Episode 8052
Episode of Neighbours / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Episode 8052" of the Australian soap opera Neighbours premiered on 10 Peach in Australia and Channel 5 in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2019. The episode was written by series producer Jason Herbison and directed by Kate Kendall. It features the death of series regular Sonya Rebecchi (Eve Morey) from ovarian cancer. She and her husband Toadfish Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) take a road trip to the beach to spend the day with their children. It is mostly a two-hander between Morey and Moloney, a format which allows the focus to be on Sonya's final storyline.
Episode 8052 | |||
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Episode no. | Episode 8052 | ||
Directed by | Kate Kendall | ||
Written by | Jason Herbison | ||
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Original air date | 5 March 2019 (2019-03-05) | ||
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The episode was conceived after Morey was informed in March 2018 that her contract would not be renewed, in an effort to reduce the show's production costs. She asked for her character to be killed off, knowing there was no other plausible reason for Sonya to leave her husband and children. Episode 8052 was filmed over a week in December 2018, after a production delay due to bad weather. Morey returned to film the scenes two weeks after she had wrapped her stint on the show. She said she was "satisfied" with Sonya's final scenes and believed she had done her character justice.
Two promotional trailers featuring scenes from the episode were released in February 2019. Episode 8052 posted a small ratings increase in Australia. It received positive reviews from critics and viewers, who praised Morey and Moloney's performances. Some viewers campaigned on social media for Morey to win a Logie Award. Maddison Hockey of TV Week called the episode "touching and beautiful", while Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy found it to be "gut-wrenching, tragic and incredibly difficult to watch".