Neighbours star Takaya Honda has revealed to whattowatch.com that David Tanaka’s life is about to take a shocking new path that will see him turn to the dark side!
David and husband Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson) have had a few cracks in their normally rock solid marriage after David’s grieving brother Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano) begged them to take on his motherless daughter, Abigail.
The situation was particularly emotive, as David and Aaron brought little Abi up for the first few months of her life, thinking she was their own daughter, Isla.
“David told Aaron multiple times that Leo just needed time to come around. But Aaron goes on his own journey of struggling with the grief he had the first time he gave up Abigail,” explained Takaya.
“It wasn’t explained in the show, but Matt [Wilson] was working with the idea that Aaron didn’t have a father figure in his life growing up, so the idea of Abigail growing up without a solid father figure really terrifies him.”
With Aaron and David unable to see eye to eye over Abigail, David shared his frustrations with co-worker Dean Covey (Travis Cotton), a cleaner at the hospital.
“Dean is someone who can give him an objective point of view,” shared Takaya.
“As any of us do at work, we have people that we talk to about things that are going on in our personal lives.”
Aaron didn’t see it quite like that and an attack of the green eye sees him punching a stunned Dean!
When David pulls out of a holiday at a country retreat with some of the Ramsay Street crowd, Aaron heads off without him. David wants space but then Dean tries to kiss him!
“Who can blame him? He wants to get in David’s pants! David’s a really good-looking, nice guy!” Takaya laughed.
Isn’t David being just a teensy bit naive?
“He doesn’t really understand what it’s like to be chased by somebody,” Takaya conceded.
“After Aaron and David met, he had a brief period of playing the field but Aaron was always going to be the one for him.
“Perhaps Dean was being obvious but from David’s perspective he was just a friend.”
Full of guilt for not listening to Aaron and desperate to feel the love again, David sets off to find him.
But on the way to the River Bend retreat, where Aaron is with Glen, Levi, Freya, Harlow, Ned and Nicolette, he makes a terrifying discovery…
“David finds Aaron unconscious and bloodied on the side of the road!” revealed Takaya.
“He’s close to death and at that moment David doesn’t know whether he’s ever going to be able to apologise to his husband. Perhaps the last moments he’ll ever have with him are angry ones”
Takaya wouldn’t reveal details of the awful events that led to Aaron’s injuries - or even whether Aaron lives or dies…
“It’s only the start is the best way I can tease what happens from there! As intense as it is, it’s more full-on from that point so there are a lot of exciting things to come.
“I’ve always wanted this Breaking Bad style storyline. What circumstances might lead to David making choices that bring him closer in line with his lineage of being Paul Robinson’s son?
“He’s always looked at Paul and Leo and thought, ‘I don’t understand why you guys do this, just do the right thing!’ It’s something that he’s repeated in so many different scenarios.
“It will definitely offer up the question of who is David really and is the David we’ve known all along what actually lies beneath the surface.”
The thought of David being without Aaron is absolutely heartbreaking. Fans have been cheerleaders for the couple ever since they made TV history by being the first couple on Aussie TV to have an on-screen gay wedding.
Takaya - who had his own real-life fairytale wedding to long-term love Amy Schwab in 2020 - agreed that he and Matt have put a lot into making their love story so beautiful.
“No matter whether they’re bickering, arguing, or wrapped in each other’s arms the core of that is that their love is so solid that it’s always a matter of ‘how’ they get through things not ‘if’ they will.
“Matt and I have worked so hard to create and foster a relationship that is believed as being a ‘true love’.”
Neighbours continues weekdays at 1:45pm and 6:00pm on Channel 5
