Waterfall – Episode 5 begins with a video call between Ashley (Harriet Dyer) and Gordon Crapp (Patrick Brammall) where they briefly discuss her return home that Gordon has apparently prepared meticulously for, including spending 7 hours smoking a brisket. Nearly an hour later, he’s still awaiting her return.

Having given up on waiting, Gordon takes action by visiting the hospital when he immediately runs into Gene (Glenn Hazeldine) who thinks they are carpooling to Blake’s poker game. Once Gene admits to mentioning tonight’s poker game to Ashley as she was leaving, Gordo puts two and two together. Gordon’s concerns are no less alleviated when he learns from Megan (Emma Harvie) that Ashley could be at James’s (Tai Hara) party.

Gordon presses on with his search for Ashley by visiting Lynelle (Helen Thomson). Lynelle has apparently had to shut all the home’s devices off due to an incident with Professor Lee (Darren Gilshenan) but offers to turn her phone back on to check her messages. After learning of no new messages, James’s party comes back up. Instead of giving him the address, Lynelle offers to accompany him to the party but drags Lee along as well.

The majority of the group’s drive to the party is spent discussing Lee’s online affair with one of his students. Lynelle is particularly proud of her WAWAM (Women Against Women Against Men) t-shirt. Thanks to Angel (Elouise Eftos), it doesn’t take them long to find James amongst the partygoers. The only problem is, he hasn’t seen it either. This is when Gordon’s frustration leads to an embarrassing incident with a guy dressed as a panda, who is later revealed to be Ryan (Mansoor Noor).

Leaving the party alone, Gordon ends up at the local police station where he attempts to file a missing person’s report with Constable Byrne (Ewen Leslie). This initially only makes matters worse due to Gordon’s fumbling with Ashley’s description. This changes and Ashley’s absence is a top priority when Byrne learns from Gordon’s story that they are both ‘Big Green Egg’ grill owners. Byrne later even willingly helps Gordon jumpstart his vehicle after it fails to start.

After Gordon returns home to find only Colin (Zak) waiting for him, the viewers are shown Ashley’s side of the story. Once she ends the video call, she encounters Gene in the hallway where he mentions the poker game in passing. As it turns out, Ashley didn’t give Gene’s mentioning of the poker game a second thought. Instead, she fell asleep on the bus and ended up in Waterfall, with her bags missing. After failing to reach anyone pay payphone, she meets Jo (Martha Kate Morgan) and Em (Neha Jimmy) at a cab stop. They are nice enough but refuse to share their ride with her.

Things seemingly begin to look up when Ashley is randomly approached by Wendy (Robyn Butler) and offered a ride. Ashley soon realizes she was too eager in accepting the ride when Wendy mentions making a quick stop at her house. Despite the living room full of cats and a strange encounter with Wendy’s Husband (Wayne Hope), everything turns out fine and Wendy even calls her a cab.

Although the Taxi Driver (Alexander Palacio) takes Ashley home as promised, she falls asleep during the ride and wakes with a rash all over her face. This is apparently a bad reaction from the cats but things only get worse when the driver becomes suspicious of her claims of being robbed. She ends up running to get away from the driver and is ultimately arrested on breaking and entering charges after discovering that the key is missing from the hide-a-key.

Gordon pulls up just seconds after Constables Jenny (Ruby Maishman) and Rhonda (Annie Boyle) pull away with Ashley. It appears that Ashley is about to catch a lucky break when she is taken to the same station where Gordon filed the report earlier but this doesn’t turn out to be the case.

The episode ends with Gordon arriving the next morning to pick up her.

 

Colin From Accounts Review

I wouldn’t say this was a horrible episode and I did enjoy the perfectly timed ironies. I also enjoyed how the episode was played from both Gordon and Ashley’s point of views. Ashley’s encounter with Wendy and her husband was strange and I didn’t really get it, but I am guessing that was likely the point. The entire Chinese restaurant scene seemed futile, although I understand its importance. It’s beginning to look like the series has lost its way and purpose. It deserves a 4.5 out of 10.

Get more Colin From Accounts recaps here. Join our newly established forum to see what others are saying. Support our site by donating. Learn about our advertising prices here.