Ahead of the HSC, Ric decides to spoil Matilda by buying her a motor scooter and cooking a romantic meal. As he tells Alf, even though the exams are weeks away, he’s acting now so that one thing’s clear: ’It doesn’t matter what she gets; she’s still a genius.’ But when he inadvertently discovers prospectuses for out-of-town universities among her things, it looks like his visions of her riding around the Bay on her new scooter may have been a little too premature. Ric can’t help but wonder: why the secrecy? And will they be able to handle a long-distance relationship? Well, as Mattie later explains to her heartbroken beau, her plan was never to exclude him; she’s hoping that, providing all goes well, they’ll be able to move to the city together – something he’s only too happy to do. If only it were such plain sailing for everyone…The dating gameMartha is unnerved by her provocative dreams about Jonah; the fact of her running into him everywhere she goes only serves to make matters worse. As a case in point, her efforts to avoid speaking to him when he comes into the bar see her agreeing to a date with Lewis, one of the Bay’s newcomers – and even that’s not enough to keep her away from Jonah for long. When Martha takes Alf to the hospital for his eye appointment, her grandfather’s run-in with Bruce over his failure to do anything about the hazardous mine soon leads to trouble. As the two men bicker, it falls to Martha and Jonah to break them up; Jonah doing himself no favours by inadvertently spilling coffee all over her in the process. Somewhat surprisingly, they’re eventually able to share a laugh over both that and Martha’s misreading his attempts to return her wallet to her as something more sinister. By the time they go their separate ways we’re left in no doubt that there’s an attraction between them. Just ask Lewis.Crooked cop

After spending most of the working day carrying out random roadside breath tests – during which it becomes clear that George rarely, if ever, plays by the rules – Jack decides to dig the dirt on his new colleague, only to be interrupted by the man himself with news of a tip-off they have to follow up. It turns out to be a case of illegal gambling activity at a local pub.

But instead of busting the perpetrators, George pulls up a chair and joins in. Naturally, Jack does the right thing and takes a step back, but when George later forces him to take a cut of the winnings it’s clear that they’re in this together. ‘I don’t think you’ll be telling anyone about this, partner,’ George says threateningly, as he reminds Jack of the missing evidence.

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