When Home and Away returns later this month, Ziggy and Dean will learn shocking news about a baby, while a suspicious box in the mail raises the possibility that Marilyn is hiding a child.
There have been several ads promising the drama to come when Home and Away returns on Monday, August 8th, while it is presently off the air in Australia until after the Commonwealth Games.
The first depicts a fan favourite in a life-or-death situation. For the people of Summer Bay, a new promo has just been revealed, hinting to what appears to be two baby bombshells!
The first surprise is a positive pregnancy test that Ziggy (Sophie Dillman) and Dean (Patrick O’Connor) are holding.
Since Sophie Dillman was recently spotted filming in Palm Beach while carrying a baby bump, we have already been anticipating this news in the upcoming months.
Dean informed Ziggy in 2019 that he never intended to have children because he was concerned that his mother Karen’s (Georgia Adamson) schizoaffective illness would be inherited from him.
But after learning he already had a son, Jai (River Jarvis), whom he’d never known about, he appeared to rethink his mind. Dean even brought up having more kids after a brief reconciliation with Jai’s mother Amber (Maddy Jevic).
What will Dean think of Ziggy’s pregnancy news, and is Ziggy really prepared to have children? Currently, Ziggy is settled into his job as a mechanic at Justin’s shop and has agreed to serve as Theo’s (Matt Evans) tutor through an apprenticeship.
Prior to Ziggy deciding to stay and assist Theo, Dean and Ziggy had also discussed taking a second road trip, this time up to Cairns to visit Ziggy’s sister Coco. The two can definitely say goodbye to any more similar hobbies in the foreseeable future if they soon have a baby to juggle!
Additionally, a newly single Theo and newcomer Kirby are seen kissing in the trailer (Angelina Thomson). Following Chloe’s abrupt departure from Summer Bay two weeks previously, which Tane (Ethan Browne) had arranged for her own protection, Theo broke up with Chloe (Sam Barrett).
Tane forewarned Chloe not to reveal her location to Theo for the time being while she was visiting her mother Mia (Anna Samson) in New Zealand. Their relationship ended as a result of Chloe’s continuing refusal to provide Theo with any information.
Theo and Kirby’s relationship has already been covered by us after they were often photographed holding hands while shooting scenes in Palm Beach.
But the most intriguing part of the advertisement was on Marilyn (Emily Symons).
Greg Barnett, the commissioning editor for Channel 5, recently hinted that there would be a significant Marilyn plotline, and what appears to be the beginning of this has been subtly suggested.
A picture of a baby is seen in the envelope that Marilyn is opening. She seems to recognise the kid, and as she flips the picture over, she sees writing on the back.
“Which one?”
Has one of the long-time residents of the bay a sinister secret that’s going to be revealed?
Marilyn, do you have a secret child?
A less extreme hypothesis is that Marilyn has at some point given birth to another kid during her years away from Summer Bay, which is nonetheless potentially problematic.
Marilyn made her Summer Bay debut in 1989 as Lance Smart’s girlfriend (Peter Vroom). Marilyn, who was then 20 years old, had been raised by her aunt Jean (Maggie Kirkpatrick) for the last few years of her youth after her parents had taken her out of the children’s home.
In 1991, Jean dropped the bombshell that George and Heather Davidson (Doug Scroope and Lynn Rainbow), Marilyn’s lazy parents, were actually alive and had simply taken Marilyn into their home because she didn’t fit their life as carnival workers. However, at no point did Jean mention Marilyn having given up a child.
Marilyn would be between 34 and 37 years old if she had a child before Summer Bay.
After rejecting Lance’s marriage proposal in 1989, Marilyn took a three-month hiatus from Summer Bay, but she didn’t leave the community again until she left in 1992 with her fiancé Phil Bryant (Vince Martin) and his daughter Toni (Kathryn Dufty).
Marilyn left Phil as soon as she realised he was cheating on her and didn’t come back for almost 3 years, arriving in 1995. There was no indication of her having left a little child with Phil, and if she had, we think he would have arrived in Summer Bay.
It would be almost two years after Marilyn left in 1999 before we saw her again. When Marilyn left Summer Bay with another of Donald’s children, which she decided to give up, could she have been expecting? We’ll rule that one out since it would come out as unduly unkind to Donald…and undercut their later discussions about how she was processing her grief over Byron.
Marilyn was with two primary school age children and one in a pram when Donald met her in London in 2001 after spotting her at the book launch for “A Letter to Byron,” but she soon revealed to him that she was a childminder.
When Marilyn was living in the UK in the early to mid 2000s, did she eventually have a child, who is now in their late teens or very early 20s?
Given the timelines, this alternative could seem the most likely. Between Marilyn’s initial meeting with Donald in London and her final return to Australia in 2010, there were 812 years. During that time, she could have found a new spouse and had a child, or she could have had a kid placed for adoption.
Any child would have most likely arrived before then because Donald had also paid Marilyn off-screen visits while she was battling illness in 2007.
Again, it’s not rare for a long-running character in Home and Away to have a secret child. In the previous 34 years, Alf (Ray Meagher) has learned about two of his children—Quinn and Owen—while also learning that his wife Ailsa (Judy Nunn) had a daughter, Shauna (Kylie Watson), in the 1970s while she was incarcerated.
Even more recently, Irene (Lynne McGranger), a pillar of Summer Bay, admitted that she had a long-lost kid, who was later identified as Mick Jennings (Kristian Schmid), whom she had been forced to give up after being abused by her uncle in her adolescence.
An evil hoax?
Could it be that someone is attempting to trick Marilyn into believing that Byron is still alive because they have something against her?
Given her vulnerable state at the time of Byron’s passing, especially if she had to be sedated in the hours that followed and had missed his funeral, it’s understandable how Marilyn might begin to doubt herself. However, could Marilyn really have an enemy out there who would be so cruel as to watch her suffer like that?
Whatever the cause, we’re certain that Marilyn’s world is about to change, and it won’t be long until the person in the picture or the one behind it makes their appearance in Summer Bay.
On Monday, August 8 at 7 p.m. on Seven, Home and Away will air once more in Australia.
