Loveday Writing

The episode kicks off with Lisa and Angela in the lift together on their way to work, after being asked to come in on the weekend. It’s revealed that they were asked to come in to assist Magda with a wedding dress for Sadie Chalmers, a famous actress.

Meanwhile, Rudi tells Fay that he won’t be working weekends forever and once he signs the deal with Hexham, they’ll be out of debt, they can have a family, and she can leave Goodes. Fay later goes to see Mr. Marlow to end their affair. He tells her that Rudi is turning her into what he wants to love, whereas he loves her for herself. Fay retorts that she is not the same woman she was when they had their first affair, and leaves.

Lisa catches Angela sketching Sadie’s dress, thinking she is copying it. Angela tells her she has dreams to work as a designer, and Lisa encourages her. Lisa leaves to pitch an article for the newspaper to Richard.

When Magda returns home, Stefan is waiting for her and proposes selling his business, and giving the money to her for her boutique, promising to never make a financial decision without consulting her again. Magda tells Stefan it’s time for him to come home, although she hasn’t forgiven him yet.

Back at Goodes, Magda tells Mr. Ryder that Cheri St Clair is coming to Sadie Chalmer’s next dress fitting, as she suggested to Cheri to put Sadie on the cover of Lilian Australia. Magda also tells him that Goodes can be bold and attract more customers, if he’ll let her buy stock that can achieve this. Mr. Ryder proposes selling Mr. MacKenzie’s remaining stock first and then gradually replacing the stock with her choices. Meanwhile, Lisa is trying to matchmake Angela and George, however Fay tries to prevent this, knowing she walked in on George with Christina at the end of the previous episode.

Meanwhile, Magda has Adam open cartons of stock that Mr. MacKenzie left behind, which includes the 12 cartons of men’s swimmers that Elias ordered in episode three after Mr. MacKenzie sexually harassed him. Elias admits this but Magda is okay with it as she didn’t believe MacKenzie was brave enough to take this kind of chance. Later, Lisa suggests to Magda that the boys she goes to uni with can model the swimwear for the customers. Magda tells Angela that Sadie has asked her to sketch something for her shoulders for her wedding, and Angela offers to get a dressmaker in Little Beirut (her family) to make the addition to the dress. Magda asks Fay to distract Mrs. Ambrose and for Elias to guide her to the display.

Meanwhile, in the stockroom, Elias tells Adam that he knows he switched the size tags on the Young Sophisticates line. Fay tries to warn Angela about George to no avail, and Rudi tells her that Mr. Marlow is avoiding him and is worried about losing Hexham’s business. At Lisa’s house, Elias gives Dorothy a manicure, and Dorothy confronts Lisa about the photo. During the argument, Lisa admits that she’s going out with a guy and Dorothy reveals she found the tin of condoms in her drawers after going through them. Lisa takes them out of her hand, ruining the manicure, and storms off.

Lisa then manages to negotiate her article being published in exchange for the men agreeing to model the swimwear. Lisa and Richard then hook up later that night. The next day, Fay practically begs Mr. Marlow to hire Rudi, but he refuses due to, because Fay ended their affair. Meanwhile, Adam offers to model the swimwear to gain Elias’ forgiveness, but he apologises for his behaviour the day before.

Once Lisa distracts Mrs. Ambrose, the other ladies put Magda’s scheme to work with the men modelling the swimwear in the store window with Sadie to attract customers and sell the swimwear. Mrs. Ambrose watches the sales of the swimwear from Model Gowns, which notably has no customers.

Later, Mr. Ryder calls Magda into his office, revealing that Sadie’s manager didn’t agree to a cross promotion, so she can’t be on the cover of Lilian Australia. She will do a promotion with the Younger Brothers instead, and he gives Magda notice. Later, Angela follows George to the basement and asks him why he is avoiding her. He tells her that he is trying to sort himself out after his hook up (although he doesn’t make it clear to her that he is referring to this), Angela instead thinks he’s talking about his drug arrest and asks him if it’s in the past, he goes along with this and says yes. As they are kissing, Cheri and Mrs. Ambrose walk in, with Mrs. Ambrose informing Cheri about Magda’s mistake. She also tells Cheri that Australia is not ready for change, but Cheri tells her that she’s wrong and that Angela is making changes to Sadie’s dress.

When Angela runs into Lisa on the stairs, she tells her to find her sketchbook and hide it, away from the radiator where she hid it earlier in the season. Mrs. Ambrose catches her in the act, thinking it was her. Meanwhile, Magda finds George waiting for her in her office and she asks him why he’s in Australia. He tells her that he wanted to meet the father who left him. Magda points out that Stefan left to give him a better life, but George calls her out on taking Stefan back but not letting him under her roof. Magda ends the conversation when she sees Angela and Lisa being escorted down the hall by Mrs. Ambrose.

Angela and Lisa are confronted by Mr. Ryder, Mrs. Ambrose, and Magda. Lisa tries to take some of the blame and receives a final warning, and Angela is fired. Lisa waits for Angela outside and begs her to try and get her job back, and tries to think of alternative plans to support her, but they have a big fight, with Angela running away.

Overall, I felt that this was a slightly weaker episode. While I appreciated the appearance of Sadie and her zaniness to shake things up, I felt that the writers didn’t really give her enough to do, once she participated in the cross promotion she disappeared.

On a more positive note, I appreciated the payoff of multiple subplots that were established in previous episodes such as Elias’ excess men’s swimwear order, the size tag fiasco, and Lilian Australia. I also appreciated that Lisa and Angela faced consequences for their actions, especially Angela having to face the consequences of essentially being a double agent with her family and Goodes, and Lisa.

It will be interesting to see where the finale takes us.