Next week on Home and Away in the UK, Harper discovers she’s pregnant with Tane’s baby, while Irene falls off the wagon in the aftermath of Bronte’s scheming.
Harper’s (Jessica Redmayne) plan to distance herself from Tane (Ethan Browne) looks set to fall apart next week with a surprising development.
The two had slept together on the eve of his sentencing back last month, believing he would be going to prison for abducting baby Poppy.
Tane was subsequently let off with a seven-year ICO (intensive correction order) to be served in the community, and as he was sent to the city for counselling, Harper began to realise that she had developed feelings for him.
Harper was pretty miffed by Tane’s nonchalent attitude towards their night of passion on his return, though he later reminded her that she had been the one who made it clear she didn’t want anything more than friendship.
But when Tane confirmed that he wasn’t in the right headspace for a relationship anyway, Harper chose to distance herself from Tane in the hope of getting over her feelings—a task made all the more difficult when she agreed to be the social worker on board with Tane’s youth program in order to secure its approval.
This week, Tane makes it his mission to teach program participant Perri (Cantona Stewart) about their joint Māori culture (apparently having forgotten about the other youths already).
When Perri turns up late to their session, Tane asks where his ‘mana’ is. Perri doesn’t know what that means, nor does he realise the significance of Tane’s taiaha, the ceremonial weapon that is an important part of Tane’s heritage.
After being scolded by Tane for waving his taiaha around like a lightsaber, Perri tells him to shove it—he doesn’t need lectures from him.
Tane later tells Perri that he’ll will never get anywhere if he doesn’t respect his own culture, but Perri points out that he doesn’t know anything about that side of his family. His Māori mum died when Perri was quite young, and his father is a true-blue Australian.
When Perri spends the night on the beach, in an attempt to avoid a job that his father had asked him to carry out, Tane encourages him to respect his father by going home and talking to him.
He later comes to regret this when Perri returns with several burns, revealing that his father had deliberately held a cigarette against his arm.
Perri admits that his father was ordering him to go and steal some tools, exactly the sort of caper that landed Perri in juvie in the first place. For the first time, Perri had refused, and this was the result.
Tane is proud of Perri for standing up for himself, and calls Harper in so Perri can discuss matters with a professional.
Perri is concerned that Harper will call the authorities, but she points out she legally isn’t allowed to without his say so, as he’s over 16.
Tane offers Perri a bed at the farmhouse, and later explains to Harper that seeing how Perri is being mistreated is killing him inside, but assures her that he’s learnt his lesson when it comes to how he reacts. It’s only been six weeks since he was facing prison, and he’s learnt a lot in that time.
Harper has a sudden realisation as Tane mentions the timeframe, something which may explain why she’s been feeling a little off-colour…
Later that day, Harper returns home with a pregnancy test, and checking the coast is clear, heads to the bathroom.
After a tense wait, there’s a result—Harper is pregnant!
Elsewhere in the Beach House, Irene (Lynne McGranger) is struggling in the aftermath of Bronte’s (Stefanie Caccamo) scam, and it’s paining her to see how it has affected her nearest and dearest.
Dana (Ally Harris) was initially the only one to see through Bronte’s lies that she was suffering from a terminal autoimmune disease, and found herself at odds with both Irene and boyfriend Xander (Luke Van Os) as she tried to prove it.
When Dana started to become a liability, Bronte and her accomplice Chase (Joshua Mehmet) kidnapped her, getting her out of the way as Irene and Leah (Ada Nicodemou) worked to raise $100,000 for Bronte to attend a clinical trial in Canada.
Thankfully, Xander finally started to realise that something was amiss when Bronte claimed Dana was on a silent retreat, and teaming up with John (Shane Withington) and Bree (Juliet Godwin), the three went to the police.
When John and Xander later spotted Bronte driving Irene’s car, they followed her to where Dana was being held captive.
With Dana safe, and Bronte and Chase locked up, Irene was mortified to realise she had been taken for a ride.
Although Dana managed to forgive Irene pretty quickly, she’s struggling to forgive Xander, pointing out that he had trusted a complete stranger over his own girlfriend.
Next week, Dana continues to ignore Xander’s messages, and when he tells her that she at least owes him a conversation, she angrily replies that she owes him nothing!
John witnesses the outburst and later heads over to the Beach House to check up on Dana, pointing out that several of them were at fault so she shouldn’t be focusing all her anger on Xander.
Irene in the meantime is on edge, feeling completely responsible for ripping apart Dana and Xander’s relationship, as well as putting her friends in danger.
When Leah, Marilyn (Emily Symons) and John later talk about Bronte being the one to blame, Irene snaps that they should stop letting her off the hook.
That evening, Irene implores Dana to give Xander another chance—they’ve all suffered enough from what Bronte did, she shouldn’t let ruin her relationship too.
The conversation is interrupted by John and Leah, who insist on taking Irene out for dinner at Salt. Irene isn’t feeling it, but is convinced when John points out that he’s paying.
However, as they wait at the bar, recovering alcoholic Irene can’t take her eyes off the barman as he pours out a glass of whisky for John.
Later that night, Irene returns home, having bought herself a bottle of whisky.
She unscrews the cap and is about to pour herself a glass before she thinks better of it.
Rushing to find a pamphlet in her kitchen drawer, a shaken Irene calls an alcohol helpline.
“I’m a second away from fallin’ off the wagon,” she tells them. “I am really hopin’ that you can talk me out of it!”
The next morning the helpline rings back, and Irene is able to confirm that whilst it was a long night, she managed to get through without touching a drop of alcohol.
Irene hastily rings off when John then turns up, worried that Irene hasn’t turned up for her shift at the diner.
“I slept in, big deal,” a frustrated Irene tells him, and as she tried to get rid of him so she can get ready, John insists on helping by making her breakfast.
But as Irene tucks into her toast, John inadvertently manages to upset her, by telling her just how much Xander is suffering at the moment as a result of Dana’s hurt.
An emotional Irene asks John to leave, and once he’s gone, she pulls out the whisky from its hiding place.
Pouring out a large glass, Irene knocks it back, falling off the wagon for the first time in 9 years…
Although early fans of the show will remember Irene back in 1991-1992 as an alcoholic, abusive mother to kids Nathan (David Dixon), Finlay (Tina Thomsen), and Damian (Matt Doran), she was played by Jacqy Phillips during those times.
Episode 1000 saw Finlay and Damian believing Irene was dead after she drunkenly fell down the stairs
Lynne McGranger took over the role when a newly sober Irene returned to Summer Bay permanently in January 1993, and it would be 16 years before she ever had to play the character as inebriated.
That’s not to say there hadn’t been some close calls during that time.
In 1995, Irene found herself outcast after taking the side of Dodge (Kelly Dale) on his unwelcome return to town.
Irene was left with egg on her face when it turned out that not only had Dodge faked his death to frame Steven Matheson (Adam Willits), who Irene had vilified following Dodge’s disappearance, but he was also responsible for killing her own estranged husband Murdoch (Tom Richards).
With recently moved-in housemate Marilyn (Emily Symons) unaware of the ‘no alcohol’ rule in Irene’s house, she had bought a bottle of wine to put in a casserole, and promised Selina (Tempany Deckert) that she’d get rid of the leftover.
However, when Irene subsequently found the open bottle on the kitchen shelf, she fought against temptation.
In 1998, Irene was at a particularly low ebb after being fired from Summer Bay High as Don Fisher’s (Norman Coburn) secretary. Having previously left the Bayside Diner, when she felt she didn’t fit in with the new youthful revamp, Irene was left unemployed for the first time in years and struggling for money.
Tearfully sitting down with a bottle of wine as she flicked through her family album, Irene poured out a glass and immediately knocked it over onto photos of grandson Paul, which thankfully brought her to her senses.
It wasn’t until 2009 that we saw Lynne’s Irene fall off the wagon for the first time, following a particularly traumatic event. Having gone away on a sailing trip with boyfriend Lou De Bono (David Roberts), the yacht was found drifting several weeks later 100km off the coast.
As Angelo (Luke Jacobz) and fellow police approached, a paranoid and intoxicated Irene shot at them, wounding an officer.
It transpired that Lou had disappeared from the boat one evening whilst Irene slept. Terrified that whoever got Lou would come back for her, and unable to work the radio, Irene had taken to drink after several days stranded at sea.
With no explanation for what had occurred, Irene was held on remand on suspicion of murder as well as for wounding an officer, with Lou’s embittered ex-wife Donna (Suzie McKenzie) paying a prison officer to slip booze into Irene’s cell in an attempt to further discredit her.
Irene was released when forensic evidence on the boat determined that there was a third person present, but her drinking continued
Things came to a head when Annie (Charlotte Best) found Irene’s hidden bottle of gin and poured it down the sink, only for Irene to slap her across the face.
This was the wake-up call Irene needed to seek help, and she attended AA meetings. It was revealed the following year that Lou had been killed in an altercation with people traffickers Derrick Quaid (John Atkinson) and Hugo Austin (Bernard Curry).
Irene remained sober for a further six years, until 2015 when a troubled Olivia Fraser-Richards (Raechelle Banno) returned to Summer Bay to live with her. After it was discovered she was cutting herself, Olivia admitted to Irene that a family friend had been abusing her back in London.
The revelation brought up painful memories for Irene, and she went on to admit to Olivia and Leah (Ada Nicodemou) that she too had been abused by her Uncle Pete when she was only 14 years old.
There was a bigger secret that Irene continued to struggle with though, to the point where she bought a bottle of vodka and drowned her sorrows.
When Leah later caught Irene weeping on the kitchen floor, having smashed the bottle and cut her hand, she applied pressure to the wound using a nearby baby blanket. Irene was horrified when she realised, and lashed out at Leah.
She subsequently revealed that she had given birth as the result of her Uncle Pete’s abuse, and the child had been taken into care. Irene hadn’t even been able to hold her baby, and she never knew what became of them.
Although her secret had been shared, Irene continued to drink and made no attempt to hide it, with the effects of her relapse far more widely felt in the community this time around.
She drunkenly called Olivia a leech, whilst even a talking to from Alf who poured her grog down the sink didn’t make any difference.
After she made a show of herself at Zac (Charlie Clausen) and Leah’s wedding, Chris (Johnny Ruffo) took Irene home where she then slapped him for attempting to take away her hip flask.
Again, it was this moment of violence that brought Irene to her senses, and as she spoke with Leah (still in her wedding dress), Irene resolved that she needed to put her demons to rest by finding out what had happened to her baby.
That would end up being a whole other ordeal the following year, with her son revealed to be Mick Jennings (Kristian Schmid).
With Irene now facing her third relapse over the space of 15 years, will she be strong enough to pull herself through once again?
