Over the past week we bid farewell to two guest characters who have entertained us in their own unique way over the past month or two. That’s right, I’m referring to musician Liam Streicher and evil superbitch, Sandra Stutterheim.
Liam leaves a flower for Dezi on her desk which she finds and he watches lovingly from the staircase as she holds the flower against her cheek. She quickly calls out to him and he appears before her, giving her the news that he’s leaving, ready to tackle the outside world.
He explains that he signed a recording deal with Jamie, the producer, and that he would be living on Jamie’s farm near Calvinia. When Altus and George walk in, Liam bravely faces them and introduces himself, proof that he’s dealt with his issues regarding his scar.
Later we see Dezi talking to Jan Hendrik about Liam, she explains that he was right about him having feelings for her but she had told him they could only be friends.
Dezi suggested to Jan Hendrik that the two of them go away for the weekend to basically make up for the strain in their marriage caused by her secret friendship with the scarred musician. Off course Dezi did’nt really tell JH that, but we all know she was feeling guilty.
Dezi goes to visit Liam for the last time, he sings her a silly comical song and mid-way through the song, she excitedly tells him that she can see the colour of his shirt and that he’s smiling. Through tear-filled eyes, the two embrace and before things could get even more awkward, he sends her back to Jan Hendrik.
So that was the last we saw of Liam, some might say that he’s overstayed his welcome in 7de laan but at least he did’nt cause too major damage to Dezi and Jan Hendrik’s marriage.
Now, onto the very interesting storyline of the week, the revenge of Sandra Stutterheim. Sandra makes all kinds of demands on Ronel, she wants Carlos’ laptop, she wants Ronel to steal his cellphone, she wants her to get sleeping tablets, etc.
At first we are none the wiser but as Sandra’s plans start to unfold we realise this woman is as dangerous as we remembered her to be. She blackmails Ronel with promises of transferring lots of money into her parent’s bank account ensuring she never has to worry about them again.
We see Sandra making a few devious phone calls, she phones and cancels the sale of the warehouse pretending to be the assistant of the owner, she phones the trust people and we see her phoning Carlos pretending to be a doctor’s receptionist sending Carlos on a wild goose chase to Wakkerstroom.
It’s all part of her plan to get Carlos out of town without any means of communication with the banks or agents of the warehouse as she knows the banks will querying the activity of the trust accounts.
Sandra is back to her old self as she makes reservations, first class only off course, she goes on a shopping spree for the finest designer wear and expensive make-up as we see her dolly herself up to look like the Sandra of old.
When Carlos returns from his wasted trip, Ronel offers to make him some tea which is spiked with the sleeping tablets and we see Sandra smiling wickedly as Carlos falls asleep on the chair in her room.
Sandra waits until she’s sure he’s sleeping soundly, then she quickly ties him up with rope and throws petrol all around the room. Look I knew the woman was up to something wicked but I thought a gun was gonna be involved somehow, I never thought she would set the place alight.
Besides what was she thinking trying to kill Carlos, who did she think was gonna raise Ewald, her arch-enemy the Terreblanches???
Anyway, the room is on fire, Sandra makes her getaway and we see Jan Hendrik and Madel anxiously looking for Carlos, they phone Lana and Felicity but nobody seems to have seen him.
Later Jan Hendrik goes to look for Carlos in Ewald’s room and gets the smell of the fire coming from Sandra’s room. He barges in, is shocked by what he sees, calls out for help as he tries to save Carlos.
Dezi and Madel hurry into the livingroom, are unsure of what is going on upstairs, they think there’s a burglar in the house attacking Jan Hendrik so they phone the police.
You know it was at that moment that I really thought Sandra was gonna come downstairs, have the final face-off with Madel but the writers decided they were’nt gonna go this route.
Maybe they did’nt want any opportunities for Sandra to get caught, making the story lopsided so they made her escape without anybody crossing her path. I must say that I was a tad disappointed there was no confrontation.
Anyway Carlos was saved, Jan Hendrik could’nt find Sandra anywhere in the room, the police and paramedics arrived and took Carlos to hospital. Emma and Ryno dropped by just as everything was coming to an end.
Madel questioned Ronel about Sandra and Ronel being the guilt ridden person that she is, cracked under the strain, telling Madel the truth about Sandra being her normal self and we see Sandra sitting in the airport waiting to board her flight to Miami.
The rest of the week we see Carlos hospitalised with smoke inhalation as Lana plays nurse to him. Slowly but surely the truth is revealed about Sandra, she transferred all her money out of the trust, the bank wants to close the account co’s its empty, the warehouse deal fell through because of her and the Terreblanches don’t have the cash to purchase it anyway.
Madel feels very uncomfortable about the whole Sandra fiasco, the fact that the woman was by her full senses living under her roof plotting and planning to destroy the Terreblances and she fears Sandra will not rest until she has destroyed each and every one of them.
Carlos receives a mysterious e-mail titled “Beware of Sandra Stutterheim”. The e-mail has an image of Sandra looking glam, cocktail in hand saying “cheers to you and your new love but you won’t be blowing my money on her anymore” and it finally dawns on Carlos that Sandra took revenge because she thought Carlos had ditched her for Lana.
So Sandra’s storyline has come to an end, we enjoyed her while she was in the Laan and hopefully she will return someday to wreak more havoc on the Terreblances.
The other dramas happening in the Laan was Aubrey’s illness detioriorating, the speculation of Felicity and Vince getting married, Paula using extreme measures to win her job back and Dezi finally telling Madel and Jan Hendrik about her vision getting clearer and seeing colour.
Things are getting quite hectic in the Beukes household as Vanessa reaches the end of her tether as Aubrey gets worse and the crying never stops. He can’t keep his food in and the little boy is hungry so he cries non-stop.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that they can’t find a day mother and in desperation Vanessa takes him to the deli but as sympathetic as everybody is to her situation, bringing the crying baby into deli makes everybody crazy and leaves Vince in an awkward situation.
Emma brings news about a doctor in Houston who studied Fleischman’s Encephaly and sends him an e-mail about Aubrey. Vanessa’s hopes are dashed when Emma informs her that the doctor is not very optimistic, they can’t do anything for the little boy as there are complications with the tube feeding and Vanessa breaks down.
Not wanting to have her son committed to a clinic, Vanessa quits her job at the deli. I still maintain that Stefan Arendse knows more about this sickness than he’s letting on, when he spoke to Marko about Aubrey it was very obvious this man knows what he’s talking about.
Rumours are flying thick and fast about Felicity and Vince getting serious that they’re talking marriage. It all started with Karien and Aggie talking about them in Oppiekoffie and Neville overhearing, drawing his own conclusions about his son.
He immediately invites Vince and Felicity to dinner at Luigis to get to know his future daughter in-law. Things are being blown way out of proportion with regards to these two and Vince is not helping matters much. Nevertheless the three of them had quite a dinner with Neville relating stories of his international travels.
Xander was not pleased when his father told him to get to know Felicity better as she might be part of the family very soon. Poor Xander, he tries to make the girl jealous with another and now he has to watch them smooching in the arcade as well, not to mention the fact that he’s father seems thrilled for Vince.
When Dezi sees the bunch of flowers in the living room, she is so excited she wants to share the news with her husband but he brushes her off as he’s far too in a hurry to even give his wife a minute of his time.
She makes an appointment with the neurologist who confirms that her nerves are healing and she makes her way to T&T to tell Madel and Jan Hendrik the good news. They are excited for her but as she explains how her sight gradually returned over the weeks, Jan Hendrik looked upset.
He later confronts her about her silence regarding her sight and she explains that when she told him the first time, he was’nt optimistic. She needed him to support her and he did’nt.
Jan Hendrik is like a spoilt brat in my eyes, every small little thing he makes an issue out of, he’s worse than a woman and his mommy has to always fight his battles for him. I’m so glad Dezi does’nt let her mother-inlaw get to her, she has a way of putting Madel firmly in her place unlike Jan Hendrik’s first wife, Petra.
Paula Paula Paula!
She is trying everything in her power to get her job back, she avoids Nellie at all costs, tries to blackmail Aggie into helping her with research to write fictitious articles about Witbank.
Aggie can’t seem to get away from Paula as she fears losing her own job if Paula gets hers back, but Paula uses the friendship card with Aggie telling her everything that she has done for her.
Eventually Paula succeeds in her quest as she deletes a boring article and puts her Witbank's beauty secrets article in its place. Aggie once again lies to Nellie and convinces him to use Paula’s article for the Times instead.
When Matrone is being nice, she can only be up to something. She is going out of her way to be nice to Mandla bringing him jam tarts, we all know she wants to be nominated for the Dancing Dame Cmpetition which is a prestigious honour and what Matrone wants, Matrone gets.
Tune in to find out if she gets her way, if Nellie will give Paula a second chance, how far Vince and Felicity’s relationship will go before Xander makes his move and if Vanessa will cope having to deal with her sick baby fulltime.
7de Laan
18:30
Monday – Fridays
SABC 2