As Reggie's fantasizing over Joan becomes ever more frantic, and faced with the prospect of visiting the hippopotamus on Sunday, Reggie concocts a scheme to get Joan over to his house on Sunday on the pretext of a work crisis having sprung up, meaning he allows Elizabeth to visit her mother on her own. As Reggie and Joan finally realise their mutual attraction to each other, Joan takes Reggie upstairs, but at the crucial moment, three members of the family arrive one after the other...

Reggie Perrin, 46, of Sunshine Desserts. Bored. Under stress. Has begun to behave very oddly!

Reggie's first fantasy is of him and Joan snogging on the floor of the launderette while other people are oblivious. Later, at home, when Elizabeth mentions seeing Mother on Sunday, we are  treated to the obligatory hippopotamus shot. This is followed straight away by Reggie and Joan reading on a sun lounger in the garden, throwing their books to the ground and kissing. On Sunday, when Reggie phones Joan to ask her to visit on Sunday, so long as she is not having lunch at that moment, he sees himself feeding her, and then kissing her, while at a table in the middle of a field. Finally, when the doorbell rings to signal Joan's arrival at his home, we see Reggie embracing Joan at the front door, although she slaps him on his cheek.

On Monday morning, the first word has the letters NSHINE and the second word still has an ES, a gap, and ER, so we have gained two letters from the previous episode!

Reggie phones the 24 hour emergency maintenance service on Friday afternoon, only to find that they have gone home! He phones them again on Monday morning, only to find that they haven't come in yet!

"...heat person", and Tom confirms this by informing us that both he and Linda have very open pores and sweat very freely. He calls Jimmy "Major". Tom is "a fish person - I eat lots of fish".

Jimmy has had a "bit of a cock up on the catering front" and "wouldn't mind some free nosh that's going". He has a whiskey that is offered to him by Reggie, but shouldn't really as he's in a rush. Jimmy is worried about Reggie, stating that he is overdoing it, with middle age being a difficult time.

Elizabeth complains that she and Reggie never have a proper conversation these days. Reggie says that this is because they have been married for nearly 25 years. The golf playing Milfords are mentioned again - Elizabeth reckons that they talk all the time. Elizabeth doesn't like to leave Reggie on his own, as he has been acting strangely, citing his encounter with the lions in the safari park (Episode 2). Again, Reggie mentions that Elizabeth should have married Henry Possett, and again she replies that she didn't want to (Episode 1). Joan lives 20 miles away, and has dreamt of being with Reggie for 8 years - she doesn't have a boyfriend. Reggie looks at an old photo of himself and describes himself then as gawky with a close-cropped beard. Reggie and Elizabeth have some pictures of the Algarve, painted by their dentist. Reggie's son, Mark, uses a lot of rhyming slang and is an actor, although he has only appeared in one advert in the last 3 months. Jimmy saw Mark on TV the previous night, but thought it was a play. Jimmy was based in Cyprus. Elizabeth's mother lives in Worthing. C.J. lives in Hampshire, and Reggie once caught a trout at his place. Reggie used to play a cricket dice game when he was a kid. Reggie's Uncle Percy got very drunk at their wedding. Lance Corporal Sprockett was Reggie's best man. Reggie had a nosebleed, and the wedding cake collapsed.