In the final week of the election campaign, it's all about set-pieces, especially on television. Can the main leaders keep their heads and hit their marks as the pressure hits fever pitch?

Five days to go and the stages have been set; the only question left is how the leaders will handle their lines.

What do we know about how the campaign will evolve over the next few days? Quite a lot already, as it happens.

Two television debates, some polls and the unexpected setting – the high court; these are the stages on which the final days of this campaign will be played out. National will, in part due to the Prime Minister's decision to take the teapots tapes matter to the police, have to keep talking about ACT, Epsom and privacy v public interest. There's likely to be increased discussion about coalitions and governing alone.

Labour will talk repeatedly about "asset sales", stopping only occasionally to mention skills training and paying employers the dole to take on new staff (two policies it hasn't made nearly enough of, in my view).

The Greens, well, they just have to keep on track, coming across like the cool kids in the playground that everybody wants to hang out with (and vote for). But the minor parties aren't likely to get quite as much oxygen in the final week.

Both Phil Goff and John Key become focal points on the TV debates, and both will have something to reflect on after their TV appearances over the weekend. Goff fluffed his numbers on both The Nation and Q+A; not profoundly, but in a way that looks less than prime ministerial.

On Q+A, Goff didn't know which year Labour's tax switch makes additional revenue. He thought 2016/17; it's 2018/19.

Key knew his numbers, correctly saying that National's projected surplus in 2014/15 is $1.5 billion. But he can't go on repeating as he did three times that he 'rejects that proposition'.

That's what he said when told that the young girl from "the underclass" that he championed in Opposition, Aroha Ireland, was leaving for Australia. He went on to list lots of great things happening in New Zealand – lowering company taxes, being a small flexible country with good water and food production, being part of a growing Asia, making the Lord of the Rings films, and being good at boat-building.

The only problem is that, of those, National can only take credit for lower company taxes – the rest stem from nature or previous governments. Key can reject any proposition he likes, but facts are facts.

The same can be said for exports. Key and English love to repeat that "we get wealthier when we sell more to the world". The only trouble is, we haven't. Exports as a percentage of GDP are down on the 2008 level. It's a fact that National is seldom challenged on. Sure, the world's been having some economic troubles since 2008, but as we're "part of Asia" and growing exports is so essential (and repeatedly stressed by this government), that's a fail mark anyway you look at it.

Key again said "I don't accept that proposition either". Except it wasn't a proposition, it's another fact. He's going to have to get tougher come the debates.

And after the debates come the final polls, on Wednesday and Thursday.

In part, the script is written for this week. For the leaders it's now just a matter of handling the pressure and having the stamina to keep going to the finish.

But for voters it's much more ad-lib. This is the week they pay most attention, when they may yet change their mind, and when the shape of the next government starts to play on their mind. There's still much to play for.