THIS ARTICLE REFERENCES THE UNMISSABLE DRAMA THAT OCCURRED DURING THE EPISODE THAT AIRED ON TUESDAY OCTOBER 24TH 2023
Hankies at the ready, today’s Neighbours is a tear-jerker.
Following the revelation that Nell Rebecchi doesn’t approve of her father’s marriage to Terese and has been attempting to sabotage their relationship, we see the Rebecchis heading to a family therapy session.
In a superb piece of continuity, the family were seated in a familiar office, the same one where Terese and Paul sat in 2021 when trying to salvage their marriage. The session was also held by the same therapist, Rhonda del Rubio, played by Rebekah Robertson, the real-life mother of Georgie Stone (Mackenzie Hargreaves).
In an outstanding performance, Ayisha Salem-Towner, as Nell, discussed the last time she had therapy, following the death of her mother, Sonya.
“She was the most amazing person in the world”, said Nell. We then go back to 2019 to see Callum, Nell and Hugo playing on the beach.
“Sometimes when I close my eyes, I can still see her. She is sitting on the beach with my dad”
“That’s beautiful”, replies Rhonda.
“Kinda, It was the day she died. I was building sandcastles. Dad said she wanted us to have a nice time as a family. I didn’t realise that it was the last time I’d ever see her, to get the chance to talk to her. I just kept building sandcastles and by the time I stopped, she was gone.”
At this point Nell is tearful, struggling to not choke on her words. I suspect most of the audience would be in the same situation. It is the first time that we have seen Nell talk about the death of her mother and how it has affected her. It is confirmed later in the episode that Nell is now 14. Changing from a girl to a young woman, dealing with the loss of her mother, then the subsequent loss of her stepmother, Melanie and seeing her father jump into a relationship with Terese, Nell has a lot of emotion bubbling under the surface.
Next, Rhonda sits with Terese to find out how she feels about her relationship with Nell. We see her calm and vulnerable, in stark contrast to her confident businesswoman persona.
“I feel like I’m hurting her by just existing, I’m not Sonya, I’m not Melanie and I can’t bring them back and I can’t fix it. I don’t even know if it can be (fixed).”
Finally, we see Toadie, filled with emotion, clearly devastated that he is having to go through all of this with his precious daughter. When asked if he is aware of how Nell thinks about the day Sonya died and how she wishes she had known it was the last moments she would have with her, we see a flashback to the fateful moment when Toadie realised that Sonya had passed.
Almost lost for words, Toadie’s eyes continue to fill with tears. “I spent much of my life convincing myself that Nell was just so little then. She is my daughter. I should have known what’s going on with her.”
Toadie realises that he may have underestimated how the events following Sonya’s death have affected his young daughter.
Later in the day we see the family back on Ramsay Street, in a more light-hearted mood planning a night in front of the TV, watching Nell’s favourite movie, Nacho Libre. She enthusiastically invites Terese to join them and it looks, at least on the surface, that the cracks in the new Rebecchi-Willis family are starting to repair.
But with Sharon Davies arriving very soon and we know that Melanie will be back in Erinsborough before too long, a happy ending is not guaranteed.
New episodes of Neighbours drop at 7am, Monday to Thursday, on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video.