Another fantastic episode of the wonderful ABC series Redfern Now. Titled ‘Consequences’ it sure felt like everyone was on the receiving end of one very selfish bastard by the name of Jack, played without his sexy beard by Craig McLachlan. (Still hot….just saying)
Jack had two lives. One with his wife and kids and another with his mistress and his other daughter Mattie (Tammy Clarkson Jones). Fortunately, Jack has now died and the time has come for his funeral. It’s a shock to his ‘real’ white daughter to discover a half sibling of aboriginal decent. Jack never had to face the music when he was alive and yet somehow, everybody is now paying for his mistakes now.
Mattie’s whole life was turned upside down when Jack left her mother Tricia (Kylie Belling) in her teenage years, Mattie sees Jack one last time and asks why he left her mother, his answer made me so angry inside: “It was easier to break your mother’s heart than my wife”. Stunning dialog is no surprise, this episode written by the wonderful actor and performer Leah Purcell.
Mattie sits at the funeral and listens to Jacks family stand up and speak of him as if he was the greatest man to roam the earth. All the while, she flashes back to the times after he left. An alcoholic mother. An abusive boyfriend. A life with a hole in her heart where her father should have been, instead, he was spoiling his other children rotten and being the best dad/friend/brother in the world.
Mattie has a plan to get up and speak and tell everyone exactly the kind of man the real Jack was, suddenly she is overwhelmed with a strength that enables her to stand in front of everyone and praise him as a kind man. Such resilience and strength behind a broken heart. I was weeping like a little girl as she stood before his family and never cried a single tear.
Redfern Now is breathtaking and absolutely perfect. It stays with me for days after each episode. Sometimes it brings me to tears when I think about it. So heartbreaking and stories so beautifully told that I can’t find a single fault.
Simply, there isn’t any.
Redfern Now airs on ABC1 on Thursday night’s at 8.30pm
