Episode 6 of Rake is my all-time favourite! It was absolute comedy gold.
Poor Cleave (Richard Roxburgh) is used to having his way with women until he injures Felicity (Jane Allsop) on three separate dates. Head bump. Broken fingers and finally a broken nose from ‘walking into a door’. The cops think that Cleave is beating her and take no time to invite him down to the station to question him about these so called ‘accidents’.
When Cleave receives a phone call from Wendy (Caroline Brazier) that Fuzz (Keegan Joyce) is back home he informs the cops,
‘My son is back from missionary work in the Congo, because that’s how we roll’.
With that said, he arrives to find dear Fuzz has brought back a lovely new woman from the Congo, Patience, she and Fuzz are in love. Unfortunately, Patience isn’t the only new thing Fuzz has come back from the Congo with. In a suit, his curly hair now a trendy Mohawk and his attitude and speech has become a little familiar…Fuzz has turned into Cleaver!b Keegan Joyce is to be commended for his perfect performance.
Still naïve as always, poor Fuzz hasn’t realised, until the cops execute a search warrant on his bags, that his beloved Patience has smuggled in blood diamonds in a tube of toothpaste. Now Cleaver is representing his son in court and an unimpressed Roger is footing the fifty thousand dollar bail cost.
Christ on a bike!
Amongst this are Wendy and Roger’s (Martin Sacks) wedding plans for the following day. Everything’s going well…until Cleaver finds out that Roger is the drug dealer at the top of a ‘drugs in sport’ scandal. Cleave rushes to the ceremony to stop Wendy marrying Roger and gets there just in time:
Priest: …shall he speak now or forever hold his piece
Cleaver: Roger’s a drug dealer; I knew he couldn’t make that much money massaging groins!
With his secret now exposed, Roger pulls out a gun and holds it to Wendy’s head. He demands that everyone get out and for only Cleaver and Fuzz to stay behind.
What happens next?
I can hardly wait to see Roger’s fall from grace, I knew there was something funky about him from the second he wanted that sex-doll in the corner of the bedroom watching him making love to Wendy. Poor Wendy. She really isn’t having the best run of luck with men. Maybe now, she will realise she has always been in love with Cleave. That would certainly make it a happy ending for Cleave, so the chances of that are unlikely. Nothing is ever that simple or kind in the world of Cleaver Greene.
Rake airs on ABC1 on Sunday 8.30pm
