“Death of a young Rafter”
Minor Spoilers. Are we really about to lose a member of the family Rafter? Seven has gone to great lengths to keep an episode under wraps.
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Minor Spoilers: If we are to believe the promos, tonight’s episode of Packed to the Rafters will be one to remember.
Entitled “Perfect Bubble,” the episode is said to include “the death of a young Rafter.”
Promos for the show tell us the family’s ‘perfect bubble’ is about to pop when it is least expected. One of the Rafter family is apparently about to die. This is big stuff in TV drama, especially when it is the #1 drama in the country and only in its third season.
Seven has gone to extra lengths to keep the detail under wraps.
No Preview DVDs have been sent out.
Synopses of the show don’t even hint at a tragedy. Synopses of next week also don’t touch upon it and tactfully omit references to several key characters.
The cast list in publicity material remains unchanged. Not even a photo of the episode was to be given out, even including those that didn’t give the game away (the photo here is archival).
Seven will likely issue Amendments to media that reflect the changes after the episode has safely aired.
Yes this is top secret stuff in TV soap land….
So far the show has only farewelled one key clan member, Jessica MacNamee who played Sammy, earlier this season after her failed marriage to Nathan (Angus McLaren).
The candidates who qualify as a “young Rafter” are:
Jessica Marais (Rachel Rafter)
Angus McLaren ( Nathan Rafter)
Hugh Sheridan (Ben Rafter)
Zoe Ventoura (Melissa Rafter)
Ruby / Imogen Strong (Ruby Rafter)
But wouldn’t it also include Sammy Rafter given that the fictional character married into the family? Probably.
Media have also noted a subsequent funeral scene with key characters in attendance.
Seven sources promise a “powerful” episode tonight. Whether it will come close to the death of Molly in A Country Practice or the loss of Grace Sullivan on The Sullivans remains to be seen.
But Rafters is also known for its fantasy scenes. What if it’s all just someone’s wild imagination?
With the wording of Seven promos, there will be hell to pay if the audience is short-changed.
The episode is strategically placed on Melbourne Cup Day, one of the network’s biggest viewing days of the year. The race will deliver the show an enormous lead-in, just as it did last year when there were wedding bells in the air for Ben and Melissa.
Here is the synopsis for tonight’s episode:
This week on PACKED TO THE RAFTERS, certain perfect bubbles in the Rafter world all burst
in the most unexpected and confronting ways.
Newly unemployed Rachel is seeing the world in a new light – as her oyster. But first what she’d love more than anything is a holiday with Jake. Unbeknownst to her, Jake takes the hint and organises time off – but before he can spring the surprise, Rachel gets a phone call from former boss Paul Morgan offering her job back with better perks and more money. For Rachel, the choice is simple – but for Jake, it’s a disappointing slap in the face. The world isn’t their oyster, it’s Rachel’s. If their relationship is going to survive, she needs to start considering his future, too.
Still resisting any suggestion of depression, Dave throws himself into normality, suggesting a Rafter family dinner and offering Coby an apprenticeship, which Coby is hesitant but touched to accept.
However, when it’s revealed that the police have finally arrested a fence connected to the site robberies, Coby is forced to face the fact that his involvement will soon be disclosed and the truth and his self-hate emerge drunkenly over dinner. Dave explodes with anger, even scaring Julie with his unhinged vehemence. As Coby tries to own his guilt by turning himself into the police, Dave is forced to confront his own truth – he has a real problem, possibly the depression Julie has mentioned. But is he willing he do anything about it?
After proving his “swimmers” are perfectly sound, Ben is even more determined to start a family with beloved wife Melissa.
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- Tagged with A Country Practice, Melbourne Cup, Packed to the Rafters, The Sullivans
55 Responses
I feel really sad, it took me back to a place I had not been for sometime.
Cold Feet any one?
Well didn’t that episode put a lot of the armchair experts ,who dripped cynicism in their posts, way back in their boxes 🙂
looks like everyone who thought it was the baby was sadly mistaken….
It was Mel. Sad ending 🙁
Oh dear. Thought it would be Mel. 🙁
So it was Melissa. Thats what can happen when listening to voicemail whilst driving
Saddest death was Donna on ACP!!
Hopefully there’ll be a chainsaw massacre and it’ll be the end of the lot of them.
Of course it will be the baby. They’re too expensive and complicated to use on these shows. Plus having a baby limits storylines. Usually not long after a character has a baby on H&A or Neighbours they leave the show. If it were one of the mains we would have heard something. Oh and the ad is embarrasing.
Could coby be counted as a Rafter… i feel he could be the one who dies. Either way i would say that it is going to be a big story, or other wise watch out channel 7. Watch the viewing numbers go plumeting if it’s not a big story.
one other thing, a few people have made mention to Ben & Melissa’s unborn baby. She is not pregnant yet guys.
@Barb totally agree about mollys death on a country practice definatly the saddest death on tv
Could be a miscarriage by Ben’s partner (forget her name). Seven often come up with some misleading promos.
Na Not Molly…saddest TV death and the most outstanding episode of television in Australian history is the death of Lou in Love My Way. No question about.
The most compelling, powerful, emotional, outstandingly acted hour of television in Australia ever made, and if you haven’t seen it you shouldn’t be lurking on this site as your not a true Australian television fan, it’s a must see!!
Rafters death will not come close to it…..but im fairly certain its gonna be bye bye Melissa tonight!
Wasn’t Angus suppose to filming more H20?
How about Melissa is pregnant but its a miscarriage?? Young rafter there!
Channel 7 are effing clueless when it comes to advertising this sort of thing. This show has ridiculously large viewer numbers, so why wouldn’t you spring this sort of thing as a shock to everyone rather than telegraph it far & wide in the hope of getting a small extra few tuning in?
Then again, they’ve always approached stuff in this manner – ‘omg let’s tell everyone the big spoiler of the ep in the hope it’ll make more people tune in!!!!’.
Idiots.
I’ve bought a new box of tissues, the phone will be off…….. I’m ready
If the story line is going to be along the same line as when Molly from A Country Practice died, be ready to be a blubbering mess that was the saddest episode I’ve watched on OZ TV
i bet there won’t be a death this week. it will be a lead up to something. this is what 7 does. advertuse something than make it a drawn out process
TV Tonight will be logging a story after 9:30pm tonight AEDT. A reminder to all those reading the site / Twitter outside of AEDT.
@Andrew, I don’t mind spoilers one bit and ill be checking this site at 9:30pm AEDT to see who has died.
how many times have TV dramas over-exaggerated this stuff?
Remember when Toadie was getting killed off Neighbours, but managed to survive his spinal cord-bullet situation??
Killing of main character, and its not even a season finale… Nah dont buy it.
If anything, its probably the new cousin… Coby?
whatever the outcome, i hope the writers do it justice.
Traditionally, babies/children don’t get killed off because it’s such a sensitive subject, it’s often bad for the show. However, Love My Way did set a precedent there…
Could be Nathan – hasn’t had much of a storyline since the kidney transplant – maybe some sudden complications with that cause his demise???