Ian leaves the area and Micky enrols on a film course where his penchant for erotic scripts sees him indulging in threesomes with tutor Zeta and her husband Ady whilst Mimi finishes his assignment. As the Jockey reopens after its fire damage with a night of impromptu strip-tease Karen and Jamie fall out but get back together and Carl,working at the hospital,is smitten with nurse Maxine though she wants their relationship to be casual. Mandy gets a new boyfriend in Jamie's friend Joe whilst Stan at last makes a break-through with Yvonne's kids and Norma,obsessed with a possible murder at the pub in the past,finds what she mistakenly believes to be human remains.

The Maguires are horrified to find their late son Fergal's grave has been desecrated and set up a CCTV camera which actually captures a mystery woman tending the grave. Carl gets a job as a car washer,leading to another sexual encounter but when he discovers he has an STD ,on Stan's advice,he is forced to tell all his old conquests - except the sexy customer,who is expecting. Micky learns that Ady is in love with him but,after an ultimatum from Zeta,intends to stay in his show marriage,ending Micky's acquaintance with the couple. Monica uses sham hypnotist Damien De Soto to try and make Frank jealous but ends up having sex with Damien in the toilet. Despite a misunderstanding over body hair Mandy,now living in the Jockey,has a night of passion with Joe.

During a James Bond themed evening at the Jockey Paddy meets Maureen,the woman from Fergal's graveside,and Karen suffers a miscarriage. When Mimi and Paddy insist on an elaborate show funeral she wonders whether she wants to bring another Maguire into the world. Debbie enters Liam for a modelling contest,a cash prize accompanying the photo shoot in Blackpool. As the poster is for a child abuse campaign Debbie is not keen for Monica to know but she tags along with Norma and Frank,who ends up being in the poster. Whilst Carl's compilation of a black book of the sexiest women he knows lands him in trouble,Tom's sick prank to make Stan think he has hung himself will lead to his leaving the area with Carrie.

After a night of drink Paddy wakes to find himself tied to a bed in Maureen's house. But this is not a sex game. Maureen's teen-aged daughter died of an overdose of heroin supplied by Paddy and now she intends to inject him with his own merchandise. Lonely DSS fraud officer Bernard calls on Frank to find out why he is claiming for children who have left home. Frank tries to bribe him with drink and a session at the brothel but Monica's wiles ensure that the case will be 'lost' though Frank is unhappy with her seduction method. Micky begs Carl to keep quiet after Carl discovers he is into men and Carrie and Tom move on,taking the contents of the police house with them.

Ian returns from his travels. However, he's unaware that the car he's driving harbors secret cargo. Ian makes an even more shocking discovery when returning home to the Gallaghers' to find history has repeated itself.

Maureen releases Paddy who returns home addicted to heroin though Mimi believes he has cancer. Kelly discovers the truth and tells Shane. She has resigned from the brothel and they are working a scam to blackmail married men having sex with her in hotels before Shane bursts in on them. However one man attacks Shane,who ends up in a coma. The Gallaghers believe they have inherited a four-bedroomed house from a deceased aunt but it turns out to only be a caravan. Karen and Jamie have yet another public row when she opposes his being co-licensee as she refuses to let the pub pass to the Maguires.

Shane is left temporarily paralysed,causing Mimi and Kelly to fight over which one of them should care for him,which in turn leads to Kelly telling Mimi that Paddy is an addict. Mimi eventually agrees to stand by her husband. Ian and Danny move into Danny's grandfather's house and Norma decides to go back to lorry driving. Old flame Ruby suggests they start over but Norma sees that,with Monica gone,Liam and Stella need a mother and returns to the estate. Suspecting that Joe is overly controlling to Mandy Karen confronts him but ends up having sex with him.

Frank is summonsed to Liam's school as the boy is granted a special scholarship due to his brightness. Both parents are required to attend so Norma poses as Frank's wife,the pair of them fancying Liam's school mistress. Kelly engages Meena as Shane's physiotherapist though her methods prove to be rather too hands on and Maxine and Micky grow close due to their mutual lust for Carl. As sole licensee of the Jockey Karen fires Jamie,who retaliates by selling his share of the pub to Joe.

Hearing that Joe has been abusing Mandy Jamie hospitalizes him but,given that her son is on licence for killing a man,Mimi takes the rap and is remanded in custody. Zeta's husband Ady is a sergeant on the case and suspects a cover-up,blackmailing Micky into having sex with him though Maxine calls his bluff,as well as showing Carl how to thwart thieves on his milk round. Frank discovers Paddy's addiction and tells the boys. As Shane and Micky are hopeless as drug dealers Jamie must take over the business.

When Liam is reported for missing school Ian discovers that,as he has a knowledge of sign language,Liam has been trying to help Danny find his father but this leads to a parting of the ways between Ian and Danny. Yvonne is concerned that Meena,who is now embarking on a modelling career,is posing for raunchier shots than she should and Mandy confides in Frank that she not sure whether or not to leave Joe.

Chesney loses his cherry to housewife Lorna and becomes infatuated with her. However,literally caught with his pants down by her tough-looking soldier husband he realises that the man allows his wife's promiscuous indulgence to make up for his own deficiency. Joe agrees to drop the charges against Mimi provided Mandy returns to him and Mandy agrees though she plans to leave him later. However Karen and Jamie are reconciled. Liam and Stella are taken into care after a neighbour finds Frank comatose in charge of them. Debbie lets fly at him and he reacts predictably - by getting drunk.

Despite Frank's efforts to stay sober Social Services doubt his parenting abilities and Debbie trying to snatch Liam and Stella from the foster-home does not help. Fortunately Yvonne is accepted as the new foster parent. She has persuaded Meena to return home from the brothel but a larger problem when husband Kash,who faked his suicide,leaving the children to believe he was dead,returns and wants money to vanish again. Desperate Yvonne and Stan devise a plan which ensures that this time he will stay dead. Mimi is released and a contrite Joe sells his share of the pub back to Jamie whilst declaring his love for Mandy.

Paddy has gone cold turkey but Mimi still believes he betrayed her with Maureen and is hostile. After Frank has defecated in public Debbie throws him out and he shelters in a church confession box where he overhears Mimi planning to hire an assassin to kill Paddy. He tells Paddy who decides he will pay the hitman more to kill Mimi though in the event the gunman intends to kill them both but is knocked out by Mark,Debbie's new boyfriend. Joe proposes to Mandy and Ian plans to return to Spain despite Liam's efforts to get him to stay by using Micky as a potential lover.

Angry to have lost his Child Benefit to Yvonne Frank gets her to pay him to baby-sit whilst farming the kids out to a woman in the pub at a lower rate. Maxine comes up with a novel way to declare her feelings for Carl in public whilst Karen finds she is pregnant. Suspecting that Joe might be the father she tells Mandy about their fling and asks her not to marry Joe. However Mandy is lured to Maureen's house where the older woman,desperate and deranged,aims to show Paddy what it means to lose a daughter and blows the house up,killing herself and Mandy.

It's Frank's 50th. Uncharacteristically, he snubs the chance for a party and opts to dwell in his own lonely loveless existence - until librarian Libby falls into his life.

The Maguire clan is fully mobilized for the christening of its newest member: baby Connor. Mimi is organizing everything, including reallocating godmother duties, leaving Kelly devastated.

Karen's obsession to prove herself more than just a mother has Jamie worried. Liam's pursuit of true love is threatened by his own lies, and Maxine is in turmoil when faced with a choice.

With Karen in hospital still Mimi leaves Paddy to help Jamie run the Jockey and acquires a toy-boy,Billy,the pub's football team's star - but under-age - striker. However,when he becomes infatuated with her Mimi has to pull a bizarre stunt to frighten him out of town. Paddy,meanwhile,failing to pull at the disco pays Kelly for sex and Chesney watches Joe getting barred from every casino in town for cheating. Frank,temporarily blinded by boot-leg vodka,has a bizarre sexual encounter.

Karen returns home and is cared for by Mimi,who tries to keep her daughter-in-law's illness a secret. However Jamie finds it hard to accept and on a night out has casual sex with Michelle,who runs an escort agency. Maxine gets Ian to pose as her boyfriend to impress her parents, a fact which makes both Carl and Micky jealous and when Micky catches the couple in bed together and tells Carl the brothers end up fighting. Kelly runs Lilian's brothel in her absence and does well, but refuses to cut Paddy in as he requests her to.

Paddy has met a woman called D'reen who shares his love of salsa and with whom he hopes to emigrate to Cuba but Mimi commits him to a final job,robbing the family's enemy,the psychopathic Roscoe. With the bailiffs calling on the Gallaghers Liam has to make money fast by joining Joe on his illicit gambling. Ian and Carl are still at loggerheads over Maxine and Jamie,as well as helping his father,is working as a male escort for Michelle as Karen sinks under the weight of her post-natal depression,rejecting Connor.

Having served a short prison term for inciting a riot over the library closure Libby is back,driving a mobile library van and,after some misgivings,Frank agrees they should make a go of it. Lilian buys a HD television whose white noise leads her to believe that she has a link to the after-life and conducts a seance but it turns out to be a technical fault. After Karen accuses him of infidelity Jamie quits working as a male escort and Carl willingly takes his place.

As Libby and Patty move in Frank offers to paint Patty's room but,when he falls over absconding with the paint,he feigns injury to get out of the task before buying cheap road marker paint from the workmen. Karen improves but Kelly,ashamed of her session with Paddy,repeatedly turns down Shane's marriage proposals until Paddy tells his son the truth and the couple wed. Chesney and Carl go on the run after seeing the ultra-violent Jimmy beat to death a boy who has sex with his sister and threaten to claim that Chesney was the killer.

The council ask the residents to make a film to improve the estate's image though Micky's violent take on 'Taxi Driver' is not what they expected. Meanwhile the Gallaghers use the filming to shadow Jimmy but when Ian confronts him he gets a severe beating. Chesney and Carl hole up with the free-spirited Hazel on her cannabis farm in Wales but she is also hiding a deadly secret and Carl decides to return home. Mimi joins the W.I. to soften her image and gets her revenge when the others look down on her.

Chesney and Carl return to the estate,hiding out with Joe,who dissuades Carl from shooting Jimmy. Eventually Shane,increasingly angry at how the cocky Jimmy and his gang see themselves as beyond the law whilst terrorising the Gallaghers,persuades his family to take them on and teach them a lesson. Maxine persuades Jimmy's sister to tell the police the truth and the fugitives are cleared though Maxine still aborts Carl's child. Shane also finds that he is infertile,leading to his family offering to be sperm donors though Kelly declines their offer as she and Shane continue to be surrogate parents to Liam.

When Liam befriends a World War II veteran to help him with his school project, he finds solace in the old man's company, but Libby spies on them and jumps to all the wrong conclusions.

Libby makes it clear to Frank she wants a child but she and Liam do reconcile. However,at the Jockey's Talent Contest night it's Liam's new friend Dean who helps him win - approval. Ian is involved with the local boxing club and discovers that its owner Jock and Paddy have ill-feeling which goes back a long way. Jock owes Paddy money and to prevent him taking his gym he torches it. Fortunately Micky,recently accepted as a fireman,is on hand to act and to save Paddy - at long last gaining his father's respect.

When Kelly's fifteen year old sister Tonya arrives to stay her child has been taken into care but she has a chance of reclaiming it if she proves she can look after a robotic baby. However she dumps it on the Maguires whilst she goes out on the lash and Micky sadly acknowledges that her child would be better off without her though he rallies the family to scare off her father Homer,who is also the father of her baby. Frank accompanies Patty to Lourdes,where they masquerade as clerics to steal the altar wine and Frank appears to be on the receiving end of a miracle.

When Paddy plans to move on with new lady friend Rosalita he and Mimi decide to divorce,only to discover their marriage was never legal.so they have to get married again quickly to make the children legitimate. They hope to keep things secret but Micky finds out. After Frank has stolen from her Patty sets him up for benefit fraud,leading to a day in the cells for them both whilst Micky gets picked up by attractive Gary. Unfortunately Gary thinks Micky is Paddy and is only sleeping with him for the status,which he publicly declares.

Bruce,now live-in barman at the Jockey,takes over the football team and enters them in an all gay football contest,much to the disgust of Chesney. Maxine meets her old art teacher,Marc,recently widowed,and agrees to pose topless for his class. However she turns down a relationship with him so as not to betray Ian. Joe learns of his father's death on his birthday and determines to run away with Karen and Connor. However Ian follows and,when Joe violently attacks Karen,who wants to return to Jamie,he brains him.

Helped by his friend Anto Joe flees the estate with Karen and Connor but when Karen expresses a desire to return to Jamie,Joe gets violent,trying to strangle her. Fortunately Ian has followed and kills him. Back at the Jockey,the scene for a weapons amnesty,Roscoe,whom the Maguires scammed out of counterfeit money,bursts in with his gang and takes everybody hostage,threatening to shoot Shane and Jamie. However Frank,Bruce and Micky,who are in the cellar,access the handed in guns and succeed in saving the day by arming everybody... except Mimi,who is upstairs. The pains she thought were menopausal were in fact a sign of pregnancy and she gives birth to a little girl.

Bruce,now live-in barman at the Jockey,takes over the football team and enters them in an all gay football contest,much to the disgust of Chesney. Maxine meets her old art teacher,Marc,recently widowed,and agrees to pose topless for his class. However she turns down a relationship with him so as not to betray Ian. Joe learns of his father's death on his birthday and determines to run away with Karen and Connor. However Ian follows and,when Joe violently attacks Karen,who wants to return to Jamie,he brains him.