The Parting Glass

The title is a farewell, and the episode has the good sense to earn it. Grace wants to reach Lindsay, and she gambles the only currency she has left: a secret about her own past. It's a risky move, offering up your own damage to prove you understand someone else's. But the episode lets it land, and some doors only open with the truth, and this one doesn't open easily. Grace has spent two series learning to keep her guard up; the episode is about her choosing to put it down for once. The secret she offers is the most honest thing she has left to give.

Meanwhile Aisling's erratic behaviour has been building, and it finally forces Tommy into a decision he didn't want to make. Heartbreaking is the word the episode uses, and it isn't overselling. Nathan Braniff plays the whole thing with the tired carefulness of a man choosing between bad options, and Dearbháile McKinney keeps Aisling just sympathetic enough that the choice stays cruel. Neither of them gets to walk away clean. The decision is Tommy's alone, and the episode leaves him with it.

Fran Harris wrote it, and Angela Griffin directed, taking a gentle hand to material that could have been shouted. Griffin is better known in front of the camera, and she brings an actor's patience to the directing chair. The episode aired in October 2025. The regulars do their usual steady work, with Andrea Irvine's Nicola Robinson providing the institutional weather that presses down on everyone in the station. There's a funereal air to the whole hour that suits the title.

The parting glass is the drink you take before you go. The episode is about the moment you realise the person next to you is already gone, or the version of them you knew is. Either way, the glass is empty by the end.