Theo makes waves in Summer Bay on next week’s episode of Home and Away in the UK, while Ryder’s burning the candle at both ends prompts Alf to act.
Following Theo Poulos’ (Matt Evans) dramatic return to the Morgan/Patterson household last week, aunt Leah (Ada Nicodemou) and her boyfriend Justin (James Stewart), despite their own doubts, both try to provide him with some stability.
When Leah’s first-born nephew, Theo, showed up on her doorstep two weeks previously, she was taken aback, not least because he had been given a police escort by local constable Cash Newman (Nicholas Cartwright), who had clocked Theo speeding.
It was soon discovered that Theo had been booted out of his home by his overbearing father—elder Leah’s brother Dimitri—and while the 20-year-old sought safety with his aunt, Leah simply had to call Dimitri to find out the truth. Customers at his father’s vehicle dealership were allegedly duped by Theo by selling shady insurance products.
With Theo’s assertions that he was set up by his coworkers—after all, who wants to work with the boss’s son?—Leah decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him stay, much to Justin’s chagrin.
An enraged Theo vanished for a few days after a subsequent run-in with Justin, only to reappear last week, beaten and battered, smack in the middle of Tori’s (Penny McNamee) video conversation to her potential future employers in London.
Theo claimed that whilst sleeping in his car, would-be carjackers had attacked him, but Justin was quick to doubt his claims.
This week, Justin is unimpressed to learn that Theo has spent his day bothering Chloe (Sam Barrett) at the diner rather than filing a police complaint, and Theo is finally compelled to come clean after Justin offers to bring him to the station himself. He’d made the mistake of returning to his hometown, and the beating was retaliation from someone he’d defrauded.
Following his years in witness protection, Justin informs Leah of the latest revelation, and the two of them realize that Theo’s presence in the house could pose a threat to them all if his assailants attempt to track him down. They can’t take the chance of allowing him to stay, especially with Grace at home.
Leah has a different idea to help her nephew: she wants to put him up in a motel, which Justin thinks is a terrible idea. When Leah informs Theo he can’t stay at the house, he storms off, but she eventually catches up with him and scolds him for not allowing her to complete what she was about to say. Theo is ecstatic when Leah tells him about the motel.
Justin warns Leah that she must be wary about Theo taking advantage of her, and she assures him that she will reconsider the situation once he finds work.
This gives Justin pause for thought, and he later informs Theo that he would be willing to hire him at the garage. When Theo dismisses the proposal, he’s taken aback; he doesn’t need Justin’s help! Theo then returns to Leah and tells her that he isn’t a charity case and that he doesn’t need her to compel Justin, who clearly despises him, to hire him.
But Leah has no idea what Theo is talking about, and she immediately puts him in his place by reminding him that he gladly accepted her offer to pay for his motel stay! If he intends to stay, she has no intention of giving him a free ride.
Theo eventually eats his pride and accepts Justin’s offer, but Justin still doubts if giving Theo a chance is the right thing to do.
“He’s worried about giving Theo a job at the garage because he doesn’t know if he can trust him,” James Stewart told Australian magazine TV Week. “There’s something suspicious about him.”
Indeed, Theo makes a poor first impression on his first day on the job. He arrives late after stopping by the diner for a coffee, and Justin later discovers him on a self-imposed break, merrily taking pictures in a customer’s classic car.
When Justin confronts Theo about his attitude, he admits that he knows Theo dislikes him and assures him that the dislike is mutual. He’s only offering Theo this job because he loves Leah, and if Theo cares about his aunt at all, he should just do it.
Justin and Theo put on a strong face when Leah arrives with coffee for them later. But, seeing an opportunity, Theo collapses in agony.
He claims to have a migraine and tells his aunt that the only way to get rid of it is to lie down in a dark room for a few minutes. Leah takes Theo’s bait and orders him to go.
Justin wonders if Leah truly believes it, but she seemed to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Will Theo take advantage of her good nature in the future?
Ryder (Lukas Radovich) continues to push himself to his limits, oblivious to the fact that Theo is creeping up on his love Chloe.
Ryder has taken up Dean’s (Patrick O’Connor) board shop while recovering from his automobile accident and continues to devote his leisure time to assist with various responsibilities.
When Chloe discovers Ryder sleeping behind the counter at the board shop, she advises him to go home and relax, but he insists on finishing the job and waiting for a delivery. When Ryder starts snapping at him, his grandfather Alf (Ray Meagher) becomes concerned and tells Roo (Georgie Parker) that Ryder needs to learn to say no.
Later, when Ryder phones to check on Chloe at the diner, Theo is amused to discover that the zombie who has just walked in is actually Chloe’s boyfriend. Theo waits for Ryder to leave before boldly declaring to Chloe that she could do so much better! After Chloe insists that Ryder take the night off to get some sleep on the condition that he be there in the morning to carry out the deliveries, Theo waits for Ryder to leave before boldly declaring to Chloe that she could do so much better!
Ryder accidentally knocks over Martha’s (Belinda Giblin) easel that was sitting on the grass next to the driveway as he drives home, and this is the final straw for Alf. He won’t let Ryder leave the house until he’s had a good night’s sleep. Everyone is counting on Ryder, but Alf, Martha, and Roo (Georgie Parker) want him to prioritize his own health.
Ryder sleeps through three alarms the next morning, forcing Alf to turn them off himself. However, because he wants his nephew to enjoy a good night’s sleep, he decides not to wake him up.
As Chloe waits outside the diner with boxes full of delivery, she attempts in vain to contact Ryder, before Theo arrives and offers to drive her to the restaurant to deliver the food.
When Ryder finally wakes up, he’s enraged because Alf let him sleep in; he’s almost an hour late and has missed their delivery deadline! Ryder is comforted by Alf’s response that they’d agreed he needed the sleep, but it’s little consolation as he rushes down to the diner.
Meanwhile, Chloe is taking Theo to breakfast while he keeps up his charm. When Ryder finally arrives, he is taken aback when Theo triumphantly informs him that the task has already been completed.
Outside, Chloe berates Ryder for not being there when she needed him the most and is grateful that Theo was there to save the day. Ryder’s resolve to push himself to the utmost at work appears to be affecting his love life as well.
When Chloe informs Ryder that their business must come first, Ryder delegated to Alf because he realizes he’s overworked—but how can he mend things without disappointing anyone?
They consider their options: Ryder has only a few months left on his TAFE study, so he can’t drop out; Salt and Chloe’s food deliveries provide him with the necessary revenue… So there’s just one option…
But how will Ryder tell a housebound Dean that he can no longer look after the bait shop?