The episode begins with QC Brett Colby (Sam Neill) questioning Patrick Harrows (Erroll Shand) about his and Sasha Price’s (Amy Mathews) special meeting. Patrick tells him that no one else knew about the waterfall but a memory of Bernice Price (Kris McQuade) confronting him about spending time with Sasha reveals his statement to be untrue.
Before SC Meredith Nelson-Moore (Frances O’Connor) questions bank manager, Nik Tasi (Eddie Stowers) about the $100,000 withdrawal, she briefly argues with Chris Moore (Gerald Lepkowski) over the phone about taking the children out of the country. Mr. Tasi’s statement verifies that it was usual for Sasha to make such a large withdrawal and on the day in question, she was even cheerful.
During Mr. Tasi’s testimony, there is a brief memory of the day that Bernice fired Patrick after seeing him and Sasha leaving the barn together. During the lunch recess, most of the jurors discuss the $100,000 while Claudia D’Angelo (Stefanie Caccamo) and Felix Tilly (Adriano Cappelletta) focus on living life to the fullest since you never know when you are going to go. This ultimately leads to him inviting her to dinner over the weekend.
Court resumes with Jude Persand (Fayssal Bazzi) calling the motel manager, Guy Dovey (Daniel Buck), to the stand. Guy’s testimony not only establishes that Sasha was a frequent guest of Patrick’s but he was also visited by Bernice with the supposed bag of money on the day of her death. Sometime later Guy testifies to seeing Patrick leave with the same bag and return without it. He happens to recall the timing perfectly because it occurred during his regularly scheduled gaming session. During another recess, the jurors focus on the missing $50,000, but it is Columbus Evans (Brad Francis) who points out how dumb it would be to kill someone for a mere $50,000 when you could go after the $20 million property.
Later that evening, things only get worse for Joey Kovac (Josh McKenzie) when he learns that Ryan (Lee Jankowski) refuses to finish the repair until he is fully paid. At the same time in his cell, Patrick remembers the day Sasha found out about Bernice firing him. She apparently wanted to run off with him and start an entirely new life, but he didn’t appear at all interested.
Meredith is thrown for a loop when she learns that Lilya (Alessandra Tognini) is actually excited about their move to New Zealand. Even worse, Noah Moore (Riley Stiles) refuses to speak with her. Later that evening, Rana Billings (Jennah Bannear) has a strange experience of her own. While smoking on her balcony, she sees Colby knocking on the Sunrise Motel lobby door. When no one answers, he dances a little jig and waves at her. After doing so, he phones Nina Distazio (Kaila Ferrelli) and tells her to prepare an affidavit.
Joey lets his misery spew onto Pete McKirney (Will McNeill) when he learns that he hasn’t completed all the deliveries. He not only curses at him but he ends up blaming him for his current situation with the truck. After Pete storms off, Joey gets high.
Before court the following day, Thelma Connell (Tasma Walton) confronts Angie (Liz Narkle) and blames Bobby (Bevan Winmar) and Savannah West (Nevaeh Winmar) for a missing chicken. They deny having anything to do with the incident. Joey briefly visits with Mr. Tsai to inquire about a business loan. Although Joey’s business isn’t in profit yet and the truck is in Mr. Kovac’s (Benj D’Addario) name, Mr. Tsai promises to crunch some numbers and get back to him. Rana shares her strange Colby encounter with Meredith before they meet with Sasha to discuss visitation. Overhearing Sasha frantically plead to see her baby causes Patrick to remember the day Bernice visited him with the cash. She practically used the cash to bribe him to leave. Bernice also threatens to have Sash removed from her will if he contacts her again.
Before Colby questions Mr. Dovey, Meredith asks him about his visit to the Sunrise Motel. He doesn’t offer much of an explanation but all is explained when he questions Mr. Dovey. In a longwinded, roundabout way, Colby uses his unanswered banging at the lobby to dispute everything Dovey testified to the previous day. Colby makes him look even more unreliable when he gets him to admit that his gaming sessions take place over the dark web.
As the trial proceeds, Jude eventually calls Patrick’s ex-wife, Kelly Lawler (Shanta-Maree Surendran), to the stand. This goes much better than most would expect. Although she refers to him as a bad partner, she claims he is an exceptional father. It also turns out that he gave the $50,000 to Kelly. In addition, he was honest about how he came about such a large sum of money. A brief reenactment of the meeting also reveals that for some undefined reason, Patrick was ignoring Sasha’s calls.
Joey learns that he’s been cleared for a $15,000 personal loan while Thelma solves the case of her AWOL chicken. Angie doesn’t hide her contempt when she discovers the truth. Claudia meets Felix’s partner Connor (Ethan Tomas) as Winston Hang (Anthony Brandon Wong) undergoes another checkup with Teddy Hardcastle (Domenic Anthony). Despite the higher blood pressure and pain, Winston appears to be doing fairly well. He certainly appears to be doing much better when Teddy convinces him to eat a pot-laced gummy.
By this time, Claudia, Felix, and Connor are equally wasted but things take a turn for the worse when a conversation about children comes up. Although it’s not fully explained, Claudia’s confession makes it seem that she had a kid when she was 14 and her parents would ultimately assume custody. Despite butting heads earlier, Joey apologizes to Pete over a few beers at the garage. A bit of joking around leads to Pete falling off the roof.
While drinking and working on the case, Meredith tells Colby about the separation. He asks her if she thinks Chris has another partner. She doesn’t suspect he does and claims the only real affair she’s ever had was with her work. Colby reminds her that some partners also consider that a betrayal.
Although Pete’s injuries don’t amount to anything more than minor trauma, he uses the pain to convince Joey to share his heroin. Joey finds him dead several hours later.
The episode ends with Patrick remembering receiving Sasha’s voice message, announcing her pregnancy. The discovery causes him to turn around and return to Sasha at the farm.
The Twelve Review
I must start with the appreciation of the shorter episode. Although it was only several minutes shorter, it felt like a lifetime. The episode appeared to be geared toward family and I am not regularly one for gushy, feel-good melodramatic content but this wasn’t such a bad thing. I did like the fact that Patrick was billed as a good father. In her own twisted way, Bernice appeared to be a caring mother as well, perhaps a bit too much. Despite the big focus on the money, I was happy that the Packard Ammunition didn’t reappear.
The short bit with Winston getting high was enjoyable. I can’t say I wasn’t surprised by Sasha’s pregnancy, although it wasn’t jaw-dropping. Just when Joey finally gets some good news, he digs himself into an even deeper pit. That wasn’t entirely shocking either but I wasn’t expecting that twist. I am also assuming that Rosa is actually Claudia’s daughter, which did take me by complete surprise. In the grand scheme of things, the episode still could have been further shortened but I’d give it a 5.0 out of 10.
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