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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 205945" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 296-312 (...continued)<img src="https://i.vgy.me/pp95Ew.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Joining Frank and Andrew in broodsville is Steven. The aftermath of Philip’s death has shown us a Steven of almost bipolar extremes. Broken and fragile here; angry and threatening there. It’s a pattern that works for where Steven is.We’ve delved into Steven’s psyche, seeing subjective dreams that mix up the past and the present. And we’ve seen Steven wake up screaming. And even sleepwalking with devastating effect.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/GpcMhU.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/ekzFvu.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/ZsMET3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/6H8QZz.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Helping us see the broken, fragile Steven is Stacey - herself still very much lost in grief. Their bonding through shared tragedy has been quite lovely to watch. In particular, there was a beautiful, wordless scene in which Stacey came to Steven’s room, tentatively reached out and held his hand, then touched his face and finally hugged him. Both are really lovely in the scene.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/a1Ce66.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/kIxoGN.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/1OakfF.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/3E2n1c.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/ngg3Vk.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />There’s a similar scene later on, where Steven finds Stacey lost in thought as she watches the surfers on the waves.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/P0G40a.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />It’s clear that these two get each other in a way that nobody else can at this moment in time. And I love that Steven is shown to be still practicing karate.On the day of Philip’s funeral, Steven chooses to go out and practice karate and stay away from it. We’d earlier seen him start to look through Phil’s effects. Left alone in the house, he tries on Phil’s bobble hat and breaks down. Adam Willits can’t cry convincingly, and does his usual thing of crumpling his face then hiding it. And that works fine. The direction, the music, and the look on his face before he tried to cry really sold it.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/Bk1LYO.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Long story short he decides to attend the funeral. I really liked that there was atmospheric mist there, giving the funeral a slightly gothic tone.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/gJ2BSc.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/KsGAN2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/CXTkkB.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/4lSVhO.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Grieving Philip, and affected further by the death of Andrew’s father, Stacey also makes a phone call:And with that, she exits the office, leaving her key on the desk.Steven’s angry, threatening side is coming out more around the person he is certain started the fire at the store: Simon. In a nice touch, Dodge is exploiting this and fuelling Steven’s anger, leading to a fight on the beach which gives Dodge the opportunity to steal Simon’s necklace:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/wSj1Hm.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/89VMXO.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />This brings Steven into conflict with Roo:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/7mkILr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/zNQBDJ.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />These two are interesting together. Aside from him doing Roo’s homework while Frank took credit for it, I can’t think of any other times their storylines have brought them into the same orbit. And their scenes feel exciting as a result.We also get some of Simon’s backstory:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/22N8dr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />As well as being a nice moment for the character and fleshing him out a little, it’s also a nice way of demonstrating Simon’s aversion to prison. And this is important. Because Steven and Dodge are plotting:And in a hugely ironic touch, Steven provides Dodge’s alibi on the night he decides to set fire to another building. After the fuel is poured, Steven tries to talk him out of actually starting the fire and while Dodge wouldn’t have listened, they were disturbed anyway.Morag is convinced the petrol is a warning from her enemies, but when the necklace is found she, too, buys that Simon set the fire and he is promptly arrested in a scene that shows off the side of Alf’s bait shop.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/5jypOy.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Alf posts bail and agrees to home a grateful Simon temporarily. But things are still awkward and Simon discusses the elephant in the room:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/MMkU0e.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />But with things looking bad for him, Simon opts to jump bail and leave Roo a letter. Something for which she blames Steven, bringing them into further enjoyable conflict:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/wa1Lyr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />continued...</blockquote>

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