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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 200744" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 233-240   (continued)Carly’s stint in the city is apparently over. It was a lot shorter than I remember, but this could well be due to the pace at which I’m watching.Just as Tom, Pippa and Frank recently coming to see Bobby in hospital felt quite healing, so did Pippa and Steven’s visit to hospitalised Carly embody a kind of redemption for her wayward character. There are lots of tearful hugs with Pippa, and when Pippa leaves the room Carly tells Steven he was right and she was wrong - something she would have struggled to do in different circumstances:However, whereas Bobby’s visit, with its callbacks to the Pilot served as a reminder of how far she had come, Carly’s seems to demonstrate that in many respects she is still very much a work in progress who is still struggling to find a healthy coping strategy to deal with past traumas. And when Steven leaves Carly alone for a moment, she whips out a Sue Ellen Ewing staple accessory:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/oXdqlg.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Assertive Pippa - the lioness that comes out when one of her cubs is threatened - makes a welcome return when Pippa goes to deal with Carly’s erstwhile roommate - and drug supplier - Annabelle Hayes:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/zEBHGN.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />When we return to them, Pippa is packing Carly’s case and Annabelle is flushing her stash:One question that sprung to mind is why did Annabelle wait and then only flush her drugs seconds before deciding the police weren’t coming. It’s one of those soapy bits of business that’s necessary to quickly give us an overview of what’s happened but doesn’t actually make that much sense if you stop and think about the logistics. All the same, it’s always great to see this side to Pippa. There was something quite dark about it, and it wasn’t just the lighting.Carly’s fear that Pippa would face repercussions for crossing Annabelle reminded me of when Beryl Palmer dealt took it upon herself to deal with Leanne Watson’s nasty friends, only to be the target of their revenge. I can’t remember if anything more comes from Pippa’s meddling here. But being a soap that frequently likes to cross the “t”s, I like to think it will.At the moment, though. Annabelle is the least of Carly’s problems. When Tom gives Carly a drink to toast her return, she runs to her room then makes a confession:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/CNSnbf.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Tom takes Carly to see Alcoholism Expert Dr Phil who naturally analyses her and instructs her to go cold turkey. Surely that’s a great strain to put on someone’s body that medication could make easier. I’m not quite sure of the reasoning here: Is it a sign of the times? Lack of knowledge on Phil’s part? Has he decided that Carly isn’t physically dependent? Or maybe it’s just the writers wanting to show the consequences of alcohol abuse and thus deter. Anyway, three days of cold turkey it is.I really like the scenes that take place overnight while Carly is going through the withdrawal process. Tom and Pippa taking turns to spend time with her and crossing paths on the landing. Steven trying to explain cold turkey to Sally (this had its own consequences when Sally told Alison Patterson’s sister and word spread through Summer Bay like wildfire that Carly was on drugs, leading Carly to ask Celia to spread the word that Carly was an alcoholic not a junkie. The second time Celia’s gossipy nature has been so appropriated recently). There’s a really nice scene where Pippa sits at Carly’s bedside on a hard chair, asleep, clearly exhausted from being with her all night, only for Carly to wake her moaning and Pippa springs straight back into parent mode by holding the bucket for Carly to throw up into.<img src="https://i.vgy.me/7u5oU9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />There’s an ugliness to the scenes with Carly. Obviously the detox scenes are nicely unglamorous (although the Brookside viewer in me wanted them to be just that bit more raw than they were). But the ugliness is in the character of Carly herself. I share Tom and Pippa’s weariness with Carly’s tendency to propel herself from drama to more drama. From frying pans to fires. And all with the same victimy whining that the current drama is the worst thing to happen to her and she’s learnt her lesson. And I share their pangs of guilt for feeling this way. After all, we’ve spent time with Carly and we’ve grown very fond of her, and we appreciate not all her problems are her own fault. But it’s frustrating nonetheless.There’s even a scene in which Pippa as good as tells Matt that Carly is holding onto him by emotional blackmail and suggests he needs to be direct with her. It’s very iron fist in velvet glove and seems a little cold. But as I’m discovering this time round, there’s far more to Pippa than her cheery petiteness would have you believe.In keeping with his human Ken doll image, Matt’s current niche on the series is to be arm candy for someone he appears to be dating but actually with an ulterior motive. And so he helps Roo deter Martin’s advances by pretending he’s fallen for her. He helps plan revenge against Alison by pretending he’s interested in her (the plan being to dump her once she’s invested. Which is pretty nasty whichever way you look at it). And he stays with Carly to give her hope, only to dump her once she, too, is invested:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/65aGtA.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/v5nFW2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/puHLLa.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I found this an interesting and quite touching scene. It's got the lot: soapiness; teen angst; brutality; rawness; fear; endings. Matt’s actions are harsh and he probably does a great deal of damage to Carly. But there’s a truth to it. Not only do his words highlight the difficulty people close to Carly have in dealing with endless drama, but it even comes across that Matt genuinely cares for Carly, and finds doing this difficult despite (or perhaps because of) her needy clinginess. I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it, nor which character I felt more sympathy towards. Which is fantastic.continued... </blockquote>

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