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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 201923" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 249-254Alison Patterson’s exit from Summer Bay - and from the series - has shown the characters at their most uniformly passive-aggressive. And it’s not pretty. First up are Carly, Sally, Steven and even Neville:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/CxhG1Z.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/b0OFci.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Next up are Matt and Ailsa:[Matt carries on writing and ignores her]<img src="https://i.vgy.me/f10PtU.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/TJ65ct.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />As often happens with this kind of behaviour, it’s the perpetrators who are shown to be less as a result of their actions. Any valid point they may have about Alison is undermined by their way of getting it across. No matter what her actions, Alison’s ostracism from the community seems particularly cruel, but also unusually cowardly from people who are usually up for an argument. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate as the general tone seems to be one of victory.After his willing participation, Matt mutters a line or two about feeling bad - just as he did after his willing participation in the previous shaming of Alison recently. His character has seemed so changed since his return. He now just seems to alternate between smirky and remorseful with a whole lot of nothing in between.Being sent to Coventry does justify Alison’s final action on the series, which occurs offscreen. The last we see of her is stalking outside the diner when Ailsa and Matt leave. On Ailsa’s return to the diner she finds a little surprise:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/TzM5D0.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/pkjog2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/f7gqmz.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Ailsa immediately knows who caused the damage and speaking to Alison’s Mum confirms it.And that’s all she wrote for Alison. As exit storylines go it’s not bad. Certain main title series regulars haven’t been serviced as well. There’s also a neat little bookend aspect to Alison’s time on the series: when we first met her she was stirring up trouble by exposing a covert romance of Donald’s (the one with Ailsa). And she’s inadvertently done the same just before leaving.Pippa’s intuitive reasoning about Nick’s scheme has caused tension between she and Tom. The secrecy has added to the sudsy fun, with Pippa initially electing not to spoil Tom’s high about the job offer. There’s a nice scene in which he comes home from work in the middle of the day and finds her on the phone trying to dig up some dirt on Nick. Roger Oakley gets across Tom’s journey from breezy to surprised to annoyed, and Vanessa Downing equally perfectly conveys the journey Pippa is taking at the same time from covert to surprised (she does a nice physical jump after hanging up and realising Tom’s in the room) to guilty to taking a deep breath and speaking the truth. It’s plain that Tom’s pride has taken a blow:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/iIHKr2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Tom’s test is probably more well thought out than Pippa’s. He knows that Nick would instantly see through him saying the park wasn’t for sale, so he goes the opposite route and casually mentions that since it looks like they’ll have to sell after all it might be worth them discussing it.Sneaky as it is, Nick is still a step ahead and tells Tom that Macklins have opted to develop on the other side of town where there is less opposition and so they no longer wish to buy the park.But then Tom gets an offer from an unexpected source<img src="https://i.vgy.me/W9Gszf.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/RfRKsc.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I liked that Tom was slow to trust Morag’s motives. He asked all the right questions and put forth all the right arguments for his concerns. And she allayed them each in turn. So with his family’s best interest in mind, Tom has now made two deals: a handshake agreement with Nick regarding the London job and a verbal agreement with Morag to sell her the park.Naturally, Morag has formed a secret alliance with Nick and is buying the park on his behalf. Though she has her own motives:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/LdLY8C.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Part of Nick returning the favour has been asking Frank to work long hours which already has the newlyweds up to their elbows in tedious domestic arguments. Much to Morag’s delight....continued</blockquote>

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