“What have you got to say for yourself, eh?” Bruce threatens, as he edges ever closer to Luc. We’re not sure exactly what he was hoping to hear – perhaps an admission that he has, indeed, been guilty of poisoning Annie’s mind – but, needless to say, nothing Luc has to offer can appease old Pop. “You’re not going anywhere. No-one is,” he concludes, before locking his latest victim in a room with Annie, who has managed to remain surprisingly calm throughout the ordeal. “Pop’s upset, but he’ll calm down,” she reasons, surveying what have by now become for her the only-too-familiar surroundings of a locked door and barred windows. Of course, her optimism’s a little hard to support when Bruce is all the while ranting about Luc having brought shame on his granddaughter and his house, and threatening that he’s free to do what he likes with trespassers; so it’s just as well that Geoff’s on hand with a more accurate assessment of the situation. You need only look to the reception with which he and Tony are met on their arrival at the farm to see that Bruce truly has hit an all-time low; the pair of them only narrowly avoid a tirade of bullets. Not wholly unused to Bruce’s ways, though, an unfazed Geoff takes his chances and, after breaking into the house through a side window, manages to free Annie and Luc from Bruce’s home-made prison. But that’s not all Geoff’s come for; he’s spotted Bruce’s gun resting against the wall, and can’t resist the opportunity to turn the tables. “Doesn’t feel good to have a gun pointed at you, does it?” Geoff says, Bruce having made his way to the source of the commotion. Admittedly, Bruce doesn’t seem that bothered by the prospect – in fact, he encourages his grandson to shoot him – but he soon suffers the ultimate blow when, Tony having talked Geoff out of doing anything stupid, he finds himself left to run the farm alone. In a moment you never saw coming, you may just start to feel sorry for him.Shaken, not stirredWhile Tony’s busy negotiating a hostage crisis, Jazz is left to deal with the fallout of one of his bright ideas: to get her to build bridges with some of the Bay’s residents by hosting a drinks evening. “They think I’m a bit too liberal,” she explains to Tony, accounting – rather modestly, we’d say – for her lack of popularity among his friends. And things certainly don’t look as though they’re about to improve any time soon; without Tony there to act as a buffer to her quirky ways, Sally, Brad, Leah and Dan are truly in for a treat.

You see, when it comes to the drinks, anything goes, provided it’s mixed with vodka – which, we suspect, is partly responsible for Jazz’s little outburst about the joys of marriage. “Well, to be honest, I’d rate it up there with our other wonderful institutions, like prison,” she offers, as nervous bride-to-be Sally turns a lighter shade of pale.

The fun doesn’t end there. It’s not long before Belle, fresh from a run-in with Lisa, bursts onto the scene to confront Drew about his latest half-baked plan to ingratiate himself into the drag-racing scene – and despite taking the argument into another room, the pair of them still manage to provide the soundtrack to the evening’s entertainment. It’s enough to send the guests running, and for a tipsy Jazz to declare, customary wine bottle in hand, the whole charade a disaster.

On your marks

It wasn’t so long ago that Drew threw caution to the wind and agreed to a drag race with self-styled hotshot Denni. Mistakenly having thought that his rival was all talk, it therefore comes as something of a shock when Lisa appears at the window of “The Beast” to deliver the outcome to both him and a gob-smacked Ric: “The race is tonight. You’ll get a text with time and place.”

Even more foolishly, Drew decides to keep the whole thing, including Lisa’s involvement, secret from Belle – who, of course, has a certain knack for finding out the truth before it’s even had time to find a place to hide. This time’s no exception, and before long she and Ric have managed to convince her other half to pull out. According to Dom, however, it’s not that simple; Denni’s not exactly the kind of guy to take no for an answer.

And if proof were needed, by the end of the day Drew finds himself providing a safe haven to a shaken Lisa, who’s had to deal with Denni’s irrational response. Is he about to walk into a trap?

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