Loveday Writing

Now that the pilot has come and gone, this episode and the rest of the season can dig a little deeper with its character development and story arcs.

The episode kicks off with a party, showing Ash’s murderer, Jordan Bancroft, and his girlfriend, Brooke, getting high on ice. This leads to Brooke smashing her arm through a window and going to the hospital for treatment. When hospital staff ask Jordan to call Brooke’s mother, he takes the phone from them and goes to the bathroom to get high again. When he returns, he runs into Mary, and he shoves her, moving towards Ash, as Ash is trying to calm Brooke down.

Back in the present, we see Mary dropping hers and Hamish’s kids off at school, and we see Brooke, a high school student, crossing the street. Meanwhile, as Lillian is starting her work day, she gets an email from debt collectors about the $35,000 debt for Ash’s funeral. Lillian reveals to Hamish (and the audience) that Ash’s mother, Janet, made her pay for the funeral, despite her organising it. Lillian then bites down on a hard lolly she bought at work and hurts her tooth.

Meanwhile, Andrew and Kelly are packing for their visit to Ballarat to have dinner with Lillian, Hamish and Mary. Kelly admits to Andrew that she doesn’t want to go, but he counters by telling her it’s the least that they can do. Back in Ballarat, we’re introduced to Rick, a staff member at the Rowing Club, who tells Lillian that the Club need to build more racks on the Club’s wall, which means Ash’s stuff needs to be moved elsewhere. During the night, when Lillian struggles with the tooth pain, she goes to her parents’ dental clinic the next day, where her father does a root canal for her.

Whilst Lillian is getting her root canal done, Hamish goes to see Jack to get legal advice for Lillian on the funeral debts and contract. Jack informs him that Lillian would have to provide proof that she was coerced into signing the contract to be alleviated from the debt. Meanwhile, Fiona goes to see Mary, who informs her that Jordan wants to change his plea to not guilty, which could mean that he could go to trial for Ash’s murder.

Back at the clinic, Lillian starts to tell her mother, Michelle, about the funeral debt, only for Michelle to dismiss her as she has a patient waiting for her. Michelle insists that Lillian stays the night and that she can’t drive, due to the root canal anaesthetic. Whilst Lillian is recovering, Susan calls her to let her know that the recipient of Ash’s lungs will be writing and sending a letter to her. Lillian does another internet search and finds the lung transplant recipient, Taylor. Meanwhile, Mary starts to experience PTSD symptoms and flashbacks to the incident whilst she’s at work.

Lillian leaves the clinic and we are led to believe that she has tracked down the lung transplant recipient to her home, only to find out that she has gone to Janet’s home. Lillian tries to tell Janet she doesn’t have the money to pay for the funeral to no avail, and when she shows Janet the picture of the lung transplant recipient, Janet throws and smashes her phone. Lillian asks Janet whether she was this angry at her when she tricked her into paying for Ash’s funeral, but Janet, crying near her front door, doesn’t answer. Later, Lillian talks to Jack and plays a recording of the final moments of their interaction, but Jack tells her it doesn’t prove anything, and suggests she asks for victim’s compensation. When Mary comes home from her shift, Hamish tells her that he thinks that Janet had been sitting on the debt for months, knowing that Lillian had no clue on how to handle it.

The night of the dinner finally arrives and we’re provided more insight into all of the characters’ back stories. I was wrong in my review of the previous episode, in that Ash and Lillian met through mixed netball not Lillian’s job, Andrew and Kelly got married just after they finished uni, Lillian’s dad and Hamish’s dad are brothers, and Lillian previously studied at uni graduating with a degree in science, only to work at a bar in Berlin for seven years. When Kelly starts crying about Ash and how grateful her and Andrew are for Ash’s heart, Mary reveals to everyone that Jordan wants to change his plea. Andrew offers to provide legal and financial support for the court case and Lillian jokingly asks for money to pay off the funeral debt. This leads to a brief argument between Lillian and Hamish in the backyard. Later, at their hotel room, Kelly tells Andrew that she thinks they shouldn’t get involved in the court case and it could look like they are paying off Lillian’s debt in exchange for Ash’s heart.

The next morning, Hamish tells Mary he doesn’t know what’s going on with her and tells her that he’ll drop Astrid off at school, as she’s still drunk, whilst Lillian wakes up to an angry phone call from Michelle. Michelle reveals that Janet called her about the funeral debt, and that she’ll loan Lillian the money, on the condition that she come back to Melbourne and work in the clinic, and tells her to grow up and stop being embarrassing, which leads to Lillian breaking down in tears.

Later, we see Lillian take Andrew and Kelly on a tour of Sovereign Hill, on her day off, introducing them to Sharon as her cousins from Adelaide. Lillian tells Andrew that she also views taking their money as a way of payment for Ash’s heart and she won’t accept it. Andrew tells her that he thinks of Ash every day and is grateful, which leads to Kelly encouraging Lillian to take the money. Meanwhile, Mary confronts Brooke at the school pick-up, and throws her against a fence, telling Brooke to inform Jordan that she won’t let him get away with Ash’s murder.

When Lillian returns home, she asks Rick if now is a good time to move Ash’s things in the Rowing Club shed. When she goes through her mail, she finds a letter from the lung transplant recipient. This makes her realise that Ash’s heart was a gift to Andrew, and she tells him that her mother has lent her the money to pay off the funeral debt. The episodes ends with Brooke packing her suitcases to go to Melbourne.

Overall, this was a solid second episode as we are given different perspectives on Ash’s murder and the subsequent fallout. We briefly see the perspective of Jordan and Brooke, although this wasn’t fully explored. I suspect it will be in following episodes. We’re mainly provided Mary’s perspective, with her PTSD and flashbacks being shown throughout the episode. She’s clearly in denial, but she won’t be able to stay there for much longer. I also appreciate the insight into and introduction of Lillian’s parents, making it clear why she keeps her distance from them. We get more of an insight into Andrew’s character, specifically his somewhat conversative and ostensibly politically right-wing nature, although the continuity of him being grateful for Ash’s heart remains and is shown through his offer of financial and legal help. I’m frankly not sure what the writers are going for, in terms of who Andrew is as a person in this regard.

I’m looking forward to seeing where we go from here, specifically in meeting the lung transplant recipient, Lillian having to work for her parents, and possibly dealing with the trial and Ash’s murderer. 

Stray Observations

• There appears to be a continuity error with the timeline. Susan mentions that a couple of weeks have passed since hers and Lillian’s last interaction, yet at the end of the previous episode, Lillian mentioned that Andrew and Kelly would be coming over for dinner on the following Thursday (i.e. at least one week, but not so much two).

Best one liners and interactions:

• “How does Lillian invite people to dinner and we end up hosting?” “Because she’s a massive pain in our arse and you’re the best cook.” (Hamish-Mary)
• “Sweetie, when was the last time you saw a dentist? Your dad says it was disgusting in there.” (Michelle to Lillian after her root canal)
• “I’d rather be someone’s bitch in prison, then owe my mother money.” (Lillian to Jack)