Through the Looking Glass – McLeod’s Daughters Episode Summary 2.2

Synopsis: Tess McLeod and Alex Ryan prepare to spend the night alone together when a baby is left at Alex’s doorstep. His world spirals out of control at the prospect of being the father of a child whose mother’s identity he has yet to find out. Meanwhile, Claire McLeod reluctantly agrees to Peter’s strictly business rule.

Episode Summary: Tess McLeod and Alex Ryan finally have time alone together when a ring at the door disrupts their evening. They find at their doorstep a baby with a note indicating that Alex is the father. Tess is left to take care of the baby as Alex searches for the mother of the child.  Continue reading...

Claire McLeod could not get Peter Johnson off her mind. The man has neither visited nor called after the night at the stables. Claire decides to give the man a call, but instead got his answering machine. Not knowing what to say, Claire leaves a message that is all business. As expected, Peter did not return her call. Meg Fountain suggests that she give the man another call, but this time make it less business-like, and more personal. Claire McLeod, expecting to get his answering machine again, is caught by surprise when Peter answers the phone. Claire, in her shock, hangs up. Fortunately, Peter calls her back right away to inform her of his upcoming visit. Moreover, the man asks if he could spend a night at Drover’s Run.

Morning came, Tess and Alex continue to play house that is just too real for her liking. Having to take care of her boyfriend’s child from a girlfriend he may or may not remember proved too much for Tess. She decides to leave Alex and the baby for Drover’s. Rabbits have infested Drover’s Run, and have made Meg’s veggie patch their target. Furious, Meg decides to take action. The women of Drover’s Run work on getting rid of the rabbits. When at last, Claire and Tess finish filling up the rabbit holes, Claire realizes that her keys had fallen in one. After hours of digging and searching through dirt, filthy and foul-smelling Claire finds the keys and returns to the house only to find Peter Johnson at the gate waiting for her.

All washed up, Claire and Peter start to talk when a frantic Alex Ryan rushes to them for help. The baby is burning with fever, and poor Alex does not know what to do. Fortunately, Meg Fountain, a mother herself, knows exactly what needs to be done. With one crisis averted, Claire and Peter resume their conversation. Peter Johnson who earlier at the phone already seems to have something important to say to Claire starts the conversation. He informs her that the kiss they shared that night at the stables was a mistake. He would like to avoid mixing business with pleasure. Claire, embarrassed for thinking the opposite, pretends to have the same idea in mind.

Meanwhile, Becky Howard who has been silent about the plans to exterminate the rabbits, but clearly is in disagreement with the method decides to create a trap instead of feeding them with poison. Her plan worked, and her trap caught a rabbit at Meg’s veggie patch. Unfortunately, Meg sees her going away with the trapped, but unharmed rabbit, and takes the rabbit from her to cook it for dinner. Later, Meg finds the trap with the rabbit gone. She suspects that Becky had taken it, and she was right. Meg makes her way back to the main house carrying with her the trap and rabbit. Becky pleads with Meg, and reasons with her. Becky, as a child, had a pet rabbit that she took care of from when it was a kitten until one day her father took it from her, and strangled it. Although she knows very well that she could not keep all the rabbits from harm, Becky is content with just saving one. Meg, having heard her story, agrees for her to keep the rabbit with a fair warning that she will get rid of it, the moment it finds its way back to her veggie patch.

Sergeant Da Costa arrives at Killarney with news about the baby’s mother. He identified the mother as Annie Morgan, one that Alex Ryan would not have thought of having a child with. Moreover, he brings news that Alex is not the father of the child. Having bonded with the baby, Alex could not help become disappointed. The woman whom Sergeant Da Costa believes to be suffering from depression thought Alex would be a friend whom she knows would take care of the baby while she takes a breather. She was right. Alex did the unexpected, and acted much like a caring father to the child. The chaos brought about by the baby that was left at his doorstep led both Tess and Alex to a realization that their relationship is not working out the way it should. Tess and Alex calls it quits. The two will remain friends, but not lovers.

Claire McLeod and Peter Johnson have been fending off urges the whole day since the two agreed not to mix business with pleasure. Fate, however, keeps pulling them together with the two of them being left at the dinner table after all the other women decide to have an early evening followed by Peter running into Claire in the bathroom. That was the last straw. The two succumb to the urges that have been brewing the entire day.

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