Jess runs into the street to find Norman bloody and motionless. Nicky cradles the dog’s head while Tanzie is in shock. Jess cannot find a heartbeat. The driver who hit Norman explains he never saw the dog. Nicky tells his mother the Fishers were trying to abduct Tanzie, and Norman broke through the fence to save her.

Nathalie arrives and tries to comfort a howling Tanzie. Jess tells a distraught Nicky she believes Norman is gone. As Nicky sobs, Jess sits in the road holding Norman’s body, wondering what to do next.

Jess forces a screaming Tanzie away from Norman’s body and back inside. In the street, their neighbor Nigel offers to handle the situation. Inside, Jess holds Tanzie and promises things will be okay.

Tanzie then hears Nicky sobbing in the hallway, an uncharacteristic sound that makes the reality of the situation sink in. Tanzie realizes her mother is lying and becomes convinced that nothing will be okay again.

Weeks after leaving the Thomas home, Ed meets Gemma in a coffee shop. In a flashback, he recalls a meeting with his legal team where he announced his intention to plead guilty to insider trading. He reflects on Jess with bitterness, believing she stole from him and betrayed his trust. He thinks that while even Lara and Deanna did this, they were obvious about what they wanted from him; but Jess was more insidious since she had him believing that she truly had feelings for him.

Before his court hearing, Ed stays at his parents’ house. He frequently visits his father in the hospital. While playing chess one day, Bob asks about Jess, whom he fondly calls a “firecracker,” and expresses his approval of her. The conversation deepens Ed’s pain over the situation.

In the hours after Norman’s accident, Jess is at an emergency veterinary clinic. A vet informs her that Norman is alive but has suffered massive internal injuries, lost an eye, and has a poor prognosis. A flashback reveals that Nigel noticed Norman was still breathing and rushed him to the clinic.

Looking at her children’s hopeful faces, Jess cannot give up on their pet. She tells the vet to do whatever it takes to save him, committing to the enormous cost. The family returns home to wait for news.

In the days following the accident, Nicky writes a raw, angry post on his blog. He describes his family’s repeated misfortunes, his mother’s deep depression, and Tanzie’s new fear of going outdoors. He also describes Norman’s accident, revealing that Jess is struggling to pay for the dog’s treatment.

He details the return of his own anxiety and expresses profound anger at his bullies, his absent father, and the injustice of their lives. He concludes the post by stating that his mother no longer says that good things happen to good people.

Four days after the accident, a police officer arrives to speak to Jess about the incident. Jess has no hope that the police will take any action against the Fishers since they have done nothing in the past. However, the officer suggests that Jess review her CCTV footage, which clearly shows the Fisher boys assaulting Tanzie. The evidence leads to the Fishers’ arrest and eviction.

Resolved to move forward, Jess gets her job at the bar back, hires a solicitor to divorce Marty, and mails a letter of apology to Ed with a £20 repayment installment. She then confesses to her children that she stole Ed’s money in a moment of weakness, which was why he left. Nicky quietly observes that Ed would have given her the money if she had asked.

The family visits Norman daily, and a week later, Jess receives the vet bill, which is over £878. At home, Nicky logs onto his blog, intending to delete his angry post. He is shocked to find hundreds of supportive comments from strangers; his post has gone viral.

Readers have started an online donation page for Norman’s vet fees, which now contains over £900. He shows the page to a stunned Jess. Overwhelmed, Jess insists they must find a way to pay everyone back and tells Nicky to show Tanzie the supportive messages.

In the weeks after Norman returns home, Tanzie remains withdrawn. Jess finds that Tanzie has hidden her math books. Jess later calls St. Anne’s to decline admission since she cannot afford the tuition even with the scholarship. In addition to her pub job and cleaning work, she also starts working as a handyperson.

Nicky seems happier and more confident overall, and he plans to stay on in school, to Jess’s relief. One day, he reports that he went to Ed’s vacation home to return his laptop. Jess warily asks if he met Ed, but Nicky says all of Ed’s belongings were packed in boxes, suggesting Ed has moved away. Jess is devastated.

Several weeks later, on the day of his court hearing, Ed is fined £750,000 and receives a six-month suspended sentence. In the corridor of the courtroom, he tries to apologize to Deanna, but she angrily rebuffs him. He is then surprised to see that Ronan attended the hearing and is waiting for him.

The two go to a pub, where Ronan admits he dislikes working at their company without Ed. Ed pitches a new business idea: a financial planning software for ordinary people. He notes the project would need a good coder, and the two friends share a grin, solidifying a pact to work together again.

On the evening of his sentencing, Ed has dinner at Gemma’s house, where Gemma and her family welcome him. After dinner, when Gemma asks about Jess, Ed admits that they broke up after he discovered that Jess stole from him. Gemma challenges his harsh judgment, arguing that desperation can make people do foolish things. The next morning, Ed drives to his empty house at the Beachfront and finds four envelopes from Jess waiting for him. Each contains a repayment installment for the money she took from him.

Distraught, Ed paces the house, wondering what he should do next. He finds that Nicky has also returned his laptop and mobile phone. Just then, the phone rings. The caller is from a representative of the Math Olympiad, explaining that there was a misprint on the exam and the first question was unsolvable. He explains that they are conducting the test again and offers Tanzie a chance to re-sit the test that afternoon in nearby Basingstoke.

Jess is cleaning her house when Ed arrives. Tanzie opens the door for him and immediately tells him the full story of the assault and Norman’s rescue. When Ed asks how Tanzie is doing after these stressful events, she hugs him. She also explains that Jess told them she took money from Ed, which was why he left. When Jess enters the room, Ed tells them about the Olympiad retest. Tanzie agrees to go, but only if Norman can come, too. The whole family, including Norman and Nicky, piles into Ed’s car and heads to the test.

While Tanzie is taking the test, Nicky takes Norman for a walk to give Ed and Jess some privacy. Ed then tells Jess he wants to be with her. He explains that the sum of their flawed parts could create something beautiful and asks to see what they can add up to. He pulls her close, and she cries while smiling.

Months later, Tanzie is happily attending St. Anne’s. Ed is a constant presence in their lives. He and Ronan are working on their new business idea, and Ed lives with them most of the time while he also has a flat in London. Jess’s handyperson business is expanding, and she now manages three employees. Nicky is thriving at a sixth-form college with a new girlfriend and has given his popular blog to Tanzie.

The family has paid back most of the donations for Norman’s vet bills. Tanzie reflects on their new life, concluding that sometimes a person must keep trying, even when facing a seemingly impossible task. She continues hoping that she can teach Norman to fetch, though she hasn’t succeeded yet.