough that it felt natural and unforced. Robertson’s and Younane’s performances during the c-section scenes were absolutely spectacular. Sheridan’s performance while Lachlan is starting to grieve was also on point, perfectly displaying that despite Lachlan’s bad behaviour, he was just as devastated to lose Evie as Ainsley was. Where Ainsley and Lachlan go from here remains to be seen.

On another note, I felt that Harry and Liz’s conflict in this episode was a long-time coming and well played out, however due to declaring a ceasefire it isn’t over either. It will be interesting to see if their ceasefire ends in the following episode. It was also good to see Mia again, and I found Simmo, Lachlan and Ben sleeping on hospital beds while Ainsley and Heather were talking about them to be incredibly sweet.

Stray Observations:

-In this episode Ainsley is 27 weeks into her pregnancy, and Mel is 33 weeks into her pregnancy.

-Heather was in labour for 36 hours before giving birth to Timmy.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I’m questioning whether this is a five-person job, maybe I’d be better placed sourcing wine.” (Liz to the gang on building the crib)
• “It’s not about your comfort.” “What’s it about then?” “Our pain.” (Heather-Ainsley-Heather on Ben and Heather waiting on the other housemates)
• “It definitely had an effect; I feel like a hybrid in life.” (Simmo to Ainsley on attending a religious school)
• “Col fell asleep four times when I was in labour with Timmy, it was like having a narcoleptic as a birth partner.” (Heather to Ainsley)