Nothing kills marriages faster than jealousy and distrust.
Toadie and Terese may have dodged the bullet with Nell for now, but a new problem reared its ugly head on Neighbours during the week of 10-16-23.
Toadie was worried that Paul pushed Terese to move into the office complex so that he could make moves toward stealing her back. He and Terese confronted Paul together, but could this still be the beginning of the end for them?
Jealousy of an ex is an often overdone soap opera trope, but Neighbours is different from American soaps — the story won’t be about insecurity festering.
So far, Toadie and Terese have made the right moves. They talked about the issue and presented a united front against Paul, and Terese gave him a year’s rent to make it clear that she wasn’t accepting any special favors.
But there’s one problem they haven’t considered: Nell.
I don’t believe Nell has entirely accepted that Melanie is gone or that Toadie loves Terese. She said all the right things in her apology, but does anyone think she won’t seize the opportunity to cause trouble if it comes along?
Every time Toadie and Terese discussed the Paul situation, I expected Nell to be lurking on the stairs or around the corner. Sooner or later, she’ll find out about this, and then it’s anyone’s guess what she’ll do.
If Nell plants false evidence that Terese is cheating on Toadie with Paul, that’ll be a bigger test of their marriage. After all, Hugo only exists because Toadie jumped into bed with Andrea after falsely believing Sonya was having an affair with Mark.
Nell’s childhood claim that “Mummy is sleeping with Mark” was innocent, but if history repeats itself, she’ll be anything but.
It shouldn’t matter whether Paul plans to sweep Terese off her feet. If Terese is committed to Toadie, nothing Paul can do should be able to disrupt that.
Toadie must realize that, or he’s leaving himself open to manipulation and paranoia about Terese and Paul. Hopefully, he’s learned from his mistake with Sonya, and we aren’t in for a breakup for the sake of drama!
Elsewhere, did Wendy bring the Linwell brothers back into Cara and Remi’s lives?
Let’s hope not. She’s already done enough damage to her relationship with them.
While Wendy’s previous behavior was immature and annoying, now that she’s trying to make amends, Cara is the aggravating one.
Wendy: I’ve got something that I’d like to tell you all. I found my watch. And I never should have accused you, JJ. I’m really, really sorry.Andrew: Me too. I hope you guys can forgive us.Remi: Okay. Well I guess that puts a full stop to a really unfortunate chapter.JJ: I shouldn’t have been in your house in the first place. I’m really sorry.Wendy: No, no.Cara: Where’d you find it?Wendy: In our laundry basket.Cara: And it’s taken you this long? Neither of you have done laundry in, what, over a week?
Wendy can’t take back her bad attitude or that she waited over a week to apologize, so there’s little point in Cara holding a grudge. Besides, Wendy tried to say something minutes after finding the watch, and Cara refused to listen.
These women could endlessly point the finger at one another for who started this mess. Arguably, Wendy barging into Jane’s without permission when the family was staying there set everything in motion.
But does it matter now? These women live down the block from each other and work in the same complex; it’s in everyone’s best interest to let bygones be bygones.
If the Linwell brothers were behind smashing Cara’s car window with a brick, that’ll only increase the animosity when it comes out that Wendy contacted them.
But if Dex had gotten his way, the cops would never find out. It was silly for him to think that discussing Werribee would magically make Andrew wonder if he was JJ’s biological father.
JJ was right that Dex only made himself look suspicious. If I were Andrew, I’d wonder if he knew more about the brick incident than he let on since he was eager to interfere with the conversation.
Did JJ run away from Andrew after the driving lesson, or is something more nefarious afoot? If the Linwell brothers are in town, they might target JJ, though doing so when he was waiting for a cop to return would have been stupid.
In any case, JJ will probably be conflicted about getting close to Andrew. This big secret is getting in the way, and he needs to tell it already.
I’m even more eager for Holly and Ed to cross paths! It was aggravating that she had to step away every time Ed was about to come to the table at the Vineyard.
Sadie: Finally, you’re home!Mackenzie: Yes, I am. And what are you doing here in my home?Sadie: Waiting for you.Holly: We thought we’d head to the Vineyard for some drinks.Mackenzie: Hah. You mean to check out Ed?Sadie: No… well, maybe just a little. He asked you out in a day and we have to make sure he’s up to the Mack standard.
Ed was giving off creepy stalker vibes, too. He and Holly don’t appear to be friendly exes, so is he getting close to Mackenzie to keep tabs on Holly, or is it a coincidence that he’s dating his ex’s best friend?
Hopefully, Mackenzie isn’t headed for devastating heartbreak — or worse. She deserves some happiness after losing Hendrix so tragically.
We don’t know what happened between Holly and Ed, who called himself Eden when he was with her. He may have abused Holly, in which case Mackenzie could be in danger.
But it’s also possible he and Holly weren’t right for each other, and he and Mackenzie are a better match, just as Mackenzie ended up marrying Harlow’s ex. But Holly’s unlikely to be forgiving if Mackenzie refuses to dump her ex, which will undoubtedly up the drama level on Ramsey Street!
It may be a moot point if Haz and Mackenzie are endgame.
These two are only dating other people because they’re both oblivious to how the other feels. Haz seems to spend most of his time with Billie discussing Mackenzie and looking sad or jealous when Mackenzie brings up Ed.
He’s so obvious that I don’t understand why neither woman has picked up on it!
Finally, what’s up with Reece now? That necklace set could be a pair of friendship necklaces or could have belonged to old lovers. She said she got the moon charm from her grandmother, but was that true?
I’m still wondering if the people Reece caught a glimpse of earlier are family members. If so, does the sun charm belong to one of them?
And how does this all tie into Reece’s plans with her father? She told Byron she prefers to be far away from him, but he’s constantly calling. It’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s not.
I’m not a huge fan of this character, but I love stories that keep me guessing!
Your turn, Neighbours fanatics! Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you think of this week’s Neighbours.
Don’t forget to check back over the weekend for the latest Neighbours spoilers.
Neighbours streams on Amazon Freevee in the US and UK and Amazon Prime in Canada after broadcast on Australia’s Peach 10. New episodes drop on Mondays through Thursday mornings at 2/1c.
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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.
