Neighbours

When Dan confronts Lucas at his apartment he asks him to leave Erinsborough. However, Lucas is not about to be the loser in this game and a scuffle follows. When Lucas ends up dangling over the edge of the rooftop apartment, Dan pulls him to safety. Afterwards, Lucas reveals the true cost of the motorbike accident Dan caused all those years ago. Guilt-ridden Dan is too confronted by the truth to apologise and the brothers fall back into old patterns. Libby stays true to form and ends things with Lucas as well. But Lucas hasn’t finished with Libby, Dan or Erinsborough. Not by a long shot.

Steve and Miranda fake a happy reconciliation to get Bridget to move back home and back on track wit her school work. Both privately pine for their sham reunion to become the real thing. That is until Nicola moves next door in to number thirty, prompted by good Samaritan Karl who ignores the gossip-mongers to extend a helping hand. Karl’s good deed outrages Susan who fears her husband may have succumbed to Nicola’s charms. The Parkers are less than thrilled by their new neighbour, will their marriage survive Nicola living so close?

As Declan and Bridget debate making their relationship a whole lot more serious, Rachel is determined not to burden friends and family in the aftermath of her devastating affair with Angus. Putting on a brave front, harassment at school by Justin and his band of followers tests her resolve, but she tries to remain cool. However her mask falls when a surprise gift arrives. When she learns it is from Ty, Rachel rejects his present and his gesture.

Then the creepy messages from an unknown source start. While everyone is at the footy club slave auction, Rachel opts to babysit for the night, to avoid any awkwardness between her and Ty. As the night progresses Rachel feels someone watching her, while more texts arrive. When all of a sudden the lights turn out, Rachel attacks who she thinks is an intruder, hitting them over the head with a cricket bat. However, it’s Ty returning home through the back door. When Ty regains consciousness he finds a furious Rachel accusing him of being her stalker. Devastated, he decides to retreat from their friendship.

The fun of the footy club slave auction proves an antidote to Libby’s man angst despite the fact she is clearly still on both Dan and Lucas’ radar. Declan faces fierce competition for Bridget when a bidding war breaks out between him and Josh. Hurt by his love for Bridget, Donna sabotages Josh’s bid to win Bridget. Josh retreats to lick his wounds and Declan is left fuming. Ringo’s self esteem issues flare up under the spectre of the Slave Auction and Carmella intervenes at the last minute to assuage Ringo’s insecurities. Miranda and Nicola enter a bidding war over Steve, which Miranda is determined she will win.

Josh drives a wedge between Bridget and Declan when he uses information from Donna to trigger Declan to lie about their relationship. Josh makes sure Declan’s implication that his relationship with Bridget has gone to the next level gets back to her, which leads to them splitting up. Just what Josh wanted!