It’s a big night in the bay with the first birthday party for baby Gracie, an ambulance trip to the emergency department, and in a twist that I didn’t really see coming, Willow is Witness X.
The birthday of Baby Gracie is approaching quickly and it’s almost the biggest deal ever.
I’m not exactly a culinary goddess, but I make a mean lemon tart and I happen to be the proud new owner of KitchenAid mint green (very exciting), but the butterfly cake is being butchered by Tori.
I’m running an emergency room, “she says,” I hope I can ice a cake.
Ian and Wendy Shaw, the dead parents of Robbo, are coming and they’re my second favorite people after Jasmine, so I’m fired up.
Jasmine buys a very special present from baby Grace, a bracelet with “heart dad” etched on it so that she still has her dad next to her, dead Robbo.
Then Ian broke his leg and won’t be coming to the party anymore, what bad news.
Justin is still in a lot of pain, but because he is a boy, he’s soldiering on with decorations.
I think he’s crying for dramatic effect or pretending to weep, but it’s a very dimly lit scene, and I can’t see it.
“I can’t help but think where we’re going to be next birthday for Grace, or Ava, I’m never going to do this for Ava,” Justin tells Leah.
It’s a party morning, and I have to admit the backyard looks very, really beautiful, so all the blood, sweat, and tears that Justin shed are worth it.
Dr. Christian Green, or Budget McDreamy, rocks up with an equally stunning cake that displeases Jas because she hates being outdone on Gracie issues.
Tori gives a speech surrounded by friends and family — Leah and Justin, Maz, Irene, Jasmine, and Budget McDreamy — and most of them are dead as she names the individuals unique to them.
“They’re not a true family, Christian’s not the daddy of Gracie,” Jas says spitefully.
But Justin is soon destroyed by the party.
‘I can’t feel my legs,’ says Justin.
He’s sorry now that he didn’t stay in the hospital as recommended by Dr. Green.
But now that she has baby Gracie in her clutches again, Jasmine’s mood is much better.
Things between Owen and Roo are obviously back on track. For a date, she buys new clothes and settles for a sparkly number. Alf agrees, and I do as well.
After the name incident, Owen and Roo have not had another “sleepover” and Owen is feeling a little insecure, so she gives him a big hug.
But when Martha tells Roo everyone will be out of the house for the afternoon and the happy couple hurry home for a sleepover, things take a turn for the better. Owen also makes a joke about Roo blurting out his dead twin brother’s name.
Yet there’s something not right.
“The whole time, I just couldn’t stop thinking about Evan,” Roo said to Maz afterward.
“I have a wonderful love opportunity here, and I’m ruining it.”
Owen Daddo tries to tell her, and it’s her downfall.
“I see him whenever I look at you and I’ve done everything I can do to change that,” Roo tells Owen.
He’s not pleased that this time he won’t get to call the shots.
You’re not in love with me, Roo, “Owen says,” You’re in love with my pal.
How am I supposed to fall in love with someone who is not here? “Answers Roo.
Ryder is not taking the news well.
“Because you two got involved, my uncle is leaving,” Ryder tells Aunty Roo.
Deep, real low, it slices.
So he leaves Daddo again. This would definitely be the last time. They’re not going to get him back a fourth time, are they?
In the meantime, relationship expert Ryder can not keep his mouth shut and tells Maz that on the dating apps, John, her recent ex, is very famous.
“Through a false smile, Maz says,” John is entering a new stage of his life and I am completely, perfectly fine with that.
So he’s also getting Maz on the apps and she’s also proving to be very famous.
Mac fills Nikau in on the dodgy doings of his uncles.
Mac says to Nikau, “They’re doing another job for those guys to pay off the debt.”
Nikau has the greatest concern since “my father died last time his family did a job,” which seems fair. But good news, Ari and Tane are not dead, and they have a huge wad of cash to hand over and “cancel” the debt to the creep.
But their absence has pushed a wedge between Nikau, but because they’re really into family and all that, they easily make amends. Mac is still suffering and he asks Ari about his jail time.
At the prospect of Colby and Dean winding up behind bars, she bursts into tears. And it gets worse because Tane and Ari have another “last job” for Leon and the gang, but that will have to last for next week because Colby is devoted to the rest of the night.
The court hearing for Colby is quickly approaching. Willow says to Dean, “The thing that scares me the most is that none of us have been called up to testify.”
With Witness X, Dean tries to have a “quiet term,” but he probably does not have the best word.
Until the witness list comes, Colby is refreshing his internet.
He scrolls to Witness X and discovers that it has silenced the word. He still seems pretty arrogant even then.
He wanders down to wallow along the sand, but there’s Taylor.
I want you to know that I went into this game to play and it changed for me somewhere along the way, “Colby tells Taylor.”
“You’re awesome and you deserve more than me or Angelo, whatever happens.”
Well, at least he’s good to someone else, but if you ask me, it’s too little too late.
She runs off and tells Angelo that even though she has been subpoenaed and practically has to, she’s not going to talk.
Colby comes home and gets into his smug head at last, and he’s going to prison.
With his dad, Bella, Dean, and Willow, he wants a “natural meal.”
Between all of them, it looks like one pizza.
Bella tears up, Dean tries to, but he can’t cry, so he makes some joke on pizza that’s not funny about vegetables and it breaks into the happy, insane family scene as Colby looks on at the head of the table and takes in what he’s going to miss and accepts defeat about a year too late.
“I killed Ross, and everything I’ve done since then has taken me here,” he told Willow in private.
Willow asks why now, and he says, ’cause Taylor is in love.
Then it gets all ominous as Billie Eilish’s James Bond theme song plays and Angelo stands in the dark in front of his car’s headlights.
“You did the right thing,” Angelo says as he is confronted by a very, very blurry figure.
And it’s Willow who, in the darkness, emerges.
She has a wire on it!!!
She snarls back at Angelo, “I didn’t do it for you.”
I really thought Bella’s letter to Irene would come into play, but I’m very surprised that Willow betrays Colby, so well done makers, well done, to defend Dean and Bella.
Home and Away confirms Witness X identity ahead of Colby Thorne’s trial