The Chase (TV Series) - Series 2 (2007)

Series 2 (2007)

Episode 1 Anna and Sarah mourn the loss of their father, George, at his funeral. Both sisters are infuriated by the arrival of Claudie's sister, Paula, and the contents of her beauty salon. Alienated from the Williams family and no longer working at the practice, Fiona is delighted when her estranged father, Frank, arrives. Rick, meanwhile, is caught snogging Clare by Deborah and thrown out. At the wake, Adrian announces his engagement to Sarah. Meanwhile, Frank drops a bombshell on Fiona - that he had an affair with Imogen, and that Anna is his daughter. The police arrive at the practice and announce that George's death was no accident. They reveal his vehicle's brakes had been tampered with.

Episode 2 Stunned by the discovery that George's death may not have been an accident, the staff face a day of police questioning. As Claudie's sister, Paula sets up her beauty practice in the staff room, there's chaos, resulting in Deborah's shock resignation. Anna and Sarah are horrified to discover George made no will since marrying Claudie. Consequently, they face losing everything to her. When William steps in with an offer of financial assistance, Claudie refuses to budge from the house. With morale at an all time low, everyone looks forward to the Montgomery Estate ball where they can only hope for a fairy tale ending. Instead it's a night of surprises. Sarah confesses to Adrian that she's pregnant; Anna snogs Matt, Paula kisses Sebastian, Clare and Rick spend the night together and Claudie's brother, Liam, arrives unexpectedly.

Episode 3 It's the morning after the night before and there are some monster hangovers from the ball. However, Anna's nowhere to be found, leaving Claudie to look after the kids. At the practice, business is in total chaos with Deborah gone, and Paula's beauty parlour taking over. Rick and Clare are loved up after spending their first night together. Worried over his wife's whereabouts, Tom takes matters into his own hands, unleashing Anna's indignation at his assumed position in her life. Sparks fly, and Anna's response to Tom's infidelity with Fiona is finally made clear when she asks him for a divorce. Anna finds comfort in the arms of Matt.

Episode 4 As Clare's frustration with Rick's family life grows, her insecurities about their new relationship deepen. Meanwhile, Rick's daughter, Harriet, discovers the affair between her father and Clare and runs away. Deborah returns and enforces a tough new regime including pedometers and mission statements. Matt saves the day for Anna as he covertly stops Claudie making more changes to the house. Claudie and Paula are busy organising a surprise hen night for Sarah. But the good night they planned is tainted as the pressure finally becomes too much for Rick and he snaps. He lashes out at Clare and accuses her of being a tart. Matt's band go down a storm at the local pub whose new landlord is Fiona's dad, Frank. Meanwhile, Tom tries to make amends with Anna but becomes suspicious of her relationship with Matt.

Episode 5 Rick tries to make amends with Clare and she agrees to give him another chance. Tom tries to change Anna's mind about the divorce and his suggestion of counselling goes down very badly. Sarah's future hangs in the balance when she collapses with abdominal pains. Meanwhile, Tom's forced to step at the practice. Sarah's crushed when she loses the baby and discovers she may never conceive again. Anna, meanwhile, persuades family man Adrian that Sarah's worth it and suggests surrogacy. Desperate to show how much Sarah means to him, Adrian stages their wedding ceremony at the hospital. Frank hosts the reception at his pub. During a slow dance with Sebastian, Sarah discovers he has a soft spot for her. Fiona arrives and has a furious outburst. She feels betrayed, believing that Frank's put Sarah first. Sebastian reminds Anna of the surrogacy offer she made Adrian. She makes it clear she was talking hypothetically but Sebastian believes it was her suggestion which changed Adrian's mind. Sebastian urges her to tell Sarah the truth. Sarah and Anna are horrified to learn that Claudie's benefited from George's death after the insurance money comes through. Fiona confides in Frank that she hates Sarah. He implores her to put the past behind her and move on, but she coldly declares she knows exactly what needs to be done.

Episode 6 – Claudie and Liam are questioned by the police in relation to George's death. Sarah has always been adamant that Fiona is to blame. Fiona's overjoyed when she's accepted by Liverpool University to study veterinary medicine. However, she needs to provide a reference to prove her experience as a nurse and approaches Anna. However, Anna refuses to help after Sarah sticks her oar in. Fiona goes to desperate lengths to try to change Anna's mind. When her son's pet rabbit is taken ill, she rushes to The Chase and uses the opportunity to tackle her again but Anna stands firm against her. Fiona, meanwhile, disturbs Tom and Anna when she picks up their son from school without their consent or knowledge. Sarah and Anna discover that the rabbit was given a salt overdose deliberately and worry about Fiona's state of mind. Fiona demands that Sarah meet up with her that evening to give her a reference. Fearing for her life, Sarah carries a gun for protection and meets Fiona. Hiding behind a rock, Fiona hits Sarah over the head and runs off.

Episode 7 Matt has high hopes as his band compete in the local Battle of the Bands competition. The night brings both surprises and disappointment as Matt is offered a fantastic opportunity by Sebastian, but misses out on an evening with Anna. Still reeling from Fiona's confession, Tom tries to gain Anna's attention, but she's distracted by the thought of losing the one new and exciting part of her life. Anna and Matt are both forced to consider their relationship and as they pull in different directions, sparks fly. But they soon become more entangled then ever.

Episode 8 It's the day of Claudie's court hearing and she's keen to keep it a secret from Anna and Sarah. Realising how close she is at being sent to jail, Claudie panics. Sarah's riddled with guilt after her night of betrayal with her husband's best friend, Sebastian. Meanwhile, Anna's smitten by new lover, Matt. A quick earner for Liam has dangerous and expensive ramifications. The local zoo call with an injured lion cub which has dislocated its shoulder. Armed with a dart gun, Tom dashes off to fulfil a lifetime dream of working with big game animals. Everyone's agog to see a lion at The Chase. As Tom treats the animal with Anna in attendance, it reawakens their old dream of a life in Africa.

Episode 9 Deborah's moonlighting for William and has become virtually indispensable to him, organising everything from his mother's birthday present to the weekend's hunt. Rumours start to circulate that William's going to poach her full-time, enraging Sarah who remembers only too well the chaos when Deborah last resigned. Sarah's bad humour isn't just sparked by professional reasons as she's hiding a much more personal secret. Meanwhile, Deborah's basking in William's attention and secretly dreams that his feelings for her might lead to an altogether different proposal. Tom's plans to move to Botswana have progressed. Rick reaches a crisis in his relationship with Clare. She's finally cracking under his possessive, overbearing behaviour and there's only one way he can win her back.

Episode 10 Claudie insists on a mediation session to finalise the arrangements over George's estate. The bad tempered discussion ends with a shock revelation which leaves Anna wondering what she's been working so hard for over the last ten years. Rick hits the bottle after Clare fails to give him an answer to his proposal. With mounting financial pressures as well, he's in no mood to deal with an onslaught from Deborah. Tempers become heated when Deborah fires Clare. Rick's devastated to witness Clare being greeted at home by a mystery man. He assumes the worst, until Clare takes the plunge and finally reveals the dramatic truth as to why she can't answer his proposal.

Episode 11 Tom's struggling to cope with Fiona. She continues scheming in order to turn her dreams of a life with him into reality. He's desperate to find a way out of her plans, but fears the ramifications of betraying their secret. Can he keep her at bay for just a few more weeks? Anna's busy building her dream of a family life with Tom. She's mystified as to why Tom insists on keeping their Botswana plans a secret and is insistent on telling everyone about their departure. Frank suspects Tom's not playing fair with Fiona, but little could he foresee the shocking revelation he forces Tom to make. Despite his best intentions, Tom's secrets can't be kept quiet as he attempts to juggle the two women in his life. The path of love for Rick and Clare is proving a tough challenge. Despite resolving some issues, there are still some hurdles to surmount as they try to plan life ahead together.

Episode 12 With Fiona taken in for police questioning over George's death, Anna's uncertain whether or not her and Tom's plans for Botswana should still stand, but Tom persuades her to leave as soon as possible. In her haste, Anna has little time to contemplate the shocking revelation that she's Frank's daughter. Meanwhile, Frank reveals the truth behind his affair with her mother Imogen and that they were madly in love. It transpires Frank and Imogen had arranged to run off together but she chickened out. 16 years later, Imogen turned up out of the blue and revealed she was dying and that if anything happened to Anna, that Frank should look after her. Franks declares he came back to look after Anna following George's death. Sarah faces a challenge to keep the practice going in the absence of Anna and Tom, and Claudie thinks she has the answer. However, Sarah has other things on her mind when she discovers she's pregnant. She confides in Anna that she believes the father's Sebastian. Anna talks her into keeping the baby. Tom's plans are halted as the police discover a pair of wire cutters believed to be connected to George's death. Tom declares that he believes Fiona's been trying to stitch him up. When he explains she killed George, the cops query why he didn't come forward sooner. With not enough evidence to charge him, Tom's released. When Fiona discovers Tom's real intentions, she storms to The Chase to confront Anna. A huge row ensues with Sarah and Anna caught up in Fiona's rage. Fiona holds a knife to Sarah's throat but tragically the victim of her anger is someone she never intended to hurt. In a blind fury, after Tom said, "I wish to god that Theo never existed," she fatally stabs Tom and he collapses in Anna's arms, telling her that he loved her. Fiona was arrested just before the end.

The show returned for a second series on 3 June 2007. and took place just days after Anna discovered her husband Tom's affair. The second series was 12 episodes long, a 50% increase from the first series. On 11 July 2007, it was announced that the show is to be axed alongside New Street Law.