Loveday Writing

When Liz gets back to the house, Heather reveals she’s at uni but feels depressed that she’s ignored by her classmates (which includes her son, Timmy, in one class) due to her age. Ben reveals that Mia didn’t end up moving in (like she wanted to in the previous episode). Ainsley tells her and the others that she feels Simmo is pulling away from her, but Ben dismisses this.

Later, Liz asks Harry to drive her to her motel to meet up with Geri for drinks. According to Liz, Geri has always outdone her professionally for the last 20 years, now she thinks with her Master’s at Cambridge that she has the upper hand. Harry ends up becoming the third wheel at drinks until Geri mentions that she and Sam are trying to have a baby and are meeting up with potential sperm donors, and that her mother is over-invested in her life, finding common ground with her.

The next day, Geri messages Harry telling him it was lovely to meet him properly at last. She then calls him and he asks her whether she and Sam want their donor to be involved in their child’s life. Geri says they do and believes it’s the reason why it’s been difficult to find one. They meet up in person, where Geri tells him that hers and Liz’s relationship is complicated as they’ve seen life through different lenses and there are some things that Liz can’t understand about her, but she does adore her. Afterwards Geri calls Liz whilst she’s having a meeting with one of the law firms, and tells her about meeting up with Harry and making another booking at the B&B. Liz tells her about Harry’s relationship with Xavier last year.

The tension between Harry and Liz comes to a head during the game night when Ben reveals that Sam and Geri cancelled their B&B booking. This leads to Harry asking Liz if she spoke to Geri, and she admits that she did. This leads to both Liz and Heather disbelieving that Harry is ready to have a family and he storms out.

Later Liz goes to see Geri at her motel and Harry later shows up. Liz apologises to Geri and tells her that Harry will make an incredible father, and leaves. When Harry returns later that evening, he finds Liz waiting up for him. She tells him that she checked out of her motel and has extended her stay in Melbourne. She also admits that she genuinely had no idea that he was ready to start a family. Harry tells her that he didn’t know either until he met Geri.

Overall I enjoyed this subplot between Harry and Liz. While it’s not the first time over the course of the series that their friendship has been challenged, what makes this situation different is that Liz’s time away has cleared changed her, and Harry realising he’s ready to start a family is a fantastic potential story arc to help move his character forward beyond an unlucky in love, recently out of the closet gay man. It was also interesting to see Liz being an unlikeable character.

Heather, Ben, Ainsley and Simmo – Further troubles arise between Ben and Simmo when Ainsley organises a game night to celebrate Liz’s return and Heather invites Bec and Mia along. Ainsley also confides in the housemates that she’s worried she spooked Simmo when she said she loved him in the previous episode and now he seems to be pulling away from her. Ben goes to see Simmo on site and confront him, Simmo admits that his reluctance to see Ainsley at the house is due to the pressure of keeping Ben’s secret, when he gets a call from Ainsley, he tries to make an excuse about a bad haircut, which Ainsley doesn’t buy, and he tells her he’ll be at game night. Meanwhile, Heather confides in Ben that she thinks Bec has a problem with her, but he denies this. When Heather is studying in the lounge room, Ainsley comes in with a snack to watch TV, only to turn the TV off and snuggle up to her, she goes to confront Simmo the next day about avoiding Ainsley.

Simmo later shows up to the game night revealing that his bad haircut excuse wasn’t actually a lie. Later when he and Ainsley are cuddling, he reveals that he found something out he shouldn’t have and that’s why he’s been keeping his distance, and that he does love her. Ainsley figures out that he found out something about Ben and Heather, but she believes Ben wants to propose.

Overall this was a solid second episode as the focus shifted from Ben and Heather to Harry and Liz, that being said there were hints of a flow-on effect from Ben’s secret with Simmo keeping his distance from Ainsley. It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Stray Observations:

Running gag – Everyone commenting on Liz’s apparent English/Irish “accent”.

-Liz and Stuart are still together.

-Apparently Simmo has no memories of 2005 and 2006.

-When Ainsley expresses her concerns about Simmo pulling away from her, Ben tells her that he has a pathological fear of intruding, and Ainsley concedes that it’s possibly true.

-Harry mentioned at the beginning of the episode that Liz has been gone for ten months, yet in the previous episode, Simmo said that he had been dating Ainsley for a little over four months. I’m guessing this is a continuity error, as I doubt six months would have passed from the previous episode, or possibly, Ainsley and Simmo didn’t start dating straight away at the end of the second season.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Counting down the days until Liz came home, my only headlines were a half-hearted body transformation, and a second, even more mortifying run-in with my ex.” (Harry narrating at the opening of the episode)
• “I’m getting Amal Clooney vibes.” (Ben greeting Liz when she returns to the house)
• “Ainsley’s been baking for two days.” “I’ve perfected those gluten-free muffins you were tweeting about.” “I don’t know about ‘perfected’.” (Heather-Ainsley-Heather to Liz)
• “I sanctioned you as marriage material! Do you have any idea how rare my stamp of approval is?” (Heather to Simmo)
• “I tried and tried, and every time you would all argue which game we should play, and EVERY time you’d just crack the shits and just give up. Well not tonight, tonight we will not complain, Heather. We will not step away, we will play, and we will have fun!” (Ainsley to the other housemates on her game night)