Scott,meanwhile,rushed around the empty court where they used to live,quite rightly asking:“Where the hell is everybody?” (The answer:back on the main set because Donovan and Minogue’s cameo was such a tightly held secret that almost no one knew about it until the day it happened,including most of the cast.)
After 37 years on air,and having been given plenty of notice that the end was nigh,this was an exercise both in wrapping up storylines,and paying service and thanks to the loyal fans.
It had cameos galore,some in the flesh,some over video from afar,from the show’s most famous alumni. Margot Robbie,Natalie Imbruglia,Holly Valance and Delta Goodrem were among those who beamed in from locales far from Erinsborough,too busy now to make it back to the place that birthed their careers – but few would begrudge them that.
It had the long-term regulars like Toadie Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) grappling with the end of an era as the houses in Ramsay Street went up for sale one by one,until the whole cul-de-sac seemed certain to be taken over by developers and turned into … well,maybe aNeighbours-themed resort,pitched squarely at all those English viewers whose fantasy vision of Australian life was formed there.
There was a return to old ways for some. Izzy (Nat Bassingthwaighte) couldn’t help but heap infamy upon scandal by cheating on Mal Kennedy (Benjamin McNair),the son of the married man she once had an affair with (Alan Fletcher’s Karl Kennedy),with newly minted crypto-millionaire Shane Ramsay (Peter O’Brien),who had himself returned to the place he left 35 years earlier intent on buying its prize asset,Lassiters Hotel.
But even Izzy,the compulsive wreaker of havoc,was granted a moment of redemption when she confessed to Susan (Jackie Woodburne) that all she’d ever really wanted was her approval. She even seemed to mean it,briefly.