As Home and Away returns to Australian screens this week following its summer break, Colby fights for his life after a vicious beating, and could the return of an old face save Ari and Tane from their blackmail hell?

Colby Thorne (Tim Franklin) looked to be in a dire situation when the 2020 season ended back in November. After being jailed for 25 years following his confession to killing stepfather Ross Nixon, Colby was on tenterhooks as he hoped his identity as a copper would remain a secret on the inside.

But as the closing scene of the season revealed, that wasn’t to be the case. Heading out into the exercise yard, Colby found himself surrounded by an intimidating group of inmates, as one of them then asked him “You really thought you’d get away with it? Constable Thorne?”

As we rejoin the action this week, Colby is already in a bad way, with prison infirmary nurse Lewis Hayes (Luke Arnold) desperately performing CPR on him. He shouts urgently for an ambulance and Colby’s condition worsens when he suffers a seizure en-route to the hospital.

Jasmine (Sam Frost) is shocked to see Colby being rushed into the emergency department, she only visited him in prison the day beforehand and he seemed to be in good spirits.

With Colby barely clinging onto life, Jasmine realises that Colby’s sister Bella (Courtney Miller) and best mate Dean (Patrick O’Connor) need to see him before it’s too late. But she knows that with Colby being under police guard it wouldn’t be allowed.

With Jasmine and Lewis’s assistance, Dean rounds up the River Boys to create a diversion at the hospital whilst he and Bella sneak in to be at Colby’s bedside.

Dean knew from the off that Colby could be in huge trouble if he ended up in prison. After it was revealed that their friend Willow (Sarah Roberts) was the mysterious Witness X, and had provided evidence to Angelo in order to save all of them being dragged down by Colby’s actions, Dean told her she had pretty much sentenced Colby to death.

“Dean is scared for his mate” Patrick told TV Week. “He would be absolutely devastated if Colby died.”