Not every day a soap opera goes deep with its storylines. However, Home and Away’s current drama-packed episodes have even gone so far as to include a rape storyline involving one of its main characters. This character is Felicity Newman. According to Back to the Bay, the assault causes her mental health issues to resurface. Since arriving in Summer Bay alongside her brother Cash, she has struggled with her mental health and has recently overcome significant obstacles. One of those was her feelings towards getting married and realising that her father did commit suicide and was NOT murdered like she always believed. She has also become friendlier to her foster dad, Gary, who took her and Cash in after their dad’s passing.
Just as her life started to settle down, Felicity was thrown through the wringer when she was severely injured in a car accident that saw her best friend, Eden, almost die. This prompted her mental health to spiral so severely that when her fiancée (now husband) Tane tried to help her, she ended their engagement.
Remi Tells Tane What Happened With Felicity, Tane Blows Up At Eden, And Bree Feels Guilty
Fast-forward to now, and Felicity is happily married, but after Tane’s cousin starts causing issues, the gym owner sends him packing back to their homeland of New Zealand. Tane went with him to ensure he got there and told his [the cousin’s] mother everything. Now, he has to return home to find his wife has been sexually assaulted.
Upon discovering that Tane has returned home from New Zealand, Remi tells Lyrik that he’ll talk to him.
Upon learning from Remi what happened, Tane rushes to the hospital to be by Felicity’s side. However, the local doctor Bree, tells him it will be up to his wife to talk to him if she decides to. Later back at the house, Tane explodes at Eden for not protecting Flick.
Eden feels horrible for what happened. At the hospital, Bree feels guilty for not seeing the signs that Felicity had been drugged earlier.
Eden tries encouraging Felicity to tell Cash. Knowing her brother as she does, Flick tells her he cannot know.
The Rest Of Lyrik Struggle To Comprehend What Happened
With Eden and Remi busy dealing with the fallout, Theo, Kirby, and new member Mercedes struggle to comprehend everything. While they had gone to the Battle of the Bands with the prospect of winning $20k towards a recording studio so they could record an album, they came out of it with more significant concerns.
Flick means the world to them, so she is more critical than any album.
Kirby says that she knows people who have been assaulted, like Felicity, and they never stepped forward due to the barriers of not being believed.
The Rape Kit
Bree recommends that Felicity have a sexual assault examination done to ensure there is evidence of the assault if she does go to the police. She explains that an expert will perform the exam. Flick doesn’t want anyone else but Bree to do it.
Thankfully, Bree has the training to do so and performs the exam. Eden remains with Felicity as the exam is done. Both friends are still very much shaken up over what has happened.
An Audience Perspective
As someone who has watched Home and Away for many years, I can say that the way this storyline has been handled is perfect. It’s much better than similar storylines done over the years. Two spring to mind. The first is the assault on Bianca Scott while she was with Liam Murphy. The second is probably the most recent; the rape of Billie Ashford and her becoming pregnant with her rapist’s child.
While the storylines back then were done sensitively for the time, now, it is essential more than ever. Having the warning before the episode starts is a good move. It prevents people from complaining that victims were given zero notice, causing them to be triggered.
Storylines on soaps usually come off as one-dimensional and downright silly. For example, it’s rare that a story involving someone being assaulted while having mental health problems is done at once. This is because it is often heavy subject matter.
In conclusion, the writers took their time to research the subjects they were covering thoroughly and knew the perfect character to evolve with this storyline. Props have to go to the actors involved and the crew, who carefully handled the story.
