Loveday Writing

The premiere kicks off with the five main characters at a restaurant celebrating Manju’s 70^th birthday, with Harry making a heartfelt and slightly stilted speech for her. Manju doesn’t seem too touched by Harry’s speech but does thank him for it. Harry and Manju end up in conflict throughout the episode, which is inadvertently kicked off by Ainsley, when she tells Manju about Harry’s attempt to father a baby with Liz’s friend, Geri.

The next day, Manju calls Ainsley and tells her that she wants to sell the house, Harry thinks she’s bluffing and calls her bluff by telling her that maybe it’s time to go into a nursing home. However, she ostensibly agrees with him and asks Heather to pull some strings to get her into one. Heather tells Harry to double bluff her and offers Manju a night in Dawes Court, the nursing home where she used to work.

Heather manages to get Manju into Dawes Court for the night to get a taste of nursing home life, which includes a medical evaluation. Manju clearly regrets her decision, but being the person that she is, she can’t wave the white flag, so she makes it through the night. Before Harry goes to pick her up, Pat, Heather’s former boss, calls him and informs him that anomalies were found in Manju’s blood work that indicate cancer and she needs to see an oncologist as soon as possible.

The episode ends with Harry telling Manju about the blood test results and that she’ll need to see an oncologist. Manju matter-of-factly tells Harry that she won’t see his father’s oncologist as he was a horrible man, and walks out of the room leaving Harry to get her suitcases.

Liz – Liz is in the background for the episode but still has to deal with the fallout of her cheating on Stuart as he is flying to Melbourne to consider a job offer he received.

When they meet up at Stuart’s hotel room, Liz chickens out on telling him the truth about her affair with Geri, instead choosing to throw Harry under the bus by telling Stuart that Harry misled him, when he said there was ‘someone else.’

Heather, Ben, and Mel – Heather and Ben are awkwardly navigating being broken up but still living in the house together. Although Heather started dating Ed at the end of the previous season, Ben hasn’t dated anyone, although he starts now with Mel.

Everyone finds out about the date as Mel tells Ainsley when she comes into her office looking for Lachlan to take Starlette off her hands.

Despite Mel aggressively hitting on Ben and making it clear she only wants to hook up him, he and Mel manage to find common ground with their love of and membership with the St Kilda Saints. We also get an insight into Mel’s eccentric behaviour when she reveals to Ben that her father cheated on her mother, and her mother made her promise that she wouldn’t cheat on a man or get fat when she was 11 years old.

Meanwhile, Ainsley tells Heather about the date and although Heather acts unaffected by it to Ainsley’s face, we later see her waiting up for Ben to return. When he does, he is on the phone to Mel and doesn’t notice Heather waiting up for him.

Ainsley – Like Liz, Ainsley was in the background in this episode. She tells Heather about Ben’s date with Mel, and offers to help Manju sell her house, but other than that, she doesn’t play a major role in this episode. Interestingly, her and Simmo still seem close, despite not marrying in the previous season’s finale. However, it wasn’t made entirely clear whether they are actually still together or not.

Overall, I felt that this was a decent premiere addressing some of the unresolved story arcs from last season, such as Liz cheating on Stuart, but also established some new ones like Manju being diagnosed with cancer, and a possible romance between Ben and Mel.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season and seeing where it goes.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Heather telling Harry that he has to “double bluff” Manju over going to a nursing home.

-According to Simmo, Ben can handle himself with the ladies, especially the kooky ones.

-According to Ben, Simmo has burnt butter more than once.

-Apparently Harry regularly borrows Ben’s phone charger.

-According to Mel, she has been a St Kilda Saints member for 33 years, which prompts Ben to ask her how old she is.

-Ben tells Mel that Mia will be 17 in a couple of months.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I really wanted to be here with you.” “You need to get your own friends.” (Liz-Manju on Liz putting off her return to London to attend Manju’s birthday party)
• “Heather, your new lover, I take it he’s not a sociopath?” (Manju to Heather on Ed)
• “Solid, isn’t it?” “Kind of lumpy.” “Yeah…” “Kind of got a rhythm to it.” “Should I blend it?” (Liz-Simmo going back and forth over expired long-life milk)
• “Never underestimate the agony of the night shift.” (Heather to Harry on Dawes Court)
• “One night in this place and not only will you get your apology, but she’ll be a completely different woman.” (Heather to Harry on Manju at Dawes Court)