On Monday, Dotty’s fixing Dot’s clock, but Nick’s flippant about it and tells her that she needn’t bother as Dot will be dead soon. Pulling some pills out of his pocket, Nick reveals to Dotty that he’s going to grind them up and mix them into Dot’s lunch, but at that moment, they hear a crash in the hall.

They find Dot sitting on the stairs with the phone on the floor in her hand; the vicar’s just told her that her old friend, Mrs Lowe, is extremely ill and she’s been taken to hospital. Despite wanting to go and see her, Nick persuades Dot to stay home for the day…

Back in the kitchen, as Nick’s grinding up the pills, Dotty has an idea; why don’t they push Dot “over the edge” by telling her that her friend’s died? However, with Nick out of the room, Dotty finds something in her dad’s coat pocket – it’s a screwed-up picture of her standing outside their dream home. Nick blames it on Dot, but Dotty’s not convinced.

Despite an impromptu visit from Bradley, Dotty manages to keep him out of the house as Nick pours the crushed up pills into a bowl of soup for Dot, but she foils his plan when she’s not hungry. In a last-ditch attempt to push Dot to the edge, Dotty calls the house pretending to be the vicar and claims that Mrs Lowe has died.

Dotty then gets her Bible from upstairs and goes to pray with Dot, just as Nick heads out of the front door. Mid-prayer, Dotty’s evidently feeling guilty and, moving to the kitchen, she finds Nick grinding yet more pills as he attempts to convince his daughter that she should be the one to poison her grandma claiming it’ll be “less suspicious.” Reluctantly, Dotty agrees.

Later, after briefly reminiscing about the past, Nick heads off to the Vic, leaving Dotty in the kitchen. She sees two mugs beside the empty bottle that Nick poured the ground-up pills into. In the living room, Dotty hands her grandma a mug of tea, claiming she made it “especially for her”. Gratefully accepting her granddaughter’s ‘kindness’, Dot takes a few sips…

Elsewhere, Syd attempts to tell Bradley to stop running away from the problems Dot has which put him in a bad mood and he later snaps at Patrick. And Bianca discovers that Whitney’s skipping her exams so Pat attempts to convince Whitney that she’ll waste her life away if she doesn’t try harder at school. Pat also tells Bianca that Whitney needs a mum right now, not a telling off.

Also, Dawn’s unimpressed when Garry suggests that they should buy Summer some clothes from the local charity shop and Phil takes it upon himself to tell Garry to stop being tight with his money. He takes him at his word and Dawn’s stunned to return to the flat to find Garry with piles of cash; he wants to buy Minty and Naomi out of the flat so they can be “a proper family”.

On Tuesday, Dot’s lying motionless on the sofa when Nick returns from the pub so, convinced that she’s dead, he happily drinks a beer as he and Dotty corroborate their stories in the kitchen. As they plot, Dot wanders through the door and Nick’s flabbergasted. Puzzled as to where the pills are and why Dotty didn’t go through with the deadly deed, Nick looks down to his beer and realises that she’s laced his drink instead!

An argument between Nick and Dotty ensues and as Dotty runs out of the door to find her grandma, Nick collapses in the hall. Running over to the launderette, Dotty confesses all to a stunned Dot.

As Dot struggles to come to terms with the fact that Nick was trying to kill her, again, Patrick enters and realises something’s very wrong. He and Dot head back across the Square to speak to Nick but on searching the house, they’re shocked to find that Nick’s disappeared. Still in the launderette, Dotty panics when Nick arrives and drags her out, throwing her into a car.

Patrick spots the commotion and tries to stop Nick, but he crashes the car into the flower stall before rushing into the café and locking everyone inside. With a number of the local children inside, the Square’s residents scramble to the market in an attempt to rescue their kids.

While in the café, Whitney’s mystery friend offers Nick a set of keys to his car, but in the mayhem, nobody notices that a fire’s started on the cooker. When Nick’s back’s turned, Whitney’s friend wrestles him to the floor, allowing Bradley to get everyone out to safety and as the fire takes hold, Nick’s still inside. Outside, Whitney’s friend has disappeared again and with no sign of Nick emerging from the building, Bradley decides to run back inside to save him.

The pair struggle inside and just as Bradley’s heading for the exit, a gas pipe splits and the café explodes…

Elsewhere, Christian’s struggling with the business in Ian’s absence so Shirley convinces him to let her run the chippy. Also, Dawn blags her way into a job behind the bar at the Vic and Max continues his attempts to woo Tanya.

On Thursday, in the aftermath of the explosion, Dot tries to convince a frightened Dotty that Nick’s finally out of their lives for good. At that moment, there’s a bang on the door; it’s the police.

Dot tells them that she knows nothing of Nick’s whereabouts so the police leave with but urge Dot to call them if she hears anything from him. Meanwhile, Max hears that Bradley’s suffered flash burns and has shards of glass in his eye, so the worried dad heads to the hospital to be with his son. After Tanya makes her excuses as to why she can’t go with him, Max heads across the Square to Dot’s and blames her for Bradley’s condition. Unnerved by the accusation, Dot asks him to leave.

Later, Dotty tells her gran that she’s convinced Nick will return and Dot questions how she could’ve been stupid enough to allow Nick back into her life and blames herself for everything that’s happened.

Max heads to the hospital alone as Tanya and Syd both shunned his suggestion that they go with him to see Bradley. However, Tanya soon arrives and sympathetically, she takes Max’s hand.

Heather calls in to Dot’s to check that she’s okay, and after a frank talk about recent events, Heather tells Dot that she can’t blame herself for the fire. Asking Heather to look after Dotty, Dot rushes out of the door headed for the hospital, and as Max and Tanya await news of Bradley’s condition, Dot appears in the doorway.

When she sees Bradley with burns and an eye patch, she’s overcome with guilt and backs out of the room, unable to shoulder the burden of her son’s actions. On returning home, Dot can’t bear to think or talk about the situation any longer and orders Heather out of the house so that she can be alone…

Elsewhere, Dawn’s modelling photos arrive and Garry’s quite surprised when he sees them and discovers that she’s modelling jewellery. However, the first ‘cracks’ begin to appear in Garry and Dawn’s relationship when he refuses to babysit Summer while she goes to work, claiming that her modelling’s going to ruin their relationship.

So later, when Phil offers her a wad of cash, she’s tempted to take it and run…

Also, with the locals blaming Christian for the fire, Lucy blackmails him; she wants money in return for her silence.

Finally, Whitney’s bumps into her mystery man again in the park but her conversation with him becomes awkward when she begins asking a few too many personal questions for his liking…

On Friday, it’s revision time for Whitney but Bianca’s worried about how she’s coping with the pressure. Acknowledging her own shortcomings, Bianca begs Whitney not to throw her life away before it’s even begun. Then, over breakfast, as she berates Ricky for not doing enough around the house, it occurs to Bianca that she’s probably entitled to money from Ian because of the café fire and so decides to phone Citizens Advice.

Meanwhile, Whitney relents and decides to sit her exams after all. On her return from sitting her IT exam, she finds that Bianca’s planned a girly night in, however, their excitement’s soon interrupted by the arrival of Whitney’s teacher who informs Bianca that Whitney hasn’t fully completed any of her exam papers. The teacher’s taken aback though when Bianca has a go at her for not pushing Whitney more than she has.

A row between Bianca and Whitney ensues, resulting in Bianca telling Whitney to either concentrate on school or get a job to pay her way. However, Whitney’s soon even more shocked when she opens the door to a familiar face…

Elsewhere, Pat checks on Dot and is concerned to see that she’s not herself in the slightest while Shirley becomes jealous when Phil seems to be paying a lot of attention to Dawn.