Season 4, Episode 36: "An angel at my wash house" (original air date: March 21, 2003)

Nicky gets a surprise visit from her mother, Valda, who's come to help celebrate Nicky's impending 30th birthday. Nicky feels ambushed. Alistair misconstrues Nicky's displeasure as fear of being 30 - but Nicky insists it's not that. Valda finds that Nicky neglected to mention her break-up with Cliff - but suggests that since Nicky is single and free, she could take a trip to England with her. This infuriates Nicky, since her mother always makes her feel like a single, barren loser, which she confides to Alistair. He finds this a happy revelation - Nicky's situation with her mother is much like his with William. Emboldened, he determines to make her the Tape of all Tapes - the cassette which will reveal his true feelings.

Meanwhile, at the Van der Velters, Janice gets electrocuted by the washing machine. But when she comes round, she sees a vision of the Virgin Mary on the laundry ceiling. Janice is admitted, and Todd is worried to find his mother a changed woman, newly demonstrative, assertive and also possibly nuts. He is distressed when Nicky can't prevent her from leaving hospital. Dana accompanies Todd and Janice home, which makes her late for a wedding venue inspection with Ken. He can't help but feel jealous.

Henk insists on looking after Janice, but when she takes to praying obsessively in the wash house, it scares him. When he tries to make her eat dinner by force, Janice forgives him and also asks for his forgiveness for her crimes. Upset by these apparently sick ravings, he locks her out of the house.

When Todd finds Janice outside, he channels years of pent up aggression into a fight with his father, which is so extended that the police are called. Dana feels sympathy for Todd, but suggests that the priority isn't beating up Henk, but getting Janice to safety. In the effort to extract her from the wash house, Wayne is called in. Unfortunately, Janice refuses to go to church and falls between the cracks of the mental health system - so Todd comes up with a more practical solution. He removes the wash house ceiling panel. Henk is outraged and distressed to find it - and Janice leaving. When Ken takes a cynical view of Janice's visions, it prompts a major argument with Dana. Things are not good.

William is non-plussed to find Alistair obsessively chained to the stereo. So much so, that Alistair doesn't even hear the phone ring...

Nicky summons the courage to tell her mother she is not going to England, but also finds that her assumptions about her mother are totally wrong. After this breakthrough, Nicky expects a quiet birthday dinner and instead finds there is a surprise party for her, organised by Kieran...

Alistair is upset to find his efforts horribly upstaged by Mr Rochester. Despairing of his chances, he trashes the tape of hope.