Neighbours’ Tell-All Flashback Week promised to deliver twists and turns alongside unmissable drama and it certainly did. We learnt that Melanie was being blackmailed by Krista Sinclair and her boyfriend Eden Shaw, a situation that led to a rooftop altercation and Melanie leaving Krista for dead. The circumstances around this involved many of the residents of Ramsay Street and eventually caused David Tanaka to move away from Erinsborough. Melanie, riddled with guilt, absconded, leaving Toadie and her new family behind and Paul, in an uncharacteristic moment of self-awareness, jilted Terese at the altar when he realised he couldn’t involve her in the drama.
We got to sit down with some of the major players in this week’s drama, Lucinda Cowden, who plays Melanie, Lucinda Armstrong Hall, who plays Holly and Takaya Honda, who plays David and talk about the week of revelations and what this means for life on Ramsay Street.
“Melanie is absolutely petrified. Initially she is relieved there a line drawn under it, that the truth is out there, but the consequences are enormous.” says Lucinda Cownden, knowing that everything that has happened is out of character for Melanie, who she has played on and off since 1987.
We asked Lucinda, who was joined by Lucinda Armstrong Hall who plays Holly Hoyland, what they think were the most shocking moments from Flashback Week.
“I think viewers will find Melanie thinking that she killed someone pretty shocking, as well as the fact that she is a fugitive. Both of these things are pretty shocking!”
“I think Eden is super-shocking” adds Armstrong-Hall, Talking about Eden Shaw, her character’s ex-boyfriend who turned out to be at the centre of Melanie’s drama, she continues “The truth about who he really is….. he’s awful.”
Cowden agrees, “He’s a bad, bad man”.
Eden, who we see blackmail Paul Robinson for $500,000 dollars after disposing of Krista Sinclairs body, is now on the run. In true Neighbours style, this won’t be the last we see of him as the story continues to unravel over the coming weeks.
As the consequences of their actions play out, does Cowden think that he character and Paul Robinson deserve redemption, can they ever go back to living a normal life?
“I don’t think they can. Paul does the right thing, almost, by not marrying Terese. He does something for her for the first time. He’s almost selfless. Almost, because he is still Paul Robinson.
Mel’s far more a redemptive kind of character. The more things evolve the more you realise that everybody was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but they all colluded in doing the wrong thing.
Toadie would have understood if Mel had enough faith in herself to be able to tell him, but I don’t think she ever does.”
Lucinda Armstrong-Hall originally played Holly Hoyland as a child actor in 2013, occasionally returning to Erinsborough as a guest character, but reprised her role as a full time cast member for the new episodes on Amazon Freevee. On her return to the show she found herself thrust into this epic storyline.
“Coming back to the show feels awesome. I’m so grateful to be back. It’s a homecoming as I have really fond memories from when I was really little on the show, it’s nice to come back and feel like I am with family again.”
Of her on screen family, through Flashback Week, step-mum Susan Kennedy was at her side for support, but what will her father, Karl Kennedy think of the revelations when he returns from his trip?
“Oh, I think he is going to be pretty shocked. Holly’s been holding onto the secret of Eden and the betrayal that she went through personally for a year. I think, for good reason, she felt very ashamed about what happened with Eden and Krista.”
Another character that was hugely affected by what happened with Eden and Krista was David Tanaka. He was on the periphery of the events, but by association and because of the actions of his father, Paul Robinson, David left his life in Ramsay Street with his husband, Aaron, as well as daughter Isla and her mother Nicolette.
“David did nothing wrong,” says Honda. “But he is still on parole. Had it come out that he knew about Mel’s situation and hadn’t told the police, he could be in more trouble than anyone.”
When we last saw David in 2022 he had just been released from prison following a conviction for Medical Manslaughter, a situation that was made worse by not being upfront with his family and hiding the truth. Takaya thinks that his character learnt from that.
“He doesn’t want to be in the hurricane that is Paul Robinson and the continual thing where Paul always does the wrong thing for the right reason. Often Paul or Leo (David’s brother) do the wrong thing and David has to deal with teh consequences, so he was sick of that. He thought ‘Let’s just remove ourselves from this situation, let’s start afresh somewhere else.'”
But as the truth was revealed, he was drawn from his new life to face the music. What happens for David is still unknown, but we do know that David, along with Aaron, Nicolette and Isla, will be sticking around in Erinsborough for a while yet.
Can he resolve his issues with Paul? Can he settle back into the life he had before, or will teh consequences of these latest revelations prevent that?
For Holly, we have seen that she is left with the responsibility of filling Reece Sinclair in with news of what’s happened and that Krista, the sister she has been searching for, met her end on the Lassiters roof terrace.
For Melanie, we know she ends up in prison for the crimes she committed and covered up. Is there any way out for Melanie?
The cast were tight-lipped about upcoming stories, but one thing is for sure, it will all be unmissable drama.
New episodes of Neighbours drop at 7am Monday to Thursday on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video.