Home and Away star James Stewart has revealed that Justin Morgan will make a life-changing decision following the horrific car accident that sees girlfriend Leah Patterson (Ada Nicodemou) on the brink of death.
The fan favourites have become one of the Bay’s most solid couples in the four years since a relationship-wary Leah took a chance on love with Justin .
But their future is thrown into jeopardy when Tane Parata (Ethan Browne) and Felicity Newman’s (Jacqui Purvis) country wedding ends in terror…
After making a beautiful cake for the bride and groom, Leah leaves it in the diner fridge while she and Justin attend the ceremony.
Disaster strikes when Marilyn Chambers (Emily Symons) finds the cake ominously covered in blood red drips from a leaking bowl of beetroot and she calls Leah with the news.
With Felicity still on her way after getting an attack of cold feet, Leah and Justin set off home to fix the cake. But they never make it to the Bay...
A shocking cliffhanger, Home and Away episodes see them in a head on collision with Felicity and Eden Fowler (Stephanie Panazzo).
“When we come to, the car with the two girls in it has gone down near a petrol station and Eden’s been knocked unconscious and Felicity is trapped,” revealed James.
“Justin wakes up to look over to his left and finds Leah sitting there with a fence paling going through her stomach, breathing shallow.”
Fearing that Leah is close to death, Justin immediately calls the emergency services.
“There’s no time for him to be shocked, no time to be emotional, he just needs to get this fixed and to save this person who is the love of his life. It’s horrifying,” insisted James.
“When Leah’s being wheeled into surgery and he can see there are medical people there, that’s the moment that he was hanging on for and that’s kind of when Justin starts to fall apart.”
Justin is blindsided when he’s confronted by Felicity’s brother Cash Newman (Nicholas Cartwright), who blames the mechanic for the brakes failing in the bridal car, as Cash asked Justin to fix up his late dad's old ute for the wedding.
“In true Home & Away style, it’s a concentrated effort of bad feelings all in one go!” James explained.
“He’s done the repairs on the ute by the book. The only way he’s ever had a career as a mechanic is by doing things properly.
“It’s not even a thought to him that he could possibly have been involved in any kind of malfunction.”
Fortunately, Justin is in the clear when Cash realises the brake line was cut by the bikie gang, who have a hit out on him, as he was originally going to be Felicity's driver.
James, who is married to former co-star Sarah Roberts (who played Willow Harris) is keen to see Justin and Leah’s on screen relationship go the distance.
“Ada [Nicodemou] and I just work so well together. We’ve got similar situations, we’ve grown up in Australian television, we’ve both got children who are ten-years-old and we both love what we do dearly.
“At the end of the day, we have fun. I’m very lucky to be able to go to work with people that I like. It’s crucial.”
Home and Away airs weekdays at 1:45 pm on Channel 5 and 6:00 pm on 5Star followed by a 'first look' episode on 5Star at 6:30 pm.
