A new Home and Away promo has introduced us to Bronte, a new character who looks set to manipulate Irene as she arrives next week.
Irene (Lynne McGranger) departed Summer Bay in early May, on what she claimed was her annual health checkup in the city. It seems it was quite the examination, as she’s returning exactly a month later, with a clean bill of health and a new friend.
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It’s all a little familiar, as viewers will know that Leah (Ada Nicodemou) recently returned from her stint in a mental health clinic, having made a friend in her roommate Valerie (Courtney Clarke).
While Valerie had her issues, and led Theo (Matt Evans) down a dangerous path when she tempted him with party drugs, there was no malice behind her actions.
However, the new promo makes it clear from the get-go that Irene’s new friend is lying to her and manipulating her, and it seems she’s about to make her life hell.
“Darl, this is Bronte,” Irene says as she arrives back at her beach house and introduces Harper (Jessica Redmayne) to the new arrival. “Bronte’s going to be staying with us for a couple of days.”
As the trio sit down for a coffee in the living area, Harper asks whether Irene and Bronte are old friends.
Irene explains that no, they literally just met in the hospital.
“Irene saw me in the waiting room. I was, um, in a bit of a state,” Bronte adds, before giving Irene a loving look.
When Harper and Irene are alone in the kitchen, Harper asks if Bronte is okay, having picked up on her fragile emotional state.
“No, love, she’s not,” Irene explains. “She’s very ill.”
Later on at the beachside diner, Bronte wells up as she tells Irene that “it’s really nice to talk to someone who gets it. Doing this alone would be hell.”
“You just let me know how I can help you,” Irene replies.
As Bronte walks off, Irene puts her hand to her chest and shakes with emotion, feeling terrible for her new friend’s ordeal.
Yet as we quickly discover, there is much more to Bronte than meets the eye.
The promo shows her on the phone outside the surf club, as she tells the person on the other end of the line, “She’s got her own house and a business. Trust me, she’s a total pushover.”
What does Bronte have planned Irene, and how far will she go to get what she wants?
We won’t have long to find out, with the new character making her debut appearance next Monday 10th June in Australia. UK viewers will see her for the first time next month, on Wednesday 17th July.
As we recently reported, Home and Away is lining up a new story arc for Irene as part of her temporary departure from the show, and it seems like Bronte’s arrival could be the start of the huge new exit storyline.
Lynne is currently on a planned break from the show, as March saw her begin rehearsals for new comedy musical ‘The Grandparents Club‘, in which she stars as Liz. The production opened earlier this month and is touring theatres in NSW, ACT and Victoria until 4th August.
“(I’ll be going for) just a little while, not leaving anything permanently,” Lynne revealed on Seven’s The Morning Show earlier this year.
“I came from revue-type situations, from community theatre, all of that,” she explained of the production. “I’m getting back to my roots, singing and dancing, interacting with the audience. I can hold a tune and I can belt-out a number, but I’m no Aretha Franklin!”
With producers needing a way to explain her departure from Summer Bay for a number of months, it seems like Bronte’s arrival leads to Irene falling back on some old habits, culminating in her leaving the bay behind.
During one of our trips to Palm Beach back in March, the Back to the Bay team witnessed the filming of an intriguing scene outside the surf club with Mackenzie (Emily Weir), Levi (Tristan Gorey), John (Shane Withington) and Irene (Lynne McGranger).
Emily and Tristan go through the scene with this block’s director, Chris-Martin Jones. © Back to the Bay
The scene starts ordinarily enough with a loved-up Mac and Levi walking towards the club whilst Levi carries a gift bag.
John catches up and has a few words with them, but as they walk off he turns around and something catches his eye further up the road.
John spies Irene pull up next to some wheelie bins in her car. After surreptitiously dumping something in one of the bins, she hastily drives off (with Lynne completing this scene in only one or two takes, we didn’t manage to get a good angle to grab a photo).
The last time Irene did something like this, she and Bella (Courtney Miller) were dumping the unconscious body of Tommy O’Reilly (Adam Sollis) outside the hospital, after Irene thwacked him over the head with a champagne bottle, so naturally John can’t help but be a little curious.
As John heads over to the bins to investigate, he’s extremely concerned by what he finds inside… empty bottles of booze!
Is alcoholic Irene back on the grog, and is it Bronte’s manipulation which pushes her to the edge?
With it looking as though Irene could be gone for a few months, could falling off the wagon be the cause of Irene’s departure?
If so, will Irene flee the bay in shame, or could John’s discovery be the catalyst his good friend Irene needs to seek help?
