Home and Away has introduced Mackenzie Booth’s ex-boyfriend and fiancé, Gabe Miller, as we learn more about Mac’s life before Summer Bay.
Tonight’s (Monday 16th January) Australian episode of Home and Away brought with it a big surprise, as we learned that Mackenzie (Emily Weir) was engaged to be married before she came to Summer Bay in search of her long-lost half-brother Dean (Patrick O’Connor).
At the end of last Thursday’s episode, Mackenzie headed up to Salt to find a man standing at the bar. The sight of him stopped her in her tracks; she clearly recognised him and wasn’t happy to see him in her restaurant.
In tonight’s episode, Mackenzie hurried downstairs and contacted Dean, telling him to hurry over to the Surf Club. She assured him she needed his assistance despite his confusion. Now!
The mysterious man was inside Salt sitting at the bar, unaware that Mac had already seen him. He inquired as to if Stacey (Maleeka Gasbarri) knew the owner of the business and whether she worked nights.
Stacey didn’t divulge anything, telling him to ask the staff, but he responded that he’s already tried that, and that they weren’t being very helpful.
When Dean turned up at the surf club, he found his sister hiding behind the board shop desk. Without giving any explanation, she told Dean that there was a guy upstairs who she needed him to kick out.
When Mackenzie hesitated to tell Dean what the man had done, he resisted, but she eventually used emotional blackmail by saying she had just built him a lovely nursery and needed him to repay the favor.
Dean eventually concurred, and Mackenzie took off.
Dean entered Salt and quickly made his way to the bar, where he had little trouble telling the man to go without asking any questions or sipping the rest of his drink.
The unidentified man didn’t appear startled and told Dean that he thought Mackenzie had seen him and instructed him to eject him since he thought he was her lover. Dean again insisted on leaving and then said he wasn’t in the mood for inquiries.
The man asked Dean if he would pass along a message, and Dean was eager to comply without raising too much of a fuss. Dean replied, “Depends what it is,” and was taken aback when the man only asked him to inform Mackenzie that he was interested in talking.
When Dean returned to the farmhouse, Mackenzie had been waiting in the new nursery, visibly shaken.
After pretending for a short while that the man was just trouble and that’s why she needed Dean to remove him, she finally confessed the truth.
“His name is Gabe and he was the guy I was gonna marry.”
She was in no mood to give any further explanation. “Yeah, I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?” she told her brother, who’d been stunned into silence, before heading to bed.
The following day, Mackenzie had already headed to Salt before Dean woke up. When he turned up in search of her, she eventually agreed to entertain him a couple of questions.
It all happened years ago, before Mackenzie turned up in Summer Bay in search of Dean.
She and Gabe were just two months away from an actual wedding. In terms of why he’s suddenly turned up in Summer Bay now, she doesn’t know and doesn’t care.
However, a few hours later, she found Gabe waiting for her in Salt.
When he asked for just one conversation, she told him she’s got nothing to say to him, and once again he found himself being ordered to leave.
“Wasn’t being kicked out last night enough of a hint for you?”
However, rather than leave, Gabe sat himself downstairs in the surf club, and when Dean stumbled across him soon after, he told him he must either be brave or stupid.
When Mac headed downstairs, she was equally surprised to find Gabe still there, and threatened to call the police.
“You are the last person I want to talk to,” she told him, getting increasingly irate with his presence. “And you know why.”
He again requested just one chat, telling her that what transpired between them was the biggest mistake of his life and that he merely desired the opportunity to explain his actions.
Although it’s safe to conclude Gabe has no plans to leave, why did he break up with Mackenzie so many years ago?
He had one chat with Mackenzie before they went to the beach, where it was discovered that Gabe had abandoned her with no explanation and only a letter!
“I had the dress,” Mackenzie reminds him. “We were two months away from our wedding. And you didn’t even have the guts to say it to my face. You left a note! Who does that to someone they’re supposed to love?”
Gabe’s explanation took Mac by surprise, as it transpires that her father sent Gabe packing.
“Your dad. He offered me $50,000 to stay away from you and I took it,” he explained. “If I could go back and change things… I should have never taken that money.”
However, what shocks Mackenzie the most isn’t that Rick offered Gabe the money to leave, but that he took it.
“But you did take it, and then you left,” she reminded him, unable to believe what she’s hearing. “So if you are looking for forgiveness her, you are not going to find it from me.
“Go home, Gabe. And stay away from me. I mean it.”
While that was how tonight’s episode ended, it’s certainly not the last we’ll see of Gabe.
In tomorrow’s episode, their beach conversation continues as Gabe chases after Mackenzie, and it’s on Remi (Adam Rowland) to intervene when things get heated.
When it comes to deciding whether to give Gabe another chance, Mackenzie faces a difficult conundrum.
She discovers a message and a check for $50,000 that were left for her at Salt. The note reads, “If you believe this is only about money, here is every cent your father gave me.”
In another conversation, Gabe tells her that he knows he hurt her, but that he’ll never forgive himself until he knows that she’s forgiven him.
“I need you to know that I still love you, Mackenzie.”
Dean is full of useful advice, as usual. “Either forgive the guy for taking Rick’s money, or you don’t.”
While Gabe’s actions sound pretty unforgivable, it seems he’s worth a second chance. In Wednesday’s episode, the synopsis hints that “Mackenzie gives love a second chance,” suggesting that the pair give things another try.
Could this be the start of happily ever after for Mackenzie, or is she setting herself up for heartbreak once again?
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