In the lab, Dr. Ru and the Doctor examine the pig. "I just assumed that's what aliens look like. But you're saying it's an ordinary pig? From Earth?" The Doctor compares it to a mermaid, basically reading directly off the index card in Russell T Davies's "Cool Stuff To Shove Awkwardly Into Some TV Show Episode Verbatim" file: "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat and gluing it to a fish, and calling it a mermaid." He says that somebody has fucked up the body and brain of a pig and then strapped it into a spaceship. "It must've been terrified," the Doctor mentions for at least the fifth time. Poor guy. Poor pig. The only one of its kind, terrified and shot in its terror, futile and at the mercy of the cruel. Poor Doctor. "They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke." Ru says that, either way, cat's skull mermaid or no, the tech in its brain is still alien. Dr. Ru: "Aliens are faking aliens. But why would they do that?" ("Excellent question, Dr. Ru.") But the Doctor has vanished. She clop-clops out into the corridor, but he's really gone. Her skirts blow in the exhaust as the TARDIS takes off, looking bemused at the sound of her engines.

Rose tries to nap in Jackie's crowded living room, where her mum is now toasting "the Martians." Everybody yells and screams, and then Mickey appears in the doorway, shutting the party down with a swiftness. He stares at Rose, and she finally processes the silence, looking around. She sits up quickly on seeing him, and mumbles, "I was gonna come and see you." Ouch. He just stares. A woman says that Mickey is owed an apology, and Rose says she's sorry, but that the woman doesn't mean Rose. She looks pointedly at Jackie, who gets defensive: "It's not my fault. Be fair. What was I supposed to think?" Jackie gives Mickey a look and stalks into the kitchen. Oh, Jackie. What did you do?

Mickey and Rose confront Jackie in the kitchen: "You disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend. Five times, I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence -- of course there couldn't be, could there -- and then I get her, your mother..." He points at Jackie, who rolls her eyes. "Whispering 'round the estate, pointing the finger...stuff through my letterbox...and all 'cause of you." Man, that sucks. Feeling sorry for Mickey is not the same as accepting him as a viable character, but that's a really good plot point. Jackie can cry all day and all night, but you know all she's really thinking about is Clooney, or pashminas or whatever's trashy. But Mickey getting harassed by the estate as a murderer...that's rough. (Also, it doesn't do to think too long about the race semiotics here v. in America, but it might do you a good bit to think for a sec about how uncool this storyline would be in America, assuming that we ever got to see a biracial couple on TV for more than a few seconds.) Rose mumbles again that she didn't think she'd be gone so long, and Mickey just yells: "Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back!" Jackie -- like this is the time for her to pull anything -- bugs Mickey about why he didn't tell her about the Doctor part. Like, when would he? Mickey shuts the kitchen's windows and doors against prying eyes, and they almost explain to Jackie about the Doctor, and maybe why she couldn't know about the Doctor, but then instead of satisfying my curiosity, Mickey gets all selfish and jealous: "I might as well, because you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now, that box thing just faded away." Rose, stricken -- three times, she made him promise! -- and Mickey's pretty satisfied: "Some boyfriend he turned out to be." Rose takes off, grabbing a jacket on her way out, pursued by Mickey. Jackie stays behind in a chair in the kitchen, looking frustrated and left out and confused and a little champagned up.