All About My Brother

Frazer's the focus of tonight, as he and Rosie go for a drive out to the country to confront his buttoned-mouth folks about his dead brother, but as usual there are plenty of other things going on.

Pepper and Adam are still in the spotlight, and after leaving her place last night after he declined to give further comment about his bandaged hand, he came back to get his jacket. The way Pepper's dressed, you wouldn't know Melbourne in Winter is jacket weather, but whatever his excuse, it works, cos Pepper admits she overreacted a bit, and with Adam saying that he hasn't been in a fight since he was a teenager, they go the fullon pash.

Meanwhile... Steiger's at the General Store, muttering to himself about how he doesn't trust that damn Adam Rhodes character, he's got a bad feeling about this, he's too old for this shit, etc etc. He asks Frazer & Rosie, there for a pre-movie coffee, what they think of this scoundrel. Rosie: "I think he's really nice." Frazer: "Incredible pec definition. What? He does." Steiger: "Shut up Fiona." Steiger asks them to drop in home on their way to the cinemas, just to check everything's alright, which they reluctantly do. Pepper's not too pleased about that however, as she looks up from a long facewrestle to see Rosie peering around the corner. She gets bundled off, Adam & Pepper continue, and in the morning, on the couch, Rosie informs her bestie that the walls in this place are paper thin. "OMG you heard?" "I put on my headphones really quickly. Listened to the midnight quiz on ABC." "And Frazer?" "Bon Jovi." Fkn gold. So without really reconciling anything about Adam, that issue seems to be glossed over, right? Course not fool, cos the next morning, Adam's back to werk at the Scarlett Bar reno's, and grabbing some morning glow brekky at the General Store. Lou, incidentally, asks Adam to stretch out the work, cos business has never been better for their store. Dodgy, dodgy Lou. Adam grabs his drink and hears the familiar strains of Steiger behind him. "Getting to work late are you? Not very responsible." "I'm fine thanks, how's the belly...*turns around to see Steiger in Senior Sarge outfit* Whaa..ha..ha.haa... EXIT, STAGE LEFT!" and flees the scene in a blatant I'm-a-crim display. It's stuff like this, the fact that nobody's mentioned that his new gf's Dad happens to be a cop, that makes you think about Neighbours on several different levels, thinking back to conversations he's heard about Steiger, why he was overseas, etc etc. I dunno, it's well done that this fact was concealed from him somehow, without being at all obvious about it.

Ned's still struggling with parenting meanwhile, all wavy-legged and trembling bottom lip about how to tell Mickey his Mum's done a runner and he's his Dad. You know the best way to do it dickhead? Put him to bed, think he's asleep, and then talk to a shaking-head Janae about it in the next room while he's listening. That'd do it. So Mickey knows, but they don't know he knows, so next day he's very sooky indeed. "Not getting up. Feel sick. Jake's sick too." So he calls a doctor. Bringing attention to Ned's stupidity in these scenes is akin to shooting whales in a very small barrel, but it's such a damn overriding theme that it deserves constant attention. Ned doesn't actually call a doc, but Janae does pop round to the Kinski-Kennedys to ask the nondoc Karl to check out Mickey, a "family friend". Susan eventually susses who Mickey is and why Ned's got him, because she's all-knowing, and against his will, Karl's convinced to drop in and see if the kid's okay. He does the good doc thing, saying Jake looks sick too and needs to go for a long walk, does Mickey know anyone who could take him, and advises Ned to give him a large dose of TLC. Ned nods like he understands. Mickey soon admits that he knows his Mum's not coming back, and is worred that Ned's gonna send him and Jake to a home, but instead he says they're a team that sticks together, and everyone's happy. Except Ned, cos he's shitscared. Oh wells.

Susan's efforts to convince Karl to return to GPing keep escalating as she gets more people onside. In the General Store, Bree asks her how the mission's going, and Suse replies pretty well thanks, he was great with Ringo, you should have seen him... *Karl walks in*... and that's how, despite what you might have heard, there are many practical uses for long division, Bree and Zeke. Brilliant. Karl's got a bonus European watch for excelling sales targets with Davo's drug company, although Susan says it's a ladies watch. Watch for plot updates on this one.

Bree and Zeke were helping the shop with their overwhelming milkshake trade while discussing Lolly, who's gone back up home to her other Dad for a day or 2. (Rachel's also in Adelaide all of a sudden, presumably visiting Katya.) Zeke's obvously pretty hooked on Lolly, and both he and Lou are very happy indeed to see her walk in, saying how boring it was back home, and how glad she is to be back. However, with her amazing power to read people, Bree knows she's bullshitting and has a really nice talk with Lolly later on, just the 2 of them. Lolly wants to move back home. It's home, everything's changed since child-beater Sandy's gone, but she doesn't want to make Lou or Zeke sad. Bree, who looks really pretty in this ep, with bright red bits of hair, says they'll just want her to be happy, so it looks like a pretty soon departure for Lolly. I know a lot of you reading this will be happy wit this, but I think she was good as one of the gang, although she herself won't really be missed. The most important thing is the future of Lou. He has to have something soon, but I've said this before, and the world of blogging dare not stand for redundant repetition.

Finally, the biggest plot I guess was Frazer & Rosie's next day trip up to Muttatang, so the sign said, which is either a national park or a property or a community or something that his parents live in. It's in a rainforest, wherever it is, unusually green and beautiful. Frazer knocks on the door, his Mum answers the door coldly, says his Dad's not there, they shouldn't have come and she has nothing more to say, why won't he stop dragging up the painful past. Again, a lot of teary talking meaning I have little to outline, but eventually, sitting at a table in the rainforestry back yard, she spills the beans about Paul's death. Penny Cook passes around a coupla old photos of the kids as babies and says that it was Christmas Day (which Frazer didn't seem to know, even though we saw that on Paul's gravestone), it was a good day, and in the arvo Johnny, George (pssst, that's Frazer) and Paul were having a nap. She left them sleeping, came back, and only Johnny was still there. They started searching, and eventually found George and Paul in the backyard. 3 year old Frazer was standing by the side of the pool, and Paul was floating in it, dead. They don't know how they got out there, and his Mum didn't say anything abotu Frazer's involvement in it, but... Pretty traumatic stuff, and plenty of tears. But Frazer pushed on. "You think I threw him in the pool, don't you. You always blamed me didn't you. So this is why you always treated me different. I was THREE YEARS OLD! Just say it. Say it. You won't, then I will. YOU NEVER LOVED ME." /episode. It was a bit soap-operay, but pretty moving nonetheless. Poor Fraze, poor Paul, poor Ringo, whose fear of water, even though he wasn't born then, and was perhaps started by his parents not letting him near the pool or something, is now perhaps explained, and poor Frazer's parents, cos that's a tragedy. Yep, poor everyone, but mostly poor James and Susan who are missing some of the funniest K&S action for ages. Ladies watch, heh heh.