Alex has a dream of Gene, Chris and Ray starring in a music video of Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl and wakes to a TV full of static and wonders where everyone is. At the station there is maintenance work going on (with the radio playing Uptown Girl) and the noise is getting to Shaz.

When Alex gets into work she checks that her desk has the Sam Tyler file and then notices the numbers 6-6-20 have been carved in her desk. Gene then comes in and announces that Jim Keats will be interviewing everyone that day about how efficient the department is.

Later Alex speaks to Gene about Sam Tyler but gets nowhere with Gene. The conversation then gets interrupted by Shaz who is mad that a large screwdriver has been left on her desk and storms out without explaining what’s wrong. This is soon forgotten when Chris opens the mail and discovers a severed hand inside which has a crescent brand on the hand. While Gene thinks it’s a one off Alex thinks they could be dealing with a serial killer and Keats agrees.

Chris asks Alex to have a word with Shaz as she has been acting weird for the past few days, and Alex tales advantage of this to ask Chris if he was present when they found Sams car, which he claims he wasn’t and that it was Gene and Ray who found the car. Shaz then comes over and tells Alex she has found another murder with a crescent on the body and the investigating officer was Gene. When Gene finds out he tells Alex to check around the country to see if there are any other similar unsolved cases.

When Alex is at home she watches Mastermind only for Shaz to appear on it and scream Murder! as an answer

The next day it turns out there are 6 unsolved murders around the country with crescent branding on the body. After thinking things over Gene works out that all the victims were divorced and this leads to Alex making a connection to the Crescent Moon dating agency. Alex then volunteers to go undercover to try and flush the killer out. Things don’t go exactly to plan though when Gene decides to go undercover as well.

Later that evening Alex decides to follow Shaz home to try and find out whats bothering her, at one point she exits an alleyway to find herself staring at a wall of stars before it returns to a normal street. Shaz then appears and after a talk Shaz admits to Alex that she is thinking of quitting the police force.

The next day Alex asks Chris who took a photo of the car at Sams disappearance if he wasn’t there which results in another denial of him beign there. Viv then brings up a Mr Danson whose wife recently disappeared and whose bank contacted him about weird payments from her account, it is then revealed that his wife had joined the Crescent Moon dating agency.

They then track the owner of the stolen cheques down who turns out to be a teenage boy who found Mrs Dansons purse on some wasteland. On the Wasteland Shaz uncovers the body and runs off in shock.

Later in order to try and track the killer down Alex decides to “invent” speed dating so she can view as many of the male clients as possible. The owner of the dating agency Elaine Downing is not impressed by the idea and embarrasses Ray when she recognises him but is eventually convinced to co-operate by Gene.

While the speed dating is going on, Shaz is at the station when Jim Keats appears and talks to her. During their conversation Shaz admits she has doubts about whether she can go on in the force, Keats then subtly tries to convince her to quit and then takes her along to the speed dating at Luigi’s though she quickly leaves saying she doesn’t feel part of it anymore. Alex doesn’t have any success either with nothing jumping out at her from anyone she saw.

On her way home from Luigi’s Shaz comes across a gang of youths causing trouble and tries to arrest them, but ends up running away due to them being armed and outnumbered. She then goes to the river to think things through. The next day when she comes into work Shaz announces she is quitting.

Just prior to this Alex was going through what they knew of the case and while bouncing ideas of Jim Keats comes to the conclusion that the killer is probably dying and is looking for fame like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer (whose name Jim Keats appears to recognise). After Shaz’s announcement Viv arrives with a packet for Alex containing Sam Tylers personal effects which she hides in her draw.

Chris then discovers that one of the people Alex “dated” Mclean has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and that he had lied to her about his situation. Gene then decides that the best person to use as bait is Shaz and convinces her to go undercover one final time.

On the date Mclean initially uses the same lines he used on Alex about having a dead wife and two kids. He then tries to convince her to go out alone, Shaz initially refuses but then for some reason agrees. When they get to wasteland things quickly go sour and he says his divorced wife met her new husband at a dating agency, Mclean after some prompting turns violent prompting the monitoring Gene, Alex, Chris and Ray to rush to try to find her. During the struggle with McLean Shaz is overpowered and is pressed down, but she manages to get a long screwdriver and stabs him and runs off and distraught until she finds and hugs Gene.

Late at the station Gene puts a case file on Alex’s desk but before he leaves he checks to see what is in her draw sees the packet she got earlier. He then heads to Luigi’s where there is a celebration for Shaz, Gene then quickly convinces Shaz to stay in the force and says if she keeps up the good work she will be in CID by Christmas. When Shaz agrees, the camera pans to her face and “Life on Mars” plays briefly. Jim then appears and speaks to Alex about her being in touch with Manchester about Sam Tyler and asks Alex if he thinks “he” (Gene) killed him (Sam) and he (Jim) agrees.

Elaine Downing then appears and kisses Gene and gives him her card in case he wants a date. Gene then goes to Alex and tries to warn her off the Sam Tyler case and not to help Jim Keats no matter what he says. Alex then has a vision of the dead policeman and a weather vane.