The concluding episode of this two-part special opened with Mac talking to Alistair, the documentary cameraman, about his work at Holby. This was a flashback to events before the fire and subsequent drama in yesterday’s episode.

Back in the present, Jeff was being interviewed by the police after the accident in which Dixie was driving the ambulance that ran into Sammy. On the estate meanwhile, word had rapidly spread that Sammy was at death’s door because she’d been hit by an ambulance and unrest quickly escalated. Some of the estate’s residents started throwing missiles at the police and paramedics and soon, cars were on fire and chaos ensued.

Charlie and Kelsey meanwhile are in the ED and trying to find Tess, unaware of what’s happened to her or even that she’d left the hospital. By now the estate was a war zone with riot police in attendance and cars being set alight. The elderly man from the fire, Joe, was treated in the ED by Adam and was then taken to a ward to recover, despite his begging to be allowed to go home.

Sammy then arrived at the department and as Adam began triaging her, Curtis ran through her extensive list of injuries. All were still unaware of who Sammy is and of her involvement with Tess’s disappearance and the terrible fire. All they knew of her at that time was that she’d been hit by the ambulance that Dixie was driving.

At the same time, the elderly lady from the flats, Mrs Treavers, died in the resus room so Zoe had to break the news to her heartbroken grandson Michael.

While Adam and the other medics were treating Sammy, a phone in her pocket rang and annoyed by the distraction, Adam asked Toby to answer it. The caller asked for Tess and Toby told the person that the phone was in the possession of someone called Sammy, not Tess but just then, Charlie walked in and said, ‘What’re you doing with Tess’s phone?’

Meanwhile on the estate, Vic, the good Samaritan from last night’s episode, begged Sammy’s brothers to stop the rioting and violence but they responded by attacking him, leaving him badly beaten.

Watching from her flat, Abs’s on-off girlfriend Ellie, who is the mother of his son Joey, watched the riots outside and saw an injured Vic struggling to get to safety. She immediately ran out to help him but when she returned to her flat, the little boy was gone.

In Sammy’s mother’s house, her brothers took the two documentary crew hostage after beating the cameraman, Alistair, and bundling them into their house. Charlie meanwhile took Tess’s phone to Noel and the two watched the video in horror as they realised that Sammy had filmed footage of Tess’s suffering without getting help for her. Charlie immediately called the police and as he spoke to them, we saw a shot of the ever weakening Tess calling for help.

In another part of the department, Zoe was still treating terminally ill Amy who she was clearly becoming very fond of. Meanwhile, Charlie told Adam that Sammy was responsible for what happened to Tess but Adam tells him that the girl is still his patient and he has to do his best for her. Charlie then left the resus area to organise a search party of ED staff to go and look for Tess. Mac asked Charlie if he could go too but Charlie told him that he only needed medics which left Mac feeling dejected.

Back with Adam, he cornered Jess to ask her if she wants to be with him or not to which she replied that she intends to stay with her husband Sean and that she doesn’t love Adam anymore. As Jess left the room, she saw Zoe and told her too that she and her husband were together and that Zoe must stay away from him.

Tess meanwhile was still alone and growing weaker all the time as her desperate cries for help went unheeded. In Sammy’s house, her brothers watched the footage shot by Nicola and Alistair and were furious with the two filmmakers for capturing Sammy’s horrific accident on tape. After menacing and threatening the pair, the brothers left them with their mother while they returned to the fray outside.

Charlie and the medics from Holby arrived on the estate and Abs saw his son Joey alone on the street but at that moment, Ellie came running over, immensely relieved that she’d found her son. However, a large gang of local thugs, including Sammy’s brothers, also arrived on the scene and quizzed Charlie and the others about who they were and what they wanted there.

Back with Sammy’s mother, Nicola begged the woman to take them to the hospital so that Alistair could get help and so that Alison – Sammy’s mum – could see her daughter. The woman finally agreed after she’d read the note her daughter left saying ‘I hate you all, don’t try to find me.’ On their way to the hospital, they encountered her sons threatening Charlie and the others so Alison stopped the car and ordered her sons to leave the medics alone. They reluctantly did so but only after stealing Charlie’s prized car. Zoe and the injured Vic got into Alison’s car and they set off for the hospital.

After a long time of wandering aimlessly around and getting no help from the locals, Charlie and Toby were on the verge of giving up the search when over the brow of the hill – and in a rather stupid and incongruous cowboy-esque bit of acting – Big Mac appeared whistling casually. When he got to Charlie and Toby he told them he thought as he was a local, he was in a better position than they were to find Tess. Just then, Abs arrived in a car that he’d picked up on the estate so all four set off to continue the search.

Back at the hospital, Alison pulled up to the doors of the department and Adam, along with Zoe and the other medics, took Alistair and Vic inside for treatment but not before he talked to Alison about Sammy’s condition. He explained that she was desperately ill and advised Alison to go to the ITU to see her. Alison told him she was frightened of hospitals so it was up to Zoe to talk her out of the car and into the department.

As Dixie watched news footage of the riots on TV in a family room, Sammy’s mum was taken into the same room to wait for news of her daughter. Dixie asked how Sammy was but didn’t tell Alison that it was her who’d been driving the ambulance.

Meanwhile, Tess arrived on the department and all the medics hurried to assess and stabilise her. When the x-ray technician arrived, all the staff cleared the area but Tess begged them not to leave her, so despite the risk to himself of being exposed to the x-ray, Charlie held her hand while her x-rays were taken. Soon after, Tess stopped breathing and her heart rate became dangerously erratic. Adam started CPR then put in a chest drain. He realised that Tess had a pneumothorax but once he’d put in a chest drain, her heartbeat and breathing stabilised again.

All the staff who’d gathered at the doors of resus heaved a sigh of relief and began to drift away back to work. Kelsey had bad news for Zoe though; the ten year old cancer patient, Amy, had died.

As the episode concluded we saw that on the estate, Sammy’s brothers were arrested by riot police and taken away still fighting. In the ED, Nicola heard that Alistair was going to be ok and soon after, the staff heard that Tess had pulled through the surgery and would be ok. Adam was then seen scrunching up his application for Clinical Lead Doctor and putting it in the bin.

In a final flashback to the documentary footage, Charlie was telling the film crew that the staff can’t allow themselves to dwell on the bad things that happen because there’s always another patient to help, always another day.

And that was that! I have to say, the best part of these two episodes for me were the stunts and explosions. When Sammy was hit by the ambulance, I actually jumped! It was incredibly realistic and quite shocking so I was surprised that it was shown before the watershed.

As I’ve found with Casualty in the past though, the strong storylines and excellent stunts are often let down by poor acting and unbelievable characters but nonetheless, I thought this was a very enjoyable Holby City special.