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> Love Thy Neighbour: Darcy Tyler
by Steve
Arriving in Erinsborough three years ago to work at the local hospital and
visit his favourite Auntie, Susan Kennedy, nobody could have foreseen the
ruthless and underhand villain that GP Darcy was about to become.
In the beginning, Darcy seemed destined for a 'will-they-won't-they' style
romance with Dione Bliss, and little else. His first few months were spent
torn between Dee and his partner of seven years, Alice Jamieson. Then, as
suddenly as he had arrived, Darcy was gone again, back to the country, not
even returning for his cousin Libby's wedding a few weeks later. However, as
things finally fell apart with Alice and Karl coincidentally needed a locum,
Darcy returned to make Erinsborough his home. He finally managed to get
things together with Dee - but his true colours were about to come shining
through - and this marked the beginning of him turning several characters'
lives upside-down.
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In the love stakes, Darcy's one true love was certainly Dee. This didn't
stop him cheating on her with, and almost marrying, Tess Bell. She was one
of the few people to realise what he was really like and to escape
relatively unscathed, fleeing to England just before the wedding.
Girlfriends came and went - Serena Lucas, who conned him and the surgery,
Penny Watts, whose sister Sindi proved too tempting for the devilish doctor,
and Chloe Lambert, the older woman with whom Darcy raised more than a few
eyebrows. However, it all came back to Dee, as he plotted to steal her back
from Toadie Rebecchi. The plan worked, for a while, but Darcy's other
passion in life soon brought about his downfall...
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Darcy was just as ruthless in his work life as he was in his love life.
After working with his uncle Karl at the surgery for a while, Darcy began to
plot to take it over. His plans were foiled as the buyer suddenly pulled out
and he almost lost everything, until he saved Karl's life and was given a
second chance. For a while, it seemed that Darcy had indeed learnt his
lesson, as he managed to keep on the straight and narrow for quite a while.
His life was turned upside-down with the revelation that Dee had been
carrying his baby and suffered a miscarriage, but had chosen not to tell
him. Later, he had another epiphany when he suffered a heart attack at the
surgery. This made him realise how little he had really achieved in his life
and how he was in danger of ending up completely alone. He began to patch
things up with Dee and suddenly seemed more content with his life. However,
his membership to the Aurora club saw a return of the Darcy of old. He soon
got caught up in the poker games there, raising his stakes higher and higher
to the point where he had debts that he simply couldn't afford to pay off.
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Darcy's departure brought about one of the most exciting storylines of
recent years. Desperate to pay off his debts, he first robbed the pub and
then the home of his own relatives, the Kennedys. In the process, he knocked
down and injured pregnant Lyn Scully and managed to inadvertently frame Ruby
Dwyer for both robberies. What with him also plotting against Dee and
Toadie, and Lyn's accident leading to Valda disappearing, the whole
storyline had massive ramifications for almost everybody on the street. Once
his wrong-doing had been discovered, there was only really one way out for
the character, with the writers sending him to jail. Mark Raffety always
managed to involve the audience enough so that even when he'd ruined
everyone's lives, there was still a little sympathy for him. His behaviour
was never truly explained, but the fleeting appearance of his mother,
Carmel, in 2002 suggested that maybe he just wanted someone to love him and
if nobody else would, he'd just have to love himself.
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The announcement that Mark Raffety was leaving the show was a worrying one
for many fans as Darcy was easily the most cunning and calculating character
the show had seen for many years. Mark himself has said that he feels there
could be a lot more drama milked out of the Darcy character if there's ever
an opportunity for him to return. The fact that his departure has still left
a lot of avenues open for the character to come back and wreak revenge, and
also the fact that Darcy is related to one of the longer-serving families on
the street suggests that we haven't heard the last from him.
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