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But episode five's focus was on gobby Vod, the show's finest character, played with equal parts menace and charm by the excellent Zawe Ashton. She was visited by her mum, Chris (the believably loopy Juliet Cowan). On the face of it, the pair were like peas in a pod, sharing the same devil-may-care attitude. The other housemates were initially impressed. "My mum would never take us to the pub," gushed JP. "She'd take us somewhere really boring... like Sadler's Wells."

Soon, however, cracks in their relationship surfaced, as a few drinks turned Chris spiteful and sour. With an increasingly bitter cackle, she called Vod "Millie", short for "Millstone", and berated the other housemates. Vod laughed things off: "You take your eye off her for one second and she's trying to buy speed off a police officer. You know, usual Mum s---."

Her mother's alcoholism – the "beast", as Vod painfully put it – surfaced again over an attempted reconciliation meal for the uneasy housemates. A line of cocaine for an amuse-bouche couldn't raise the gang's spirits, and when Chris realised she'd forgotten to buy the requisite bird to roast, she began screaming abuse at Vod.

Cue one of those beautiful, life-affirming Fresh Meat moments. As her mother raged, Vod rose, flanked in solidarity by her housemates, and stood up for herself. Idiots the Fresh Meat crew may be, but they're each others' idiots, and their sense of duty towards one another was as touching as ever.