Packed to the Rafters Season 5 Episodes

Episode 1

Answering the Call

43 mins

Coby returns early, claiming after the Europe leg of the world tour Australia is by far the best country to live and date. Ben's efforts to throw a grand birthday party for Julie keep being crossed, but he perseveres and takes off his wedding ring as a sign of commitment to Emma post-Mel. Dave selects experienced electrician Roger after interviews, but he's taken by the time Julie gives up pleading for sole female "Frankie" Calassa, so the boys are stuck with her, which amuses only Matt. Cooper's mean big sister keeps ordering Ted to take her along on their Great Mates trips without parental consent, and even resorts to threatening with false abuse accusations. Carbo promises Retta to start looking for their own place once she has a steady job. A publisher likes Julie's blog enough to offer her a weekly column.

Episode 2

Great Expectations

Ben moves to Nathan's villa room to avoid Mel's shadow now that he shares his bed with Emma. Carbo, already rodent-terrorized, is not amused that Retta has turned into a ruthless scrooge to save every last cent for another home, but when she realizes that it will still take years, they move into Ben's old room. Coby's candor helps clear up the boys' misconception that Frankie would be lesbian. Coby finds her a useful apprenticeship tutor now that Nathan is away. Ted's Great Mates status and even his clean criminal record hang in the balance when Cooper's wicked sister, whom he refuses to bribe, pretends she's been sexually abused, but a teacher clears that up. Dave ends Julie's week-long writer's block.

Episode 3

The Power of Words

42 mins

On Valentine's Day, the bachelors wrestle with who received cards and what they mean, and Matt's prank ones complicate things. Even young couple CarboRetta aren't sure what's appropriate. Ben finally puts Mel's ring away. Ted needs repeated help from amused Ben to respond to Donna's hesitant dinner invitation. Overworked Dave seems to have forgotten Julie. Publisher Adam Goodman convinces Julie to be his radio-show guest, discussing her column in his newspaper, which goes as badly as he feared.

Episode 4

The Things We Do for Love

Coby stubbornly denies having a crush on Frankie, even forgoing a drinking night just to avoid her, but he ends up joining and volunteers during his remaining holiday to drive her around as her license is suspended, supposedly to benefit from her experience. Ben warns Retta, whose first workday excites her and stirs ambition, not to expect from Carbo, who enjoys spending his day off as a couch potato, to aspire to a "five-year plan" like hers, which even includes a baby. Ted has had enough of Julie's "subtle" sneers at his affair with Donna, but the ladies make up when Julie is invited to try out as restaurant critic.

Episode 5

Judgement Day

43 mins

Dave has landed another major contract, so he advises the boys to keep in shape, yet they insist on partying. Jake is baffled when his father, who left his mother when he was four, turns up and announces he needs to get to know him, being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and seeks alcoholic, even narcotic distraction. Ben works out that Retta is pregnant and patiently persuades her to come clean to the future father, however immature Carbo may remain in some ways. Editor Adam Goodman publishes Julie's restaurant assessments but edits nearly every word.

Episode 6

Secret Fears

43 mins

Coby spares no effort on a "casual" surprise for Frankie, in secret despite his housemates growing suspicions, but she appreciates his birds-couple tattoo design, only to specify later she has no romantic interest in him. Everybody fears Jake's verbal outburst ("You're not my dad!") wrecked his close report with Dave, but ultimately a boys' night and singalong helps mend it once Jake has turned away his ever-absent, dying biological father Jim. Ben finally uses the L-word. Dave also faces nightmares about Julie engaging in adultery with her editor Adam Goodman, who makes her an irresistible offer to fill in as his magazine's "content coordinator." +

Episode 7

The Great Escape

43 mins

Ben and Emma really need a break together, with all the hassle from her mother/boss and CarboRetta's baby and nursery obsession, so they rent her professor's country house and enjoy simple, friendly goat-raising neighbor Fred "Barefoot" Fintsloe and simply practical preoccupations. After an awkward "non-date," Coby and Frankie agree to be just colleagues and friends. Jake and Frankie's mate Sian agrees to no strings but no other dates. Dave offers a course and hope of partnership to serving Jake and, to Julie's dismay, newcomer Frankie. Adam is delighted with Julie's performance at her first day, dealing with an incorrigible procrastinator, and lets her help with his charity.

Episode 8

Unwritten Rules

43 mins

Dave booked an electrician convention for himself (despite a bad cold), industrious Jake, and Frankie. Coby is so eager for the party side that he pays tickets for himself and Matt, who steals identity tags to get them in, but keeps making unsafe picks. After drinking and karaoke, Dave ends up in Frankie's room, from where Coby sees him leave. Ben warms up Emma for bidding on the cottage they enjoyed lately and setting up some undetermined country existence. Adam Goodman convinced Julie to accompany him to a movie premiere gala, but she cancels last-minute on account of Ruby's cold--in fact, feeling unfaithful to Dave--yet spends a suspiciously cozy evening with him afterward.

Episode 9

A Kiss Is Just a Kiss

43 mins

Dave and Frankie feel terrible about their drunken kiss, so she offers to resign, but he decides to leave everything as if nothing happened. Coby agonizes whether to tell anyone but his housemates, who can't believe it was worth troubling a rock-solid marriage for, but after ditching a workday, Coby resigns while scolding his "adulterous" boss. Dave now feels compelled to own up, but Julie acts like it wasn't innocent at all. Retta's morning-sick mood undermines devoted Carbo's sexual and general confidence until Ben helps them realize that it's just hormones. Donna accidentally tells Dave about Adam spending the movie-premiere night with Julie, so he scolds her sanctimonious double standard.

Episode 10

Letting Go

43 mins

Coby's hasty resignation leaves his CV scarily sparse, so he ends up in a terrible job in suited car-wash publicity, starting to doubt if he should have sacrificed his apprenticeship. Dave and Julie won't listen to everyone agreeing that they just belong together, so Ben drags them along for a weekend in the cottage he and Emma want to buy to start a new country life, which does the trick. Carbo has kittens when Retta insists that the baby will also need a safer car then his beloved Charger, but he still gives it up once he sees how happy it will make an equally enthusiastic, still-carless teenager. Ted's memory problems become worrisome, even for Cooper.

Episode 11

The Right Time

43 mins

Ben is confident that he'll get a bank loan to buy the cottage, but he misses his first appointment because of Carbo's absurd indoor game. After Julie insists that even Frankie should get her job back, the 'sparkies' are reunited, but tiptoeing on insecurity. The whole gang joins a picnic and "touch football" game in the park organized by Carbo, who fails thus to seduce Ben into staying in Syndey. Retta has a stillbirth, so Ben is confronted with one of Mel's former hospital colleagues and opts for a new life with Emma, but she backs out, claiming that he's not ready and may never be to commit fully again. Reviewing a fake Italian restaurant for the paper consummates Dave and Julie's complete reconciliation.

Episode 12

Life's Surprises

42 mins

The Rafter clan is delighted that Nathan suddenly returns, but if his surprise was poorly timed, he makes up for it by announcing that he has a new job and life in London, which includes a much-older wife, widow Saskia, who is expecting their child. Ben surprises them and Emma by announcing he's leaving on his own world tour. Ted encourages him to leave soon, but informs only Donna of his own surprise: a first medical examination suggests he may well be suffering from Alzheimer.

Episode 13

Filling the Void

41 mins

Jake is surprised when his brother Alex turns up unannounced, fired "due to the economy"--but he's actually become a junkie. To vacate Alex's old room, "so long," Julie invites sleazy Matt regardless of Dave's doubts. CarboRetta's stillbirth-mourning is abruptly interrupted when Nick's pushy niece Voula practically invites herself, tipped-off by Rita, who gave all relatives villa-keys, to organize a party in their home. Coby's mates push him to ask Dumbo admirer Heather as doting date. Sian invites Frankie's ex Bryn Parry, who recognizes that Alex is easy drug prey.

Episode 14

Bad Habits

43 mins

Jake is worried sick when he finds that Alex's drug use extends from parties to daytime, even at the expense of a temporary sales job, but can't find the poison while searching Alex's room and must admit he's visiting their ever-absent father in hospital. Coby enjoys Heather's doting attention but lets Frankie convince him not to "lead her on." Carbo appreciates Retta reining in self-invited Voula's doll collection exhibiting and second party, but is called insensitive when he follows suit; however, Matt accepts Voula's creepy moves. Emma's parents enjoy lunch together and consider a permanent reconciliation.

Episode 15

Moments of Clarity

40 mins

Jake has dragged Alex back home so their mother can keep an eye on the junkie, but he soon begs to come back to avoid her man Doug and "forgives" Jake for visiting their father Jim. Coby is single again, but the boys make Frankie realize she's interested in him. Matt has moved back in with the guys and utterly confused by Voula's absurdly mixed signals. After CarboRetta make her realize she's afraid of a lover who acts as dependent as she did all her life, Voula intends to dump him, but they kiss up. Ted's faulty memory leads to a serious fire in Dave's shed HQ. Terminal Jim is back home and insists on handing Jake fat checks for both sons, but Alex feels betrayed. Emma's father Mark Mackey hides his financial peril and ends up losing Donna again when she finds out.

Episode 16

Displacement

42 mins

Jake is rightly worried about Alex, who successfully demands "his cut" from their dying father and instantly runs to party buddy and drug dealer Bryn Parry, who refers him to his dealer, but is found out. Jake's lover Sian however sides with her ex against "brute" Jake. CarboRetta feel lonely in the villa after the miscarriage and cousin Voula's announcement that she's moving on to another relative's home. After the fire, Ted considers moving to a home, but the Rafters won't hear of it.

Episode 17

Keeping Step

42 mins

Pushed by his mates, who also wondered why they're never invited to her place (actually her late father's), Coby finally makes another move on Frankie, ends up in her bed, and recovers from the mistake to sneak out. Carbo's boss is selling the florist shop, so he fears losing his job, but Retta and Emma, who enjoyed helping him out one day, insist he must buy it and cancel their jobs to become his partners. Ted is determined to take no more risks such as babysitting Ruby. Donna enters a singles dance but her Internet date proves unfit, so Dave is kept to his jocular offer to be her partner, to Julie's amusement.

Episode 18

That Heady Rush

41 mins

Coby and Frankie are over the moon in young love, but the negative effects on work all but amuse Dave. Carbo and his girls confidently present to the bank their plans for the flower shop but credit is denied. Emma is deeply embarrassed by explicit evidence of Donna's physical affair with Duncan Galloway, who turns out to be a major developer and hands Dave a big contract. Ted makes Julie accept his self-defined senior limitations.

Episode 19

Got What It Takes

42 mins

Coby cracks under the teasing from his mates, mixed signals from Frankie, and Donna's lover Duncan Galloway's improper flirtation, which also worries Dave, leading to a true assault charge after a false car vandalism assumption by Donna. The whole affair sours Dave's fishing friendship with leisurely client Ducan. Carbo still gets a bank loan to buy the florist shop after putting up his beloved car as collateral. Training the girls for the job is as hard on him as getting up so early exhausts them, so he comes up with a plan to speed up the transition to their urban balcony project.

Episode 20

Weathering the Storm

42 mins

Coby becomes a nervous, guilt-crushed wreck as developer Duncan Galloway insists on formal abuse charges. The gang gets him to apologize to grumpy Donna, who soon discovers that Duncan still has at least one other affair--with his secretary. Dave makes it his last job for Galloway, who meanly resorts to contract clause pestering. Carbo's team's balcony-gardening-center concept has a terribly slow start, but at the 'grand' opening, actually just friends, a discovered print error and an accidental customer give them hope. Jake pays Coby's bail, but after a vague breakup with Frankie, Coby sneaks off. Ted's sudden failure to recognize Cooper at all proves that his feared dementia must be kicking in cruelly.

Episode 21

Free to Choose

43 mins

Shortly before his trial, Coby jumps bail. Looking for him with the gang makes Jake miss his father's fatal surgery. Coby has a void meeting at Doug's and sneaks back into Jake's to retrieve his cellphone for Frankie's pictures, and at hers, but neither can convince him to take responsibility, yet they arrange a meeting with Dave, whose words seep through in the end. Carbo's balcony florist team's first client, Colleen Bourke, is a Tantric sex therapist and insists that they experience her course. After being unable to recognize Cooper, Ted leaves the Great Mates program and, despite opposition from Julie, visits a suitable rest home.

Episode 22

Rewriting History

43 mins

Awaiting his trial in jail, Coby tries to put up a brave show but is clearly terrified by brutes who actually belong there. For Dave and Julie's pearl anniversary, they get surprise visits from Ben, who gets a specially warm welcome form Emma, Nathan, his London wife Saskia and, a first, their baby Edward David. Carbo's girls nearly drive him mad by stressing even about easy clients. Desperate for a companion, Donna hires impressive escort Logan, who even stays for free after the paid duration. Ted is furious when a lapse while recording his memories on video brings Julie to ask about his only affair after marrying her mother.