Neighbours Spoilers – Melanie goes on a date with Victor Stone!

Next week on Neighbours, Melanie finally meets the man she’s been talking to online – but is devastated to discover his true identity!

Last week saw Toadie (Ryan Moloney) and Melanie (Lucinda Cowden) have one final heart-to-heart before Toadie and the kids left Erinsborough for a fresh start in Colac.

Toadie told Melanie that she deserves “all the good things,” and as Melanie told Toadie he needed to forgive himself for everything that’s happened in the past few years, she also revealed to him that she’d taken tentative steps into dating, and was messaging a man online.

This week, as Krista (Majella Davis) moves in with Melanie in her new Lassiters apartment, the two enjoy a return to the fun, playful relationship they had when Melanie was working as Krista’s au pair in England. As they reconnect, Mel reveals that she’s bitten the bullet and has asked her new man to meet her for a real-life date.

It’s safe to say that Mel hasn’t had much luck in love since she left Toadie and ended their one-year marriage.

Back in January, she made an ill-fated attempt at finding love as she went for a date with ‘Bruce’, a man she’d been talking to on a dating app.

After heading out to buy a new dress, she was excited as she waited at The Tram for her date to turn up. Sadly, as time slowly ticked away, it soon became clear that Melanie’s date was a no-show.

In reality, there was no date. She’d been set up by former villain of the week Slade Westall (Charlie Di Stefano), who had set up a fake profile and taunted Mel as he and his mates pulled up in a car.

The gang shouted abuse at her, before throwing a horrible concoction of liquid muck over her from the car window.

Shortly after, she enjoyed a brief flirtation with fruit-seller Santo Oliveira (David Serafina), but despite there being some initial sparks between them as they negotiated fruit for the Drinks Divas van, their actual date fell flat.

Not wanting her friends to know that she’d failed at finding love yet again, she spent weeks pretending that their date had been a success.

When Santo then went on a date with Vera Punt (Sally Ann Upton), only to be spotted by Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou), it resulted in a tense showdown as Toadie accused Santo of two-timing Melanie.

Having put her disastrous dating attempts behind her, next week sees Melanie a bundle of excited nerves as she prepares for her date with ‘Vic,’ and she confesses to Krista that she hopes he’ll be the one.

Sadly for Mel, she has no idea that the Vic she’s speaking to is Victor Stone (Craig Hall), the ex-husband of Jane (Annie Jones), and father of Nicolette (Hannah Monson) and Byron (Xavier Molyneux), who abandoned his family earlier this year after discovering that his supposedly terminal cancer was in remission.

Oblivious as to who Melanie is dating, Krista reassures her, and Mel heads off to The Waterhole to meet her mystery man.

Their date gets off to an awkward start, but Melanie and Vic soon hit their groove and their connection grows.

That is, until they’re sprung by Jane and Nicolette as the mother and daughter pop in to the pub for a drink.

Finally realising who Victor is, Melanie is devastated. Victor realises his mistake and tells her that they can’t possibly see each other again, and Melanie wholeheartedly agrees, but both are left with private regrets that they can’t pursue their obvious connection.

With a deflated Melanie heading back to her apartment, it leaves Jane and Nicolette free to rip into Victor, aghast that he’s back in Erinsborough unannounced, and unable to believe that his first move was to try and date one of their neighbours.

Victor insists on waiting for Byron before explaining why he’s back in town. When Byron finally joins the trio, Victor admits that he made a huge mistake by abandoning them after discovering that he was in remission, and that he’s back to earn their forgiveness.

Byron, who struggled to trust his dad the last time he was in town, fiercely tells Victor that there’s no way he will ever be forgiven. Yet Nicolette, who was always more trusting of her father, stays quiet.

Later, Byron points out to Nicolette that she’s always been too quick to forgive and forget when it comes to Victor, but Nic insists that this time will be different.

Will Victor be able to convince Jane and the kids that he’s a changed man?

Recently released spoilers for mid-October hint that things aren’t over for Melanie and Victor, but Mel may have some competition from Jane.

Melanie’s “forbidden affection grows” later this month, but as Jane heralds in a new chapter after selling her ex-fiancé Mike’s (Guy Pearce) beloved motorbike, it seems she too may be looking to rekindle her former relationship with Victor.

On Wednesday 23rd October, after Krista’s ‘Boylesque night’ “leads to a spark of romance,” it seems that “Melanie and Jane find themselves on a crash course to collision” as they both pursue the same man.