Rescue Special Operations

As Rescue battles with Lifeblood to evacuate the corporate clients, Lara finds herself attracted to the brash Lifeblood employee, Cam. But is she going down a dangerous path? And who is behind the sabotage of Rescue’s ropes? Cam? Or the corporate clients who seem to be playing out their own mysterious agenda? Meanwhile, Michelle is battling both Lifeblood and the Minister. There seems to be a conspiracy to privatize the chopper arm of Rescue. Michelle knows that’s the thin end of the wedge and this rescue may well decide the future not only of the Rescue chopper service, but maybe even Rescue itself.

During an MVA extraction, Dean gives Tyler, a stressed out businessman trapped in his BMW, an honest assessment of his chances of survival – virtually zilch. Tyler makes a couple of phone calls – to his boss and his wife – telling them both how he really feels about them. But Tyler survives against all odds, and having blown his job and his marriage, blames Dean for his predicament. When Tyler survives a second close call in Dean’s apartment, he comes to see life in a completely new way. With Dean charged to keep Tyler under his wing until a psyche consult, Dean soon finds Tyler’s new perspective influencing him. When Dean’s anger almost kills him, Dean resolves to change – promising Lara not to interfere in her burgeoning relationship with Nick. But when Tyler’s attempt to rescue a girl on a ledge results in him realising the truth of the accident that precipitated everything, Tyler recants all his advice to Dean. But it’s too late for Dean. Lara now feels she has a licence to pursue her feelings, even if Dean believes she’s heading for disaster.

Called in to rescue a married couple after a car accident in a ravine, Lara bonds with the husband. Having doubts about her own marriage, they seem to be a shining example of what a good marriage can be. However, after the wife dies and the husband is oddly detached, Lara is gripped with doubt. Especially when Michelle tells her that this is not the first wife this husband has lost. Is there something more sinister going on here? Later the team is forced to intervene in a game of paintball gone mad and it’s a further lesson in the dangers of toxic partnerships. Unable to let her suspicions go, she keeps digging in to the husband until she’s embarrassed to learn that he’s telling the truth. His wife was sick and he took care of her as best he could. But then, in a final twist, the victim’s sister unwittingly reveals the man’s deception. He has killed two wives and when the sister takes matters into her own hands the team must intervene to save him. Disillusioned with relationships, Lara then calls Hamish to take her own in-hand.

Heidi finds herself on the outer with the Rescue team when they discover she has taken a job as a Lifeblood chopper pilot. She bonds with a girl she rescues, Lily, whose friends have also turned against her. But when Heidi determines the extent of Lily’s self-preserving lies, Heidi’s trust in her is shattered. Meanwhile, Dean and Cam reach a grudging truce when they team up on the rescue.

The private lives of Rescue are in turmoil. Lara struggles to cope with her marriage break-up, while Chase hides a debilitating shoulder injury, worried that coming clean could cost him his job. Chase attends a rescue where a young man, Dylan, claims to have fallen from his apartment. Shortly after saving him, though, Chase receives an abusive phone call from Dylan’s brother, Jonathon, implying that Dylan tried to take his own life – and that Chase should stay out of it. Chase becomes convinced that Jonathon is abusing Dylan and when Dylan turns up at the station suffering a stab wound, Chase has the police target Jonathon. Investigations, however, reveal that Dylan stabbed himself. Dylan disappears from hospital and calls Chase, claiming that, although he did stab himself, it was only to draw attention to Jonathon. The rest of the Rescue crew think Chase should abandon the cause, but Chase feels a kinship: both of them are hiding something. Dylan’s car is involved in an accident and the team rescues Dylan, but there is no sign of Jonathon: has Dylan harmed him? Before they can pose this question to Dylan, the ambo treating Dylan is found knocked out. And there’s no sign of Dylan. Chase receives a call from Dylan, hiding in a garden supply warehouse. He asks for his help, blaming Jonathon for the violence. Dean and Chase respond. In confronting Dylan and being addressed by “Jonathon,” Chase finally understands that Dylan has assumed both personalities and that “Jonathon” is a projection of Dylan. In attempting to kill off “Jonathon” Dylan requires rescuing. Chase and Dean save Dylan from plunging to his death – but which personality has survived? Lara crosses paths with Cam at the Dylan rescue and she initially dismisses his offer of a night out – but then weakens and turns up. She’s worried it’s too soon, but this animal attraction is too hard to keep at bay… Meanwhile, Jordan helps Chase score some steroids, inciting Freya’s disapproval. And Vince thinks he will get the better of Hayden Bradley by becoming his “pal,” but this backfires after a few drinks, when he reveals some Rescue secrets.

The team is called out to a Gay Pride rehearsal, where dancers have been trapped under an overturned float. Chase’s shoulder disrupts his rescue of a tightrope performer. Beneath him, the team discover that the float has also trapped Pride’s official Rescue agency: Lifeblood. Thrilled by the news, Michelle heads down to meet press and rub Hayden’s nose in this – and ends up agreeing to a Rescue profile piece, just to match Hayden. During the rescue, Jordan is forced to ignore Freya’s phone calls, while things heat up between Lara and Cam. She chides him that Lifeblood are sure to lose the V8 Supercars contract to Rescue. After receiving some worrying voicemails, Jordan heads to Freya’s apartment with Heidi. He finds it ransacked, with no sign of Freya. A neighbour, Scott, claims that Freya is a junky. Michelle’s determination to make the TV profile work hits a major road block when someone informs the press that there is drug abuse within the unit. Michelle confronts Hayden, who denies he leaked it, but assures her there is drug use in her unit, and by the way there’s no way he’ll let her take the V8’s from him. How did he know? Dean questions Jordan and Chase about the drug question, leading to Chase admitting to steroids, and running out. That night Jordan finally finds Freya, but she’s scared, tells him not to contact her again. Lara confronts Nick about spilling about the V8’s to Hayden. And Chase goes on a bender when he can’t score any masking agents for his steroids. He hits rock bottom, but Dean is there to help, promising they’ll get through this together. But the next morning Michelle has organised a drug test to prove the unit is clean. Chase is in big trouble, but Jordan becomes the main suspect when he races away to Freya’s aid without doing the test. Jordan, searches through a derelict building for Freya. He finds her in a precarious position, and comes across Scott – who turns out to be a man from her past bent on revenge. The Rescue Special Ops unit must race to save Jordan and Freya. And in a dramatic rescue moment, Michelle discovers the truth about the drug allegations and Chase’s shoulder.

Because of his shoulder injury, Chase takes over Vince’s normal role at the station while Vince heads into the field responding to a routine man-in-a-machine run. Rodney, owner of a plastics recycling factory has his arm entrapped in a machine. The obvious strategy is to cut through the metal but Rodney and his wife, Nina, plead with the team to dismantle the machine. Its destruction will kill their business and they will lose everything. Dean isn’t keen on this course of action but Vince is very much for it. Lara is pre-occupied with thoughts of her collapsed marriage. The alacrity with which Hamish has sent divorce papers has stunned her and now the failure of the marriage is becoming all too real. At the station Chase is self-conscious about his role and diverts Heidi with a string of chores, much to her annoyance. All pretty much a normal, run-of-the-mill Rescue day until somebody starts up the machine in which Rodney is trapped, nearly killing him. Suspicions fall on the wife Nina. Lara and Vince are dispatched to make sure the factory is shut down at the mains and the plant evacuated. Vince has his suspicions that all is not right in Nina and Rodney’s marriage and he learns from Nina that she has been having an affair with the foreman, Mitch. When she saw Rodney trapped in the machine she instantly broke it off but Mitch has gone crazy. Lara unwittingly discovers Mitch preparing a homemade bomb and finds herself locked in a claustrophobic “safe-room”. She attempts to escape through the extractor fan but is dead-ended. When Vince, unaware of her plight, switches off power, the room becomes Lara’s potential coffin. Searching for Lara, Vince happens on Mitch. Mitch injured himself attempting to escape. As they question a barely conscious Mitch about Lara’s whereabouts, Vince makes a chilling discovery: Mitch has made a bomb and placed it somewhere in the factory. It is too late for the bomb squad to get there but evacuation is out of the question: they still have Rodney trapped in the machine and Lara missing. In a breathtaking climax Rescue must somehow find Lara, dismantle the bomb and extract Rodney. Chase has the mantle of leadership thrust upon him and must remain cool in a crisis while Vince, who won’t even read a computer manual, tries to defuse the bomb. Lara’s air has run out and the bomb is ticking … tick … tick … tick.

Rescue is called out to free a trapped garbo from his garbage compactor. But during the rescue, they discover a woman on the ledge of a nearby office building who seems about to jump. Dean brings her down, but not before hearing her bizarre story about two men trying to kidnap her. It appears the woman (Kaz) is psychologically disturbed. Before Dean can hand her over to the cops to await the Mental Health Team, Kaz does a runner, and it is left to Dean and Chase to hunt her down. When Dean finds Kaz in the street, he’s shocked to see her bundled into the back of a black van by two men, and driven away at speed. It appears Kaz isn’t as deluded as Dean assumed she was. Dean and Chase follow the van and end up freeing Kaz from her kidnappers in an underground carpark. Convincing Dean that Kaz’s sister is also in danger, Dean agrees to take her by her flat on the way to the police, so that Kaz can warn her. But at the flat, Kaz climbs out a window and takes off on a motorbike. The black van pursues her. Dean and Chase follow in the Patrol, only to come upon an accident scene. The black van has crashed, and Kaz has disappeared. In rescuing the two thugs in the van, Dean’s shocked to learn that the entire kidnapping is just an elaborate reality game orchestrated by Kaz and a gaming company called Thrillseek. Dean feels humiliated at being hoodwinked, and is forced to suffer the jibes of his team. He’s also pissed off when news comes in that Kaz’s motorbike has been found abandoned in bushland. It seems that Kaz doesn’t realise the game is over and now is wasting Rescue’s time and resources. Before they set off on the search, however, a businesswoman (Leonie) turns up at the stationhouse to reveal that she was the one who hired Thrillseek for the game. It seems that Thrillseek snatched Kaz by mistake. Dean and Chase finally locate Kaz in precarious circumstances and rescue her. Dean presses Kaz for the truth, sensing that there’s more to her story than a simple case of mistaken identity. Kaz reveals that she’s a former employee of Leonie’s game software company. Leonie stole her game idea and Kaz was merely stealing it back when the “kidnappers” pounced on her. Dean is faced with a difficult decision – disbelieve Kaz and hand her over to Leonie to reclaim her game data…or believe Kaz and help her get away with the prize. His decision has consequences, not just for his career, but for his relationship with Chase. Meanwhile, when Jordan, Lara and Heidi spend their day in the back of a garbage truck recovering the severed hand of a garbo caught in his garbage compactor, the permanent stench of garbage threatens to derail Lara’s first “real” date with Cam.

Called to a high-rise office to rescue a General Manager and his Assistant when their late-night tryst goes horribly wrong, Rescue are shocked to discover the real reason for the General Manager’s heart attack… A black-clad figure hanging by a thread on the outside of the building. Launching another rescue, they’re quickly confronted with yet another surprise as two more figures are found to be climbing up the outside of the building. Heading them off, Rescue learns that they’re part of an urban climbing community, dedicated to challenging themselves against the most extreme man-made structures… And Lara learns that Cam is one of them as he comes over the top. Thrown into a spin, Lara is suddenly forced to examine whether she really knows her new boyfriend at all – a fact made worse by her dislike for his climbing partner, Sharni. Meanwhile, Heidi’s growing excitement at approaching the 500 rescue benchmark is somewhat tempered as she is reduced to chasing a disabled old man’s cat while the boys complete the actual rescue. However, her disappointment goes by the wayside as the cat in fact leads her home, where she finds the man’s wife in a very dire situation. Trapped under a fallen wardrobe, she needs all Heidi’s skills to save her before it crushes her leg for good… But will Heidi be able to claim her 500th rescue in light of the shocking secret she discovers about this innocent looking pair of seniors? Late in the day, just as Lara is about to give up on their relationship, it’s Cam’s own direct approach that makes the difference. But all of this takes a back seat as news comes in that Sharni has returned to the scene of the crime, intent on finishing what Lara stopped her from doing last night. Unless Rescue can stop her, she’s going to try and scale the building once and for all, despite her fatigue. Arriving too late, the team’s efforts become another rescue and as things spiral out of control, Lara is left devastated… But is Dean to blame?

Swinging by her office early one morning, Michelle interrupts an intruder photocopying Rescue documents. In the ensuing foot chase, the intruder is sideswiped by a car. Dean tries to takes charge of the rescue. But Lara blames Dean for Cam’s tragic injury last week and flat out refuses to follow his orders. When an argument between the two leads to the injured intruder escaping, Michelle and Vince question Dean’s ability to lead the team. Feeling under attack, Dean angrily steps down as unit leader. Acting unit leader Jordan quickly overplays his hand, crashing the Rescue truck on a “perv run” with Chase and Heidi. Vince is furious, and Jordan worries that his first day as unit leader will be his last. Meanwhile, Lara divides her time between Rescue and Cam’s ICU ward. She struggles to accept that Cam may never walk again, desperately wanting to believe that he can be cured, that things will return to the way they were. Cam, however, has come to accept the awful truth. If he’s ever going to come to terms with his injuries, he needs to break with the past. And that includes Lara. Back at the station, Michelle starts to believe that Lifeblood are behind the break-in. And when the injured intruder is discovered hiding out not far from the initial MVA, it seems Hayden’s role in the break-in will be exposed. A nerve-wracking subterranean rescue throws up some unpleasant home truths for Michelle when it’s revealed that the intruder is working for her husband Ian Johnson, not Hayden. In a humiliating, public confrontation, a jealous Johnson admits to having Michelle surveilled- he’s convinced she’s having an affair with Hayden. There’s a scuffle, but Johnson is restrained by Vince and sent packing. The shaken team returns to the station-house where Michelle contemplates an uncertain future and Dean has one last shot at reconciling with Lara...

The team rescue Tan, an injured rock fisherman who doesn’t speak English. Jordan goes up with the man to the Lifeblood chopper, piloted by Heidi. They soon learn what the man was trying to say – another man is stuck on the cliffs. Dean and Lara reach the second man and what appears to be a routine rescue turns into an emergency when Lara discovers he has an internal bleed. With all chopper assets out of range, the guys must hoist the injured man up the cliff. Meanwhile, in the chopper, Heidi loses communication and decides to change her course. But when the chopper loses all power, there’s time only to brace as the chopper spins out of control and down. The team head back to the stationhouse for drinks and learn that Michelle has accepted a job with Lifeblood. Soon after they learn Heidi and Jordan's chopper never showed up. Their search takes them to a national park, but they're not there. Unbeknown to them, Jordan and Heidi are floating amidst wreckage, waiting expectantly for rescue. They try to save Tan but he dies, and they have no choice but to let his body go to save themselves. At the stationhouse, Hayden and Vince coordinate the search and soon come to an awful conclusion: Jordan and Heidi may be somewhere in the vast ocean. Meanwhile, as dusk falls, Heidi and Jordan find themselves sharing their true feelings for each other. The discovery that Heidi is losing blood prompts Jordan to protect her. At first light, as they found a buoy to hang on to, Jordan decides to try and swim to shore to get help and rescue an exhausted Heidi. In the morning, a fisherman alerts the despaired searching team to a find in his nets – it’s Tan's body. Adjusting their search grid, the team still have no luck. Then Jordan is found passed out on the beach. The Rescue team revive him and he is able to point them in Heidi's direction. The team eventually find Heidi. It's touch-and-go with her but she's eventually saved. There are cheers and hugs on the team’s return. Dean queries Michelle about her future plans and is pleased to hear she has decided to stay put. In a quiet moment, Heidi thanks Jordan for putting her life before his own. They smile at each other, knowing something has shifted in each of them.

The Rescue team attend an overturned bus on a lonely stretch of bush highway, only to discover it is full of female prisoners. Under pressure from SPG Vince warns them to wait for the cops. So when a passing Senior Constable, Zoe Hulme, arrives, Dean decides she’ll do. As they try to treat the many injured, Sheree, a tough druggie prisoner, steals a gun from a prison guard, Gus. She demands all of their morphine. After a struggle in which another prisoner is shot, Sheree makes her escape, just before the State Protection Group descends. They discover another prisoner is missing - Miranda, a young woman suffering from concussion. As they search for her, Heidi and Jordan – still awkward after they declared their feelings to each other - separate and Jordan is taken hostage by Sheree. This only confirms for the SPG inspector Dave Perrett that Rescue have no business being here. Michelle’s efforts to cooperate are hampered by the fact Perrett is an old mate of Johnson’s. When Dean, Lara, Zoe and Gus come across Jordan and Sheree, a shoot out ensues and Zoe is shot. Sheree escapes and Jordan takes off in pursuit as Dean and Lara treat Zoe. Jordan catches up to Sheree just in time to see her scuffling with Miranda over car keys. Jordan intervenes, Miranda pushes Sheree, and Sheree is knocked unconscious. Miranda makes her escape as Heidi arrives on the scene, filled with relief to find Jordan okay. Vince’s suspicions about the location of the bus crash fuels Michelle’s disquiet over the news that Miranda had car keys. She questions Phil, the second prison guard and discovers that the crash was no accident. Gus swerved on purpose. Dean, Lara, Zoe and Gus find Miranda about to escape in a waiting 4WD – arranged for her by her lover, Gus. Zoe steps in front of the fleeing car and at the last moment Lara saves her as Miranda swerves and flips the car. Dean and Lara rescue Miranda as the SPG descend. In the aftermath, Heidi and Jordan secretly decide to act on their feelings while Dean asks Zoe out but she tells him her life is too complicated.

The team are testing out their new quad bikes on the Kurnell dunes when they come across a critically injured boy, Shaun, in a smashed up dune buggy. The rescue attempt is impeded by the arrival of Shaun’s distraught father Graham who insists on evacuating the boy himself. A fist-fight is prevented when Dean convinces Graham to help them evacuate Shaun. Meanwhile Chase has a near miss with a frightened and confused local boy Todd, who flees Chase, only to collapse in an epileptic seizure. While the team extracts Shaun from the dune buggy, Chase, who has lost radio contact, walks Todd back to his house on the edge of the dunes. Todd’s single mother Stephanie’s relief at the return of her son quickly turns to fear when she discovers that Todd was the driver of the crashed dune buggy. When Shaun tragically dies from his injuries, Chase finds himself caught between two feuding families when Graham Cooper comes knocking on Stephanie’s door, determined to get answers from Todd. Put into the position as Todd and Stephanie’s protector, Chase manages to alert Dean, Lara and Zoe to the situation. Together they attempt to diffuse Graham’s anger and send him on his way. But Todd, who is badly injured from the buggy crash, races off into the dunes, forcing the team to co-ordinate a search and rescue effort. Chase finds Todd fitting in the dunes and is disturbed to discover that the seizure is not epilepsy but severe concussion from the dune buggy accident. With no means to transport him back to the mobile HQ, he is forced to wait for backup. But complicating Chase’s rescue of Todd is the face that Graham Cooper is now searching the dunes in his Ute, determined to have his revenge on the boy responsible for Shaun’s death. Meanwhile, Vince gives his eldest daughter Kate a job, hoping to motivate her into thinking about her post HSC future. But Vince and Kate clash, and when Vince heads off to Kurnell, it falls on Michelle to keep Kate occupied. A call out to a minor MVA sees the two women bonding as Michelle shows Kate the ropes, and Kate, in turn, teaches Michelle how to flirt with the sexy young driver.

When a light plane strays into city airspace and can’t be contacted, Rescue are dispatched to trail it in the event of an emergency… This quickly eventuates when the plane goes down and ploughs into a customs yard and promptly explodes, triggering a full-blown rescue effort. Dean meanwhile, should be enjoying his RDO with Zoe, but he’s surprised when the wayward Gallagher brother, Lachie, appears, the day before he ships out for his next tour of Afghanistan. Called into the fray, Dean arrives with Lachie, whom is only too happy to put his military skills to good use. Things then take a strange turn as Lara and Jordan cross with the site manager, Adam, and rather than helping, he disappears. And it’s stranger still as Vince reports that there’s no body in the burned-out plane. Apparently, no-one was flying it. As a worker collapses under the influence of a toxin it’s revealed that Adam has been stockpiling chemicals. And when Heidi and Vince find drums of paint thinner, it looks like they’ve found the poison. However, when Adam suffers an agonising death and other workers go down, the team realise they’re looking for something much more sinister. Something that can only have been on the plane. Suddenly the race is on to find the missing pilot. They must discover what he was carrying if they’re going to help the stricken workers. Meanwhile, Dean and Chase are surprised as Lachie announces that he’s getting married. Immediately suspicious, Dean probes and Lachie finally cracks to reveal that he’s been discharged from the army. Is he getting married on the rebound? Out on the flight-path, Heidi and Jordan find the missing pilot and learn the accident was the result of a disgruntled farmer trying to retake control of his life by knocking out the competition. That takes a back seat, however, as Jordan is overcome with a delayed reaction to chemical poisoning. Rescuing him, Heidi then wills him back to life… But were her tears a response to the toxic fumes, or something else? At the registry office, Dean’s words seem to get through to Lachie as he gracefully bows out of his impromptu wedding, but Dean is stirred into action on his own relationship front, only to make an unexpected discovery…

Wrapping up from a rescue, Heidi and Jordan are looking forward to some secret time alone, but the Gallagher boys intervene. As Lara and Heidi travel together, bikies surround them and demand they follow them to where two of their group have smashed through a rural café. Lara deals with the café owner’s wife, who is impaled and unable to be moved. The café owner, Greg, is beside himself, as the roof is about to cave in. The bikie 2IC, Bones, drags Lara away to deal with the leader, Dekker. It’s a tense situation, until Chase, Dean and Jordan turn up to defuse it. Meanwhile Heidi discovers the famous bank robber Siddy Carter is trapped beneath a collapsed wall. He reveals the bikies are going to kill him. Rescue must put themselves on the line and face the bikies to save his life. Bones vows revenge on Rescue. Later that night Carter turns up at the pub to thank Rescue. Dean and the boys are wary, but Heidi agrees to a drink. Lachie is on thin ice in his attempt to join Rescue, and doesn’t endear himself to Dean when he hustles him in pool. Meanwhile Lara struggles with the fact that when Greg turned to her for emotional support, she shut down – is the job deadening her inside? She feels worse when she finds out Martha has died. Bikies arrive at the pub, and once again the Rescue guys find themselves defending Carter. The next day Rescue are called to another MVA – a refrigerated truck has been welded shut with bikies stuck inside. Carter arrives at the stationhouse and admits he did it to warn the bikies off attacking Rescue. The bikies track Carter to the stationhouse and Chase is knocked out in the ensuing melee. Jeopardising his probation, Lachie decides to confront the bikies – and Dean, Chase and Vince go along. Heidi and Jordan agree to drive Carter to the airport, but Carter admits he stole from the bikies, and in a fit of conscience decides he wants to give the money to Greg. As the Rescue guys confront the bikies, Greg attempts to ram them with his car, putting himself and Bones in jeopardy. Carter arrives in time to save Greg from Bones. It seems he’s a changed man – until he stabs Bones. Lachie’s calm under pressure impresses Vince and Michelle, and he passes his probation. And Heidi finally admits to the unit that she and Jordan are an item.

Dean is using his day off to bond with Zoe’s boy Noah but things aren’t sizzling when Dean gets a request from Lachie to pick him up from the lockup and take him to work. Rescue are stretched thin having responded to an incident at a large art gallery where a cleaner has launched himself from the mezzanine and impaled himself on a valuable steel sculpture below. Around the same time a woman has wedged her car into an adjoining alley. Dean takes Noah with him to drop Lachie at work but when he sees the team are short-handed he offers to help and sends Noah to the café while he joins his brothers in the atrium trying to free the impalement victim. When his brothers continue to ride him, Lachie snaps and informs them that today will be his last day on the job. Lara and Jordan head to the alley to work on the MVA and Vince soon joins. Heidi goes looking for the Curator in the offices above only to walk into hell. An unknown gunman has gone postal and people are dead. Mrs. Marchant, the woman in the car has also been shot. Vince co-ordinates the escalating situation as Lachie locates Heidi upstairs. They feed reports as they search for an escape route and treat victims. Dean charges off to find Noah while Chase tends to the impalement victim. Lachie is struggling with the idea of not going after the gunman but forces himself to do what he’s told. At least until those upstairs have been evacuated. Then he goes after the gunman but his mission is derailed when he locates the wounded Carla on the ground floor. While the gunman stalks the corridors, Dean and Chase find Noah trapped. Chase goes to help Lachie with Carla, and Dean is left alone to free Noah. They connect for the first time. When Rescue learn that the gunman is Rhys Marchant, Carla’s brother, they know he will not let up coming for her. Lachie and Chase make an escape attempt but find the exits have been padlocked by Marchant. The brothers must rescue Noah and Carla before Marchant can kill them but ultimately Lachie does have to face off against the armed Marchant. Lachie manages to stall long enough for the others to escape. Marchant is killed by the SPG. Lachie realises he can make something of this Rescue life while Dean is on rocky ground with Zoe who blames him for jeopardizing the life of her son.

The Rescue unit attend an MVA involving one Helen Hillerstrom, who reveals her son, Oscar, is missing in the Blue Mountains. The name Hillerstrom haunts Vince - he was in charge of a failed search for Oscar’s father Patrick Hillerstrom, who disappeared without a trace ten years ago. Vince takes two teams to the mountains to locate the son. It’s Zoe’s birthday, and Dean’s planned romance. But thanks to Vince’s crusade to the mountains, it’s all called off. Things get worse when Zoe’s ex Brad suddenly arrives at the front door. Dean can see there’s still a lot of unresolved feelings between them, but he tries not to be worried. Despite the Search Commander ordering Vince to send his teams along a ridgeline, Vince defies his orders. Lachie, Chase, Heidi and Jordan, out searching, are surprised when Michelle radios through, furious, and orders them back to where they should be. Vince encounters Helen Hillerstrom, who still holds him accountable for her husband’s disappearance. He promises to find her son, and goes alone into the area he believes Oscar is in. Meanwhile, back at the stationhouse, Zoe turns up unannounced to attempt a romantic birthday lunch, but talk turns to Brad, and soon Zoe and Dean are fighting. She leaves, and despite Lara exhorting Dean to make things right, he doesn’t. Later Noah calls Dean, saying his father needs rescuing. When Dean and Lara arrive they find Brad with his arm stuck in the kitchen sink waste disposal. Annoyed, Dean must help his enemy, and watch when Zoe returns and runs to her ex-husband. In the mountains, Vince thinks he has found Oscar, but it turns out to be his father Patrick – who faked his own death. They reach a wary partnership to try to find Oscar – and Patrick opens up about the pain his decision all those years ago has brought him. They find Oscar, injured and hypothermic, close to death. The other rescue teams converge to save Oscar, but Patrick mortally injures himself. Vince is redeemed in having found Patrick after all this time and saved Oscar, but it is a Pyrrhic victory, as he’s unable to save Patrick’s life. Dean goes to Zoe to work things out, but sees how happy she is with Brad back, and instead walks away.

The Rescue team are called to a teenage party, where a balcony has collapsed, trapping many. It’s chaos on the ground as drunken kids interfere with the rescue and hysterical bleeding teens need to be wrangled. The team is helped by Benji and Charlotte, two kids who were at the party helping with the music. The host, Alex, gets in a panic as his brother Nate is found pinned under the wreckage, and fading fast with internal injuries. Dean has to make a terrible call, and amputates the boy’s arm to free him and save his life. Simone, the stripper whose arrival caused a stampede of excited teens and the balcony collapse, is still in shock when Chase recognises her – they were at school together, and had a disastrous date. Chase forces Simone to stay on site, which costs her another gig and eventually her job. Chase wants to help Simone – he’s feeling guilty, but Simone is sure he’s still the same gutless Chase she knew at school. Chase balks when Simone asks him to strip at a hens’ night to help her out. Dean and Lara find themselves under investigation. Nate’s parents are kicking up a fuss. Michelle takes them off active duty while things are sorted out. But next day Dean won’t take it lying down – he drags Lara back to the party scene to talk sense to the family. Alex’s anger with Dean is white hot, and he is pushing his parents in their complaints. Dean notices nuts and bolts that have been removed from the deck. He realises this was sabotage. At the station Michelle is furious with Dean for trying to contact the family at the centre of an official complaint. She warns him, and Lara too. But the police have dropped the investigation, so they are free to rejoin the team. Just then trouble erupts – an incident near the local school. The team arrives at a footbridge near the school to find Benji trussed and strung up high in the air and being harassed by Alex. As they fight to get him down Benji confesses. Yes, he did sabotage the balcony, it is all his fault. He even booked the stripper to set up the stampede. But there’s more to the story. He didn’t act alone. And Alex is no innocent party, either. Benji reveals Charlotte has been raped by Alex. Charlotte snaps, stabbing Alex and extracting a confession. Chase strips to make some money for Simone, and gets enough in tips to buy Dean a new couch. Best Dean doesn’t know where the money comes from. Or where it’s been.

Rescue search the bush for a missing prospector, Simon Prestwich, but Lara and Dean are distracted when a car crashes on a fire-trail. They discover that the driver, Britney, is a teenage girl, who is uninjured but in shock. As they drive Britney to her nearby farm they learn her father, Henry, has been involved in a tractor accident. Meanwhile, Prestwich’s parents-in-law inform Michelle their grandchildren are missing – they fear Prestwich has taken them into the bush to commit murder/suicide. Out in the bush, Jordan realises his relationship with Heidi is in trouble, leading Chase to espouse the theory of “doubling down” – if the relationship’s foundering, double down and take it to the next level. It seems to work, but Jordan’s not sure how happy he is about it. Dean and Lara try to leave the tractor accident, but find their keys have been stolen – they presume it is a cry for help from Britney. Then Britney runs from the farmhouse, bloodied – she has stabbed her mother, Renata. Lara tends to the wound as Dean chases Britney into the bush. Renata reveals Britney is suffering from mental illness, and has become violent in response to her parents’ wish to have her committed. In his pursuit of Britney, Dean comes across Simon Prestwich badly injured and in need of help. Without a radio or medikit, Dean is forced to rely on unstable Britney to help save Prestwich’s life. As Dean and Britney bond, she mentions her current episode was triggered by the hallucination of hearing young boys’ voices. Dean seizes on this and convinces a mistrustful Britney to lead him to the source of the voices- an old shed. Inside, Dean finds the injured Prestwich children. With the help of Lara and Lachie, Dean saves the children. In the wash-up, Jordan takes Chase’s double-down theory to the nth degree, and decides to ask Heidi to marry him. But things don’t work out that way.

The Gallagher brothers’ boot-camp session on Freshwater beach is interrupted when a kitesurfer (Kim) is blown against a beachfront condo. The brothers are forced to improvise to save her. Lachie tries to flirt with her, but is thwarted by Jordan, who appears resplendent in his Rescue uniform. Kim takes an immediate shine to Jordan and asks him out, to the consternation of his recent ex-girlfriend Heidi. But Kim’s rescue is rudely interrupted by military investigator Claire Newell and her crew, who try to arrest Lachie. When Lachie goes on the run, Claire demands Dean and Chase reveal his whereabouts. But Lachie has gone to ground; they have no idea where he is. Michelle’s nerve-wracking annual presentation to the Rescue commissioner is interrupted by news of Lachie’s near-arrest. Challenged to defend her wayward employee, Michelle sticks her neck out for Lachie, winning the commissioner’s respect in the process. The next day, Kim stages a second rescue, turned on by the sight of Jordan in uniform. Heidi and Lara reckon Jordan has a stalker on his hands. But he secretly likes the attention, and invites Kim on a clandestine date. Meanwhile, Dean and Chase embark on a hunt for Lachie, trying to stay one step ahead of Claire and her team. Lachie returns to reveal the existence of a memory stick that explains his dishonorable discharge from the SAS. Claire and her team want to destroy the memory stick. A race for the stick culminates in Claire overstepping the mark, requiring rescue. The team comes to her aid, managing to salvage the stick, but incurring her wrath in the process. With Claire shuttled off to hospital, the team forces Lachie to face up to his responsibilities. The fate of the unit and his own freedom is in his hands.

When a truck crashes into a service station everyone is stretched to the limit dealing with multiple traumas. Lara and Lachie soon find themselves working to rescue a young mechanic crushed under a car. Petrol is leaking everywhere and it’s only a matter of time before the place goes up. Luckily, a Good Samaritan stops to lend a hand. Blake Owens is a former Rescue officer and he’s ready to do anything they ask. Soon the order comes to pull back, but Lara refuses to abandon her patient and when she and Lachie are caught in a firestorm they are pushed into an intimate encounter. An encounter they’re keen to hide for fear of upsetting the balance of the team… and Dean in particular. However, their secret doesn’t stay secret for long and when Dean finds out he decks Lachie. Faced with the simmering tension, Lara is also confronted by some serious questions from Vince and Michelle and Vince warns her not to become a Rescue tragic – someone only in the job for the thrill. Meanwhile, after treating an injured courier at the scene of the accident, Chase, Jordan and Heidi are compelled to finish a delivery for him, only to find themselves drawn into a domestic dispute. The next day, as Vince reviews the accident site, Blake approaches about getting his old job back and Vince is disturbed as he tries to push the issue. Meanwhile, as Lara writes her incident report, she realises that she is indeed at risk of becoming a Rescue tragic and for her that means only one thing – she has to leave. Visiting Blake later to get some advice on life after Rescue, Lara is shocked to find that he’s not what he seemed. Far from a Rescue success story, he’s struggling to make ends meet and Lara is unsettled. A feeling that only grows as Rescue arrives in the very street they’re standing in. Chase, Jordan and Heidi have been locked in a nearby building with a gas leak and as Blake offers his assistance Dean looks to him with growing suspicion. Once again Blake has the answers, but with Lara, Dean and Lachie racing to reach their friends in time, the question is, have they been lured into a trap?