The most powerful episode of the series so far opens in a low-key way with Jack sealing a letter in a birthday card for his son Rob.  He’s on his way to work when the chain comes off his bike and a passing Nancy offers him a lift.  They discover a shared dream: of a place in the Spanish hills.  Nancy is bullying Jack into sitting in on her Spanish class when he realises he’s forgotten Rob’s card.  They detour back to Jack’s flat to collect it, only to find the crack head who lives upstairs has left his bath running and the flat is under a deluge.  Everything is soaked, including them by the time they’ve cleaned up.  Jack’s landlord can’t rehouse him right away so Nancy offers him her spare room.  After a shocking encounter with Jasmine’s daughter on his way out of the shower, Jack is overheard calling ex-wife Emily and begging to speak to Rob.

Barmpot, who’s been "waiting for his chance" with Nancy since the series began, calls round with a bottle of wine to celebrate winning the candidacy of his local ward.  He’s hacked off to find Jack there and beats a retreat.  Nancy wonders why her and Jack have been dancing round each other, so they decide to do the tango instead, after which they redecorate Jack’s flat.

The next day Jack’s son Rob turns up at the depot.  He misses his Dad and has brought a photo out of the family album – himself and his parents, brother Michael and a sister whom Jack has never mentioned.  Jack takes Rob to a cafe and has his postbag nicked while they’re there.  Inevitably, Rob must be returned to his mother even though he doesn’t want to go.  Jack pointedly refuses Nancy’s offer to let him take Rob home in her car and instead they take the coach.  With mother and son reunited, Jack once again begs Emily to be allowed to see Rob and Michael.  She is adamant that "after what [he] did [he doesn't] deserve to be anywhere near them."  In his anguish Jack returns to his partly-decorated flat and wrecks it, throwing paint all over the walls and his working clobber.

Barmpot (what kind of name is that?  Doesn’t even sound real when they call him it) seeks out Dex’s advice about Nancy.  He admits he loves her.  Both Dex and Amy insist he must tell her.  Meanwhile Nancy is chewing Jack out for going off on one, not introducing his son, wrecking the flat, and not even phoning her to tell her something was wrong.  Jack apologises and they make up with a long hug just as Barmy walks in to make his play.  Once again, he backs off.

After Jack and Nancy go to work the next day Jasmine searches his stuff and finds his little tin fireman’s box.  Inside is his real passport (in a different name), kids’ photos (including several of his daughter), clippings of firemen and his prison record.  Jasmine takes the passport to the depot and dobs Jack in to Barmpot, who fronts Jack up in the works canteen, demanding to know who he is and why he spent five years in prison.  Having been outed and faced with the combined hostility of the whole office, Jack finally admits he killed his daughter.  He was driving over the limit with her in the car and had a fatal accident.  He stares the rest of them down and tells them: "Judge me; hate me.  You can’t hate me more than I hate myself."

He finds Nancy and she gives him the strength to stick with it.  Not to run away to yet another new start.  When Jack walks back into the sorting office, the others seem to accept him.

This was definitely the strongest individual story of the series so far with some excellent performances by all involved, from the high emotional conflict between Jack and his ex, or Jack and Nancy, to the more understated tender moments between them and in Barmpot’s hopeless cause.

As if that wasn’t enough, the tension boiled over in the other major storyline: Kathy, her coma, their affair and her awakening.  On the way home from hospital Kathy insists she has no memory of the accident.  She passes off the fact that she started her physio practice without telling Harry because "you know how things have been between us."  Later Harry asks her whether she loves him; what’s to stop them going back to the bad way things were?  Kathy insists that "When you come that close to death you start to realise what’s important."

Harry visits Roisin who is keen to carry on with their relationship, but his heart’s not in it and she gets the message very clearly.  She bemoans the fact that she is always the one left behind.  The tension between Harry and Kathy builds until one night at dinner when Harry takes her outside and tells her he knows about the affair.  This scene was a masterpiece, both of writing and acting, with Neil Dudgeon surpassing himself with the subtle range of angers and controlled rages he managed to express.

In a parallel universe, Charlie’s tension is building too.  Harry has threatened to reveal his affair to his wife if he ever sees Kathy again, and at the same time he is under increasing pressure at work, where the area supervisor is demanding new first-time delivery targets, modernisation and a culling of the deadwood.  She tells him he is deluding himself if he thinks he is the king of his own domain.  Charlie finally snaps.  "That’s where you’re wrong," he tells her, "I AM the king.  I’m Charlie King."  Reasserting control over his life, he takes his whole family round to see Kathy and when Harry corners him in the bathroom Charlie calls his bluff.  "Bring it on," he says, "bring it right on – I’d rather have nothing than live like this."  So Harry walks out.  He walks to Roisin’s place but her ex is there and she’s flying off with him in the morning on holiday.  Harry jumps to the conclusion that they’re back together and walks dejectedly to the depot to kip in the sacks.  The depot’s Transport Supervisor wakes him up in time to wash before every one turns up.  He deletes all his voicemail messages from Kathy, but saves the one from Roisin saying it wasn’t how it looked.