| Once
there was a Piano, now there's only half of one |
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Jack and Dal carry out emergency repairs to the
water supply from the tank on the roof. Unfortunately they've
run out of wire for holding the tubes in place.
Ryan hears about their problem and thinks he knows how to help.
Meanwhile Salene has been teaching Paul and Patsy some songs
on the piano. When she gives their next lesson the piano isn't
working. Looking inside, they find a mess of piano wires.
Salene soon discovers it was Ryan. Ryan thought he was being
smart - and you can still play half of it! Salene hits him for
being so stupid. |
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Zandra's romantic candlelit dinner for two turns
sour when Lex gets carried away and tries to rape her.
Hearing her screams Ryan races to the scene and pulls Lex away.
Zandra calls Ryan a hero. |
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Ryan brings Zandra a gift of bath-foamer and sits
beside her. Bath-foam isn't much use without baths but it was
meant well. Ryan comments that they are both single now, and
wants a chance to be her boyfriend.
Zandra still loves Lex, and tells him no.
Lex apologizes to Zandra and she proposes marriage. After getting
over the shock Lex agrees and appoints Ryan as his best man.
The wedding is canceled when Ebony makes an unexpected and most
unwelcome appearance inside the Mall. |
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| What
Lex thinks of Ryan - Ep.19 |
Ebony is captured and put in the cage, but she outwits
Lex, playing to his basic instincts, and escapes, leaving him in the
cage. The Mallrats get ready for an attack by the Locos. Tai-San does
not believe that the Mallrats are fated to be destroyed and she forms
a circle, predicting in a positive sense that tomorrow the Mallrats
will all be different people. Lex opts out of Tai-San's circle thing,
predicting that Ryan will still be a plank.
Jack lays on 3-way communications between Lex's HQ (The Supperette),
the Art store, and the Market lift shaft. Ryan is angry with Lex for
calling him a plank and tells him so. He'd also like to know what
he was doing with Ebony in the cage. Lex refuses to discuss it.
Tai-San was right. In fact Bray has been making a deal with Ebony
to leave the Mall alone. |
| When Bray returns Lex gives orders that he be
arrested for questioning. He's playing his Head-of-Security
role to the max, and trying to live down the Ebony incident.
Everyone knows it's Bray, even Ryan is bemused. In fact Lex
makes an even bigger ass of himself than before, and Ryan soon
lets Bray go. |
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| Some time between Ep.13 (top left) and Ep.20 Ryan
gets Lex's red couch and no longer has to sleep on the floor.
Lex must have found a proper bed from somewhere. However, it
looks like Lex took his nice green quilt with him. This is good
timing because Tai-San sleeps with Lex in Ep.20 ("for the
good of the tribe") when Ryan is on guard duty in the sewers,
and again in Ep.23. |
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| Lex
and Tai-San - Ep.20-26 |
Because Zandra can't get a proper explanation
from Lex about what happened in the cage with Ebony, she gives
him the cold shoulder. Seeing how frustrated he is, Tai-San
sleeps with him in Ep.20 and again in Ep.23. Lex switches his
attention to Tai-San, partly to make Zandra jealous and talk
to him again, partly because he wants more sex from Tai-San.
Zandra plays her own jealousy game with Ryan, giving him a makeover
where Lex (and everyone else) is bound to notice. Lex's only
comment: Ryan will never get a woman.
Before Ryan can tell Zandra he loves her, she tells him she
still loves Lex. Tai-San refuses to sleep with Lex any more.
Flattery, perfume, a little humility... Lex soon makes up with
Zandra. In the Café Tai-San casually mentions to her
they only slept together twice!
Zandra interrogates Ryan - did he know about Lex and Tai-San?
Poor Ryan. Yes he did know, but didn't want to hurt her. Now
she's hurt because he didn't tell her.
Ryan tracks Lex down in the sewers, lying low to avoid Zandra.
Ryan ORDERS him to face her. This he does, and she makes him
dump Tai-San on the spot as the condition for taking him back. |
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| Ryan
moves out - Ep.27-36 |
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In Ep.27 Zandra agrees to move in with Lex on the condition
he doesn't try anything. She regards it as a test. Zandra volunteers
to tell Ryan to move out, promising to marry him if Lex can't control
himself. He believes her!
We aren't told where Ryan moves to. It could be the Jewelry store,
but we know he can sleep any time any place - even on the seat facing
the phoenix by the stairs.
In Ep.28-29 Ryan is at the tribal gathering, where after discovering
that his sack of money is worthless he rescues the three slaves simply
by thumping the living daylights out of anyone getting in his way.
The next few episodes are all about the wedding. Ryan helps Lex with
his wedding vows, though he needn't have bothered, Lex doesn't learn
them. It's also Ryan's job to get Lex out of bed for the wedding,
and given the amount of cider drunk the night before, he does quite
well. Ryan stays for the wedding in Ep.33, then leaves the Mall behind
since Zandra can never be his, and he's fed up with Lex bossing him
around. |
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Even before Ryan wakes a couple of strangers are
checking him out. They want him to join them as a mini-tribe,
and although they hang out together as a threesome for a while,
Ryan finds himself alone again the following morning.
Ryan continues on his way, wherever that might lead. He finds
himself outside a trading post. The door opens and two friendly
people invite him in. |
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| Even though Ryan explains he was simply lost, Dirk and
Roanne know how to give a guy on the road what he needs. They show
him to a room. |
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Inside is Salene, not here by choice, but a slave,
or prisoner, under obligation to repay Dirk and Roanne for food
and shelter. Ryan is her first client.
Ryan smashes through the window bars and the pair escape, hotly
pursued by Dirk and his cronies, all the way to the railyard.
They hole up in one of the compartments.
Salene explains how bulimia works, and that is isn't catching!
Both have reasons not to go back to the Mall. They rest there
for the night. |
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| Next day after breakfast, provided by Ryan from
his bag, they decide to move on. Salene seems relieved when
Ryan suggests they might go back to the Mall. They promise to
look out for each other from now on. |
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They return to a Mall that is filthy. Ryan encourages
Salene to confess to Amber that she is/was the food thief, and
about bulimia. Amber hugs her, then says her last good-byes;
she is leaving the Mall with Sasha.
In the event, Amber cannot bring herself to leave, but turns
back. Her heart, however, remains with Sasha. |
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Under Ryan's care and attention, Salene overcomes
her bulimic food cravings for 10 days. Then on Patsy's birthday,
as she blows out the candle, Patsy becomes suddenly very upset.
Becoming older makes getting the virus that much more likely.
Soon all her friends will die. It's more than Salene can handle.
Down to the sewers with Patsy's birthday cake, binge, throw-up,
back to that sad unrelenting cycle.
Ryan finds her. He's not angry but talks to her. Salene half
wants the virus to claim her, then all her troubles would be
at an end. |
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| Lex
frames Bray - falsely accusing him of hoarding water - Ep.38-39 |
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Lex turns Bray's brighten-up-the-Mall session
into a paint fight, as a diversion while KC plants bottles of
water in Bray's room. KC then arranges for Cloe to 'find' this
water. This is all the evidence Lex needs to have Bray thrown
out of the tribe.
Jack and Ryan both know how the water got there - from Lex's
secret (unlawful) stash, and that he, Lex, must be behind it.
Jack asks Ryan to come forward with the truth to clear Bray.
Ryan storms into Lex & Zandra's room (the Lingerie store)
and makes plain he is not going to back Lex up, not this time,
not if it means Bray will be thrown out for something he didn't
do.. |
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Referring to Ryan as a scuz-bag, Lex sends Zandra
to work on him, and his lingering feelings for her. If Lex is
thrown out for framing Bray, she will have to go too, being
his wife, and face the Demon Dogz out on the street. Ryan wouldn't
want that would he?
Meanwhile, Trudy and Tai-San persuade Amber to to take on the
case and find the truth. No one seriously believes Bray actually
stole the water, but very few, if any, are brave enough to stand
up to Lex. |
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When Jack next meets Ryan, he is evasive and shifty.
Jack suspects Ryan has changed his mind about exposing Lex.
Ryan admits he intends to keep his mouth shut.
Behind him, Lex has been listening. He threatens to break Jack's
other leg and keep him in crutches for the foreseeable future
unless Jack also keeps silent.
Ryan is totally stressed out, battling with his conscience.
Salene wants to help, just as he has helped her. But Ryan cannot
share with her what he knows, and he tells her to stop poking
her nose in. It was harsh, and Salene is very hurt. |
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In the lead-up to the trial, Zandra reinforces
her message: she couldn't bear it if she never saw Ryan again.
Ryan's part in this trial is over. Hearing from Trudy that Salene
has left the Mall looking really distressed about something,
Ryan knows this was his fault, for being so short with her.
He also has a very good idea where she is going, and leaves
the Mall to catch up with her.
The trial goes ahead without Salene or Ryan. Jack comes forward
in the nick of time to stop Bray leaving. KC owns up to protect
Lex. The trial comes to an abrupt end when Patsy brings an adult
('old' Glen) to the Mall. |
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| Ryan
and Salene bring home the Bacon - Ep.39-40 |
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Ryan guesses correctly, Salene is heading back
to Dirk and Roanne's, that awful place where he found and rescued
her before. He catches up with her at the gate where she bites
his arm. Ryan falls awkwardly, knocking himself out and falling
to the ground. Salene has a choice: obey her bulimic craving,
or help Ryan. She helps Ryan.
They are in no hurry to get home. Ryan assures Salene that he
really does care about her.
On the way they find a stray piglet which they decide to take
home rather than try to find its owner. |
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The 'Meat Shop' opposite the sewer entrance is
a stark reminder to Salene of what happens to farm animals.
She can't bear to see her piglet slaughtered. Ryan is still
picturing pork and bacon and doesn't follow Salene's thoughts,
"Well we can't eat it unless we kill it Salene."
Salene wants it as a pet, and hides it in a storeroom, the green
door on the left.
The Mall Ryan and Salene return to is very different than the
one they left. All thought of Bray's trial is forgotten. The
new fear is the Virus, brought in when Patsy unwittingly invited
'old' Glen in from outside. |
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To escape the Virus, and likely punishment for planting
the water in Bray's room, KC packs his things and sneaks out the Mall.
Time to move on. Outside, 'old people' are being stoned to death in
every street. This is not a good place to be. KC legs it back to the
Mall where he hears grunts from behind a green door. What a find!
Enough to feed the Mallrats for ages, and bound to earn KC much needed
brownie points.
KC won't have it that the pig belongs to Salene. It's his, he found
it in the storeroom. But he can't explain how it got there, nor why
Ryan's belt is round its neck. Finally it pees all over him. |
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