After his unexpected fall, Justin ends up back in hospital on next week’s episode of Home and Away in the UK. Can Leah eventually persuade him that he requires assistance?
Despite Justin’s insistence that he doesn’t have a problem, Leah can see he’s hooked to his painkillers. She just discovered a large supply of medication in his bag, definitely more than he would use for their trip to Melbourne. While he shrugged it off by saying he was in agony every day, this was far from an explanation for the massive amount of medications he was taking.
Given that he had approached Christian (Ditch Davey) for a prescription for even more medications, it was apparent that he was amassing quite a stockpile.
When Leah questioned her boyfriend about the stash, he became defensive, as though he couldn’t believe she thought he was hooked. As he began to toss tens of pills down the drain, he shouted, “You think I’m a junkie?” his fury flared.
Unfortunately, Leah felt addressing Justin about the problem was enough, and she believed him when he said he would stop taking his medications cold turkey. In actuality, he went online and ordered drugs from an online pharmacy, which he had delivered to his garage.
Justin falls mere hours after taking the tablets at the end of the week, and Leah finds him passed out on the floor, similar to when his developing spinal cavernoma led him to collapse last year.
Justin has been transported to the hospital as we return to the action next week. Tori is treating him at an emergency room, but she has no idea what’s going on.
It’s obvious that something is terribly wrong when he suffers a seizure. Finally, Leah discusses Justin’s recent painkiller concerns with Tori, stating that he double dosed a few weeks ago but that they’ve taken care of everything.
Tori is certain that he must have taken something and orders Leah to go to the garage and look for any additional pills, despite the fact that these aren’t the signs of someone coming off the medicine.
When Alf and Leah arrive to Summer Bay Auto, they quickly unlock a cabinet and discover just what they’re searching for — bottle after bottle of medicine! After all, Justin had been deceiving Leah.
Tori can’t believe what she’s seeing. How could Justin be so dumb after everything they went through with Brody? And to buy medications from the comfort of your own home! While the active component in the pills he bought was the same, the fact that they were purchased from an unknown internet source means “they might be cut with anything” – and it is that anything that has put him in hospital.
While Lean continues to be empathetic, Justin’s sister is not. As he lies powerless in the hospital bed, she chastises Justin for his behaviour.
She loses control of her emotions as she hands him the bottles and asks him why he was taking drugs that could have killed him. “What were you thinking, simply collecting any medications you could get your hands on?”
As her rage grows, Alf and Leah are forced to pull her away. Meanwhile, Justin is still perplexed by what has occurred. He wants to be alone and has ordered Leah out of his room.
He does, however, have a battle on his hands. Tori threatens to contact the cops if he tells her he wants to discharge himself and return home. It’s apparent she’s serious, and she’d go to any length to ensure she didn’t lose another sibling and Ava’s father.
“Could you simply come to a halt and realise how close you are to the edge? You would be dead right now if Leah hadn’t discovered you before,” she argues. “You have to start telling the truth! I need you to face the truth that you’re an addict right now.”
“I’m not a junkie.” Despite a near-death experience, Justin remains entirely delusional. “I am not a drug addict.” He informs Tori that he is removing her as his doctor and that she would no longer be involved in his care.
Christian goes to Justin’s room to try to reason with him now that Tori is no longer able to help him. He hasn’t had much luck either, which is unsurprising.
Justin defends his purchase, claiming that the first time he bought pills online, everything went great; it was just the second batch that didn’t agree with him. He blames it on a poor batch, oblivious to the reality that he made an extremely risky option.
Justin even attempts to get Christian to rewrite his prescription, claiming that the agony continues resurfacing in waves. Christian obviously has no option but to refuse him.
Justin tries to flee but falls, and his girlfriend, sister, and fiancée are forced to return him to his hotel bed.
It’s time for him to be discharged a few days later. While Leah is looking forwards to seeing him, she isn’t in a good mood for long.
The hospital forces her to take charge of his pain medications, giving her tight instructions on when he can take each dose. Justin is irritated by the lack of control, which he perceives as an unwarranted intrusion, and it isn’t long before he begins to act out.
He’s always looking at the clock, monitoring when his next medicine is due. He fights with the wait more and more as the agony and withdrawal kick in. It’s apparent this is going to be a problem when Leah returns home to discover him digging through drawers in quest of the pills.
He pleads, “Where are they?”
However, when he discovers that Leah is concealing the pills on her person, she begins to feel insecure around her lover. That night, as Justin tries to wait the final half-hour before the next dosage, she locks herself in the toilet, hiding from her boyfriend who is attempting to take the pills from her.
As Justin beats on the door from the other side, she is back against the door and in tears, knowing she can’t take it any longer.
Will they make it?
