Love is such a simple word, yet it means different things to different people. Take Charmaine for example, as a mother she loves her daughter and will do anything to protect her, yes even go to jail so that her daughter can be free. Yet, is love enough?
As a daughter Vanessa loves her mother while the going is good but as soon as there are stumbling blocks in their lives, she chooses to bail out on her mother, always thinking of herself only.
On 7de Laan last week:
Monday 31 July
Charmaine and Felicity discuss Vanessa and her feelings after losing Aubrey and Felicity reminds Charmaine that Vanessa couldn't bear to see her son suffering so much.
When Karien speaks to Paula about almost bringing home a stray dog, Paula shows utter disgust at the thought. Yet it’s the idea of stray animals that pops into her head when Hilda comes knocking at her door, ready for her next plan of action.
We see Hilda being up to no good as she goes around stealing food off people’s plates, taking mince from the deli with the excuse that it’s gone off, she even takes poor Carlos’ breakfast away from him.
Kabelo tells Emma how distracted Vanessa is and mentions her being in the club crying the night that Aubrey died. Charmaine overhears this bit of news.
Dezi is back from her holiday and it seems she has a new lease on life. She’s positive about her marriage and tells Emma she cannot hang onto dreams and she will do everything in her power to make her marriage work. Just hope your hubby will too, Dez!
Vince and Felicity are kissing in the arcade when Xander walks past, seems he’s always catching them out. He goes into Oppiekoffie, sees Altus with his laptop and tells him he’s ready to try internet dating.
Altus registers as Boerbul and Xander as Die Grote. The games are about to begin in the world of internet chat sites.
What’s up with the barking of dogs in the arcade? Off course, its Hilda and Paula in their latest stunt to make Hilda front page news by showing Hilda being caring towards the furrier species of Hillside. Matrone is not a happy person.
Charmaine questions Felicity about the sequence of events the night that Aubrey died. She rushes out mumbling something about speaking to her lawyer.
Xander meets Marko at the bar, is at first hesitant with the news he’s about to share and finally tells Marko that Charmaine came to the offices to plead guilty in the case against Aubrey.
Tuesday 01 August
Vanessa tries to leave early for work but her mother stops her, telling her she needs to speak to her about Aubrey and her feelings about losing him. Charmaine explains that a mother would do anything to protect her child and before she can carry on, Felicity steps into the room.
Charmaine tells them both that she’s been to her lawyers to confess that she was indeed the one who switched off the machines. The look of disbelief on Vanessa’s face is evident.
Hilda is quite proud of herself when she shows the latest article to Oubaas highlighting her good deeds in helping the stray animals of Hillside. Oubaas tells her to prepare herself to meet the President as it seems Netta has thrown in the towel.
Xander’s love life is buzzing with activity since registering onto lovestruck.co.za. He informs George that he’ll be meeting Mona Lisa and Paula overhears all this talk about internet dating. It’s so obvious where this is heading.
As we predicted, Paula logs onto the site, likes what she sees and registers as Mata Hari. Now for the obvious, we see Paula aka Mata Hari and Altie aka Boerbul flirting with each other. Danny interrupts Altus.
Charmaine prepares herself for her upcoming battle as we see her giving the waiters instructions to fulfill with regards to Oppiekoffie. She also phones Francois but speaks to Katinka instead, she tells her she’s resigning with immediate effect.
Aggie and Marko’s cleaners are looking fresh, funky and quite colourful in their newly designed t-shirts. They’re out to promote Aggie’s Cleaning Services by handing out flyers at the traffic lights, with mops and brooms in hand.
Vince’s ex-fling Bernadine rocks up at the deli telling Vince it’s her last night in Jozi before she flies back to London. Vince offers to take her out partying like in the old days.
When Felicity asks Vince to take her out, he makes up some excuse about a catering job. Soon Vince soon, your lies will catch up with you, you lying schmuck! You don’t deserve a nice girl like Felicity.
Xander sees Vince with Bernadine at the bar and when Vince is alone, Xander confronts him about cheating on Felicity. Vince smugly tells him that his little brother has the hots for his girl but she chose him. We’ll see who has the last laugh here, just you wait.
Since getting back from the Magaliesberg, Dezi seems a totally different person. Well I suppose anybody would be if you were blind and is now able to see.
She seems full of life, bursting with energy and joking around with Madel and Jan Hendrik. JH nearly blew it when he almost chose work above Dezi again, luckily he comes to his senses when he decides to ditch work in favour of taking Dezi to the movies. You had better Mr Terreblanche!
Vanessa is looking for employment in Durban and Cape Town, Felicity tries to talk some sense into her telling her to be there for her mom. Has Vanessa ever thought about anybody but herself?
She tells Felicity that she will never be able to live with what her mother did.
She did it for you, you stupid girl. She thinks you’re the one who murdered your own son and she would rather risk her own reputation and freedom so that you can be free. That’s love, you selfish rude obnoxious child, but what would you know about that, it’s always all about you.
Wednesday 02 August
Karien goes early to the deli for coffee and sees Vanessa being clumsy and preoccupied. Vanessa asks if she can move into the girls’ flat but Karien tries to persuade Vanessa to work things out with her mom.
Vanessa tells Karien that her mom pleaded guilty and she will never forget what she did, her mom must be punished.
Hilda is making sandwiches for the children’s orphanage, Hilda is just a busy bee aint she, she phones Paula and Matrone listens in on her latest plan.
Matrone decides to have a jumble sale for charity by selling the old folk’s clothing, yeah right like anyone would want to buy senior citizens clothes, she demands Mandla be there to take pictures.
Charmaine informs the waiters that she has resigned and soon the news spread all around Hillside, aah the joys of living in a close knit community. Hilda rushes to the deli to tell Felicity and Marko and they inform Hilda of Charmaine’s confession.
Hilda tells Marko and Felicity of Vanessa taking toys to Aubrey the day that he died, it would appear she was at the clinic after Charmaine was there. The two give each other that knowing look.
They discuss the possibility that Charmaine is protecting Vanessa.
Dezi tells Inge she’ll be spoiling Jan Hendrik rotten to make up for neglecting him. Madel seems quite chuffed with this new Dezi and that her son’s marriage seems to be back on track.
When Paula sees Matrone having a jumble sale, she phones Hilda to come quickly. She also phones Mandla and sends him on a non-story.
Hilda steals Matrone’s thunder by buying all the clothing items, claiming it’s not for her but rather for the disadvantaged community. Paula’s camera comes out of nowhere as she takes pictures of Hilda.
Marko speaks to Charmaine about resigning and her guilt plea and tells her she’s doing it to protect somebody and that person can only be Vanessa.
Thursday 03 August
Ok, I didn't actually watch this episode, caught it on Sunday in the omnibus.
Charmaine and Marko argue about her trying to protect Vanessa. Marko is clearly upset that Charmaine would admit guilt when she’s not.
Charmaine warns him not the let anybody know the truth, she will protect her daughter no matter what because that’s what mothers do, protect their kids at all costs, right?
Vanessa moves out and bids her mother goodbye, Charmaine breaks down in tears.
Karien welcomes Vanessa to the flat, Paula is awkward and babbles nonsensical nonsense. In one of her rare serious moments, Paula tells Vanessa she’ll be there for her if she needs her.
Hilda visits Charmaine to give her support and encouragement and Charmaine is thankful for her friendship, oh Hilda bless your soul, you’re such a sweet woman.
There’s a knock at the door and Charmaine tells Hilda to handle Francois and Katinka since she can’t bear to face their questions. She leaves Hilda to deal with them.
Ryno and Oom Francois discuss Charmaine’s case while Katinka makes herself useful giving head massages to Inge and getting people to drink her mixtures.
Francois introduces himself to the waiters, telling them they lack leadership and he’s back to take full control of the reins, he will not be tolerating their slackness and they need to be early at work the next morning.
Xander is disappointed that his date with Mona Lisa was a complete flop and tells Altus he’s finished with internet dating. Altus tells him about Mata Hari being different and definitely no blonde. Ha ha, can’t wait to see his reaction when he eventually meets her.
Neville is back from his trip and Paula breaks the latest news to him about Charmaine pleading guilty, to say he was dumbstruck is an understatement.
Felicity brings Vanessa a letter from the USA. She tries to explain to her about being understanding and supportive of her mother but Vanessa refuses to listen. Felcity is disgusted in her attitude and storms out, Vanessa screams out that she does’nt understand.
Vanessa starts reading the letter which is from Stefan Arendse, that’s nice of him to keep in contact like that. He gives her words of encouragement and she cries bitter tears.
Felicity and Marko are again discussing the case of Charmaine and Marko feels strongly about confronting Vanessa but Felicity stops him. Marko just can’t seem to accept Charmaine taking the fall for Vanessa.
Marko has really come a long way, when first introduced he barely had dialogue and all he did was kiss Connie at every turn, now he’s character has really developed since moving in at Charmaine’s.
Vanessa contacts Stefan to thank him for the letter. After enquiring about her mother, Vanessa breaks it to him that her mother switched off Aubrey’s machines. Stefan is shocked.
Friday 04 August
Off topic: Since I missed last night’s episode because of torrential rains causing power failure here in PE, imagine my surprise to see Oom Francois and Katinka back in the Laan.
Neville rocks up at Charmaine’s place, angry at once again being the last one to find out about her guilt plea, ja ja Neville this is getting kinda tiresome now. At least things turned out different this time, Neville declares his undying love for Charmaine and she falls into his arms, finally!
Francois tells the waiters they need to start saving drastically if they want Oppiekoffie to remain open, he reads them the riot act. Yes Oom Francois, the old miser has’nt changed abit yet he’s still a teddy bear at heart.
Neville gives Paula an article to do but she prefers spending time chatting to Boerbul on the internet much to Aggie’s annoyance.
Hilda boasts about her latest do-good article to Katinka, Oubaas sings her praises and Matrone is green with envy when she listens at the door.
Matrone pretending to be a customer, phones Hilda to order 20 sunrise surprise specials to be picked up later. She also contacts the Health Inspector to lodge a complaint against Hilda and the deli.
When Mandla arrives, Matrone vents her frustration at the matchstick legs woman (love that Matrone) getting away with murder. Its time she and Mandla play dirty and beat the spidery woman and her sidekick Paula at their own game. She demands Mandla be at the deli at three.
Paula can’t stop talking about Boerbul and Altus is singing Mata Hari’s praises, yet Altus and Paula avoid each other at all costs.
Dezi informs the waiters at Oppiekoffie all they need to know with regards to Oom Francois.
Francois is at Charmaine’s place, telling her he refuses to accept her resignation and promises she’ll get full pay until she resolves her issues. Aaarg, Francois you can be really sweet when you want to be. Naturally Charmaine is overcome with gratitude.
Katinka tries to soothe Vanessa’s hurt and invites her to Opaslaagte.
Charmaine signs the admission of guilt papers that Xander brings and Marko once again tries to talk Charmaine out of pleading guilty.
Charmaine breaks it to Marko that the worst part is Vanessa knows her mother is innocent, yet she still does’nt want to have anything to do with her mom, strange is’nt it? Does’nt really make any sense, unless…
Hilda is busy making up her order when Matrone walks in, gets her to go to the kitchen and we see Matrone sabotaging Hilda’s specials by spraying some chemicals over the food.
The Health Inspector comes to the deli, informs Hilda of the complaint and takes the sandwiches away for lab testing. Mandla takes pictures while Hilda looks distressed.
Yep Matrone knows the art of playing dirty, it’s how she managed to wangle her way to the Okovango awhile back.
Poor Hilda how will she ever get out of this one especially when her specials are so popular, it’s the one thing that everyone finds absolutely delicious.
Stefan comes knocking on Charmaine’s door, asks her why she pleaded guilty for a crime she did’nt commit and finally confesses that he is the one that switched off the machines.
So we were right afterall, it was the grandfather. At least he had the decency to come clean about the whole dramatic affair.
Tune in next week to find out if Charmaine and Vanessa find their way back to each other thereby restoring their lives back to normal, if Matrone eventually wins against Hilda and if Boerbul and Mata Hari come face to face.
7de Laan
18:30
Mondays – Fridays
SABC 2