Soap Weekly: Alex reflects on the Hogmanay night showdown in River City

Soap highlights for the coming week from River City, Neighbours and Home and Away…

River City’s back from its Winter break. This week in Shieldinch During a counselling session with Roisin, Alex reflects on the fateful Hogmanay night showdown between his family and Harry Foulkes. On edge and anxious, Alex slowly opens up to Roisin.

A flashback to that night shows Harry at odds who to target – his right hand man, Des or his son, Tyler. Eddie desperately tries to save Tyler, doubling down on his accusations against Des, painting him as the rat in the organisation. Unbeknownst to Des, Eddie has gone one step further and planted incriminating evidence on him, sealing his fate forever.

At the police station, Eddie is interviewed by DCI Douglas and DC Allan but remains tight-lipped about what happened, sticking to the story it was an unknown shooter. At the hospital, Eddie is stunned to see Tyler trying to discharge himself. He assures Tyler he’s safe now and there will be no further repercussions – however, Alex is not so sure.

Back home, Alex is shocked to see how paranoid Lenny has become, fearing his father’s mental health has taken a turn for the worse.

Later in the week Conor’s stunned when Chloe announces their casual arrangement is over. Having witnessed the tense exchange, Maggie encourages Chloe to open up about what’s going on. However, when nausea suddenly overcomes Chloe, she’s forced to reveal the truth – she’s pregnant.

Maggie is taken aback when Chloe reveals Conor doesn’t know and, worse still, she deliberately got pregnant without telling him. Chloe paints Conor in a bad light, insisting he’s not mature enough to be a dad but Maggie quickly teases the truth out of her. Shocked by Chloe’s deceitfulness, Maggie urges her to come clean and tell Conor about the pregnancy.

Elsewhere, Drew’s delighted when opportunity comes calling – he’s been offered training at a football club. He turns to Gillian to get painkillers to help him with an old injury before he starts training but is dismayed when she refuses to issue a prescription, telling him he’ll need a proper medical consultation first. Concerned this could hold up his football career, Drew takes matters into his own hands to get the drugs he needs.

At the hospital, Gillian and Mulvaney wonder whether Jonathon is faking his amnesia but hide their shared suspicions from Mikey.

Also this week, Sam is stunned after Seb declines his offer to be best man at his wedding to Caitlin. Determined to make things right, Caitlin pleads with Seb to do the right thing even if it means putting aside his hurt and anger towards her.

River City Monday and Wednesday at 10pm on BBC Scotland, Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm on BBC One Scotland and across the UK on the iPlayer

It’s Valentine’s Day, and despite Leo and Krista sharing a romantic date at the Yorokobi, Fallon grows more concerned about what her sister feels towards Sebastian. Whilst Fallon works at the Yorokobi Valentine’s Day event, Byron accidentally hits a sore spot about her love life and when Krista offers support, Fallon claims she didn’t have any significant relationships in Mykonos. Krista gets an apology letter from Sebastian, who used some money she gave him to check into a Sydney rehab facility.

On a mission to find out what happened to Chelsea, Cara brings Nicolette along to chat to her cousin Maddy. Unexpectedly, Nicolette and Maddy hit it off. While Cara and Remi enjoy a romantic Valentine’s Day evening, Nicolette works a little espionage and seduces Maddy. Her hard work pays off when she finds exactly what she’s looking for the next morning – one of Chelsea’s perfume bottles, with a thank you note on it. Cara confronts her and Maddy finally admits she helped Chelsea give birth but she’s moved on now and she isn’t sure where she is. Cara leaves her with one final request – pass a message onto Chelsea for her. She’s sorry.

When Jane collects Aaron from the hospital, she admits she’s struggling to find places where she and Clint can be alone together. He suggests using her own house during the day – Aaron will make sure he’s out. Jane and Clint meet up for an assignation only to be interrupted by Terese who saw them enter and is keen to talk about methods to bust the thief. This crisis is ramped up when more chemicals go missing. Jane wonders who it is and Aaron points out that it might be Clint. Jane shoots this down but she’s unsettled by the suggestion – is it Clint?

A hurt Leo fronts up to Krista, questioning why she kept her kiss with Sebastian secret and wanting to read the letter Sebastian gave her. Though Krista implores Leo to understand the kiss was one-sided on Sebastian’s behalf – and that the details of the letter are to do with his rehabilitation, and therefore private to her – Leo struggles to forgive Krista for keeping the incident from him.

Nicolette is surprised when Maddy turns up at Harold’s, having forgiven Nicolette for her prior deception and now hoping to go on another date. A tempted Nicolette talks the idea over with Cara, who suggests Nicolette to turn Maddy down. It’s far too risky for Maddy and Nicolette to be seen together when they’re keeping secrets about Chelsea from Remi.

Max’s housemates are noticing his paranoia around food and drinks, thinking he’s taking Aaron’s drink spiking too personally. Still unwilling to tell them the truth, Max is constantly on edge and Holly suggests he take her spa session and relax. However, even then, Max feels he is being watched. When Roxy arrives, she can see all is not well and it doesn’t take much for him to confide in her. Meanwhile Sadie’s unimpressed with Andrew’s constant presence at the house. Unaware he’s really keeping an eye on Max, Sadie accuses him of being clingy and Max feels guilty that Andrew’s in the doghouse with his daughter because of him.

With Susan and Karl away, Terese is overwhelmed by her huge workload and calls on her bombshell niece, Roxy, to help her out for a few weeks. Roxy’s arrival is full of drama as Holly only just stops her from lighting the bar on fire in an attempt to make a ‘Flaming Roxy’. Holly and Roxy are off to a rocky start, but Terese and Nell are thrilled to have her around. She’s also a friendly ear for Max and her arrival promises fun and good times in Erinsborough.

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Remi gathers all his friends around. He has an announcement. Every good thing that’s ever happened in his life has happened because of the people currently gathered in front of him. And because of that, he tells them it’s only fair that he shares his inheritance with them all. After realising that he had met Tim back in his own rehab days, Justin puts two and two together. Given Theo’s recent troubles with addiction and how much of a role Valerie played in that, Justin has some concerns about Abigail. Fearing for Theo, he sits him down and tells him there’s something that he needs to know about the youngest Fowler sibling.

Abigail is ready for her first date with Theo, and she’s bursting with excitement. Levi is happy for her too. Little does she know, however, that Justin has gotten there before her to warn Theo about her past. Theo is aghast: Abigail is going to be here any minute. What is he supposed to say to her? Abigail arrives, and Theo plays it cool.

As they’re walking outside, though, he can’t help it. He asks her matter-of-factly if she has a drug problem. Abigail is taken aback, but quickly recovers. She tells Theo the truth: that she’s recovering, and she’s in the middle of turning her life around. Theo appreciates her honesty, but the question has already muddied the waters. Conflicted, he tells her that he really likes her – but if there’s anything he’s learned from getting out of his own addiction through counselling, he needs to set some boundaries. He tells Abigail he can’t do this.

Tane and Harper give Cash a stern but compassionate talking to. Cash is embarrassed by his actions. He tells his friends he needs some time to focus on himself and heads off to the police station to get some space. However, he’s barely settled in at his desk when he starts checking Tim’s Facebook, seeing if he can get any more information on him.

Bree is on a date with Remi when she gets a call from work – they want her to come in for a meeting tomorrow. Bree is hopeful, but she’s also apprehensive; she knows how hard it’s been, and she doesn’t want to put other patients at risk again if she goes back. Bree decides that she needs more leave – for everyone’s sake.

Remi gathers Justin and Theo at his place to discuss Lyrik’s future, and Theo’s place in it. Theo tells his friend that things are different now that he’s gotten his mechanic’s license – he has responsibilities here at the garage. Still, Remi encourages him to give things a go with Lyrik full-time; why don’t they just roll the dice and see how it goes? Theo thinks on this for a while. Eventually, he agrees, excited – he’s all in, but just for a month.

Xander is conflicted: he doesn’t want to be far from Dana. But Dana is adamant that he chooses his future. Besides, it’s only six weeks; time will fly by. The morning comes for Xander to leave. They tell each other that they love one another. And with that, Xander drives away. Dana is in tears. This is the first time he’s told her he loves her, and now he’s gone.

Eden and Tim are out for a nice morning walk when they come face to face with Cash – again. They escape into Tim’s car to avoid him, and John witnesses the whole thing from across the street. Consumed by his quest to dig up dirt on Tim, Cash retreats back into his house to continue his obsessive stalking – but John, concerned, knocks on the door and invites himself in. John tries to intervene, but Cash politely asks him to leave. Cash finds Tim’s therapy website and scrolls through the reviews he spots one from a woman named Nerida Mullins, finds her on Facebook, and shoots her a message: “Can we talk about Tim Russell?”

Home and Away airs 1:45pm on Channel 5, Monday to Friday and at 6pm on 5STAR with first-look screenings of the following edition at 6:30 pm. The series also streams on My5.