As Roo finishes her training to become an emergency foster carer, Home and Away appears poised to bring foster children back to Summer Bay House.
Roo seems to have been deeply affected by the entire ordeal, even while Summer Bay has been preoccupied with focusing on Tane’s kidnapping of baby Poppy and Mali and Harper, who might also face charges after finding out where Tane was.
Tane had criticised the baby’s mother for leaving her on the beach when Roo initially went to see him and baby “Maia,” as he had named her at the time, in the hospital to drop off some donations left at the surf club.
While Maia had obviously received care, as Roo pointed out, and the mother might have been having difficulties, Tane was unwilling to change his mind. As a mother, you have to work that out or get assistance.
Roo was sensitive to Tane’s posture because she was well aware of the overwhelming feeling that comes with having a newborn.
Roo was just 17 years old when she gave birth to her daughter Martha in 1988. She endured the terrifying event of Martha’s father Brett Macklin (Gerry Sont) briefly running away with her, though she didn’t go so far as to abandon her kid. Later, after they both realised they couldn’t give Martha a secure enough environment, she had to make the tough choice to place Martha for adoption.
Over the next few weeks, Roo visited Maia frequently at the hospital. Tane had intended to take on the role of emergency foster carer to take care of Maia, but his plans were derailed when he discovered he would require permanent residency in Australia.
Tane responded negatively to Roo’s question about if he had considered beginning the residency application procedure because it would still take at least three months.
Tane wondered if Roo would think about taking care of Maia herself as she contemplated that there had to be someone in the neighbourhood who could.
The idea surprised Roo at first, and she told Alf that she wasn’t sure if she could be an emergency foster parent—how could she take care of that tiny child without falling in love with her?
At this moment, Alf might have offered Roo the wisdom of his own experiences as a foster parent, but he chose to simply inform Roo that she must be doing this for the right reasons.
Following a thorough consideration and investigation, Roo said that she would submit an application; Tane would then have the opportunity to do the same once he moved in.
But before Roo’s application could be reviewed, the authorities chose to place Maia with another nearby foster family when one opened up.
When Tane’s real mother Sonia (Olivia Beardsley) appeared shortly after Tane ran away with Maia, it was Roo who ultimately proved to be a support to her.
Roo visited Sonia and her kid at home after they were eventually reunited with her, and she was delighted to report that they were doing much better now that they got the support they needed.
When Roo saw Tane again, she scolded him for taking off with the baby after telling him abruptly that Sonia and Poppy were happy.
Roo said that Harper should have seen the expression on her poor mother’s face when she saw what had happened, while Harper attempted to defend Tane.
Later, when Roo found out that Mali was also being prosecuted, she found it difficult to feel sympathy for him. Alf advised her to focus on the fact that Poppy is back with her mother rather than the specifics of what transpired.
Marilyn (Emily Symons) expressed worry in the previous week’s last episode that she hadn’t been able to contact Roo throughout the day despite trying to call and leave messages multiple times. She also mentioned that she hadn’t seemed like herself after visiting Sonia and Poppy.
When they got home later that evening and found Roo hadn’t returned, Alf told her that although he knew Roo was going somewhere, even he began to worry what was going on.
After Roo arrived back at Summer Bay safely in Monday’s episode, Alf informed Maz that he had heard his daughter enter just after midnight. Roo told Alf she wanted to talk the next morning.
She said she wanted to go on with her plans to become an emergency foster care provider and that she had been attending informational seminars in the city for the previous few weeks to learn more about it.
She asked Alf if he would be okay with her taking the kids to their house at Summer Bay House, explaining that she might be needed to watch them for a few days or several months.
Roo reassured him that she would be the primary carer, even though an astonished Alf joked that he believed his days of raising children were long gone.
Alf granted Roo permission, but advised her to first speak with Marilyn, their houseguest.
Maz expressed her excitement at her plans, saying it would be good to have some kids about the bay once more.
Alf seems taken aback by how readily Maz consented, maybe thinking that her own conflicting experiences with kids would motivate her to urge Roo to give her decision more careful thought.
But in a matter of hours, Marilyn and Roo were preparing for the house inspection, adjusting Roo’s application, and even exchanging ideas about how to turn Ryder’s former room into a kid’s area.
Then, to their amazement, the two discovered that Alf had departed the house without even saying goodbye.
When the episode came to a close, Roo went into the surf club and heard her father on the phone, worried that Roo was moving too quickly.
Alf said to his interviewer, “It’s like another one of her little projects.” “Roo needs to stop, slow down, and consider her actions. We are discussing the life of these children!”
Will Alf persuade Roo to change her mind, or is Home and Away going to revert to its original purpose of caring for foster children in the bay?
