Episode Guide

Vader arrived back in Shieldinch but nobody had been able to get in touch with him so he turned up to find a hole where his home used to be. After his initial panic, Bob told him Alanna was at the Ship… but she wasn't as pleased to see him as he'd hoped. Alanna admitted to Zoe that everything that had happened made her see things clearly - there was no "Alanna and Vader"; she had to learn to be on her own. So she dumped Vader. He didn't take it well, especially as it came with an actual slap to the face. Ouch! Heather treated Freya to a new TV/DVD player as a late Christmas present so the kid was happy but it prompted a parenting lecture from Duncan. Heather admitted she doesn't have maternal instincts, and that she's hardly got a good track record but Duncan told her she'd get there. He needed to know Freya would be looked after when he dies… and guess who overheard that and ran off, crying? Yup, Freya. And that led to another fight about Heather lying to Freya about daddy not going to die.

Heather entrusted Kelly-Marie to make her first executive decision as bar manager - she let Charlie have the cleaning contract for Versus on a month's trial. The two of them were getting on like a house on fire (no pun intended): K-M got to boast about the glamorous life as a footballer's wife-to-be, Charlie impressed K-M with her business know-how and a fantastic anecdote about Chick Young then, without knowing who he was, got really flustered when she saw "cute" Bob and managed to spill a drink over him! Zoe got some good news: she was accepted onto her nursing course. Lola and Gina started 2006 with a motivating trip to a slimming class. Over donuts afterwards, they talked about how they didn't want to be skinny skeletal types and were happy in their bodies but Gina admitted that Liz's nippy remarks had got to her.

Luca was delighted to see Alisha again but wasn't so happy when she suggested drinks with Billy and Jo to celebrate their engagement. Luca and Jo obviously don't want to be in the same place at the same time (why has nobody noticed that?!) so Luca persuaded Alisha to cancel drinks… only for her to postpone them to Friday. Jo got incredibly difficult with Billy when she found out. Dilip and Nicki were bored, blagged some cinema money from Zoe then spent it on alcopops. Deke found them tipsy and read them the riot act. He told Zoe, who wasn't as shocked as Deke thought she should be, considering their experiences with Alice, but she did agree to talk to Nicki about it.