Designer Marnix obviously won't hear about saving on fabrics, so the CEO intends to replace some top-quality used for the creations with knock-offs for actual production. Marnix gets wind of it, and Alexander dares him to make his theatrical threat to leave serious. Sara realizes she should demand a pay fitting her new responsibilities, but swallows her complaint about the minimum wage for Simon's bet's sake. Thomas's mother Ellen De Graeve admits to a colleague she always told the boy his -in fact emigrated- father was dead, but he just returned to Belgium. Simon keeps juggling his fiancée Helena and lover Brenda, a dangerous game despite Sara's help. Lieven convinces Brenda to 'make Simon jealous' by dating him, so he brushes off Britt, who finds out about Sara's mission to collect sales data behind Helena's back for Simon's business plan.

Thomas is embarrassed by the theft -as he suspects by Koen- of the GPS from the Présence van he neglected to close up properly; his ma worries Koen will become as big a problem as 'before', Marnix promises to cover the boy if necessary, but Thomas decides to pay for a new one himself. Britt and Alexander manage to sneak into Sara's computer guessing her password is 'Simon' but Simon catches them before they had a good look at the numbers. Sara's pa Hans's colleague Martine has to help him start his ancient car, he finally asks her price for hers. To Simon's surprise, Alexander casts the decisive vote for his new publicity campaign, and even suggests a far bigger one, over double the budget: to be saved elsewhere, perhaps closing some stores, a declaration of war in Helena's eyes, so she turns to her ex, labor union rep Steven.