The death of Melissa Rafter
The Rafters bubble has burst. Melissa Rafter (Zoe Ventoura) was killed in a car accident in the hit Seven drama, Packed to the Rafters.
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The Rafters bubble has burst.
Melissa Rafter (Zoe Ventoura) was killed in a car accident in tonight’s episode of the hit Seven drama, Packed to the Rafters.
In an emotional episode narrated by the voice of Ben (Hugh Sheridan), the perfect world of the young couple came crashing down when it was least expected.
Everything had been rosy for the young couple, both planning a baby together. Tonight, while Ben was organising a romantic evening at a hotel for his wife, Melissa was stuck at work.
Meanwhile back at the Rafters household, a family dinner was underway.
The fatal moment happened as she drove from the hospital to the hotel, distracted by a phone message from Ben. Another car from the other direction collided with hers.
But the real drama was saved for a sensitive family scene in which a stony-faced Ben attended the hospital surrounded by a tearful family.
Captured in slow motion with a song, it was a powerful scene.
The tragedy followed network promos teasing the “death of a young Rafter,” but her fate became clear within the first 15 minutes when farewelling Ben as she head off to work.
“If I had known my bubble was about to burst,” said Ben, “I would never have let her go.”
Melissa (nee Bannon) married into the family only a year ago, in a picture perfect soapie wedding.
The death of Melissa is the first major death since the show has begun. In the final weeks of the ratings season, viewers will now be compelled to watch how television’s favourite family come to terms with the tragedy.
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136 Responses
Zoe Ventoura is a glamour. Jessica McNamee was a stunner. Hope they will be bringing in some new hot babes next year. Jessica Marais is the only hot one left.
Was this the highest rating episode of Packed to the Rafters ever?
Some are saying they should have re-cast the role of Mel, I hate that idea.
I still can’t work out How she died. It was a Minor bingle at an intersection where one car ran into the back drivers side door of a corolla. This must happen hundreds of times a day. So why did she die? She must have had some pre-existing illness that must come out in future episodes. People don’t die from simple accidents like that. Please – keep it real.
@KT, I agree this actress has taken a big risk in having her character killed off before taking off for LA and no promise of work. A sudden separation for this couple would not have been believable, so I understand why she was killed off for the credibility of the show. However, she can always make semi-regular appearances as a ghost. Lots of soaps have done this – dead characters making appearances as apparitions visible only to their loved ones, and also in dream sequences. “The Young and The Restless” had the ghost of John Abbott appearing regularly to his son, Jack Abbott, for years after his death on the show
The accident reminded me a lot of Rachel’s death in Cold Feet. Very similar.
I still hate the adds that preceded this ep, I would have preferred to be surprised, rather than watch the whole episode on tenterhooks. Still at least we didn’t know who was being killed off months in advance, like i did with Neighbours and some US soaps.
steveany, i know where you are coming from, I watched the first season of Love My Way, but couldn’t watch the rest after what happened there.
I think everyone is missing something. Where did they Ever say that Mel was dead? All we saw was Dave Rafter leading Ben into the morgue to identify a body. We never saw Mel’s corpse. I Still reckon it’s just her unborn baby, and we’ve been ripped off Again by channel 7.
Who bloody cares, why couldn’t kill off the entire family, and get rid of this stupid show
Pretty well kept secret. With the net and so many “exits” in so many shows, 7 really managed to keep this well under wraps. Good job 7.
It shows you that australia can produce great drama when they try. If every drama was this good, they would have huge ratings too.
I thought it was nicely handled. The way there song was playing and as Zoe said this morning they had to kill her off because viewers know how much Ben and Melissa are in love and if they got a divorce it wouldnt have been believed.
Im going to miss watching this couple grow though because they really were a great on screen couple and poor Ben.
But good luck to Zoe over in the states.
Haven’t been such a regular viewer this year but this episode reminded me how great this show can really be. Love it and it made me want to see more quality stuff like this again. Well done, Packed to the Rafters.
Soap suds rule supreme!
Just goes to show how good a show can be when they really try. The producers of Neighbours, Rescue Special Ops and especially Cops LAC, please take note.
Brilliant episode. I think they did a great job tying all the recent storylines together in this episode. It was a very powerful ending. I’m relieved that it wasn’t one of the Rafter kids killed off after all, but nevertheless it is quite shocking that they’ve killed off Mel. Well done to the producers, actors and Seven for keeping the identity of the character killed off, a secret,
I am surprised that Zoe Ventoura did not have a bona fide contract in place in ‘La La’ land (aka Los Angeles) before ‘killing off’ her character in Packed to the Rafters. Only time will tell if this was a smart move.
steveany/crAig – get over yourselves.
this was a great ep, but very predictable – im sure im not the first to admit it. i knew who it would be and was hoping it wouldnt play out that way, because ben/mel were very cute.
i must say, nathan/angus was amazing in the final scene – even more so than ben/hugh, which is odd! i thought ben would have been more distraught, hes always been the heart-on-his-sleeve guy, but then again it was his true love…
would have really kicked it up a notch if the showed her face in the final scene, but i understand why they chose not to.
over enjoyable ep, but sad to see melissa/zoe leave. good luck to her over in america!
I’ll never understand why these sort of drama shows are so popular.
Once you’ve had even the tiniest bit of real drama or heartache in your life the last thing you want to do is watch it on TV.
You fans of the genre are very lucky people to have never experienced real pain.
Either that or you’re masochists.
“Truly incredible” is such a stretch for this soapy soap soap episode.
It oozed predicability and lacked any emotion but for the songs that overlayed the imagery.
The fact that not one Rafter actor could manage a proper emotion (other than stunned) at the end was woeful.
Using a song like a video clip is the cheapest of cheap ways to evoke emotion out of a middle Australia audience.
All the above being saiod, it rated it’s socks off, so well done. Each to their own.
I thought the promotional material + secrecy of “which cast member is leaving the show”, was far better than what the episode turned out to be. It certainly did not have a patch on the deaths of other characters from cult Aussie shows back in Australian tv history.
Brilliant hour of television.
Lets nitpick she never changed her name to Rafter
I think a lot of you are being over the top! A car crash scene? How predictable… It wasn’t as good as Todd Lander’s being hit by a van in Neighbours!! 😉
Nothing will beat Claudia Karvans scene in Love My Way when Frankie lost Lou. Nothing!
This was slightly emotional, but more could have done to make it really impact. 7 said when we least expect it. Ummm, it was pretty much mapped out.
She was my fav character on the show. I see now why they brought Retta in.