I didn’t blame David when he wanted to cut ties with Paul.
The Tanakas didn’t grow up with him as a father figure, and Paul has not been one of TV’s best fathers — he causes more trouble in their lives than anything else. So it’s understandable that David would want to avoid him and worry about Paul being a bad influence on his young daughter.
But on Neighbours during the week of 12-11-23, David took things too far, quickly going over the line from sympathetic to annoying.
The Lassiters’ Christmas fair was bad enough. David briefly considered denying Isla the ritual of sitting on Santa’s lap when he realized that Paul was playing the role of the magical gift-giver.
That seemed unfair. Isla had run to Paul a minute earlier, and now David was not only denying Paul a relationship with his granddaughter but was set to ruin her holiday over his feud.
For the first time, I questioned whether David’s decision not to let Isla have a relationship with her grandfather was right. He can and should protect his daughter from harmful influences, but not even allowing Paul a supervised visit with her seemed beyond the pale.
There’s no reason not to send Isla with Leo and Abigail when they visit Paul, at least occasionally, and debrief afterward. It would be far healthier for David to talk honestly about Paul in an age-appropriate way with Isla than to bar her from visiting her grandfather.
One day, Isla will be a pre-teen or teenager with questions, and she won’t accept the idea that she can’t get to know her grandfather because David said so. (Ask Toadie how well that has worked with Nell and Melanie!)
And that presumes Paul will still be alive and healthy when Isla is old enough to make her own decisions. Will David be able to live with himself if Paul dies before Isla’s old enough to learn for herself what this feud is about?
On the other hand, Paul gets involved in dodgy schemes more often than not. He’s not quite as bad as Yellowstone’s John Dutton, who faced a similar problem with his grandson’s mother. Still, David has a case for keeping Isla away from Paul’s influence.
But he had no reason for his reaction to Aaron’s offer to help at the Waterhole.
Aaron volunteered for the Waterhole job to help Wendy, not Paul. He wanted her to be able to go on her romantic getaway and fix her marriage.
David’s tantrum about it was every bit as petty as Aaron said it was. I’m glad Aaron called his husband out on that nonsense!
It’s unreasonable to expect Aaron to avoid any business that could tangentially benefit Paul. Paul may own the Waterhole, but he’s rarely there, and Aaron got Wendy out of a jam.
Lassiters is one of the central hubs of the town, so it’ll be hard to avoid everything connected to him, and doing so hurts people who have nothing to do with the feud.
David must find a way to make peace with Paul’s existence. If he doesn’t want Paul in his life, that’s fine, but he can’t set boundaries for other people.
It was almost enough to make me take back my annoyance at Remi for putting her nose into David’s past.
Remi’s behavior seemed out of character. As a doctor, she understandably feels uncomfortable with a colleague letting someone die, though she only knows half the story. But since when has she been this judgmental person who jumps to conclusions?
That’s been Cara’s role over the past few months. Remi’s encouraged her to stop holding a grudge against the Rodwells and find a way to co-exist. But now, Remi’s gone sour on David, making for unnecessary tension on Ramsey Street.
Would Remi’s feelings change if she knew that the victim was dying anyway and that he had attacked Aaron and left him with life-threatening injuries? None of that excuses David’s behavior, but it should make it more understandable.
I’m not sure that Remi could honestly say that she wouldn’t do the same if faced with a seriously injured patient who had tried to end Cara’s life.
Elsewhere, are Haz and Holly headed for a break-up for the sake of drama?
The issue at the heart of this story is lack of communication, which is my least favorite trope.
This mess began because Mackenzie has been trying to keep quiet about her feelings for Haz for months. He only knows because he jumped to conclusions about Mackenzie and Byron, and she let the truth slip while confronting him about his judgment.
Haz: Get ready for the housemate awkwardness.
Mackenzie: There won’t be any awkwardness because nothing happened between me and Byron.
Haz: Nothing? You sure about that?
Mackenzie: I’m not remotely interested in Byron because you’re the one that I want!
And now, Mackenzie doesn’t plan to act on those feelings, but Holly thinks that Mack broke the friend code. But instead of confronting her, Holly’s wandering around with a scowl on her face and avoiding Mackenzie as much as possible.
Haz isn’t helping by keeping his confusion to himself and leaving Holly to wonder what’s going on.
Could somebody open their mouth already? This could all be resolved if people would talk to each other. Neighbours is about honest communication between characters, so let’s have some already.
If we need a love triangle involving Haz, let’s have one that involves him being torn, and not everyone keeping their feelings to themselves.
Holly: What are you doing?
Karl: Nothing. I’m just getting to know Haz.
Holly: Dad! That’s just one more thing that’ll scare him off.
Karl didn’t help anything by grilling Haz, but Haz pretended to Holly it was fine when it made him feel strange and awkward.
This business of not telling anyone anything seems to be one of Haz’s character flaws, and it needs to be resolved ASAP if he intends to have a healthy relationship with anyone.
Chloe’s Huntington’s diagnosis is heartbreaking — if she’s been officially diagnosed.
I wasn’t sure if she had been or if the doctors were running tests while she’d concluded that her symptoms meant she had active Huntington’s disease.
Elly: She probably has years but she has given me an out.
Susan: An out?
Elly: In case it’s too much for me an Aster.
Susan: Is that what you want? Are you having doubts?
Elly: The only doubts I’m having are whether I’m up for this.
Chances are, she has the disease. She’s got hand tremors, difficulty holding things, and balance issues, all of which are indicative of the disease, plus she has the gene for it.
Still, it felt like she was jumping the gun a bit, and I’d love a Christmas miracle where she finds out that’s not what has been causing her symptoms.
In any case, breaking up with Elly because of her presumed diagnosis would have been a mistake. These two have been through a lot to be together, and they deserve some happiness before the disease completely takes over.
I’m glad Elly took the opposite decision and proposed to Chole. I’m not sure about Nicolette’s advice, though.
While it’s true that Elly should be grateful for every moment she and Chloe have together and live in the present, making arrangements for the future while Chloe is still in good health is crucial.
If it is Huntington’s, Chloe may eventually need full-time care, and it’s best to address that now rather than wait until it’s an issue.
Nicolette’s been highly supportive, and to Chloe’s credit, she neither berated her endlessly over almost calling Elly or considered having an affair.
Elsewhere, Terese and Jane finally made up. Thank goodness.
The childish temper tantrums and fights were getting on my last nerve, and these two work better as friends than enemies. It’s a shame they couldn’t figure out how to share the school property from the beginning.
Jane shouldn’t have canceled on Mike, though. She could have dialed into the meetings via video calling software and spent the rest of the holiday in the UK.
This relationship, which many fans have waited years for, is doomed now. Some of this is because Guy Pearce isn’t available to be on Neighbours full-time, so the series has to work around his schedule, but still.
Reece broke it off with Byron because they’re on opposite sides of the world — how long will it be before Mike does the same with Jane?
Finally, did Terese make a colossal mistake by suggesting Melanie move in with the Kennedys?
Terese: Well, that’s me upstaged.
Toadie: She will love the t-shirt too.
Terese: If I give it to her.
She doesn’t seem to harbor as much fear of losing Toadie as she does of losing Nell. She feels she’s been one-upped in the stepmother department, and it doesn’t help that she and Nell got off to such a rocky start.
To make matters worse, Toadie and Melanie keep having painful memories of what they’ve lost because of Melanie’s lies, while Paul is getting into Terese’s head with his nonsense about Terese wanting to keep an eye on her ‘enemy.’
Nell is extremely excited and happy to have Melanie across the street. She was disappointed Melanie didn’t want her to come over on Nell’s birthday but thrilled with her gift. For the first time since Neighbours moved to Freevee, Nell seems happy instead of depressed and angry.
Terese, however, feels like a third wheel. She’s a step-stepmother, and despite knowing Nell all her life, she doesn’t have the relationship with her she wants. She also has a history of marrying a man who left her for an ex living across the street.
All this leads to the type of drama that could easily become a tired TV trope. So far, it’s fresh and interesting, with Toadie/Melanie and Paul/Terese shippers passionately disagreeing with those who enjoy the Terese/Toadie pairing and want it to stay that way.
Melanie blew it when she ran away after lying to Toadie for over a year. She needs to move on, and Nell needs to accept that. But it’s anyone’s guess what’ll happen, given all the unresolved feelings everyone in this mess is dealing with.
Your turn, Neighbours fanatics. Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know your thoughts.
Don’t forget to check back for the latest Neighbours spoilers over the weekend.
Neighbours streams on Amazon Freevee. New episodes drop on Monday through Thursday mornings at 2/1c.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.