Chapter 4: Eldorado – The episode begins with Birdie Bell (Asher Keddie) uncovering some hard truths about Tina (Suzi Dougherty) when she interviews Montana (Shannon Berry) and Aunt Rosie (Sancia Robinson).

Later that evening at home, Birdie apologizes about missed dessert while saying goodbye to Tovey (Spencer McLaren) and Anton (Nichols Brown). Her ensuing text conversation with Joe Burt (David Wenham) suggests that he hasn’t just stood her up but he’s apparently stuck her with his sheepdog, Mercy as well. Unable to sleep due to Mercy’s incessant howling and scratching, Birdie attempts to verify Joe’s claims of poisoning himself with Sheep Drench. This causes her to remember how Montana says that she almost willed herself to believe Tina’s lies.

While taking Mercy for a walk the following morning, a phone call with Anton reveals she isn’t the only one becoming suspicious of Joe’s behavior. When he hints at her being his ‘dirty little secret,’ she becomes so distraught that Mercy gets away from her. She eventually tracks the dog to what appears to be a long-abandoned boat.

Birdie returns home to find Joe waiting on her, inside and miraculously recovered. His ignoring her subtle hints about his supposed poisoning and Mercy not being an apartment dog leads to a slight dispute. This eventually leads to her asking why he’s yet to have her over for dinner at his house. He laughingly jokes about her friends, Anton in particular, not liking him. After arranging a dinner date at his house the following evening, she tells him that Anton does like him and the invitation to the wedding is prime proof. Upon learning this, Joe immediately phones his assistant and arranges a flight booked.

The following day at work, Peggy (Louisa Mignone) invites Birdie out for drinks again. After she refuses due to her dinner at Joe’s house, they briefly joke about their relationship reaching a new milestone. As it turns out, the date is more of a setback than anything. First, Joe shows up in a cab and although he does take by his home, they only sit in the driveway briefly before going to Qin Yan’s (Ferdinand Hoang) restaurant down the street. Learning that Mary (Natalie O’Donnell) has already dropped Harry and Olivia at the restaurant doesn’t ease the tension. During the brief commute, Joe also mentions selling the shack and buying Eldorado as well as his strategy to edge out some of the competition.

Despite Joe knowing nothing about Harry and Olivia’s speaking for him, the dinner doesn’t appear to go so badly. Qin obviously respects Joe and even briefly jokes about Birdie being a food critic. When Joe takes Harry to the restaurant, Birdie mentions her niece, Rory (Annemieke Kedmenec), and offers to arrange a play date. Olivia says they don’t do play dates anymore but doesn’t get a chance to expand on this due to the sudden return of Joe and Harry. This is practically where the evening ends due to Harry supposedly feeling ill.

In the following days, Birdie discovers Fantasy Prone Personality Disorder while researching liars. Joe takes Birdie to view the Jacaranda, which is a backup buy in case things fall through with Eldorado. During this trip, Joe receives a call that he ignores without acknowledging it. This piques Birdie’s curiosity and later leads to her staying in the vehicle when they arrive at the property. She attempts to investigate the call but doesn’t know the passcode. Despite Joe not catching her, he must suspect something is off because he later tells her that the call was from Google about an idea for a new social media platform he had an idea for.

Not very long after this, they meet with the Eldorado Farm Manager, Terry (Rowan Francis), who takes them to meet with Percy (John Stanton) and Erika (Suzy Cato-Gashler) at the main house. The house is elegantly beautiful and although Percy is more than a generous host, he does warn them about Liam (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor) roaming around the property. Before Erika whisks Birdie away, Liam is described as a prospective buyer, who wants to turn the property into a wedding venue.

Erika briefly shows Birdie around the house before leaving her alone. When she does reunite with Joe, he drops hints about them moving into the property together. As Birdie gets more familiar with the home, she imagines possible conversations she and her family might one day have there. Just as she appears to get comfortable and plops down in one of the chairs, he briefly meets Liam and his business partner (Nicholas Cartledge). They aren’t officially introduced as the competition until sometime later.

The episode ends with Joe showing Birdie the master bedroom where he tells her that he has a disgusting amount of money, which always gave him with trust problems. She assures him that she doesn’t care about money.

 

Fake Review

I feel the series could do a much better job explaining things. For instance, the part where Joe takes Birdie to view the property was extremely confusing. I understand he initially took her to a backup property and then to Eldorado. Or was the property where the episode ended the backup property? Either way, that whole spiel was confusing. I’d give the episode a hard 5 out of 10.

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