Coming up on Home and Away in Australia, Cash faces River Boy drama as he takes on a new role in the notorious Mangrove River.
Cash (Nicholas Cartwright) quit the police force early this year after falling out of love with the profession.
He faced investigation after helping to hide Dana (Ally Harris), who was on the run from the police on drugs charges.
Dana was being framed, and although Cash discovered that DS Will Madden (Jonny Pasvolsky) was corrupt and the one framing Dana, he still faced consequences for his decision to help keep Dana hidden.
Although Dana has been absolved of any wrongdoing, and both Irene (Lynne McGranger) and Harper (Jessica Redmayne) were let off for their part in assisting a ‘fugitive’, the police seem intent on making an example of Cash.
The investigation concluded that while Cash would be given his old job back, he would be demoted from Senior Constable and placed on restricted duties.
Cash told the force to shove their job, and quickly made a move into private security.
After weeks working miserable night shifts as a mall cop, he eventually found himself as the private security protection for famous actress Stevie Marlow (Catherine Van-Davies). However, that ended in disaster when Stevie was shot on the beach at Summer Bay.
Now, Cash has decided that maybe his old job wasn’t so bad after all.
He reapplied for the police force, and while he was eventually told that he could be re-hired at his old rank of Senior Constable, there was a catch – with no vacancies at Yabbie Creek or Reefton Lakes stations, he’d have to take a position at Mangrove River.
Eden (Stephanie Panozzo) was surprised by Cash’s lack of enthusiasm, but Cash soon filled her in after pouring himself a large glass of whiskey – Mangrove River was the worst police station in the whole state.
When Eden approached Alf (Ray Meagher) for his thoughts on the neighbouring region, Alf corroborated Cash’s story after querying why she’d “want to know about that dump.”
“He’s gonna be busy,” Alf explained. “The place is nothing but trouble. You tell that fella of yours to be careful, hey”?
For those who need a reminder, Mangrove River has been the hometown of various characters over the years, with the likes of Tug O’Neale (Tristan Bancks), Vinnie Patterson (Ryan Kwanten) and Matt Page (Alec Snow) amongst its former residents.
However it came to prominence in 2011 as the home of the River Boys gang, who count the Braxton brothers, Dean Thompson (Patrick O’Connor) and even Colby Thorne (Tim Franklin) as former members.
The gang have brought plenty of trouble to Summer Bay over the years, but the residents have been lucky enough to have not had many dealings with them in recent years.
To make matters worse, when Cash looked into why the role had become vacant, he learnt that his predecessor had been killed on the job!
Later this week, Cash begins his new job in the infamous Mangrove River, and soon attracts the attention of the next generation of River Boys, who are very interested to learn that there’s a new cop in town.
We’ve already met two of the latest batch of River Boys, as Rory (Joshua Orpin) and Dingo (JK Kazzi) sprung into action to help Mali (Kyle Shilling) get revenge on the Allen siblings earlier this month, after they beat up his brother Iluka (Dion Williams).
Rory and Dingo didn’t actually get involved in the conflict, as Mali’s fight with the Allen brothers was soon interrupted by the arrival of Rose (Kirsty Marillier) and various other cops, but it’s clear that the Mangrove River boys are still a force to be reckoned with.
Rory then stuck around in Summer Bay, and quickly locked eyes on Felicity (Jacqui Purvis).
While he made an interesting first impression on her by wolf whistling her from the balcony of Salt, he soon won her over, and the last few Australian episodes have seen Flick fall head over heels for the charismatic ‘bad boy’, even suggesting they head away together for a few days.
However, Rory and Flick’s romantic beach walk was interrupted when Dingo tried to grab Rory’s attention.
Taking him to one side, Rory asked him “well, how’d it go?”
Dingo revealed that he’d “stuffed up”, causing Rory to retort: “How stupid are you? It’s not hard, you pick up the gear and you go.”
To an oblivious Flick, however, the scene was just one mate consoling another, and she couldn’t help but smile as she watched her new man caringly put his hand on Dingo’s shoulder.
While we don’t know exactly what kind of deal Rory and Dingo were doing, the gang are clearly still involved in underground criminal activity, and Flick has no idea what she’s getting herself in for.
Cash and Rory have already met on a number of occasions, first when Flick happily brought her new fling back to the Saxon Avenue house she shares with her brother, and later at Salt.
However, as Flick did her best to avoid small talk between her brother and her new love interest, Cash failed to discover where Rory is from, and Rory has no idea that Cash is a former cop about to return to duty.
A promo for this week’s episodes revealed that Cash gets a River Boy welcome later this week, when the boys notice that a new cop has arrived in their part of town.
“So, what’d you do to get stuck here with us then?” asks Cash’s new colleague, Constable Jo Devlin (Ariadne Sgouros).
“It’s a long story,” he replies.
Cash and Jo have already worked together, after Jo made the move from Mangrove River to Yabbie Creek Police back in 2022, but she’s seemingly moved back to the notorious force since then.
“What do we do now?” asks Dingo when the boys find out that a new cop has arrived, to which Rory replies: “We welcome him to town.”
As Cash and Jo later step out of the Mangrove River police station, they find a message of “Welcome” crudly spray painted across the bonnet of Cash’s ute, as a gang of smug River Boys sit and watch from nearby.
Both Cash and Rory are in for the shock of their lives as they stare over at each other, and Rory’s cocky smile quickly fades as he realises he’s just spray-painted the Ute belonging to his new fling’s brother.
“He’s dating my sister,” Cash later tells Jo after they head inside the station.
“My condolences,” she replies.
When Cash later finds Flick back in Summer Bay, he’s quick to tell her to stay away from Rory, but refuses to explain why.
“I’m gonna need you to end things with him,” Cash tells Flick. “I’m just gonna need you to stay away from this guy.”
As Flick tries to interrupt with a half-hearted “but,” Cash insists: “Okay please, I wouldn’t be asking you this if it wasn’t important.”
Meanwhile, Rory spots an opportunity, thinking he can use Flick to get info on Cash.
“We have a unique opportunity to get some dirt on the new cop,” he tells Dingo as they walk through Salt, clearly in no rush to give Summer Bay a wide birth after their discovery.
Just what are Rory and Dingo up to, and how will Cash fare now he’s working on River Boy turf?
