David and Claire go to see Emma and Tom’s school play. Erica is covering David’s shift but she is tired and asks Andrew if he can do the shift for her – he says no.
Claire is called into her bosses office and is told her contract will not be renewed by the school. They ask her to stay till the end of term but she leaves immediately, going on a rampage and clearing out all of her stuff instantly. She shocks the students and her colleagues by giving away all of her books to students as she leaves. Claire arrives at The Beeches and tells David she is making folders for all the her students to prepare them for their exams. Andrew gives her some spare folders but he and Erica are concerned by Claire’s erratic manner.
David arrives home to find Claire preparing a picnic whilst all her books are laying on the front lawn. Claire tells David she has lost her job. He asks her why and wants to know what happened but she is preoccupied and he receives a phone call.
Erica gets an early morning visit from Eddie and his dog Kim. Eddie has taken a shine to Erica and asks her if she wants to go with him on a dogs trial – she accepts his offer.
Gina Johnson comes back to The Beeches, she is not happy with the state of the fund as The Beeches have overspent. Andrew tells her there is only so much he can do when his partners don’t listen to him about cutbacks. Andrew and David come to blows when David says he wants The Beeches to pull out of fund holding, Andrew and Erica disagree with him.
Claire takes one of David’s patients Sylvia, on a picnic. Sylvia is recovering from an eye operation and Claire wants to cheer her up. However Claire confuses Sylvia by talking Spanish for the majority of the car journey. When they stop to look at the peaks Claire gets over enthusiastic and wants to look at Sylvia’s eye. Erratically moving her hands, Claire pokes Sylvia in the eye and causes Sylvia a lot of pain. As they leave to return home Claire crashes the car into a wall and takes her anger out by shouting at Sylvia. The situation causes Sylvia to have a asthma attack. They return to Sylvia’s house where her husband Keith calls out Andrew. Andrew says Sylvia is having a panic attack not an asthma attack. However he calls an ambulance as he thinks Sylvia has done damage to her eye.
David goes to see Claire’s boss and asks why Claire has lost her job. He tells David that Claire begins too many crusades and tangents and the students have begun to complain about her. He says he really thinks Claire is not well.
Andrew goes looking for Claire and finds her by the side of the road selling books and guides about Spain. Andrew talks to her about the accident, Claire tells Andrew she thinks he is her only friend. She asks him to come to dinner tonight with she and David. Andrew says no, as he and David are not getting on too well at the moment. Claire says in that case they must have dinner together to sort things out. At which point David arrives and tells Claire to pack up her stall and tells Andrew to leave.
Andrew looks at Claire’s medical notes. He finds that Claire’s mum was sufferer of manic depression. He tells David he thinks Claire is ill. David tells him she’s not, he would know if his wife were sick. Erica and Joanne are concerned when Claire calls Andrew for the 5th time in one day. She is phoning just to explain that she and the children are painting pictures of eyes for Sylvia.
ANDREW: Your wife is desperate for help David. Why don’t you do something about it
At the hospital they find the bang to Sylvia’s head has dislodged the lenses of her eye, Keith tells David Claire is a lunatic. David goes home to Claire and finds the paintings all over the house. Claire tells David she is lonely as his job takes him away from home so much. She says he drives all her friends away like Andrew and now Sylvia. David tries to clam her down but Claire walks out. She goes to Sylvia and Keith’s house and places all the eye paintings outside their house.
It is decided that Paul Kelsey will need a bone marrow transplant. His sister is tested but she is not a match. Linda and Brian are also tested and it appears that Brain is a match. The hospital give Paul a strong dose of chemotherapy in order to get rid of all his remaining bone marrow before he can have the transplant.
Andrew talks to Erica about Claire, she has missed her appointment with him. He tells her that change and stress can bring on bouts of reactive depression. David walks on as Andrew and Erica are discussing Claire. He tells Andrew he doesn’t like him nor does he respect him and tells him to keep out of his and Claire’s business.
Kim, Laura and Joanne tease Erica about her date with Eddie. Kim and Laura follow them to the dog trial and spy on them all day! Erica finds sleeping tablets in Eddie’s pocket and realises he has been giving them to the dog and then betting on the opposition to ensure himself a win. She confronts him about the tablets, he admits he has given them to the dog but says he has won lots of money!
Claire packs her suitcase and tells the children to pack theirs, they are going to a play a surprise on David, they are going to Spain. Claire stops at the supermarket and empties all their belongings in a shopping trolley. She then returns to the house and piles the remaining belongings on a fire. She calls David at the hospital and asks him where one of his shirts are because she can’t find it. David is concerned to hear Emma and Tom shouting in the background and rushes home. When he arrives the children are hysterical and Claire has a container of paraffin in her hands. David begs her to give him the paraffin but she throws it onto the fire, the fire explodes and she and David are thrown to the ground.
David calls Andrew, he says he needs some help. Andrew arrives and gives Claire some diazepam. Andrew tells David that Claire has manic depression and needs to go to hospital. David says he won’t section his wife. Andrew says he has to, with the right drugs and therapy Claire will be fine. David goes upstairs to Claire and tells her she is not well and has to go to hospital. The ambulance arrives and David travels with Claire to the hospital. When he arrives home Emma and Tom ask if Claire will be ok – David says yes.
DAVID: If we can’t help each other through this Claire, then everything we’ve built together is useless
