THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS DETAILS OF THE EPISODE OF NEIGHBOURS THAT AIRED ON AUGUST 22ND 2024
Neighbours epic ‘Death in the Outback’ week reached its dramatic conclusion on Thursday, with one person dead and two more left fighting for their lives.
The week of episodes saw Holly head to rural Australia with her new love interest, Heath Royce, without telling any of her friends or family back in Erinsborough. Whilst Holly knew that Heath had a shady past and was supposed to be dating Tess Carmichael whilst he was sleeping with her, she had no idea exactly what he was involved in, syphoning off millions of dollars from SinCast, owned by the Sinclair family and the part owners of Lassiters.
When Toadie and Mel started snooping around Tess and Heath’s house, they uncovered fake passports along with evidence of the multi-million dollar embezzlement, when they were discovered, it lead to them being kidnapped by one of Tess’ henchmen and transported out to the cattle station where Heath and Holly are.
Back in Erinsborough, after Toadie’s blood was found at Tess and Heath’s house, the pieces started falling into place. Paul, Leo and Krista worked out the embezzlement plan and Mack, Haz and the Kennedy’s realised that Holly had gone away with Heath and inadvertently gotten herself involved in a very serious situation.
Haz hacked into Holly’s phone to discover where she was and immediately flew up to Queensland with Mackenzie to try and warn their friend, but upon arriving, managed to get themselves lost in the Outback and slept overnight in their car.
Thursday’s episode began with Heath arriving at the house where Mel and Toadie were being held, not knowing that Holly was hiding in the back of his Ute.
Meanwhile, Toadie had managed to loosen the ropes that were holding him and Mel hostage, when they hear noise outside they start screaming for help, not realising it is Holly Hoyland wandering around outside and she opens the door to the house, freeing Toadie and Mel, who run off into the wilderness.
When Heath discovers Holly there, he turns on her, Holly also fleeing for her life.
Desperate to escape from Heath, she climbs a ladder, but he follows her up to the top. After a brief moment where it looks like maybe Heath is softening around Holly, he pushes her into a grain silo.
With the loose grain underneath acting like quick sand, Holly quickly starts sinking. Screaming for her life, Heath just walks away.
Watching the drama unfold from afar, Toadie tells Mel to stay hiding while he tries to find help.
Heath eventually realises that Toadie and Mel have escaped, he goes into panic mode and retrieves a hidden shotgun…
Meanwhile, back in Erinsborough, Paul receives an anonymous text message:
“Five million if you want to see your friends alive. No police or I’ll kill them.”
Heath returns to the house where he has been staying and is shocked to find that Tess has arrived. Tess has worked out that Heath has been sleeping with Holly and that she had been there with him.
“Forget Holly, she is out of the picture. Forget Toadie and Melanie, I took care of them.” Heath pleads with Tess.
Tess suddenly realises that this has all gone too far. She was in it for the money but it is now clear that Heath has physically hurt people. Tess didn’t want that and is scared.
In the daytime sun, a tired, hungry and thirsty Toadie isn’t having any success in finding anyone to help. He wades through a creek, unaware that there are crocodiles in the water just metres away from him.
Melanie falls and rolls her ankle, the only thing that she can do is return to the cattle station, where she hears Holly’s cries of help as she is moments from drowning in the grain silo.
Paul shares the anonymous text message with Andrew Rodwell who runs a trace on the number. He confirms that the phone is situated out at the cattle station and they can only presume that Heath has Holly, Toadie and Melanie. Terese and Karl are worried for their loved ones, everything suddenly feels a lot more serious.
Haz and Mackenzie finally find the house where Holly and Heath were staying. There’s nobody there. Holly’s clothes are still inside but no trace of Heath.
Andrew calls Mack who tells them about the ransom message and advises them to stay well away from there until the Queensland police arrive.
Just as they hang up the call they see Melanie and a freshly-saved Holly running towards them… followed by Heath in his Ute.
Heath pulls over and gets the gun off of the back seat… Holly and Mel run for their lives.
Toadie has managed to get out of the creek, but is now in the middle of nowhere, no houses, no people. The effects of the heat and lack of food and water are now starting to take their toll on him.
Mackenzie, on the telephone alerting Andrew of what she and Haz just saw, hears banging coming from the back of the Ute, she suspects it is Toadie, but when she pulls the cover back, she finds Tess laying there, who apologises profusely to Mackenzie.
Their conversation is cut short by the sound of a gunshot.
Heath is running through the bush, trying to find Holly and Melanie. Calling their names, Haz hears Heath and tracks him down. He sees the gun and realises that his friends are in mortal danger.
Heath randomly fires into the bush and Haz dives for cover. He finds Melanie hiding and tells her to go back to the house, it is where she will be safest. He continues to track Heath, hearing more shots.
Heath stops running when he reaches the edge of the creek, he realises he can go no further. He puts his gun down and pleads with Holly to come out of hiding. He wants to help her.
What he doesn’t see is Holly emerge from the bushes behind him and she pushes him straight into the creek.
Heath begins to swim back to the bank, thinking that Holly made a silly mistake. Haz arrives at the creekside, just in time to watch Heath be attacked and dragged under the water by a crocodile.
There is no way out for Heath. The crocs have taken his life.
Melanie is on her way back to the house when she sees Mackenzie laying on the ground, unresponsive. She has a bullet wound to her shoulder.
Time is running out for Toadie, he is struggling to walk and realises the situation he is in . The intense heat. Dehydration.
At an old train track, Toadie finally gives in and lays down. It is his time to submit to nature.
He lays and looks into the sky… then closes his eyes and his life rushes before his eyes.
He sees his wedding day as he married Dee, the very same day he lost her.
He sees Steph Scully, the marriage that never was.
Then he flashes back to his wedding to Sonya, happier times.
The day he married Melanie comes to him. The joy. The hope.
Finally, Terese. Eleven months ago the unlikely couple said I do.
But then he remembers tragedy. The car crash with Dee, Sonya dying on the beach…
Toadie sees something in the memories that are coming back to him.
“Don’t go. Take me with you.” He whispers as flies hover around him and tears mix with the sweat on his face.
The visions end and Toadie’s eyes close.
We will have to wait until Monday to see the continuation of the story, will Toadie and Mackenzie get out alive?
You can watch the whole of ‘Death in the Outback’ week and over 2,500 more episodes of Neighbours on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video.