Growing Up - Season 5 (2000)

All grown up and into their fifth season, the Tay kids find themselves up against temptations, tragedies and trying times in general. Aileen Tan and Cynthia Koh cross over to play love interests.

Vicky suspects Mrs Chong of abusing John and confronts her. Things turn ugly when John develops a persistent fever and is diagnosed with leukaemia. Gary wants Karen to quit her job and help take care of the household.

When will things get easier for the Tays? This week, a match is found for John's bone marrow transplant, but the donor can't be. Found, that is. Meanwhile, Vicky's decision to go to the States bums out Mr Tay.

Mr Tay suffers from loneliness and depression after Vicky and John depart; Gary wants to start his own family but faces business difficulties with a competitor's arrival. Watch out for Aileen Tan who joins the cast.

Gary's furniture business flounders and finally flops. Mr Tay enrolls Chee Keong in a chess competition; he ends up organising it gets accused of rigging the game.

Despite their non-too-cordial acquaintance, the friendship between Mae and Mr Tay blossoms. Meanwhile, while trying to make a quick buck, Gary bumps into Tracy, a bargirl (Cynthia Koh) working in JB. Will TV's bad boy succumb to temptation?

As his business flounders, Gary faces irate customers who want their money back. Meanwhile, father-son relations sour when Gary's business scams upset Mr Tay--as Mr Tay's involvement with a much-younger woman starts to bug Gary.

Mae puts her son in Mr. Tay's care while she goes on a short trip. Mr Tay spends a lot of time with the boy, and Gary is unhappy. Gary later gets Tracy a job in Karen's shop as Karen discovers that she's pregnant.

Suspected of doctoring donation cards from the fund-raising campaign, Douglas gets Mr Tay implicated. Karen is devastated when she learns of Gary's affair with Tracy--and suffers a miscarriage soon afterward.

Gary manages to save Tracy's life, but Karen suffers a miscarriage, for which the family blames him. Tammy turns villainous as Richard continues to harass her. Meanwhile, Gary, Kheng Joo, and Mrs Chong are trapped in the burning Greek oil tanker, S. T. Spyros.

Gary and Keng Joo are admitted to the hospital with severe burns. Tracy's visit upsets the family, and when Gary comes to, he is forced to choose between her and Karen.

Tragedy strikes as the Karen/Gary/Tracy love triangle reaches a climax in which a murder is committed. Meanwhile, David returns to find chaos on the domestic front.

In the show's 100th episode, Gary is charged with murdering Tracy, and held in remand; however, he refuses to see his family. As the day of his trial approaches, the frantic folks back home decide to take a short trip to Malaysia to forget their troubles.

Gary's trial begins, and his family fears the worst as the proceedings turn against him.

Gary goes on the stand to defend himself, but things go terribly wrong. Is this the end of the road for bad-boy Tay?

Hold on to your seat. After weeks of court battles, the identity of the murderer--gasp!--is finally revealed.

It's a typical day of high drama for the Tay family: Karen realises that her shop assistant could be her long-lost mother, while Mae hides a dark secret. After all these years, there's still no reason for Mr Tay to smile.

Love is a wonderful thing? If you're a Tay: no way. Gary finds out that Karen is back, but disturbed to find her spending time with David. Tammy meets the guy of her dreams, but gets into a row with Mr Tay when he thinks that she is two-timing Beng Tat.

Mr Tay is missing; meanwhile, a love triangle forms among Gary, Karen, and David.

Poor Mr Tay. Maybe he'll be far happier in a coma. After suffering a knock to the noggin and losing his memory, he finds out that his family is hiding a dark secret from him. Could it be that they are actually...happy?

Papa Tay shuns the whole family. But no matter, they've enough troubles of their own as Karen leaves Gary again.

More doom and gloom in the season's climax: The much-anticipated showdown between Gary and Karen turns tragic when Gary gets stabbed.