TV Week
23rd May 1998
In a surprise episode this week, Goldie ends up in bed with detective Jack …
HOW quickly things can change! Only last week in Water Rats, Frank’s temporary replacement, detective Jack Christey (guest star Steve Bisley), gave in to temptation and kissed fellow detective Goldie (Catherine McClements).
OK, so Goldie’s not the warmest, most romantic person in the police force. But how bad could it be?
As Jack found out, pretty bad.
“You do that again and I’m going to smash your teeth in,” Goldie told him, barely suppressing her rage.
She’s a subtle operator, cool and calm to a fault. He’s flashy, brash, hot-headed and impatient. And it seems like they can’t have even a simple conversation without disagreeing over every point. Not, you would think, an ideal pairing.
“We have to work together, but I don’t think I can like you,” Goldie said to Jack last week. Not a good omen.
But in just a few days comes a subtle shift between the bickering pair. In this week’s grisly episode – in which a head is found on a beach – Jack ends up where we all hoped Frank (Colin Friels) would: in bed with Goldie.
It might just be a bit of innocent fun for Goldie and Jack, but it raises bigger questions for the romantic future of Goldie and her regular police partner, Frank.
The reason Frank and Goldie haven’t got together romantically has been to avoid mixing business with pleasure, right?
So, if Goldie is willing to break her own rules with Jack, maybe it has just been an excuse all along – she may not be attracted to Frank the way we’ve been led to believe.
Catherine says it is never going to be that simple. Water Rats’ writers are going to always throw curve-balls and unexpected obstacles in the path of the two detectives and their relationship will change accordingly.
“The sometimes yes, sometimes no, some of this, some of that, is a lot more interesting to play with,” she says of Goldie’s fluctuating rapport with Frank.
“From the start, these two have been separate identities, with their own lives and their own relationships, who come together in a work situation.
“It was never going to be about them being a couple.”
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