A new Home and Away promo shows Ava leave town with a complete stranger after Theo turns against her – will she be okay?
After being recast a second time, Ava Gilbert, the daughter of Justin Morgan (James Stewart), returned to Summer Bay in February with a slightly altered appearance from when we last saw her.
She had matured and, like many adolescent females, was now more eager to form relationships with boys than with her father.
Ava was particularly drawn to Theo (Matt Evans), one of the boys. She was eventually identified as Theo’s stalker or crazy admirer who had been giving him gifts through the mail for several weeks and had been frightening both Theo and Kirby (Angelina Thomson) with her apparent knowledge of Theo’s employment and residence.
The epiphany occurred when Kirby came upon Ava’s scrapbook, which was stuffed with images and sketches of Theo, including a picture of Theo, Ava, and Kirby with Kirby’s face taped over.
It was obvious that Ava had grown fixated on Theo, and Justin was the only one who didn’t notice.
Justin couldn’t understand why Theo had to leave to put some distance between himself and Ava despite the fact that he trusted his daughter to have moved over their “little crush” on him.
Leah (Ada Nicodemou) also tried to divert Ava’s attention by appointing Roo (Georgie Parker) as her tutor so she could stay on top of her academic obligations while she was still in the bay.
Unfortunately, Ava remained uninterested in her schooling, and Roo struggled to get her to look away from her phone.
Leah (Ada Nicodemou) also made an effort to divert Ava’s attention by employing Roo (Georgie Parker) as her tutor to make sure she kept up with her academics while she was still in the bay.
It took all Roo’s strength to get Ava’s attention away from her phone and back to her studies because she had no interest in it.
However, when Roo attempted to alert Justin that Ava was still obviously still in love with Theo, he reacted angrily and questioned if he was paying her to spy on his daughter or instruct her.
However, Ava’s crush / obsession continued, and in today’s Australian episode, Roo discovered photos on Ava’s phone of Ava seductively wearing one of Theo’s shirts, with the caption “when your boyfriend wants you to wear his t-shirt.”
Tomorrow, Kirby makes one more attempt to get Ava to stay away from her boyfriend.
“I’m going to need you to get this through that childish, deluded head of yours,” Kirby tells Ava. “You and Theo will never happen.”
Yet Ava isn’t having any of it: “You know it’s tragic that you can’t even see what’s right under your nose,” she responds.
Then, it’s Kirby and Theo’s turn to discover the seductive photos Ava posted on her I <3 THEO account, and they’re shocked.
“That’s my shirt,” says Theo.
“And that’s in your room!” adds Kirby.
Theo’s first concern is that Justin’s going to believe the posts, and he tells Kirby that Justin needs to know that he “hasn’t done anything messed up with Ava.”
“Ok, but this is what she wants,” says Kirby, as the two begin to argue. “Everybody rushing around after her, giving her attention.”
“Then what else do you want me to do?” asks Theo, as the pair get increasingly irate with each other.
Ava is ecstatic that her activities have led to the pair falling out as she observes them from a distance as their quarrel spills out onto the street.
“I don’t know, I’m just trying to help you,” says Kirby.
“Yeah, but you’re not!” Theo responds in frustration.
Is Ava getting one step closer to breaking Theo and Kirby up?
A promo which aired after Tuesday’s episode shows the dramatic next step in the storyline.
We see Ava and Theo talking on the beach, as Ava tells him, “you don’t need to pretend, we’ve always had a connection.”
Bluntly, Theo tells her he isn’t into her: “I never have been, and I never will be.”
We then see Ava storming away, with Theo walking quickly behind her.
As he chases behind her, a man in a light blue campervan asks Ava if the man she’s with is hassling her.
Ava says “yeah, can you give me a lift?”, and, despite Theo’s pleas, she gets in the van with the total stranger, who drives off.
We then see Theo forced to tell Justin that his daughter has run off with a stranger, and, understandably, Justin isn’t happy.
“I couldn’t stop her,” Theo explains. “She took off.”
“You drove her away,” Justin remarks angrily.
Later, Justin heads to the police station, filing a report with Rose, telling her: “my underage daughter has gotten into a random stranger’s van. That man could be dangerous.”
We then see the mystery man back in the bay, where he takes a bag from his van and places it in the bin before washing his hands.
The promo then cuts to Ava writing a text message to Justin, reading: “HELP! I’m scared! I can’t get away.”
We hear Justin say “if that man’s done something to her, he’s a dead man.”
However, is Ava really in trouble, or just seeing attention?
Following that are shots of Ava’s phone left abandoned on a rock, Rose seemingly finding something, and Cash rushing from his police car, which is parked up next to the man’s blue campervan.
We see the man and his campervan parked up in a car park alongside the beach, and he doesn’t look particularly on edge.
Then, Justin jumps out of his ute and punches what appears to be the same man in the face.
But has the man really done something to Ava?
It looks like Ava and the stranger will grow close in upcoming episodes, and that he’ll play a bigger part than just giving her a lift out of town.
The guy left the beach with his surfboard and walked to his campervan, where Ava was waiting for him lying down in the back, as shown on the Home and Away Tour last year.
Could he be a new love interest for Ava, and will he help her get over her crush on Theo, or is there much more trouble to come?
