We take a look at what’s coming up on Home and Away over the rest of 2023, with a medical emergency for Mackenzie, the return of Vita Nova, a court case, and a big event for the season finale.
With Ziggy and Dean’s tragic goodbye, Mali’s entrance, Nikau’s departure for New York, and the recent arrival of Harper and Dana, 2023 has already been a busy year.
We’ve also seen Kahu’s duplicity, Mackenzie’s heartbreaking reunion with ex-fiancé Gabe, Andrew’s indoctrination plot, a massive explosion, and Roo’s brief absence.
With less than four months until the season finale of Home and Away in 2023, and thanks to eagle-eyed fans and some sneak peaks from the cast and crew, we’ve already gotten a few glimpses of what’s in store in the closing months of the year.
Expect the return of a now-famous gang, a special event, another tragedy for Mackenzie, and a court case involving the show’s two most recent additions. In addition, after a nearly two-year hiatus, we intend to return to a famous on-screen site in 2024.
Vita Nova to return for UK finale?
The ‘away’ part of Home and Away has returned in recent months, with cast and crew making their way to Taree, a Mid-North Coast town around 250 kilometers north of Sydney.
Ada Nicodemou (Leah) and James Stewart (Justin) were both noticed by locals during the special shoot, which took place in May at an abandoned ice cream factory.
One such resident, Rebecca, was lucky enough to grab photos with both Ada and Jimmy, and told us that the scenes involved a heavy police presence.
Another admirer, Debbie, was also happy to get a photo with Ada, and had heard that the scenes were ‘cult linked’. With Ada wearing little to no make-up for the scenes, it was speculated that Leah was involved in a hostage situation.
This year, Justin and Leah have come into contact with the renowned Vita Nova cult after rescuing 17-year-old Andrew (Joshua Hewson) from their hands.
Leader Margot (Mandy McElhinney) was last seen being hauled off to the hospital for a mental evaluation after being arrested, and when Justin subsequently attended her trial off-screen, we learned that she had been found guilty of all counts and Vita Nova had been dissolved.
Naturally, given that Summer Bay residents’ foes always tend to raise their heads somewhere down the line, we were skeptical of this claim. We also know how the show enjoys a good old fashioned dramatic battle in an abandoned structure, so the hint of these sequences being cult-related seems to fit.
Furthermore, the date of the shoot suggests that, while the episodes in issue would show in Australia in early October, they would most likely subsequently air on Channel 5 in November as part of the UK’s 2023 season finale (like with last year’s Heather cliffhanger).
While Andrew is now comfortably residing in the city with his half-sister Tegan (Sophia Forrest), is Vita Nova stalling before attempting to exact revenge on Justin?
Two weeks later, crew posts on social media suggested that the program had returned north for a shoot at Glen Davis, a historic mining town 120 kilometers northwest of Sydney in the gorgeous Capertee Valley.
The shoot looked to revolve around, you guessed it, the former Glen Davis Shale Oil works, a massive abandoned factory.3
Although crew members posted photos of the stunning surroundings, no cast members were visible in the posts.
Courtroom scenes with Harper and Dana
After we first mentioned their impending arrivals in our last Arrivals and Departures article in May, Aussie viewers have finally seen the debut of sisters Harper and Dana Matheson (Jessica Redmayne and Ally Harris).
We previously reported that the couple had been sighted filming sequences with Irene (Lynne McGranger) and Cash (Nicholas Cartwright). It has now been revealed that Harper is an old acquaintance of Cash’s, and she has moved into one of the Beach House’s spare rooms in response to Irene’s request for a lodger.
Unbeknownst to Irene though, Dana has also moved in, via the infamous downstairs bedroom window used as ‘secret’ entrypoint by much-loved characters of the past.
Their arrival has revealed that Dana is a fugitive, and the pair has traveled to Summer Bay in the hopes that old buddy Cash can assist them.
According to a call sheet found on a crew member’s Instagram account, Harper will be sharing scenes with Cash and Irene in the police station, as well as a new character titled ‘Detective Madden’ (or something similar). Detectives aren’t usually stationed near Yabbie Creek and must be called in from the city for significant cases.
The same week, Lynne McGranger teased a photo from the police station with Nick Cartwright and an obscured Jessica Redmayne, calling her a “exciting new character.”
Next week’s spoilers suggest that the siblings’ past will not remain hidden for long, with a synopsis for next Thursday’s episode revealing: “Harper and Dana’s secret is sprung!”
Whatever Dana’s transgression, it looks that she will face the music, with a video posted by Shane Withington on X (Twitter) in mid-June showing both Dana and her sister in courtroom scenes alongside John and Irene.
In the short video showing the cast and crew on set at an unknown location, a blink and miss it moment saw an actor wearing magistrate robes whilst chatting with Shane, Lynne, Jessica and Ally.
Mackenzie is suffering from a heart attack?
The past few years have seen tragedy and/or crisis alternate between the long-suffering Mackenzie (Emily Weir) and Felicity (Jacqui Purvis), and with Flick having recently suffered through the trauma of an assault, it appears that the focus may return to Mac later this year with a serious health crisis.
An audition piece for a new doctor, posted publicly online and seen by Back to the Bay, reveals that the Salt owner could potentially be about to suffer a heart attack!
Whilst we must stress that there’s no guarantee that the storyline will play out, it would be unusual for a fake scene to be written especially for an audition, with the casting process usually utilising actual upcoming scripts for the character, or old scenes from years gone by.
In the scene at hand, Mackenzie is at the hospital, where a male doctor—presumably a heart specialist—pays her a visit to explain the circumstances of her shock collapse, which we’ve included a transcript of below.
DOCTOR
So, has anyone told you what has happened to you yet?
MACKENZIE
I had a heart attack.
DOCTOR
Technically yes, but there’s a little bit more to it than that. You had what’s called a spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Basically, that means there was a tear in one of the blood vessels in your heart.
MACKENZIE
Right…
DOCTOR
And when that happens, the heart muscle starts to die. Which is why you collapsed.
MACKENZIE
But why… I mean, why did it happen?
DOCTOR
We don’t know why, it’s extremely rare. So, I guess that means you’re part of a very exclusive club now.
MACKENZIE
I’d rather frequent flyer points…
The story then continues with the doctor informing Mac that she will have a long road to recovery, as she immediately begins to feel excited about having a business to run.
The doctor tries to calm Mac down by pointing to the heart monitor and saying that she’s over-exerting herself, and it appears that Mac will have little choice but to step back from Salt if she wants to recover…
Formal event for the 2023 Season Finale
In happier news, the cast have recently put on their gladrags for filming of a very special Summer Bay event.
Pictures posted from filming in the last week of July show a formal occasion set up on the grass adjacent to the surf club, with cast members including Emily Symons, James Stewart, Ray Meagher, Ethan Browne, Kyle Shilling and Shane Withington present (Marilyn, Justin, Alf, Tane, Mali and John).
A series of photos posted by Emily show that red is very much the theme of the occasion, with Marilyn sporting a red jacket, Justin wearing a red shirt and flower in his lapel, Tane suaving it up in a crimson jacket, and even Alf sporting a red bow tie.
Kyle’s photo from the day shows Mali wearing a white jacket with a red and black bow tie and pocket square.
The timing would suggest that the filming is for episodes surrounding the season finale, which was supposedly confirmed to tourists on the Home and Away Tour.
Although many have assumed that the formal event is a wedding, both people on the tour and actor Shane Withington have disputed this, with Shane opting to keep viewers guessing about JP’s outfit by instead showing off some of the set pieces.
A picture posted by a passing bike enthusiast has also given a better sense of the scale of the occasion.
New Era for the Pier Diner
We first reported on the work going on at Palm Beach’s Barrenjoey Boathouse, aka Summer Bay’s Pier Diner, in May 2022, at which point the building had already been demolished in preparation for a complete rebuild. The past couple of months have seen the outer shell of the building finally completed and painted, reinstating the landmark which had sat on Station Beach for 75 years.
As well as being the location of popular eatery and wedding venue ‘The Boathouse’, which had opened in 2008 replacing an existing cafe, the building was home to Barrenjoey Boat Hire (which doubled as Alf’s bait shop) and Sydney by Seaplane.
Built in 1947, and with several renovations and additions over the decades since it first opened as a boat and seaplane shed, the building was deemed no longer fit for purpose.
First reported to have a predicted cost of $4million, but now stated to be $7million, the rebuild has seen an almost identical building constructed with a few key differences.
To meet with flood level standards, the entire structure has to be raised, and a 1.7m increase in building height will allow for greater use of the upper storey for office space. Aside from the apparent visual modification to the upper level, an additional outdoor staircase has been installed on the building’s southern side.
Although it was expected that the Boathouse restaurant would reopen in the new build, it has now been confirmed that the lease has been taken over by business partners Rob Domjen and Ben May, who are opening a cafe under the building’s original name from the 1940s, ‘Barrenjoey Boatshed’. The new location is expected to debut in December.
“The owners wanted to rebuild it and still keep that boatshed charm that suits Pittwater and the surrounding areas,” Rob Domjen told the Daily Telegraph.
“The look and feel of it is not too different, but it’s a little bit bigger here and there and slightly higher than the original building. The opportunity presented itself so we couldn’t say ‘no’. It’s such an iconic and beautiful spot. Everyone’s been there at some stage.
“It will have a slightly elevated feel than it had before with the picnic tables and the umbrellas on the jetty,” he added. “The jetty is now bigger than it was before.”
The couple have also revealed that they are in talks with Seven to continue filming Home and Away there, with the show having used the building as the Pier Diner, Alf’s bait shop, and the exterior of the Pier apartment (now home to Xander, Rose, and Bree) since 2008.
While the building was out of commission, the show used existing stock footage and carefully staged any scenes taken on Station Beach to conceal the construction work. While internal sequences at the diner are produced in the studio, the coffee cart was developed to compensate for a lack of outside scenes outside the café.
With the shell of the building now largely complete, we expect it won’t be too long before the show starts shooting scenes where we can see it in the background once again. Presuming negotiations for the use of the location are successful, we will hopefully begin seeing episodes utilising the building fully once again in mid-2024.
We’re sure that those on the show are looking forward to that day, with the cart seemingly not too popular with the cast who have to man it! Commenting on Georgie Parker’s Instagram when production resumed after Christmas, Emily Symons joked: “So happy to see beautiful you and lovely Lynne today darling. Unfortunately no one torched the coffee cart over the holidays so here we are 🥳“.
