Tess Carmichael has shown her true colours in the latest episode of Neighbours to air.
When Tess arrived unexpectedly from the United States last week, Krista was sent into a panic, fearing that she had been sent by her sister with the intention of dragging her back to the USA. After seeing how Krista handled a number of problems caused by bumbling hotel manager Brett, Tess showed her softer side, making Krista believe that she was there for support.
We saw another unexpected arrival today in the form of Heath Royce (Ethan Panizza), direct from SinCorp’s Los Angeles office and second in charge to Tess.
Once Tess and Heath were alone, Tess let down her guard, revealing to Heath that she is being nice to Krista so that she doesn’t suspect there is an ulterior motive at play.
Krista later discovers another of Brett’s errors, leaving two big groups booked into the hotel at the same time, an accounting conference and an Experiences tour group. With the tour group potentially more lucrative for the hotel’s bottom line, Krista makes the decision to cancel the accounting conference and informs Tess of her decision.
Krista is later shocked when she gets a call from the experiences group, they are cancelling their booking after getting a better deal at a different hotel. Krista was devastated and feared telling Tess that she had lost two high-value group bookings on the same day, leaving the hotel majorly out-of-pocket.
Rather than flying off the handle, Tess congratulates Krista for how she has handled everything and for being upfront about the financial loss. Krista is devastated that her actions caused this and vows to make sure that she recoups the money lost from the groups.
Later, when Tess is alone with Heath, he congratulates her on how her plan paid off.
“She is such an easy target.” a huge smile beaming across Tess’ face.
We then find out that the amazing deal with the other hotel that lured the Experiences tour group away, was brokered by Tess, purposely to make Krista look bad and make her feel insecure about her decision-making.
Tess, already relishing from the success of her plot against Krista, gets even happier as Heath leans in and the two fall into a passionate embrace… it turns out that Heath isn’t just a colleague.
If Heath is with Tess, we have to wonder why he has been flirting with Holly Hoyland since the moment his convertible car pulled up outside Lassiters? Of course, Holly has been doing a lot of flirting back. Much like her mother, a handsome man flashing the cash is somewhat irresistible.
We know that Heath and Holly eventually grow close, culminating in him taking her on a fateful trip to the outback in 3 weeks time…
Despite Heath’s American accent, the character is played by Australian actor Ethan Panizza. Panizza is best known for his role in both seasons of ‘Playing for Keeps’, an Australian drama series set in the world of Aussie Rules Football. He played Rusty O’Reilly a star footballer working hard to keep it a secret that he is gay.
‘Playing for Keeps’ also starred former Neighbours actors Madeleine West (Dee Bliss/Andrea Somers) and Olympia Valance (Paige Smith) as well as Cecelia Peters who was seen recently as Liv, host of the Crimesborough podcast.
So, it looks like we will be in for a wild ride over the next few weeks? What is Tess’ real plan? Can Tess trust Heath? Can Holly trust Heath? Will Krista discover that Tess is leading her up the garden path?
The story continues in new episodes of Neighbours which stream on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video from 7am, Monday-Thursday.