This week on Home and Away in Australia, there’s trouble brewing in the Morgan House as Claudia Salini comes to town, and Levi rushes to save Abigail.
Justin (James Stewart) is in the firing line this week when a stranger finds themselves stuck in Summer Bay following a car crash.
Strong-willed businesswoman Claudia Salini (Rachael Carpani) loses control of her car when the brakes fail, and she’s immediately on the phone to Summer Bay Auto where she had only just had her car serviced.
The phone call comes as a shock to garage proprietor Justin (perhaps he’d forgotten he owned it given his extended absences), and is in disbelief at the claims.
However he soon comes to realise that nephew, and recently qualified mechanic, Theo (Matt Evans) was the one working on Claudia’s car, and had failed to give it a service as intended.
Sitting in Northern Districts Hospital with her broken arm in a sling, Claudia’s life is now on hold until she recovers, and she’s determined that Summer Bay Auto are going to pay.
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“Claudia’s anger towards Justin and Theo isn’t personal,” Rachael told TV Week. “I’d say it’s quite justified given her arm is broken and stuck in a cast for six weeks.”
Justin realises he needs to act fast if he’s got any chance of avoiding a lawsuit, and so quickly devises a plan to win Claudia over. With wife Leah’s (Ada Nicodemou) help, Justin arranges to meet the Claudia that evening in the surf club, hoping that a bit of sweet talking can encourage her to not take further action.
But little does Justin realise the chaos that will ensue once Claudia enters his life…
Back to the Bay were the first to reveal McLeod’s Daughters star Rachael’s casting back in May, after we spotted the addition to her CV, which comes hot on the heels of her former co-star Aaron Jeffery’s appearance as Jimmy Fowler.
A guest character on the show, Claudia is a world away from McLeod’s character Jodi Fountain, a fact Rachael relishes.
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“When I heard what Claudia gets up to, I thought, ‘Oh, it might be nice to be disliked as a character for a while,’” Rachael continued. “I’m a little worried about the hardcore fans, though. Hopefully, I won’t get too many people stopping me and asking, ‘How could you do that?’”
“I think when Australians think about me as an actor, it’s playing those sweet, doe-eyed characters – which is so funny, because it’s not really me,” Rachael explains.
“I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say there were a few years where I deliberately tried to distance myself from [McLeod’s Daughters]. Not that I didn’t love that show – I’m so thankful for it – but that’s why I went overseas.”
“There are shows I did over there [in the US] that were villainous [roles], but when the show did make it to Australia, they were either buried in some streaming service or not promoted.”
Rachael was further drawn to the character of Claudia as a result of former McLeod’s writer Louise Bowes now being Home and Away‘s Script Executive.
“Louise was at the helm of designing and creating Claudia, and she makes it far more real,” Rachael previously told the Daily Telegraph. “I know we’re talking about a fun soap here where people get kidnapped and people blow things up and crazy things happen, but there was a realness to this character.”
Elsewhere in Summer Bay, Levi is forced to come to the aid of younger sister Abigail (Hailey Pinto) after a desperate phone call.
Abby came to the bay for a flying visit to help celebrate big sister Eden’s (Stephanie Panozzo) engagement to Cash (Nicholas Cartwright). Both of the siblings had found Abby’s behaviour unusual, particularly when she later disappeared with Levi’s wallet.
It soon became apparent that Abby had also swiped the petty cash from John’s (Shane Withington) office in the surf club, and once Levi realised, he repaid the funds as a donation and requested John withdraw the police complaint.
Although Levi could take at least some comfort in the fact that seeing the transaction notifications on his phone would give him an idea of where Abby was, and that she was okay, Mackenzie (Emily Weir) eventually convinced him to cancel the card and force Abby out of hiding.
Sure enough, Abby soon rocked up berating Levi for cutting her off, and requested to borrow more money. Abby went to leave the bay again when he refused, but as he grabbed her arm she flinched.
Pulling up her sleeve, Abby revealed several track marks indicating serious drug use, which had become infected.
With Abby refusing to be taken to hospital, Levi convinced her to come back to the farmhouse so he could treat the infection himself, and give her some antibiotics.
She still begged him for money to get through the next few days, and although he knew what she would be using it for, Levi reluctantly agreed—purely for the fact he didn’t want her to resort to dangerous measures to raise the cash.
His only caveat was that he was to take her back home to their mum’s in the city, so at least if anything went wrong, he knew where she’d be.
It’s clearly not long before Abby ignores Levi’s stipulation however, when he receives a call next week to say that Abby is trapped in the house of a man named Dom, who will not let her leave.
TV Week reports that after managing to track down the location, Levi and Eden head to the city where Levi tries to force his way into the house.
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But are the siblings ready for the dark reality of the world their little sister had ended up in?
