It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Susie McAllister executes the final part of her scheme, leaving town with thousands of dollars in Surf Club funds and Leah and Justin’s savings, airing next week on Home and Away in the UK.
Summer Bay is expected to be impacted for several weeks as a result of the earthquake.
The agreement has been reached. Last week, Leah and Justin sent real estate agent Susie a $90,000 check, which she used to find them their dream home… or so they figured. She congratulated them as they handed over their life savings to her. “You are now the proud owners of a home.”
Even if this was true, there would still be weeks of paperwork to complete before the house was legally theirs, but when we return to the action next week, Justin is looking forward to the big change.
He’s planning a surprise for Leah, and he’d like to get the keys early so he can put in a brand new kitchen bench before they move in.
When he calls the real estate firm, however, he is in for a rude awakening. He calls Leah and arranges for them to meet on the pier, where he tells her some bad news sheepishly. His or Leah’s names were unknown to the department!
“What do you mean?” says the narrator. Leah inquires, unsure about what he’s talking about. “We bought the house!” exclaims the couple.
Justin explains, “The house has been sold.” “Just not to us,” says the narrator. It was never the case!”
They go into the Diner, a little worried, to tell Marilyn and Irene, one of whom is less shocked than the other. Irene has been sceptical of Susie for weeks, and it appears that she has been proved right.
Irene expresses her fears to Marilyn after the loved-up couple has left to investigate further. “I’m telling you, she’s gotten her hands on the surf club money and now the house deposit!”
Susie simply avoids Justin’s calls as he attempts to contact her. She thinks he’s just excited about the house settlement, which isn’t for another few weeks, and she has no idea he’s on his way to finding out her secret. She’s also occupied with fundraising for the surf competition, accumulating thousands of dollars that she has no intention of ever donating to the Surf Club.
As Irene assuages her suspicions that Susie is a con artist, they get in the car and drive straight to Susie’s, guns blazing.
Susie, on the other hand, is excellent and knows the answers to all of their questions. She tells them that it’s just a plain misunderstanding and that it’s “totally outrageous.” She calmly states that she saw the paperwork for herself and that it was just a simple error made by an inexperienced employee at the department.
Leah and Justin don’t believe her at first, but when she says she’ll make it her business to work things out, they have no choice but to believe her and hope Irene is exaggerating.
But, as we all know, Irene is the only one who has always been right about Susie.
With Leah and Justin on the verge of discovering the truth, she decides it’s time to flee. She packs her bags, loads a bag with thousands of pounds in cash donated by local companies, and prepares to leave.
She also accesses John’s bank account and withdraws an extra $50,000 in surf club fundraising funds from his account.
She gets one more call from John as she runs about getting all together. He’s waiting for an update with a worried Leah and Justin, but Susie tells him that she’s on her way back from Yabbie Creek, where she just sorted everything out.
She receives one last visitor in addition to one last phone call. Irene has worked it all out with the aid of Willow. Irene knows there’s too much evidence showing Susie is a scam artist, even though Susie somehow has John fooled.
Willow explains to Irene that she couldn’t find any sign of a Susie McAllister on the internet; usually, when you Google someone, you get something, she explains.
Willow discovers another identity, another alleged real estate agent, using a screenshot of the woman we know as Susie, after some further imaginative Googling. It appears that “Susie” has done this before, assuming different identities as she travels from town to town, defrauding people of their hard-earned money.
Irene runs over to John’s house, determined not to get away with it. Susie doesn’t want to deny it for long as she challenges her, saying, “I know you swindled my best friend and her fella out of their entire life savings.” Susie returns to her bag as Irene throws all of her facts at her, slipping out a brown bottle and dabbing some of it onto a rag.
And, when she turns around, she puts an end to the play. “All right, you’ve got me. I’m guilty as charged.”
She, on the other hand, has no intention of giving up without a contest. Susie pulls Irene from behind and shoves the chloroform rag in her face as she turns to get her phone to call the cops. Irene is out cold after just a few seconds of struggle!
Nothing that stands in her path now that her only nemesis has been defeated. Summer Bay and the ‘Susie McAllister’ persona are left behind for good by the con artist, who drives over her phone in the process.
It’s too late by the time Leah, Justin, and John arrive at Saxon Avenue in search of her – their money has already been spent!
Susie’s crimes have sent shockwaves throughout the area.
As they debrief, Roo learns that Susie did an outstanding job collecting sponsorship, with some contributions totaling tens of thousands of dollars. Alf is right to suspect that Leah and Justin aren’t the only ones who have been taken advantage of, and it’s no surprise when they learn she’s gone missing with the club’s sponsorship funds.
It also signals the end of the surf competition, which Amber had hoped Dean would win. The grand prize was a trip to Movie World, and it would have been a wonderful first family vacation for the newlyweds.
How will they inform Jai that the competition has been cancelled?
Shortly after the news breaks, John Palmer flees town, ashamed to have fallen so hard for her cruel tricks and unable to face the consequences.
Susie’s decisions would undoubtedly have long-term consequences for the people of Summer Bay.
