The King And I

It's Jodi's twenty-second birthday, and she's not looking forward to it at all. She sees it as the beginning of the downhill slide to thirty, and what has she achieved in the last year? Nothing! Jodi's mood improves, however, when she receives a most unexpected letter: it seems Jack McLeod has gifted her a trust fund worth $1000.

Dave jokes to the Drovers' girls that his new veterinary student Catriona is pretty green and will need to learn a lot before her week of practical training is over. However, Catriona quickly proves herself to be intelligent and highly motivated, but perhaps too much so.

Alex wants to get out of doing an interview for local radio, which Harry has delegated to him. Alex gets Harry to re-delegate the interview to Rob. Rob desperately wants to get out of doing the interview and uses some cunning reverse psychology to convince Harry that Alex is the best man for the job.

Intentions

Dave is forced to question his behaviour when his former student, Catriona, threatens him with a sexual harassment suit. After seeking the opinion of the girls on Drover's Run, Dave realises that his manner of speaking is borderline, albeit tolerated by those who know him.

Desperate to get away from things, Jodi goes Droving with Rob Shelton and is thankful when he doesn't question her reasons for wanting to come with him. But as they make camp for the night, Jodi finds she needs to talk about things and although Rob is the last person she would normally open up to, she finds him a good listener with some sage advice.

All of Meg's fears have proved to be well founded, for not only has the revelation caused a rift in her relationship with Jodi, it now threatens to tear apart her relationship with Terry as well. Although Terry manages to keep up a façade of the supportive partner in front of Meg, he admits to Moira just how much he's been rocked by the bombshell.

Stranger Than Fiction

Moira's prediction that a ringing bell will herald an accident for someone appears to be accurate as a series of near misses, all accompanied by a ringing bell of some sort, befall the residents of Drovers Run and Killarney.

Harry finds fault with Alex's failure to secure a lucrative contract, making unfavourable comparisons with Nick, and Alex recognises the familiar game of playing the brothers off against each other, despite Nick being absent this time. When Alex refuses to pursue another potential deal, Harry instructs Rob to negotiate with the client in Fisher instead.

Meg agonises over Jodi's rejection of her, following the revelation that Jack McLeod is possibly her real father. The arrival of advance copies of her novel only increases her woes. Terry, trying to play peacemaker, visits Drovers. He gives her a copy of Meg's novel, hoping that it may act as a peace offering. Meg is horrified to learn Terry has done this: it's not just a story, but a thinly veiled historical account of a housekeeper who goes to work for a wealthy pastoralist, and ends up having his illegitimate child. The parallels with Jodi's own story are obvious. Mortified, humiliated, Jodi confronts her mother. Jodi feels she has no alternative but to leave town to avoid being the brunt of gossip, so Meg offers to go instead. Good, replies her daughter.