Neighbours’ Mackenzie revealed as Outback Week shooting victim

As Neighbours‘ Death in the Outback gets underway next week, Mackenzie is shot by Heath after the situation gets out of hand.

One of Neighbours‘ most dramatic weeks in years kicks off on Monday 19th August, as a number of our favourites head to the Australian outback where they find themselves caught up in a dangerous and unpredictable situation.

Now, TV Week has revealed that Mackenzie Hargreaves will be shot, as Heath grabs a gun when the situation spirals out of control. Could she be the one to die?

The show had already teased that someone wouldn’t return to Erinsborough, and despite Toadie (Ryan Moloney) leaving the show in the coming weeks, we still have no idea whether Outback Week will see a tragic exit for the character who first arrived way back in 1995.

With Toadie, Melanie (Lucinda Cowden), Mackenzie (Georgie Stone), Haz (Shiv Palekar), Holly (Lucinda Armstrong Hall), Tess (Anica Calida) and Heath (Ethan Panizza) all known to be heading into the bush, it seems likely that one of those seven will be the one to perish.

The action begins when Tess – who is now the Sincorp Group’s Head of Asia Pacific – tells her second-in-charge Heath to head to Mount Harper to check on one of their investments.

Heath takes the opportunity to invite Holly away with him, having recently begun seeing whilst also sleeping with Tess. With Holly already jealous of Heath’s relationship with Tess, it’s the perfect opportunity for them to get some alone time.

The pair hang out in a luxury lodge in the remote location, and Holly is gleefully happy as she takes in her surroundings, before relaxing with her new beau in an outdoor bath.

Yet TV Week reveals that Mackenzie continues to look into Heath, after last week saw her discover that he’s previously been convicted of fraud under a different name.

When Heath gives Mackenzie a clear warning to back off, she tells Toadie, and he decides to give Heath a peace of his mind. He and Melanie head to Heath’s swanky apartment, where they discover “some shocking new information about the pair.”

As earlier spoiler pictures revealed, the ex-husband and wife’s decision to snoop turns sinister when they’re caught by Heath and Tess’s burly henchman Justin (Richard Sutherland).

This is Richard’s second stint as a dangerous Neighbours guest character, as he previously played Victor Cleary back in 2014, the man who shot and killed Kate Ramsay (Ashleigh Brewer).

After Justin catches Toadie and Melanie, he ties them up before transporting them hundreds of miles to an abandoned shack in the middle of Mount Harper.

When Mackenzie can’t get hold of Holly, who has failed to tell her friends and family that she’s on a secret trip away with Heath, she begins to worry – is Holly on a trip away with someone dangerous?

Haz, who this week considers selling Harold’s Cafe and returning to a job in IT, puts his old skillset to good use as he hacks into Holly’s phone, trying to confirm exactly where she is.

When he manages to discover Holly’s exact location, he and Mackenzie jump on the next flight to the remote outback location.

It’s now revealed that they manage to find Heath, and it doesn’t go well. Things are falling apart, and Holly is becoming increasingly suspicious that something’s wrong, with a photo released earlier this week showing her hiding in the back of a ute.

Heath’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and he grabs a rifle, planning on shooting down anyone who gets in his way.

Tragically, it’s Mackenzie who ends up in his line of fire, as she takes a bullet.

“Heath grabbing the gun was a reaction to a situation that had got out of hand,” Ethan explains to TV Week. “Everything built up and he was no longer thinking clearly.”

Yet Mackenzie isn’t the only one at risk. Toadie, Melanie, Haz and Holly are forced to flee as they try to escape from the desperate situation, which is evolving hundreds of miles from the comfort of Ramsay Street.

“Toadie is worried for his and Melanie’s safety,” Ryan told TV Week “But also, what this could mean for Nell and Hugo, who’ve already lost one parent.”

Will Mackenzie survive her gunshot wound, and who will be left to die in the outback?

Ryan Moloney recently revealed to Back to the Bay that he would be happy for his character to be killed off, but only if he was protecting the ones he loves.

“In terms of kind of being killed off, I would be happy,” he reveals. “I’ve always kind of said that if Toadie was going to get killed off, I’d like him to stop a bomb threat in Ramsay Street by jumping on the bomb and saving the lives of everyone, but him just getting blown to pieces.”