Penny got her assessment back and was devastated when she was marked down on her relationship skills. Determined to improve she threw herself into Scott's case but lost control when his girlfriend Becca wouldn't stand by him realising too late that Elliot had seen her unprofessional outburst. Meanwhile, Joseph brought the report he got to Vanessa but she refused to act on it as it was obtained illegally. Elsewhere, Holly began working with Donna in Holby Care and finally admitted, after much probing from Donna, that her mother was killed in a car crash and that neither Linden or Holly have ever gotten over it leaving Donna shell-shocked.

Joseph tries to get an early copy of Archie's autopsy report from the mortuary and neglects his job but which Elliott took notice of. But his distraction causes Joseph to tell a workaholic patient she could delay her surgery but then she took a turn for the worse and had to be rushed into theatre. This was the last straw for Elliot and he gave Joseph a dressing down. Penny gets close to her heart patient Scott, Jac continues to push Oliver hard and Linden gets Holly a temporary job on AAU.

Linden goes to visit his wife Olivia's grave on the anniversary of her death but sees his daughter Holly there and leaves before she can see him. But when his mother-in-law Julia turns up at Holby to tell him that Holly has ran off with her boyfriend he can no longer avoid their tragic past and confronts Holly and finally realises he is ready to be a father to her again. Meanwhile, Oliver and Jac disagree over a diagnosis on his friend Gavin's daughter and Thandie tries to smooth over things with Elliott. Elsewhere, Penny is caught between Thandie and Elliott's war.

Faye buries her son and her mother persuades Joseph to let her come and stay with her to help her thought the grieving process. With Connie and Ric on extended annual leave the wards struggle to cope but in particular Elliott who is pushes to his limit by the demanding wife of a serious ill patient and the combined efforts of Vanessa and Judith who assume he cannot do the job without extra help. It leads to him collapsing in theatre with an angina attack and Joseph, who's in the hospital to find out more information on the enquiry, is asked to step in and complete the surgery. It's also Maria's first day back since her accident and in trying to do too much she nearly compromises herself. Mark finds out that Judith is going through a nasty divorce. Meanwhile, Vanessa sends out an email telling the staff that Ric's ex-wife will be the new replacement Registrar - everyone assumes it is Lola until they are introduced at a reception and the find out shockingly that it is in fact Thande

Donna received her Dad's possession which led Donna and Maria to a garage and a red Mustang. A letter also in his possessions led them to taking the car to see Patti, a friend of Derek's. But when they got there Patti had collapsed from a suspected stroke and her grand-daughter risked being taken into care. Later Patti shockingly revealed that the child, Mia, was Derek's grand-daughter and that Donna should look after her. Meanwhile, Linden compromised his professionalism by talking to Lauren about the incident that got Faye suspended. Elsewhere, witnesses were interviewed about the circumstances leading to Archie's death.

Vanessa continues her investigation into Faye's son Archie emergency surgery and subsequent sudden death and discovers that Faye changed Archie's bag of saline because Lauren had forgotten to do so, a fact that Lauren was only too pleased to pass on when she found out that Ric and Connie were trying to cover it up. This ended in Vanessa suspending Ric, Connie and Faye whilst the investigation continued. Meanwhile, Maria tried to get Chantelle Tanner to confess to the murder of Maddy which she denied but it was Mark that managed to get a confession after blackmailing her with threats to care worker Adam Bowden who was also the father of her baby.

Vanessa initiates an investigation into Faye's son Archie emergency hospitalization. Vanessa also introduces Judith Marchand the new surgical wards matron who manages to rub Mark up the wrong way and who recommends to Vanessa that he should be one of the AAU cuts. Elsewhere, Maddy's killer Chantelle Tanner is admitted into AAU where none of the staff want to treat her forcing Judith to deal with her where she finds that she is 16 weeks pregnant and has been kicked around by her vicious boyfriend. Archie's nurse Judith dropped his medicine labels and mixed them up with medicine meant for Chantelle and these were fed into Archie's saline drip.