There are just two weeks left before Home and Away return to the Australian screens. It’s back on 1 February at 7 p.m., carrying with it the hope of a year that’s “greater and better than ever.”
To promote a return to Summer Bay, Seven released an extended trailer that teased some of the action coming up next year. You can watch the trailer in full above, and keep reading for a thorough rundown of everything in store.
Although the trailer doesn’t disclose anything that we haven’t already learned, it gives us our most detailed glimpse to date of some of the biggest storylines coming up in 2021.
Colby is hospitalised after prison brawl
We started the 2020 Home and Away season with Colby in trouble. He knew he had to keep his head down in jail—he would have struggled to survive if his fellow prisoners had known he was a cop.
His secret was uncovered in the last few moments of the season. As he was surrounded from all sides by several inmates, one of them said, “You really thought you’d get away with it… Constable Thorne! ”
Colby will be forced to face the music as the season returns. What are his prisoners going to do now they know the truth about him?
We had initially hypothesised that the final of the 2020 season would end with Colby Thorne, but he’s set to stay on the show for the early part of 2021. The latest promo reveals that he ends up being hospitalised after a prison assault, and that prison guards are forced to perform the CPR to resurrect him.
He obviously ends up in a bad way, when Bella visits an unconscious Colby on his hospital bed, and Dean says, “You’re doing whatever it takes to survive.”
Tim Franklin hasn’t been seen filming at Palm Beach, the real life home of Summer Bay since mid-2020. As such, Colby is predicted not to make it and to succumb to his injuries.
Tori and Christian’s romance blossoms
2021 is a new start for Tori and Christian. Let’s hope Tori has finally patched things up with Jasmine, so that she can put her feud behind her and concentrate on her relationship with Christian.
As we already know, the pair are expected to get engaged later in the year, so we suspect their relationship to lightning pace progress over the coming months.
Christian’s dark secret that not even he knows
Yet the advent of the Christian past could throw a spanner into the works. It turns out that Christian has a dark secret, but one he doesn’t even know.
New character Lewis Hayes appeared in last year’s final episodes, played by Luke Arnold. He’s set to seek vengeance on Christian, when it turns out that Christian’s medical error has cost his ex-wife her life.
As Lewis learns that Christian works at the Northern Districts Hospital, he’s trying to get revenge on the doctor. Of course, Christian doesn’t realise that Lewis felt that way, let alone that he was coming to Summer Bay to track him down.
“He’s a danger to his patients,” Lewis says to Jasmine. “I’m just going to be watching him like a hawk.”
With Jasmine and Tori finally on good terms, will Lewis’ revenge against Christian make it all come crashing down?
The end for Dean and Ziggy?
“I love her, man. I never wanted to break up.” – That’s how Dean explains the situation with ex-girlfriend Ziggy. Months after their breakup, he’s really pinning for her.
He knows that if it weren’t for his role in the murder of Ross, the two would still be together. Now that the truth is out and Colby is in jail, he wants nothing more than to put it all behind them and keep their lives together.
Yet Ziggy can’t forgive him. After all, he’s kept the murderous secret for almost two years, and he’s been lying to her for the rest of her relationship.
She really loves him, but she knows she’s going to have to let him go. Luckily, she’s got some help getting over him, in the form of Tane Parata. The pair slept together for the first time in the final moments of 2020 and is set to grow ever closer in the new year.
“There are a million reasons why we shouldn’t be together,” Ziggy says to Tane. She’s right – her criminal background has almost put her in deep trouble, and it looks like his sticky situation with Paul and Leon is only set to get worse.
Kieran battles his demons
The announcement that Martha had an adult son shook Alf to his core in the final weeks of last year. He and Martha had been married for almost a year, but she had not been able to tell him that she had a son in her 30 years apart.
It turns out that the couple has a profoundly strained relationship, and Martha had to call the police on him the last time they saw each other. Now, with Kieran’s alcohol problems apparently under control, he’s trying to play a part in her life.
Alf started to warm up to Kieran in touching scenes. He understood his alcohol problems, saw his friends combat addiction in the past, and saw that he clearly wants to turn the page.
This is my son, Alf. He’s a nice boy,” Martha explains. “He’s just made a lot of bad choices.”
Yet it seems like his bad decisions will continue in 2021, as the promo shows Kieran’s frustration coming out in dramatic fashion.
We see Kieran punching a tree, which occurred at the end of last year after Jasmine denied his offer for an immediate Summer Bay Fit interview.
It seems that the eruption of rage was not an outburst. The trailer appears to be showing a brawl in the Surf Club, leaving Alf and Roo surprised by what they see.
“You don’t know anything about me,” Kieran says to Roo as he storms past her.
It seems that the eruption of rage was not an outburst.
Ari’s ex comes back to haunt him
As we announced last week, Ari Parata is in for a surprise when his ex-girlfriend and daughter arrive in Summer Bay.
He has kept his past a secret since he arrived in the bay at the end of 2019, but we are set to dig a little deeper into his biography as the year progresses.
His ex-girlfriend Mia and her daughter Chloe are expected to arrive in town. Although it’s smooth sailing for Chloe, who easily hits her off with Ryder and re-ignites her relationship with Nikau, it looks like the sparks are going to fly between Mia and Ari.
Now that Ari is dating Mackenzie, we suspect she’s not going to be the most happy when one of his exes rocks up.
Justin’s health continues to deteriorate?
It seems like his new surgery doesn’t bring an end to Justin Morgan’s health issues. A brief scene from the latest promo shows him crashing to the Summer Bay Auto board, implying either that he drives himself too hard to heal, or that his carcinoma may well grow back.
As we wrote earlier last year, he’s set out for another scare later in 2021 as he gets into trouble surfing and needs to be rescued. Scenes filmed at Palm Beach in October saw a dramatic drowning scene in Justin’s film. The optimistic surfer was seen surfing as natural before losing control.
He manages to use a flailing arm to attract the attention of the life guards. Luckily, he’s spotted in time
A river boy returns
Without the biggest news of all, there wouldn’t be a Home and Away 2021 promo. We’ve known since August that Heath Braxton is going to make a return, and those scenes are just weeks away.
We know his return has something to do with the Paratas, but we still don’t know what role he’s going to play, or how long he’s going to stick around for. But we don’t have to wait a long time…
The promo also shows the devastated Bella on the side of the pier.
Have you heard any bad news about Colby’s condition?
It also previews the relationship of Lewis and Jasmine…
…and John and newcomer Susie McCalister, star of McLeod’s Daughters, Bridie Carter. How is Marilyn going to react to see John happy with another woman?