The following recap contains spoilers for tonight’s Neighbours episode, so read ahead at your own risk.
Face-to-face for the first time in sixteen years, Dee (Madeleine West) finally revealed to Taodie (Ryan Moloney) what has happened since the day she disappeared.
Back in 2003, Dee’s sister Cecile just had started a new relationship with a guy named Riley (Lliam Murphy), with Dee insisting she meet him. The day before her wedding, Dee and Cecile visited Riley at his workplace, something that he told Cecile to never do, because, surprise, surprise, the business was actually a front for the organised crime gang, Zantucks.
Trying to keep his crime secret, Riley tried to get them out of the building, but his boss saw the sisters, revealing that Dee was actually on their hit list. Both Riley and Dee tried to figure out why she’d be a target, but to no avail.
During the wedding, as the guests were celebrating Dee and Toadie, the Zantucks tampered with both cars – Lou’s limousine and Stu’s car. With Lou’s car out of action, Stu offered Toadie and Dee his car, and off they drove on that fateful afternoon, straight into the ocean.
Riley, aware of what the gang might be up to, followed Dee and Toadie after the wedding, witnessing the crash and jumping in to save her. By the time Dee realised what had happened, they were halfway up the coast, leaving the Zantuck’s back in Erinsborough thinking she was dead.
Dee naturally assumed that Toadie had died in the crash, never being corrected on the matter. It was only after she had fallen in love with Riley did she realise that Toadie had in fact survived. Although she wanted to leave Riley and return, she knew it wasn’t safe to just pop out from hiding with the gang still at large. When the Zantuck’s targeted and killed Cecile, Riley helped put them behind bars, finally allowing Dee to live freely.
Only now Toadie was happily with Sonya, and she didn’t want to interfere in his new life. Had Andrea (Madeleine West) not gotten involved with Toadie and tried to scam him, the pair would have moved on with their lives – Dee leaving Toadie to his new life and Toadie believing her to be dead.
If that wasn’t enough, the truest shock of the episode came when Mark (Scott McGregor) showed Andrea mug shots of the gang, to which she revealed that she had dated one of the members, meaning she was actually their target, not Dee – a real case of mistaken identity.
After all this time, could a reunion be on the cards for Dee and Toadie? And just what is the explanation as to why Andrea and Dee look like twins? We may have most of the answers, but there are still a few loose ends in Neighbours’ longest story arc that need to be tied up.
The cast and crew are to be commended on keeping fans on tenterhooks for the past two years, or really sixteen years, as one of the show’s biggest mysteries finally reaches its climax.
Neighbours airs 6:30pm weeknights on 10 Peach
