SPOILER ALERT
It was the kind of moment every television drama needs - when the life of its main character is turned upside down - but Offspring fans are not happy their beloved Nina has been taken for a ride.
In Wednesday night's explosive episode of the popular Network Ten series Nina, played by Gold Logie-winner Asher Keddie, is confronted with the fact her new lover Thomas (Ben Barrington) is not only married, but had been cheating on his heavily pregnant wife.
His secret came out when a birth complication forced Thomas and his unknowing wife to Nina's hospital instead of the maternity ward they had planned.
His secret came out when a birth complication forced Thomas and his unknowing wife to Nina's hospital instead of the maternity ward they had planned.
And as Nina's world exploded, so too did the Offspring fans. Typical, and not alone were reactions such as: "So much drama in one night cannot handle it #Offspring #TeamLeo"
And in a huge outpouring of support, more than 2900 tweets with the hashtag #Offspring hit Twitter as events unfolded, 2600 of them in the 12 hours since the episode started at 8.30pm.
To put that in context, the entire week's worth of #Offspring tweets were just 3300.
As well as the outraged fans, the Offspring cast and crew took to social media to congratulate each other on what had been a landmark moment for the series, with writer Michael Lucas singled out.
"Tonight's #offspring is a ripper, and yet another master class in writing from @MrMichaelLucas," tweeted series regular Eddie Perfect.
"I'm sorry to be missing the twitterstorm for tonight's episode by @MrMichaelLucas - what beautiful writing!" said star Jono Gavin
"I know what happens and this is still killing meeeeeee!" summed up series star Claire Bowditch, tagging Lucas again.
Lucas however graciously tipped his hat to the actors.
"Tonight's #offspring script was basically a love letter to two of my favourite women, Kat Stewart & Billie Proudman. Both utterly fabulous." wrote Offspring script writer Michael Lucas.
The episode also proved a ratings success for Ten, with 1.17 million viewers (capital city and regional) and a peak of 1.46 million, to be the second-most-watched program of the night, behind MasterChef.
In all, the night proves Ten's decision to proceed with another season. Although still not confirmed, programming director Beverley Garvey has indicated talks are under way to continue the series.
