Rescue Special Operations

RSO is called out to a massive effort to rescue Joey Cutler, a trapped miner. When Dean is forced to work with Guy Hewitt, an old rival, it gets heated. The plot thickens when Heidi and Jordan find a crashed truck, apparently transporting cyanide – used in gold extraction. Vince confronts the mine manager and discovers the truth behind the mine collapse. It’s revealed there’s another worker trapped down in the mine and Dean and Guy are forced to team up to save him. When Dean saves Guy from a methane fireball it appears their rivalry might have finally ended. But the job isn’t over yet – RSO must descend once more to rescue Joey. Dean and Lara find him alive and they bring him to the surface to a hero’s welcome.

When a jet-skier causes an explosion at a marina fuel depot, RSO are called in. At the site, Dean is surprised to find himself under the authority of female firie Annika. During the rescue a quick call must be made, and Dean destroys an office to save a patient – which causes threats of litigation from its owner. When Dean has a near-death experience, he is suddenly forced to confront questions of what’s important to him – and his feelings for Lara. Chase is doing some self-reflecting of his own and decides to move out of Dean’s, and in with Nadia. But much to Chase’s misfortune, Nadia mistakes this for a marriage proposal. The mystery of the jet-ski accident thickens when it’s revealed the driver was shot by an air rifle, with a jealous man behind the trigger. Dean and Annika get acquainted, and this earns Dean threats and a trashed car – courtesy of Annika’s ex.

Heidi takes the chopper up to save a woman and her children from their father, only to have the woman hit her over the head with a rock to escape with the kids. The kids are finally found and handed back safely to their dad. But when he leaves the country illegally with one of them, RSO is called in to save the life of the other, who tried to escape back to his mum. Heidi realises her decision to lay an assault charge against the mother means she may never get both children back. And then she finds it wasn’t the mother who assaulted her at all. It’s been a terrible day, relieved at the end by Mack, who has a surprise for Heidi. But it’s Jordan who’s left wondering if he should have made a move for Heidi earlier. Meanwhile Chase helps Bingo get justice after he lends all his money to a gambling footy mate.

Jordan, Chase and Bingo are put under the pump when they encounter a mini-bus hanging over a cliff’s edge on a return from a surfing weekend. Without equipment to secure the bus, Jordan has to make a dreadful choice to save one passenger over another before it crashes on the rocks below. Ethical and professional questions arise when it’s revealed the passenger, Luke, offered Jordan money to be saved and Jordan befriends Beth, the dead passenger’s sister. When someone tries to blackmail Jordan for the money, he wrongly accuses Bingo and risks his career giving the money to Beth to pay for her sister’s funeral. Jordan admits the truth to Michelle and Vince and is finally cleared of any wrong-doing. But Jordan will always question his decision after Luke turns out to be the blackmailer, and he has to tell Beth the truth. Meanwhile Vince helps trap a grifter woman who has preyed on a colleague. He goes on a date with her with surprising results.

RSO gets the call-out after an explosion rips through shock jock Zac Weston’s exclusive party. Zac is convinced the explosion was deliberate and he is being targeted. Chase’s rivalry with Bingo plays out during the rescue, which ends up compromising the team. Meanwhile, Lara is relieved when Hamish, a party guest, turns up unhurt. But the event unsettles Hamish, who forces Lara to confront her priorities. Bingo’s vanity becomes an issue when he aligns himself with a paparazzo who proceeds to publish photos of the party, much to Zac’s chagrin. This, in turn, causes problems for RSO as Zac’s fanbase turn against them – until the truth of the party explosion is revealed. When Bingo helps save Chase during a rescue, their rivalry is replaced by a solid friendship. But there’s one more twist of fate to go, and it’s a devastating one.

Chase risks his life to save a woman stuck in river mud deep in the bush. Dean realises this is part of a dangerous pattern in the wake of Bingo’s death and sends Chase back to base, where Michelle insists he sees the department shrink. At first resentful, Chase realises the shrink might be onto something when she questions the power balance in the Gallagher brothers’ relationship. Meanwhile the rest of the team deal with the fallout between two brothers and the real reason behind the woman being stranded in the river.

RSO are called to the scene of an accident – a car crashed into a house. They rescue Melissa Gardner but it seems her four year-old daughter Grace is missing. RSO search frantically for the missing daughter but it’s soon revealed that Grace is a figment of Melissa’s imagination. Her daughter died two years ago. The search is called off, but somehow, Dean is not satisfied they know the full extent of the situation. Meanwhile, Chase asks Emma, his counsellor, out on a date. She initially puts ethics first and rejects his advances, but after he saves her from a dangerous patient she decides it might not be such a bad idea after all. Michelle has a scare when she thinks her own child could be missing. When Lara and Jordan exclude Heidi from their Lotto winnings because of late syndicate payments, Heidi tries to make it up to them. Eventually Dean uncovers the truth about Melissa Gardner - there is a child, and she’s in danger. Once saved, Dean faces the impossible choice between allowing Melissa to illegally keep her daughter and giving Grace to the authorities.

Vince discovers his son Sam is involved in illegal street racing after Sam is involved in an MVA. As Vince struggles to convince Sam of the dangers and stupidity of illegal street racing, it becomes clear that a vigilante is targeting the street racers and causing accidents. Wanting to help, Jordan tries in his own way to get through to Sam, but his methods are not welcomed by Vince. Meanwhile, Dean is less than happy when Lara and Annika turn into BFFs after being forced together on a rescue. Dean’s further annoyed when Chase and Emma’s illicit romance starts impacting on his life. After one of Sam’s friends is killed in an accident caused by the vigilante, Sam seeks revenge. Vince must call on Jordan to help track Sam down, and stop him street racing before the vigilante can get to him.

During the evacuation of a hotel fire, one of Lara’s patients is someone she recognises – the Emergency Services Minister, Vivien Walker. Vivien asks to be evacuated discreetly, and Lara and Michelle comply. But it soon becomes clear the Minister was there to have an illicit affair with her PA. Michelle agrees to keep this quiet in exchange for a boost in funding, and Vivien agrees. But when another one of the Minister’s employees is found unconscious in suspicious circumstances, Michelle starts to worry about the mess she’s gotten herself into. Michelle and Lara manage to diffuse a volatile situation with Vivien and her PA. And when Vivien comes clean about the whole thing, Michelle deftly ropes her into publicly committing extra funding to RSO. Meanwhile Dean and Annika come to an abrupt end when it becomes clear both Annika and Brett don’t want to break free of their destructive relationship.

Michelle is under pressure when a rock star goes missing after a stage collapse and RSO is asked to look for him. Michelle is torn. If the rock star really is injured or hurt and she doesn’t throw all resources at finding him, she’ll be scapegoated by those above. On the other hand, if she initiates an expensive search only to find he’s not even on the island she’s in just as much trouble. Meanwhile Heidi is surprised to find her sister at the rock concert stage collapse. Everyone thinks Lexie is great fun, Heidi thinks she’s trouble. And she’s soon proved right when Lexie confesses to Jordan that she’s forged Heidi’s signature as guarantor. Jordan knows this will destroy Heidi’s ability to get her chopper license and he comes up with an idea to get Lexie – and Heidi - out of trouble.

It’s all hands on deck for RSO when an attempted suicide in a Sydney subway leads to a major train incident. The team will have to be at their best to handle the crisis. Some of the traumas RSO confront include a young student with a shard of glass lodged in her leg, a mentally ill self-help devotee and a couple of workaholics who find each other through the disaster. But the real twist comes with the arrival of Detective Johnson... An important witness was on the train and she is now missing. Can RSO find her and get her to court on time, or will the man stalking her get to her first?

When a light aircraft crashes in the bush, RSO have to make their way in by foot – the weather isn’t allowing chopper support. Lara bonds with surviving passenger Charles Howard, who says he’s on a mission to win back his daughter’s respect. Lara later realises the way he’s doing that is by stealing a bagful of cash from his boss – a financial rip-off merchant. And now some of the boss’s thugs are after them. Meanwhile, the rest of the team deal with the other plane crash survivors, one of whom suffers a snake bite. And when computer problems arise back at the stationhouse, Renae is called in to get things back up and running. Lara and Charles escape the thugs, and Charles reunites with his daughter. Soon after, Charles meets with a nasty surprise, but his effect on Lara has been felt, and she takes the first step in repairing her own father-daughter relationship.

When Michelle is car-jacked with baby James in the back seat, it first appears to be an act of revenge on Detective Johnson. However when the police and Dean corner Eddy in a container yard, he denies any knowledge of a missing baby. Meanwhile Jordan, Chase and Heidi revive one of the carjackers from a heroin induced stupor and they learn an unknown woman collected baby James and suspicion falls on Vince’s girlfriend, Renae. When Renae spins her car out of control and it ends up teetering over a steep embankment, RSO work against the clock to secure the car and baby James before the car plummets into the ocean below. When the team realise Michelle is in the boot, Dean dives in to save her before the car fills with water. After great effort he is able to do so and Michelle and Detective Johnson are reunited with baby James. Later Dean admits DNA tests prove he isn’t the father but for awhile he quite liked the idea.