RAN: Remote Area Nurse

Blue Hawaii (1x5)

: 02, 2006

A long awaited tombstone opening for Paul and Bernadette’s infant son puts relationships on the island under real strain. While the traditional ceremony is meant to conclude the grieving period, new tensions emerge for the boy’s parents - both severely stressed by the financial load of the event. And at the all night feasting and dancing following the ceremony it all gets worse. A bitter mix of jealousy, gossip and bad behaviour. And they’re not the only ones. Russ and Helen, under the influence of a few drinks, allow the sexual chemistry between them to show when they dance together. This is observed by everyone – most especially Russ’ wife, Ina …and Robbo. Later in the night, a crisis engulfs Helen – she has to perform emergency surgery on a man who is choking. Although she saves the man’s life, he later dies of an unrelated condition. Helen is shunned by the community, with only Nancy rallying to her support. And when Ina leaves Russ and goes to stay with relatives on another island, rumours begin to spread that in addition to her incompetence, Helen is “the other woman”. Russ, desperate not to make a political mistake this close to the election, is even tougher than necessary on her in an attempt to prove his lack of bias. Hurt and confused, Helen doesn’t know where to turn. Instead, she crashes headfirst into Robbo. And, in the midst of crises of varying sizes, needing non-judgmental comfort, Helen takes Robbo as her lover. Meanwhile, things go from bad to worse for Paul and Bernadette as Paul begins to have real difficulty controlling his stress levels. He turns to drinking and a shocking row erupts – Bernadette is flown out to the mainland hospital. Russ explodes when Helen accuses him of looking the other way during this and every other domestic violence crisis. Alone with Robbo, she wonders about the nature of love: about the knife sharp divide between passion and pain in this fierce culture of warriors… and for the