‘Neighbours’: is Susan and Terese’s friendship going to suffer now they work together?

Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) and Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou) have been friends for a long time but are they about to hit their hardest test yet on ‘Neighbours’?

If you want to avoid all spoilers for ‘Neighbours’, stop reading now.

Today’s episode saw the friends begin their new professional relationship as Susan’s first day as Operations Manager at Eirini Rising, the new retirement complex, arrived. With Susan focusing on Operations and Terese on construction, it looked like the friends had found a match made in heaven.

Initially keen to ensure each other was happy, the friends were respectful of one another but soon Terese began dumping tasks on Susan that she should have been doing herself. Rather than easing into her new role, Susan spent the day doing admin work for Terese and quickly grew tired of being treated like an assistant.

When Susan returned home, she voiced her concerns to Karl (Alan Fletcher) and she wondered if the new arrangement was going to work. Meanwhile Terese was beaming with joy when she told a very different account of the day to Toadie (Ryan Moloney). With Susan and Terese only recently falling out over Terese’s original plan to close down Erinsborough High, will the two friends find themselves at odds again?

Is Susan or Terese in the wrong?

Terese fought really hard to convince Susan to take the Operations Manager role after Paul (Stefan Dennis) suggested she’d be great at it. Susan was initially reluctant as the job means that she is Karl’s boss, and she wondered if that would affect their marriage. After receiving assurances from Karl, Susan accepted the role but her enthusiasm waned within a day. For the moment Susan seems to just be putting up with Terese’s demands but we feel she needs to speak up otherwise things are going to get very difficult. Terese is treating Susan unfairly and she’s piling more work on her than she should be.

Is the Eirini Rising opening off to a bad start?

With Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) just weeks away from moving in, it looks like Eirini Rising’s opening is going to be anything but smooth. Susan proposed a staggered approach to move residents in gradually but Terese changed that plan in order to rush everyone in. As with every new venture, Eirini Rising will have teething difficulties but with Susan and Terese already at loggerheads, it’s going to make things even tougher.

How will Susan and Terese navigate their new working relationship?

We have to hope that Susan and Terese will learn to compromise with one another. The first step is for them to speak honestly and openly with one another, something they haven’t always been great at doing. If Susan nips Terese’s behaviour in the bud quickly, we’re confident the two friends can make a real success of their new partnership. We expect Terese will take Susan’s push back personally to begin with but they should be able to work through things.

‘Neighbours’ airs Monday to Thursday on Amazon Freevee.