AUS Television: Offspring, Episode 1.9

Offspring
Series One, Episode Nine
Original Air Date:  October 24, 2010

Alice, Chris' absent wife arrives to see him.  Billie learns that her decision to have Stacy stay with Mick was a bad choice.  Stacy's actions lead Billie to do something that shows how much she still cares for Mick.  Nina makes some decisions of her own.  Cherie has a day for herself.

We pick up exactly where we left off last week with Nina coming to work and Kim stopping her to tell her about Chris' wife being there, then Chris seeing her.

Nina envisions Chris walking to Alice and kissing her passionately while everyone looking on claps wildly in approval as she is standing there, her heart breaking.  She decides to think of something else.  That something else:  Chris introducing the two women then asking "so, who's up for a three way?".  Dr. Clegg immediately pipes up "ME!" and Chris shoots him down. Clegg then offers to hold the camera, then the leash.  Nina then wonders "what can you hope for at a time like this?".  Kim goes into labor screaming "Nina!  My baby's coming early!" and chaos ensues. 

When things play out for real, Chris walks to Alice who asks if there is somewhere they can talk.  They go to Alice's hotel room where after some small talk, he asks her where she's been.  She returns the question on him wondering why he moved to Melbourne to live with her mother.  She tells him she doesn't expect anything, doesn't know how things are there and she doesn't have any rights and whatever he says goes. 

Darcy takes Ray to work with him so Cherie can have a day to herself. 

Jimmy tells his mother that he's discovered $2,500 and she wants more details.  After shocking him with a phrase she thinks means something completely different, he tells her he is doing a paid medical trial which she objects to.  Starting the next day, he will be at the trial for five days. 

Mick is watching rats play basketball while Billie and Stacy talk in the garden.  Billie admits that things didn't work between her and Mick and Stacy asks if she minds if she has a crack at him.  Billie gives her blessing.  She asks Stacy what her plans are and how long she will be staying.  The answer she gets is sharp and somewhat rude that she isn't there to sponge off them, if that's what Billie is worried about.

Nina arrives at the nurses station to find Kim and Zara laughing about the "funny looking baby in 205".  After asking them if they ever do any work, Nina goes on rounds--again--while imagining that Alice is telling Chris she has come to reclaim him and destroy of the happiness of that woman he thinks he likes (meaning Nina, of course).  Alice then turns into a vampire and bites Chris.

Alice and Chris have lunch and she tells him she would like to see their daughter.  He doesn't want her to because he doesn't want her visiting Lucy to have an ill affect on the child.  He takes a photo out of his wallet for her and tells her that she is talking.

Cherie is out and about on her own (and gets a smile from a fella!) when Darcy calls.  He assures her everything is alright and that he'll call if he needs her and to enjoy her day.  Billie arrives as he is hanging up and he asks her to help him undo the baby carrier he is wearing as he's got to go to the bathroom and can't get it undone.  Geraldine calls Darcy and asks him what the phrase she dropped on Jimmy earlier meant.  When Darcy doesn't answer her the way she wants, she hangs up.

Kim tells Nina she thinks both Alice and Brendan are bonkers.  After Nina tells her she has completely moved on from Brendan, Kim questions why she is still married to him.  Nina talks with her mother about failed marriages.  Geraldine asks Nina what the phrase means and still doesn't get an answer.  Nina's mum tells her the situation with her and Darcy is different from Nina and Brendan.  Darcy was never 100% Geraldines while Brendan was exclusively Nina's and she didn't like that.  Chris Havel is comfortable because he isn't completely available to Nina.

At Mick's, Stacy takes one of his guitars out and plays around with it.  He tells her the guitar was left to him by his father after giving her a short history of that kind of instrument. 

Chris tells Alice there are things neither of them are saying and he doesn't want to fight with her so he leaves.

Ray needs a diaper change but Darcy is busy with a client leaving Billie to have to change the diaper.  She gets the diaper off only to find it is fine.  As she picks his legs up Ray lets lose all over her blouse.  She starts screaming and runs to Mick's house screaming "I need a shirt!  I need a shirt, now!"  She changes into one of Mick's shirts and asks about Stacy.  Mick tells her Stacy has taken his guitar and gone angering Billie.  Mick tells her to let it go but she is very angry, not only at Stacy, but at herself for believing her.  She leaves Mick's in an angry huff.

Chris, back at the hospital, wants to talk with Nina.  They stand outside kissing but Nina feels weird about it all things considered.  Nina asks him about details of what happened with Alice.  He tells her he doesn't want to be with Alice.  They kiss again and she pulls away telling him she will give him all the space and time he needs.  He doesn't want that but she does. 

Nina later talks about what happened with Chris with Cherie over A LOT of wine.  At the pub, Cherie sees the same man who smiled at her while she was out earlier that day and the two share a smile.  Nina wants to be more like Cherie:  fun, gorgeous and fearless.  Nina feels she gets nowhere because her past keeps crashing back on her and Cherie says that the past is what Nina's problem is.  She shouldn't live in it.

When Jimmy arrives home, Geraldine says she will give him the $2,500 not to go to the medical trial. 

Billie arrives at Nina's and finds the door ajar.  She goes in calling for her sister and finds that Stacy is there.  Billie grabs hold of her and wrestles her to the floor.  Stacy "has debts and owes people money".  She has already sold the guitar and the money is gone.  She tells Billie she's lucky because she has people who care about her.  Nina arrives drunk and goes off to bed leaving Billie and Stacy to continue talking.  Billie questions how much money Stacy needs and tells her she will get her out of trouble then she's gone and she will leave Nina and Mick alone. 

Geraldine calls and awakens Nina the next morning telling her she needs her to come over now.  She had given Jimmy something to make him sleep and he is now unconscious.  Nina checks him out and he's alright but will sleep for several more hours.  Billie arrives and immediately knows about her mother's sleeping potions.  She recalls the cordials and suspicious chocolate slices or "something herbal" (like what poor Jimmy got the night before!) Geraldine had given them when they got in the car for trips as kids.  Her new boyfriend arrives and sees Jimmy remarking that "he was like that for most of year 10".  Darcy is the next of the gang to arrive and knows Geraldine has been giving "the old sleeping potion" out again.

While everyone else has a cup of tea, Nina leaves to see Brendan.  While she is waiting, she calls Mick, who is struggling to get dressed, to remind him "never, never, never, never, never".  Brendan is surprised to see her and gives her a tour of the facility he's living in.  She sees his "positivity wall" that is covered with photos of the two of them together.  He knows she has a reason for being there and she surely does.  She wants a divorce.  Chris isn't the reason.  She wants to stop living in the past and start making a new future for herself.  Nina has to leave the facility because it's been over an hour that she's been with Brendan.  Before she leaves, he gives her a letter to read but she cannot read it there.  Nina calls Chris and tells him she really wants to see him once she arrives at work. 

While Cherie is out walking, she again sees the man she shared a smile with at the pub.  He's a fireman and this time they share a "hello".  Geraldine goes to lunch with Colin and, as she has with everyone else, asks him the definition to the phrase of the day.  He knows but he will not tell her.  When Jimmy gets up, he isn't upset about missing the drug trial because there is another one starting next week. 

Billie goes to the pawn shop where Stacy got rid of Mick's guitar to get it back for him but finds someone had already bought it.  She takes another guitar back to Mick telling him she can never replace his but this one is a bit like his.  He starts to smile.  He asks her what she paid (a couple of thousand) and he offers to pay for it because he knows she can't afford it.  She refuses to let him do that.  Mick isn't wildly angry about the loss of the guitar because, while it was true that his father gave him the guitar, but the true gift was that his father loved him and that is something Stacy never could have stolen.  They end up kissing.

Nina reads Brendan's letter.  He's been doing a lot of thinking and most of it has been about her.  He sees that it is time to let her go because loving someone doesn't mean you are the best partner for them.  As she looks out in thought after reading the letter, Chris stands behind her watching her.

Am I the only one who just loves Jimmy?  He's so funny and charming.  He is bound and determined to get into a medical test study no matter what.  I guess Geraldine is going to be doing a lot of drugging!  Looks like Cherie has caught the eye of a charming fireman!  I wonder if anything will be happening there?  It looks like Nina is finally starting to clean up some of the mess in her life and go after what she really wants.  You go, Nina!  And speaking of Nina, can she fantasize or can she fantasize?  I could not stop laughing as she ran down every possible scenario that could happen between Chris and Alice. 

I knew the second Stacy looked at Mick after he had told her about his guitar that she was going to steal it.  I don't like Stacy and I hope we've seen the last of her. I loved everything that happened between Billie and Mick.  She cared so much about him that she spent the entire day trying to find his guitar and when she couldn't, she spent money she didn't have for a replacement hoping to make up for her mistake with Stacy.  Mick, as it turns out, has every single priority in the right place as he valued his father's love more than a worldly possession (is Mick the perfect man or what??) and was incredibly touched that Billie cared enough about him to do all she did.  It's about time Billie and Mick make up, don't you think?

Next week:  Nina knows that even though the situation between she and Chris isn't perfect she is crazy about him.  But, she receives a phone call that will change everything.

Offspring airs on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on Ten Network.
Official Site:  http://ten.com.au/offspring.htm
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530541/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-25992