AUS Television: Offspring, Episode 1.11

OffspringSeries One, Episode Eleven
Original Air Date:  November 14, 2010

Nina and Alice Havel have their meeting.  Nina and Mick lament over telling Billie about the one night they spent together.  Cherie finally comes clean about Ray to Sam but he has a surprise for her of his own.  Billie learns the truth about Nina and Mick.

Nina is working herself up to calling Alice Havel and she's imagining all the different ways the conversation could happen.  She's even got her own cheering section in her mind giving her the courage to pick up the phone.  The first time Nina calls in her head, Alice calls the meeting off, the second time, she calls her spineless.  When Nina really calls, Alice is pleasant and gives Nina a date and place where she thinks they could meet and tells her she hasn't told Chris about them meeting because he's had a lot on his mind.  Nina wants to call the meeting off but she can't seem to get the words in to do so thus causing the cheering section to express their displeasure with her handling of the matter.

Billie is still upset over everything that happened with Stacy and the baby.  She spends time at work thinking about it and is short with callers to the agency.  She viciously cleans the office windows while Cherie, who has dropped by with Ray, informs her she's feeling terrible because she still hasn't told Fireman Sam about Ray.  After listening to Cherie for a few seconds, Billie spits out "Cherie, life IS pain.  Deal with it!" and goes back inside, throws a few things into her purse and leaves. 

Jimmy is moving out of Geraldine's house but he still wants to leave a few things "in storage" there.  Mick, who is helping him move, gets a call from Billie.  When he tells her he's at her mum's she wants him to meet her at the front, right now.  She drives up and orders him to get in the car.  When he does, she pulls the car off and orders him to stay put while she gets out and walks around for a few seconds.  She gets back in the car and tells him she loves him, wants to be a mum and it's got to be him.  He's so poor and he's got this weird water smell coming out of his house and he's got fat genes so they'd have fat children but she doesn't want kids with anyone else.  She asks him if he still loves her and he replies that he's never going to stop.  She apologizes for the honesty, but, she had to say it and asks if there is anything he wants to tell her (!).

Nina and Chris perform an ultrasound on Kim and everything is looking great with her baby.  Kim feels she's turning into 'nightmare patient' which Nina laughs off as Kim runs down all the conditions and patients that keeps going through her head.  Nina gets a call from Mick and excuses herself while Chris comforts Kim but kind of falls short of actually doing so.Cherie meets Fireman Sam for lunch and she is surprised when he tells her he has been wanting to say something to her, a confession of sorts.  He goes on to say that in the late 90's he was a member of a male strip review called "Man Up".  They spent three years touring parts of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and there are still some pictures and press  (about a steroid scandal in Belarus, nonetheless) online about it and it is a chapter in his life that's long over.  It's all fine with her and he promises to never omit anything that would affect them from there on out.

Mick and Nina meet and they sit in her car because inside the building or at a cafe would look like they were having an affair.  He wants to tell Billie about the one night they had together but Nina doesn't want him to.  He feels guilty and wants everything out in the open.  Billie calls while they are talking and Nina ducks down in the seat as if Billie is somewhere nearby to see her.  She reluctantly takes the call and Billie tells her about how she's back with Mick.  During a quiet moment in the call, Mick's phone rings.  He jumps out of the car as Billie is asking what she heard.  Jimmy is calling Mick complaining about how Billie will not let him move in with him.  Billie ends her call with Nina by telling her Jimmy will be moving in with her.  Mick insists they have to "rip the band aid off" but Nina is still reluctant.  She eventually agrees but stipulates it has to be her that tells Billie.  Mick agrees but Nina must tell Billie that night.

While walking in the park with Fireman Sam, Cherie, after a few tense minutes, tells Sam about Ray.  On the way up to her flat, Nina works over in her mind what she is going to say to Billie.  She arrives home to find Billie, Cherie and Sam sitting and talking so apparently everything went fine between Cherie and Fireman Sam!  Jimmy is going on and on to Mick about finding a place to live while Mick anxiously awaits word from Nina that she told Billie about their one night stand.  A call from Conservation Victoria puts him on edge as he thought it was Nina and when a knock sounds at the door, he gets even worse.  He has Jimmy go to the kitchen while he answers the door.  The girl from the medical study ("umbrella girl" er "parasol girl") is there with a handful of Mad Magazines with time for "four separate sessions over six hours" with Jimmy.  Mick falls asleep on the couch downstairs and is awakened by "parasol girl" leaving and Jimmy begging for her number but the most she'll budge is for an email address.

Mick finally gets the call from Nina he's been waiting for for hours.  The girls spent a couple of hours talking and doing Google image searches after Sam left for the night.  Then, Billie launched into a workshop on Nina's love life.  After Cherie left, the sisters watched music videos.  Billie told Nina not to stress about men.  Billie was at peace and Nina didn't want to hurt her so she didn't tell Billie anything.  Mick is going to see Billie right now and tell her.

Nina starts thinking of how things are going to play out when Mick does talk to Billie.  She has the idea of beating him to Billie but changes her mind.  Calling isn't a viable option, either.  As she's obsessing, a call comes in from Alice Havel.  Nina is late for their meeting. 

Darcy welcomes Mick with a big hug when he arrives at Proudman Realty.  He's quite happy that Billie and Mick are back together and even suggests they have a family jam session or two.  Billie arrives and wants to take Mick to look at their dream home.

Nina arrives at the meeting with Alice and hits the car next to her with her car door.  She tries buffing the spot out with her fingers but that doesn't work, of course.  Once seated with Alice, she wants to focus on one crisis at a time and envisions Billie shooting up the place Rambo-style angry about her cheating sister.  She spends more time worrying over her own problems with Billie than she does paying attention to Alice.

Billie and Mick go through the house and Billie is criticising every single thing she comes across and making sure the other couple looking at the house hears every word she says.  She wants Mick to go downstairs and pretend he got a phone call about noise in the area.  Billie, wanting to appear to be talking to someone about the house, calls Nina, who doesn't answer thinking the conversation will be something bad.  Billie sends Nina a message and Nina excuses herself from the meeting because of a family emergency. 

Nina starts to back her car out and Alice runs back tell her about her purse being on the roof of the car.  She ends up with the car on Alice's foot.  Alice is in the car and Nina's on the road again and she calls Chris to tell him about the little accident.  Chris is perhaps most surprised by the fact Nina and Alice were having coffee together.  Nina, after once again seeing Rambillie shooting at her, checks in on Alice.  She overhears Chris and Alice talking about the meeting with Nina and sees Chris give Alice a quick kiss on the forehead.  After a quick chat with Chris, Nina goes in to see Alice who is still surprisingly nice about everything.  When Alice asks how the family situation was, Nina starts talking and doesn't stop when she should and ends up telling her about having sex with Mick. 

Mick wants to talk to Billie but she is dead set on getting Darcy to write her a reference using a different surname.  Nina seems to be able to talk to Alice so easily.  She continues telling her about her encounter with Mick.  Alice says she has nothing on her as she walked out on her one year old.  Mick calls Nina to tell her he couldn't drop the bomb on Billie about their night together. 

That night, when Nina goes home, Billie is excited about the house she found and wants to share it with Nina.  Nina comes right out and tells Billie the truth about the night she slept with Mick.  Nina is devastated over what she's done.  Billie, after asking her questions, gets up and goes upstairs.  In Nina's mind, she comes back down with a smile on her face and suggests they go over to Mick's and give him ratings out of 10.  When she really comes down, she doesn't say anything to Nina or look at her.  Nina wants to talk but Billie tells her "can't look at you right now" and leaves. 

I really hope things can work out with Billie and Mick and I love them together!  Mick is such an awesome guy and he's perfect for Billie.  He's the stability she needs.  Billie is pretty hurt right now and, from the previews for the finale, it looks like she's really hurt.  Only time will tell if her relationships with both Nina and Mick will suffer or survive.  I was surprised at how well things went with Alice.  She was so nice with Nina and so understanding of all of Nina's little quirks.  I think the two women have more in common than just Chris Havel.  Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't develop a friendship in some way. 

This show was a great build-up to this weeks movie-length season finale.  It set the stage for what will, no doubt, be some great fireworks and emotional moments.

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