The truth always comes out. There is always a time in life when a little white lie falls open across our path, trips us up and land us on our face with a loud, thunder-clapping thud. One wrong word, an intervention from another, and everything blows up in our face.
Summer Bay has endured its fair share of little white lies of late, where moment after moment, scene after scene, secrets and lies have unfolded before our eyes making us cringe, knowing that the whole fragile network of those involved could come crashing down in ruin. As was the case with Ric and Matilda when temptress Viv Anderson came on the scene.
We could see it a mile away, but Ric couldn’t help but cover up the truth of how he really felt about Viv’s advances towards him. Caught in a web of confusion he chose to ignore Cassie’s pleas for him to stay clear and instead let Viv move in and take control of his life, and his relationship with Matilda.
There on the sidelines was poor Cassie involved without wanting to be, fighting for the best interests of her friends. Involved in the cover-up when Viv turned up at the caravan park on the afternoon of the school formal. Viv’s motivation was a caravan for the night so she could be close to Ric to drive the final wedge between him and Mattie. Her plan worked, the temptress slipped through the cracks of Cassie’s suspicious mind and was handed the keys to a caravan, and the demise of Ric and Mattie’s relationship.
Cassie wanted to tell Matilda, we all wanted her to tell Matilda, but Ric thought he was strong enough to handle Viv, not knowing her web of desire was entangling him further and further in to a trap.
Once a lie leaves ones lips it gains momentum at every turn, getting bigger and bigger until there is no turning back. And what of the detainee of the lie? The holder of the secret? Cassie was torn between two worlds at opposite ends.
When the truth finally comes out everyone becomes destroyed by the secrets and lies created where once life was fine. Then we see the love and friendships formed dive in to deep and murky waters.
If only common sense and good hearts prevailed over secrets and lies, where would Ric and Mattie be today had Ric decided to do the right thing from the start? And what of the lessons that come out of telling a fib? Watching as a solid framework comes crashing down is enough of a reason not to go down that tangled-webbed road again.
However we find history repeat itself when Cassie gives in to peer pressure from Matilda to drive back from a beach party with a car full of loaded guys and one drink too many in her system. As we watch another series of lies unfold before us and lives hang in the balance we wonder at the outcomes of our own life story, the time we chose to tell the truth or be damned by a lie. In a split second the course of our own lives changed forever.
Feature by Megan McAuliffe
