Spirited
- Season 1 - Episodes
(8)
Uptight dentist Suzy Darling (Claudia Karvan) leaves her egotistical husband Steve (Rodger Corser) and moves her children Elvis (Louis Fowler) and Verity (Charlie Hancock) into a beautiful penthouse apartment to start a new life.
She soon finds that the home is already occupied: by Henry (Matt King), a strangely attired British man who has lost his memory. To make matters more mysterious, it soon becomes apparent that no one but Suzy can see him. Has the stress of her marriage breakdown caused Suzy to lose her mind? Or is there something more magical going on here?
Suzy (Claudia Karvan) and Henry (Matt King) are still coming to terms with their new “living arrangements” when they learn that Henry was front man for legendary British punk rock band The Nerve.
Desperate to learn who he was, how he died and just why he is here, Henry annoys Suzy at every chance and is soon wreaking havoc in her life. Meanwhile, ex-husband Steve (Rodger Corser) concocts a plan to win Suzy back while therapist sister Jonquil (Belinda Bromilow) has an agenda all of her own…
Henry awakes on the rooftop of The Elysian apartment block, memories of past glories starting to flood back in his dreams. Feeling more alive than ever, he sees the opportunity to be reborn via the magic of the Internet and with Suzy’s help contacts his loyal followers through a fan website.
Steve launches a plan to get back at Suzy for leaving him by buying Verity a miniature pony to reside in the penthouse, but his plan backfires when Suzy appears to embrace it. Henry is disgusted by Suzy’s passive aggressive tactics and tries to persuade her to get a bit of punk into her life. He is rather surprised to find what a punk she really is at heart…
Henry’s existential angst continues to roar through his dreams and he wakes to find a shrine of sorts out the front of The Elysian: the call he sent out through the internet has been answered!
Henry tries to convince a sceptical Suzy these fans should be encouraged when he catches sight of a bearded man in Suzy’s dental surgery who drops lines that sound awfully familiar. This is none other than Zac Hannigan (Angus Sampson), tax lawyer and part-time rock journalist - bonafide chronicler of Henry’s life.
Suzy is surprised when Henry does not want him around. It seems Henry’s memory is returning only for him to find there are things he’d rather forget…
When Henry and Suzy meet in a dream in Manchester, 1982, new possibilities for their relationship unleash a previously unspoken sexual tension that is played out through a series of dreams and unexpected encounters.
Nerve nerd Zac Hannigan continues his investigations into Henry’s disappearance, focusing on the paternity of Suzy’s son in the mistaken belief that Henry might be his father.
Zac has an awkward encounter with Jonquil, who is pursuing her own dream - to become the next Mrs Darling, unaware that Suzy’s ex-husband Steve is continuing his successful wooing of daughter Verity’s primary school teacher, Viola Take (Tasneem Roc), with surprising results.
Suzy and Henry’s new found intimacy is making Suzy nervous. But thankfully for Suzy – although ‘thankfully’ is possibly too kind a word – a major distraction comes looming when an odd, officious little man turns up and starts poking around the apartments asking questions about ex-residents.
His name is Adrian (Damon Gameau), and when Suzy handballs him to Rocco he takes it upon himself to delve rather deeply into the history of the building and its former tenants. Who is this man and what – or who - is he searching for?
Suzy faces the unpalatable reality of life with a ghostly stepson, Apollo, who has transformed into a filthy mouthed, badly behaved, overgrown baby, quickly making The Elysium uninhabitable for the residents. But it’s when he lures Elvis and Verity into the ghostly realm and great danger that Suzy and Henry are forced to find a way to make him leave.
They work together to find a solution while also battling their own demons and Henry is slapped in the face with his complete failures as a parent. Meanwhile Suzy has to contend with a love-struck Jonquil, full to the brim with the first flush of her romance with Zac, and the jealousy of Steve, who learns from their kids of the existence of a mysterious man in Suzy’s life called Henry. All comes together in a hilarious, terrifying and surreal climax, involving a power outage, Apollo’s banishing, the return of Charlotte, Henry’s long-lost first love and Steve’s accidental electrocution.
With Apollo vanquished, life returns to something like normal at the Darling-Mallet household, Henry accustomed to his role as invisible family member, while Suzy suffers strange symptoms of a mystery illness. When a patient dies in her dental chair and a yellow cab to The Other Side arrives out the front of The Elysium, Suzy is convinced it’s proof of her imminent death. But Henry knows: the cab is for him, the time is coming for him to move on and say goodbye to the uptight dentist.
Will he stay or will he go? That’s the dilemma that Henry faces, and Suzy’s sickness might just be a little bit more related to this than she would like to admit. Maybe, just maybe, she’s lovesick… In the season finale of SPIRITED, Henry’s final days before he died are illuminated, buried treasure is unearthed, and Steve's behaviour takes an unexpected turn.