Ashes to Ashes/Headscratchers

In the first episode, Alex mentions everyone from Life On Mars excepts Annie but no-one mentions Annie. Did Sam never mention her?

 * I get the feeling Annie's going to turn up later.
 * Whether or not it's Canon is debatable but Annie gets killed off in a short story posted on the BBC webpage.
 * Annie finally got a mention in season 2, when Jackie confirmed that Sam and Annie married, and that they were "the happiest couple you ever saw".
 * Keats mentions her in 3.08, though he says

Also from the first episode...
Alex takes whoever's word on Sam being there for seven years. Why does she so easily and without questioning accept the word of someone that she is so convinced is a hallucination?

Chris provoked to upchuck by maggots? Srsly?
Look, writers: I know Marshall Lancaster is adorable, and DC Chris Skelton's lovable naivete is a great source of comic relief, but: as of mid-1982, he has been a detective for at least ten years. (He was on the 1972 investigation of the teenager killed in the "Camberwick Green" episode of Life On Mars, albeit as a rookie.) He should not be vomiting uncontrollably at the sight of a dead rabbit. Come on, writers: this strains credibility just a tad.
 * Except Chris isn't real. He's imagined by Sam and Alex. The 1982 of Ashes to Ashes isn't genuinely connected to 1972. It's not 1982 because ten years have passed. It's 1982 because Alex is younger than Sam. This is also why there's a huge tonal shift between the two series, as each of the models their idea of policing in the time the shows are set on the cop shows that were on TV at the time.
 * That's your epileptic tree, not necessarily canon, and it's not a satisfying excuse for lacksadaisical writing. On topic, some people genuinely don't toughen up or grow like that; it's a bit of a case of Reality Is Unrealistic.
 * Except Chris
 * Further to Reality Is Unrealistic above; Some people have phobias. Most people know somebody who freaks out at the sight of a spider; maggots are less common, but this troper knows one person who is so disgusted by them that they can't even look at a picture of a maggot without feeling unwell. Also, when Chris is going to a crime scene, he knows it's a crime scene and has time to steel himself; when he finds the rabbit, he has no warning whatsoever.

About The Un-Reveal of 3.05:
If Gene, what on Earth did he say to Bevan to make him sob and whimper like that?
 * Perhaps  and scared the crap out of Bevan.
 * Gene isn't entirely unaware of his status as a psychopomp though. He chooses not to remember a lot of it, presumably for the sake of his own sanity, but he is aware of it at some level. Presumably with Bevan he chose to stop forgetting enough to tell Bevan and then afterwards went back to his choosing to forget.

Regarding the ending...
If the final episode is to be believed, then how could Sam and Alex
 * Word of God is that Alex was rescued by a real copper, but that the fact that

How did some characters in Sam's world re-appear in Alex's world?
I understand that Gene Hunt transferred to London, but what's with Ray and Chris? Wouldn't they still be back in Manchester (or at least not in London)? Or do they just go wherever Gene goes? Or did they all re-unite by chance?
 * It seems like


 * If you got fired you probably ended up like poor Viv, this is the last chance saloon for coppers souls after all. You get to fix whatever it is you've not dealt with, fail to fix and that's it. Quitting would probably result in a trip to the pub. You've dealt with your issue, you aren't a copper anymore and its time to move on. Getting killed, I suppose it depends how you get killed. If it is by going against the coppers code, then it is probably a trip downstairs, or if it is in line of duty you probably moved on (or just started again in another squadroom, like a series of russian dolls).

Who was "The Missus"?
Ok, so in reality it seems pretty clear that The Unseen wife of Gene Hunt was largely there as a joke in Life On Mars and got written out of this series so Gene and Alex could have Unresolved Sexual Tension. But given the reveals, it's interesting to wonder:

With what we know about from Ashes to Ashes, how can the Casino owner in Life on Mars be explained?
In Life on Mars (I forget which episode), a dirty Casino owner/crime lord that Sam knows from 2006(?), tries to kill him in the hospital. Sam remembers making a watertight case against him after he kills his wife Eve, and he was set to be sent down when Sam goes into a coma. Sam manages to have him declared insane in 1972(?) through some hijinks after telling him about the future, and he then hears nurses talking about the person who attacked him in the hospital being a lunatic kept there since 1972(?). At the time it seemed that Sam had altered the future through his actions in the past,  it stands out at the most significant plot hole in the duality, in a universe that is otherwise surprisingly well wrapped up (considering the complexity of the story).