Summer Bay is about to be rocked by one of its most emotional and gripping mysteries yet, as Home and Away launches a tense new storyline centred on the sudden disappearance of Mackenzie Booth. What begins as a moment of worry quickly escalates into a full-blown crisis, with Levi Fowler — caught between heartbreak and blind panic — searching for Mac in vain as the hours stretch into a nightmare.

Producers have teased that this storyline will “fundamentally transform Levi’s character,” unraveling layers of fear, trauma, and emotional vulnerability he has fought to bury for years. The disappearance marks the beginning of a dramatic, dangerous arc, one that threatens not just Levi’s stability but the safety of Summer Bay itself.

---

Mac Vanishes After a Heated Argument — and Levi Spirals

The storyline begins with a tense emotional scene between Levi and Mackenzie following a week of heavy stress. Mac has been carrying her own secret burden — unresolved grief, financial strain at Salt, and the emotional fallout of the recent tragedies in the Bay. Levi, still shaken from family revelations and the trauma of the train disaster, tries to comfort her, but instead the two clash in a rare but explosive argument.

Witnesses at Salt say Mac left abruptly, visibly distressed, without her phone and without telling anyone where she was going.

Levi initially believes she simply needed air.

But when the hours pass…
then the night…
then the next morning…

He realises something is terribly wrong.

He heads straight to her farmhouse — empty.
Salt — closed.
The pier — deserted.
Her car — untouched at the Surf Club.

And Mac — nowhere.

By the time night falls, Levi is trembling with fear.

“It’s like she vanished into thin air,” he tells Tane in one of the most emotionally charged scenes of the season. “What if something’s happened to her? What if I pushed her too far?”

Levi’s guilt consumes him.

---

The Beach Search Scene — The Moment That Breaks Him

The heart of the storyline comes in an emotionally devastating sequence filmed at dawn on Palm Beach. The scene shows Levi sprinting across the sand, calling Mac’s name into the wind as the waves crash violently behind him.

With each unanswered shout, his panic grows.
With each step across empty shoreline, hope drains from his face.

He checks the rock pools.
He checks the dunes.
He checks the headland — twice.

Nothing.

No footprints.
No discarded belongings.
No sign she was ever there.

The moment Levi collapses to his knees, hands shaking in the sand, is already being praised as one of the most powerful performances of Tristan Gorey’s career.

“He looks utterly broken,” one insider said. “It’s raw. Painful. He plays a man who’s terrified of losing the person he never wanted to fall in love with.”

---

The Bay Mobilises — But the Mystery Deepens

Once Levi alerts the others, Summer Bay springs into action.

• Tane organises a group search along the bush tracks.

• Justin and Leah help coordinate volunteers.

• Rose files a missing-person report and calls nearby hospitals.

• Eden and Felicity arrive with torches, refusing to stand by.

But the deeper they search, the more unsettling the details become.

Mac’s house shows no signs of packing or escape.
Her purse is still inside.
Her keys sit untouched on the counter.
And her last bank activity was hours before she walked out of Salt.

Mac didn’t leave voluntarily.
Mac didn’t run away.
Mac simply vanished.

And then police uncover something chilling: a patch of disturbed ground near the cliff walking track — as if someone had stood there for a long time.

Or struggled.

---

Levi’s Guilt Becomes an Obsession

As the search drags into its second day, Levi enters a state of emotional collapse. He stops sleeping. He refuses food. He stays out all night scouring the coastline with a flashlight. His uniformed shifts become erratic and tense.

In a heartbreaking moment at the Farm House, he admits to Rose:

“I should have gone after her. I should have held onto her. I should have told her I loved her. She walked away because she thought she was alone — and now she is.”

Rose tries to reassure him, but Levi is consumed by fear and a crushing sense of failure. His worst trauma resurfaces: the guilt of not being able to save people he loved in the past.

This time, he refuses to let history repeat itself — no matter the emotional cost.

---

A Disturbing Lead Changes Everything

Just when hope seems lost, a breakthrough comes.

A local fisherman approaches police claiming he saw someone matching Mac’s description arguing with a man near the wharf shortly before she disappeared. He heard raised voices — Mac shouting “Get away from me!” — before a car sped off into the night.

The lead ignites a new theory:

Mac didn’t wander off.
Mac was taken.

The revelation sends shockwaves through the Bay.

But Levi reacts differently.

He goes silent.

His expression hardens.

And for the first time since Mac vanished, something colder than fear enters his eyes:

Determination.

He refuses to wait for police procedure.
He refuses to sit idle.
He refuses to lose her.

In a gripping end-of-episode moment, Levi vows:

“I’m finding her myself. Whoever took her — they’ll answer to me.”

---

A Storyline Set to Shake the Bay for Months

Mac’s disappearance is not a short arc — writers confirm it will unfold over multiple weeks, intertwining:

• danger

• emotional trauma

• surprising alliances

• a possible criminal connection

• Levi’s psychological unraveling

• and a shocking truth about where Mac was taken

The storyline is said to lead to “one of the biggest twists of the 2026 season,” with one cast member teasing:

“Nobody expects what actually happened to Mac.”