Jack is gone, and his classy personality and thoughtful attitude is sorely missed.
This episode focuses on Brian, and what a drag that is. Brian goes to the retirement party of some old guy he blames for the death of the kid that was in his custody, and which got Brian retired / kicked off the Metropolitan Police. Brian assaults the old man, because he figures that his assault will force a disciplinary hearing and he will get to bring up all the dirty laundry.
Brian got blamed for the death of a detained suspect because Brian was drunk and left the kid alone in a cell, at the police station. Brian wanted to go outside to smoke a fag (cigarrette). He told some other guys to take care of the kid, and they ignored Brian, because nobody likes him. The kid dies in the cell while drunken Brian is out smoking.
Brian gets the blame, and spends the next ten seasons griping and complaining that it was not his fault. But it was. He was drunk, he left the kid, and the kid died.
The fact that nobody took charge of the kid when drunken Brian shirked his job responsibilities is whose fault? Whose fault is it that Brian has no friends that want to do him a favor and cover for his incompetence?
After the disciplinary hearing, his nemesis, Embleton admits he let the kid die by not watching him. Why would Embleton do that? The hearing was over, and Embleton had outsmarted Brian, so why would he make a terrible admission against himself? Of course Brian has taped the confession, and gives the tape to the kid's Mother, so presumably she can sue the Metropolitan Police Department. So Brian not only got the kid killed, but he spent ten years blaming the other guys, and he is a rat to his own Police Department.
Brian gets suspended off the UCOS squad because he turned evidence against his own Police Department. In spite of that, Brian travels to Gibraltar to "help" the other two guys that are investigating a murder. Brian marches to his own drum, disrespects Sandra, and her boss (Anthony Calf), and everyone else.