A road trip to Piha for Van, Aurora and… Munter. On route, while stopping off for beer, Aurora spies the cutest house she’s ever seen in her life. And look! It’s for sale!

They take a tour of the house, and Aurora falls in love, while Munter starts to suffer something like separation anxiety and goes very quiet.

At the Rusty Nail, Van breaks the news to Munter that he’s going to buy that house for Aurora and he’s going to do as a secret to surprise her. Munter can’t help pointing out a small practicality – Van doesn’t have any money.

It’s a heavy thing when your brother roots the woman who wanted your sperm and takes the cash you needed for a house.Van

Munter has problems of his own – a pending court case regarding some stolen car doors. Luckily, Jethro has a nifty solution for the defence involving a children’s playground…

At the Rusty Nail, Van tries for a loan with bank consultant Lloyd Draper only to get rejected at the first hurdle. He must regroup and find a Plan B.

So Van visits Cheryl at her work. Although she’s proud of Van for believing he can get ahead, her skepticism shines through – which makes Van even more pissed off than he was with the mortgage guy.

Van gets an idea – Wolf’s money – that Jethro has stashed away. But Jethro only laughs in his face – you and a mortgage, piss off! Van is furious.

Furious enough to return later…for Jethro’s flash car.

Back to Lloyd Draper: a few cocktails later he’s very impressed with Van’s efforts and newly improved savings balance. But he has one more concern – if Van were to get a better paying job it would look good on the application.

Van heads to the Hongs. But oddly Mr Hong isn’t there. Only Suzy, who after hearing his plight offers to pay his deposit – if he’ll give her a son to complete her family.

Van bemoans his situation to Munter. Suzy’s ovulating at the moment and it has to be today or he’ll have to wait a month to get the cash and by then the house might have gone.

Outside the courthouse and Munter is very grateful to Jethro. The car door defence was a success. Jethro presses Munter for info on his car. Munter honestly can’t say, but there was this thing with his sperm…cue Jethro getting him pissed and uh-oh, the Suzy proposition slips out.

The Hong House. ‘Van’ enters only to be swatted away. She doesn’t want anymore. Four times is enough and he’s got his money. She tells him to leave.

In a secluded location Jethro slaps down a large wad of cash (five grand) in exchange for his car.

Van is devastated. He’s slumped at the Rusty Nail. Munter feeling guilty and sad for Van, he produces the cash that Jethro refused as his fee and gives it to Van.

…But too late. The dream home has just been sold! Van produces Munter’s cash and offers it back. But Munter is staunch. No, bro, the money stays with you and your dreams.

Jethro arrives at the West house ready to finally lay the Judd situation on the line. He lets Cheryl have it, but she doesn’t take a backward step. Both parties give as good as they get until Jethro crosses a line – he slaps Cheryl across the face. Whoa!

Rattled by his own actions, he turns to leave – and sees Tracy in the doorway, a witness to it all, who just happened to be dropping something off for Cheryl.

Later, Jethro returns to his pad to find Tracy packing her things. She’s not an issues type girl and is so over his mother fixation.

Pascalle is likewise oh-so-over community service. After two failed community service jobs she has to serve out her remaining 178 hours at the Janet Frame Rest Home. Yuck! Smelly, old people. It’s her idea of hell.

However when she returns from her first day she needs to share the joy with someone – Pascalle has just had the best day of her life! The old people are all so sweet and they love her.

Pascalle continues to bring home magical stories of happiness in her work. But they’re too good. It’s too perfect.

Cheryl and Loretta confer. Old folks home… Pascalle’s dream job? They decide to bust her. So the next time Pascalle heads off to ‘work’, Cheryl and Loretta turn up unannounced only to find…

Pascalle’s dream job is real!

The 2006 TV Guide Best on the Box People’s Choice awards have been announced and Outrageous Fortune has once again been crowned a winner.

The Awards are voted by readers of the TV Guide and of the nearly 230,000 votes cast, Outrageous Fortune was named Best Drama and star Robyn Malcolm (Cheryl West) was voted Best Actress.

This is the third year in a row that Robyn Malcolm has won the Best Actress Award (in 2004 she received the award for Serial Killers and in 2005 she also won for her role in Outrageous Fortune).  This year she drew a whopping 49.2% of the votes in her category.

The show was named Best Drama with a majority share of 34.9%, followed by fellow South Pacific Pictures series Shortland Street (which received 30%) and Maddigan’s Quest (which drew 10.8%).

Jethro and Hayden are out shopping and talking women, when Tracy rings, bored. She swiftly manages to talk her way into joining them for lunch.

At Hoochie Mama, on her way out to said lunch, a dark figure in a balaclava springs and drags Tracy off, kicking and screaming.

Cheryl returns to the Hoochie Mama HQ only to find a ransom note. Soon there are cops all over, including one Detective Sergeant Judd. His views on Asian kidnapping don’t go over well with Cheryl.

I’ve arranged a little Chinese takeaway.Eric

The Hongs – Mr Hong, Suzy and baby Jasmine, cradled in her mother’s arms – have called around to see Cheryl, and to tell Van to guard the baby. It could be in danger, too.

At a dingy house, our kidnapper is none other than Eric, and he dutifully takes his victim some food. There is a brief scuffle, and Tracy bolts for it, but Eric recovers enough to get hold of her, but not before she recognizes her kidnapper.

The phone rings at the Hong residence. There was, apparently, a mistake in the note. They want $200,000.

Eric is a much happier unit – as Tracy has assumed control of her kidnapping. She is worth way more than that pathetic demand for $20,000.

Elsewhere, Cheryl and Judd are having a quiet drink. Cheryl’s concern over the kidnapping and Judd’s police views cannot help but collide – a divide that will always exist between them, as long as he is a cop. Judd thinks the solution lies in her letting him further into her world.

The next morning. Eric makes the call. It seems they’ve refused to pay. Tracy is stunned – that cannot be. Of course it can. Tracy fumes…it can only be Suzy who’s behind this.

Sparks fly at Hoochie Mama as Judd reports that the Hongs have refused to pay the ransom. Cheryl can’t believe this – but Judd thinks it’s the right response. Jethro’s rage is checked when Judd suggests he pay the ransom – if he’s got that kind of cash lying around, that is.

At the Hong house, Van has been out shopping for groceries. He returns to find Aurora holding Jasmine. He swiftly buckles, confessing his relation to the baby. Aurora is shockingly happy – happy he had the guts to be honest. When she was with the gang she knew lots of guys who had lots of kids all over the place.

At the Hong house, Tracy has returned – thank god she was able to escape! – and is giving her version of events. Her account is non-descript and typical. She then suffers with indignation as Mr Hong and Suzy attempt to make things right with her.

Later, at his place, Jethro tells Tracy how worried he was about her and how he was just about to pay the ransom himself. At least someone loves her.

At the Video Hut, life is going well for Loretta… until Hayden enters. Suddenly she is confronted with all those feelings she’s been burying. Not that he seems to notice. He’s been given this script – maybe Loretta could read it and tell him what she thinks.

Loretta reads the script. It’s porn. It clearly disgusts and appalls her. Which is precisely what she tells Hayden when he comes back into the Video Hut. Hayden mounts a challenge: then write a better script. After a period of goading, Loretta accepts.

She fails. Miserably. She consults sexpert Pascalle who is too consumed by her upcoming community service in an old folks’ home to be of any help.

When Loretta finally shows Hayden the outline, he wastes no time in trashing it. Loretta loses it and returns the abuse, but at his response she flushes head to toe.

At home, Loretta finds Cheryl in her room reading an earlier draft of the storyline. Using the potential film as a way to avoid actually discussing anything real, the girls consider their courses of action regarding the men in their lives.

Hayden opens the door for Loretta. At his place. She walks in. Not a lot is said. In fact it’s more like a scene from a porn film as they spontaneously (finally) act upon their feelings for each other.

Meanwhile, Cheryl leads Judd into the West house. No-one else is there, but he’s still nervous – is she sure about this?

You bet she is.