Irene continues to hide her drinking problem from her friends, sneaking a flask

into her bag before heading to work. As soon as she arrives, she overhears

her friends talking behind her back. The hurt this causes only accelerates

Irene’s day-drinking as she hides in the store room and takes a big swig from her flask.

After three wrong orders, Leah realises she has to say something to Irene. The confrontation is upsetting for Irene and she storms out. When she gets home, she asks Harper and Dana to clear out, and pours herself another drink to dull the pain. Despite their many efforts, none of her friends can get through to her. In a drunken blur, Irene has a terrible fall on the stairs.

Meanwhile, Tane finds Perri at home and confronts him about trying to leave. Tane confesses that he’s not always going to get things right, but he still wants to do whatever he can to help Perri. He later tries to make progress in helping Perri with his reading. However, Perri’s wounds run deep, having been called stupid by his father for years, and he’s hurt that Tane told Harper about this.

In an attempt to fix things, Tane tells Perri there isn’t a single thing he’s said that’s been stupid in all the months they’ve known each other. Perri reluctantly agrees to an assessment of his reading.

Elsewhere, Harper prepares to go for her first ultrasound scan, and is slightly overwhelmed by the homework and decisions involved with pregnancy. Dana nudges her to tell Tane, but Harper is insistent that she will when the time is right, and continues to make excuses until Dana backs off.

Harper double checks that Dana hasn’t told anyone, and in her guilt, Dana lies and says that no one else knows, even though Xander does. When Dana runs into Tane, she covers for Harper, saying she’s sick and vomiting and that’s why he hasn’t heard from her. She encourages him to stay away, but instead he shows up to check on her.

For a second, Harper thinks Dana has let the cat out of the bag, but Tane’s just making sure she’s okay, believing she’s got a virus. Tane takes the home visit as an opportunity to ask Harper what he should do about Perri’s reading struggles.