The Test Card Girl makes another appearance, asking Sam why he’s still there. Sam replies that he’s there for a reason, and we get to see the images from the woods that have been appearing all season.
The next day, Sam and Gene are chasing two men with links to the Morton brothers, two gangsters who are attempting to fill the void left by Stephen Warren’s arrest. The suspects’ car is involved in an accident, killing both of them, but Sam finds a hotel room number written on a piece of paper in one of their pockets.
At the hotel room, they arrest a man Sam recognises – Vic Tyler, his father. Sam has a flashback to a memory of Ruth telling him that Vic had gone away, presumably from when Vic left his family.
When question, Vic claims that he was there for a card game, and the two dead men were involved in setting up the game. He denies any knowledge of the Morton brothers.
The detectives head to the Tyler’s house, where Sam meets Ruth once again. A search of the house turns up a bookie’s receipt, and Gene suggests they check it out as maybe one of Vic’s fellow gamblers may know something.
They question a punter who tells them that the Morton brothers have something going on at a snooker club. When the police raid it, they find that it’s being used to distribute illegal pornography.
Back at the station, Sam dials the only phone number they found amongst the material confiscated from the club. It turns out to be the number of the Tylers’ home, but he tells Gene that it was a dead line.
Sam confides to Annie that Vic is his father and tells her that it’s round about the time that he walked out on his family at a wedding. Sam tells Annie that maybe he’s here to stop Vic from leaving.
Amongst the films seized is a shot where the camera moves away from the couple having sex to give a glimpse of the crew standing watching. Amongst them is Vic.
Sam and Gene question Vic again, and Vic tells them that he’d run up debts playing cards and that when he couldn’t pay, they took him to where they were making the films and asked him to sell them otherwise they would hurt Ruth and Sam. Vic says that while the Mortons were in charge, he never actually met them.
Vic is released and sent home to wait for the Mortons to contact him. Sam waits outside, and eventually Vic comes out and tells him that he’s been told to wait at a nearby phonebox. Sam takes him there, and while waiting the two of them kick a soccer ball around.
The phone rings and Vic answers. He tells Sam that the Mortons want to meet him at the snooker club.
The police stake out the club while Vic goes inside. After a while they hear gunshots and storm in, finding two bodies. Vic is cowering behind a desk, claiming that the Mortons were already there and that he didn’t see anything.
Sam wants to move the Tylers to protective custody, but Gene disagrees. While they’re arguing Ray calls them away as one of the victims of the shooting is still alive.
In turns out he’s not quite dead, but isn’t able to tell them anything before he finally dies. In the meantime, Vic slips out the back.
Sam and Annie head over to they Tylers’, only to find it empty. Sam finds a cigarette card signed by Bobby Charlton. He takes this a sign that Vic will be back as Sam has kept the card his entire life.
Annie is convinced that Sam has lost it entirely and leaves while Sam stays. That evening, Vic returns.
The two of them talk, and Sam tries to convince Vic to stay with his family. Vic agrees to that, and then leaves.
Sam hears hospital noises and thinks that he’s sorted everything out and he’ll now return home, but nothing happens. He’s still stuck in 1973.
Sam remembers the wedding where Vic walked out, and he ends up at the community centre where the reception is being held. He looks through the window where he sees his parents dancing.
He has another flash of the images of the woods, only this time he sees that the flash of red is someone in a red dress. As the images continue, he sees someone attack the person in a red dress, a person who turns out to be Vic. Life On Mars? starts playing, so we know something significant has either happened or is about to happen.
Sam sees Vic walk out of the hall and into the woods. As he turns the corner, he sees Annie in a red dress talking on a radio to Gene, saying that she had seen Vic but not Sam.
Annie heads off after Vic and Sam follows, but is stopped by a young boy asking where his daddy is. It’s never explicitly stated, but that young boy is clearly Sam’s younger self, who Sam tells to go back inside.
Sam walks through the woods, and what he sees is exactly the same as in the images he’s been seeing all season, with the exception that the feet seen walking are different.
Sam hears Annie’s voice and heads towards it. Hidden by the trees, he sees Vic approach Annie.
Vic tries to grab Annie’s radio. They struggle, and Annie falls to the ground.
Sam comes out of hiding and tells Vic that he needn’t run and that Sam can protect him. While Vic is distracted by Sam, Annie kicks him in the groin and he doubles over. A gun falls out of his jacket, which Vic says was for protection if the Mortons came for him and his family.
Sam tries to convince Vic to stay once more and offers the gun to him, while Annie protests. Vic is about to take the gun when Gene shows up, pointing his gun at Vic.
Gene tells Sam that no one appears to ever have seen the Mortons. They only have Vic’s word that the Mortons were at the club and that as they never searched Vic, he could have had a gun.
He raises the possibility that the Mortons don’t actually exist and that Vic is the one in charge, pretending to be the two brothers. I think that’s a pretty clever idea, and I definitely didn’t see that coming.
Gene and Annie try to convince Sam that Vic needs to be arrested, but Sam won’t budge. Gene continues to press the point, and Sam points the gun he’s holding at Gene.
Vic runs off and Gene gives chase, followed by Sam. Sam finds Vic and begs him once more not to leave.
Vic says he’ll stay if Sam gives him the gun. Sam hears hospital voices telling him to wake up.
Sam hands the gun over to Vic, who points it at Sam’s head and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens, because Sam had unloaded it.
Sam tells Vic that he’s under arrest, but Vic replies that it will ruin his family’s lives. After struggling with the choice for a while, Sam tells Vic to go.
Sam and Annie return to the reception where Ruth asks him what happened to Vic. Sam tells her that Vic had got mixed up in something that wasn’t his fault and that he’s had to go away in order to keep his family safe. Ruth goes inside, and Sam has a flashback to Ruth telling him that Vic had to go back on the road even though he didn’t want to, and that he’ll see him again someday.
Sam returns to Annie and she tells him that nothing could wake him up because he’s already awake. Sam reaches out and puts his hand on her cheek.
He says that he doesn’t hate everything about this place. That’s obviously meant to be a hint that their relationship could develop into something more than just a friendship.
Sam meets up with Gene, Chris and Ray, and Chris tells Sam that he cost him five pounds. He and Ray had had a bet as to which of Gene and Sam would be the first to pull a gun on the other, and Chris was sure it would be Gene.
Ray asks Gene what he wants to do, and Gene replies, “Pub”. Chris and Ray echo Gene’s remark and then all three look at Sam. After hesitating for a while, Sam agrees with them, and the episode closes with the four of them driving off in the Cortina.