In the hospital, Marlow's ex-wife pays him another visit clearly intent on getting him to sign a contract to option his book The Singing Detective, the screenplay for which her friend Mark Finney will try peddle as his own. Marlow begins to wonder if paranoia is setting in when when he sees two trench coat-wearing hoods - characters as imagined in his novel - in the ward. One of the ward patients, Reginald is impressed that the author of the book he's reading is a fellow patient. Philip's psoriasis is also getting better but he disagrees with Dr. Gibbon about whether their sessions are worthwhile. He also recalls when, as a 10 year-old, he first developed his psoriasis and his mother finally admits to him that his father will never be joining them. He in turn asks if it's because of what she did in the woods with Raymond Binney, father of Mark Binney the boy he identified as having left a little surprise on the teacher's desk.
—garykmcd