Coming up next week on Neighbours, when Leo can’t cope with looking after Abigail on his own, he shocks David and Aaron with a proposal.
In recent episodes, Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano) has been struggling to cope with Britney’s unexpected death during the recent storm. He’s had to combine looking after newborn Abigail with operating his nascent winery since then, and he’s failed miserably at both.
The vineyard was severely damaged by the storm, but Glen (Richard Huggett) has struggled to get a team of contractors in to begin the repair work, as have countless others in Melbourne’s wine-growing region.
While Glen is eager to take on additional responsibilities at the winery, while David (Takaya Honda) and Aaron (Matt Wilson) would relish the opportunity to spend more time with Abigail, Leo is adamant about doing everything himself.
Leo adds another item to his to-do list this week in the UK (Thursday 27th January / Wednesday 2nd February in Australia) when he chooses to sue Lassiters, blaming Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) for Britney’s murder since she didn’t evacuate the Flamingo Bar quickly enough.
The next day (UK: Friday 28th January / Aus: Thursday 3rd February), everything becomes too much for him. He pulls his gaze away from the ball as he approaches weariness. As Abigail tumbles from the sofa and hits hard on the floor, he finds himself in the middle of every parent’s worst nightmare.
She’s hurried to the hospital, and while she’ll be alright, it makes Leo nervous. He finally realises he’s having trouble… It’s another question whether he’ll admit it to anyone else.
David and Aaron realise they need to shift direction with him next week in the UK (Monday 31st January), and one week later in Australia (Monday 7th February), and they can’t let him damage himself any longer.
However, matters worsen when they notice that, in the aftermath of the disaster, he’s begun to separate himself from Abigail.
He makes it plain that he doesn’t want to spend time with her because he’s afraid of damaging her again, but he doesn’t have much of a choice now that Britney is gone.
They try to cheer him up by taking him fishing, but even that doesn’t work — he’s down in the dumps, and his friends and family are running out of ideas.
When Leo, David, Aaron, Chloe (April Rose Pengilly), Nicolette (Charlotte Chimes), and Jane (Annie Jones) all go to the park for some father-daughter bonding time, it appears like it may be exactly what Leo needs.
That is, until he drops a bombshell on them.
Leo has nowhere else to go and only sees one way out. He ultimately wants to accept David and Aaron’s offer of assistance, but not in the way they had imagined.
He confesses that being a single father is too much for him, and he wants to give Abigail to David and Aaron!
During the baby swap, the couple had already formed a bond with Abigail, and it was difficult for them to let her go. They’re the ideal couple, in Leo’s opinion, to take up parenting chores.
Is it possible that David and Aaron will have two children?
Is Leo truly ready to walk away from Abigail’s life forever?
Since the baby exchange plotline came to a conclusion late last year, Neighbours viewers have predicted that David and Aaron will end up with both infants.
Viewers will recall that Abigail was the couple’s first child, and that they mistook her for their genuine child, Isla Fay.
Nicolette was supposed to give birth to a child who would be biologically her and David’s. In a co-parenting agreement, she would pass the baby over to David and Aaron, who would be the primary caregivers, with Nicolette acting as a “aunt.”
Nicolette, on the other hand, opted to flee to Canberra just before giving birth. She met Britney Barnes (Montana Cox), Leo’s ex-girlfriend, just before leaving Erinsborough. When Leo was living in New York, Britney and Leo had a brief but passionate romance, although they had split up a long time ago.
Britney first concealed the news from Leo when she found out she was pregnant with his child, but she ultimately tracked him down in Australia.
Nicolette drove her to Canberra, where she helped her get through her first few weeks as a mother, as she was suffering from post-natal depression. Despite Nic’s best attempts, Britney was unable to create an emotional bond with her child.
When Paul came in Canberra and requested that Nicolette hand over Isla, Nicolette instead handed over Britney’s child.
As a result, Paul returned to Erinsborough with a baby he thought was David, Aaron, and Nicolette’s, but turned out to be Britney and Leo’s, making her David’s niece.
Britney returned to Erinsborough a few weeks later, taking baby Abigail with her, before Nicolette came with Isla. Things immediately returned to normal, Leo and Britney began to build affections for each other again, and then the storm struck, sadly killing Britney.
Things are about to complete a full circle, with David and Aaron preparing to care for newborn Abigail once more.
When Tim Kano’s return to Neighbours was first announced, it was assumed that he would only be back for a few months, with production wrapping up in late 2021.
When it was revealed that a shocking death would occur on Ramsay Street early in the new year, it seemed only natural that Leo would be the one to go. This prompted viewers to believe that we will be saying a painful goodbye to Leo, leaving David and Aaron to care for Isla and Abigail.
While this isn’t exactly how the storey ended, it appears like the outcome is likely to be the same. It remains to be seen whether the transfer is merely temporary or whether David and Aaron will actually become fathers to two children.
