After waking from a nightmare of drowning himself and his three children, Yosser visits the DoE where he is told he is entitled to draw more benefit. He fails to understand and we see him at home and wandering around Liverpool with his children. An attempt to persuade his wife, Maureen, to return home takes place outside the flat of her latest lover. Predictably, it fails. His home is visited by a series of officials, intent on collecting debts or concerned about the welfare of his children. Eventually, Maureen reclaims her furniture, the children are taken into care forcibly and against his wishes, and he is evicted. He deliberately gets himself arrested but escapes custody to plunge into the lake seen in the opening nightmare. Though we meet other characters from earlier episodes (including George who is now seriously ill), this episode concentrates on the story of its central character: the collapse of a men of immense energy and thwarted ambition who is unable to articulate his problems and emotions, a man driven to self-destruction.