Felicity and Rory emerge from a swim, clearly smitten. John is horrified to clock Rory’s ‘Blood & Sand’ tattoo, realising he must be a River Boy. When he finds Rory behind the counter at the board shop, Rory has an innocent explanation – he’s just picking up the board that Mali made him. When John tries to warn her off, Felicity defends Rory and his tattoos – much like Cash, he is not going to dictate her love life.
Cash stands strong against the wall of River Boys ‘welcoming’ him to Mangrove River, and he confronts Dingo immediately. Dingo reasons that Cash has been watching them, so now they’re watching him. Before things can escalate, Dingo gets a call from Rory, who orders them to stand down – he’s coming back, with Felicity.
Later, Cash is parked outside a buzzing street party and observes Rory arriving with his sister. She’s right at home with the River Boys, and she and Rory delight in tormenting Cash, who demands his sister get in the car so they can leave. When Felicity refuses, he heads back to the station, where he pushes Joanna to run the license plates he’s collected. She’s reticent, but Cash is insistent.
Felicity and Rory have gone back to hers and retreated to the bedroom when Cash returns home and swiftly kicks Rory out. Felicity’s indignant, so he tells her his reasoning – the River Boys are involved in a murder and Rory’s the suspected leader. He suggests this is the reason he’s sleeping with the new cop’s sister.
A furious Felicity bites back that they were together before he took the job and not everything is about Cash. Have Rory and the River Boys come between Cash and Felicity?
Meanwhile, Irene is short with Leah and Marilyn, frustrated by their persistence that she gives an interview to the Coastal News about the Bronte scam. When John witnesses her snap at her friends, she explains she has been humiliated enough already, but he counters that she’s a compassionate person who should be celebrated. He points out that Irene thrives on helping people, so she knows what the right decision is.
Irene asks for time alone to think and think she does, over a stiff drink. When she returns to the Diner, a tipsy Irene is all smiles, and her sudden change of heart doesn’t sit well with Leah. Is a drunk Irene about to tank the interview?