Skins: Effy: "Beware the moon. And the shrooms. And pointy rocks."

A (long) Skins review.

This week’s episode centered around Effy, one of the most polarizing characters on the show. You either hate her or you love her. Personally, I belong to the latter group. For me, none of Effy’s episodes ever disappoint, and 3x08 was no exception. Though the character has changed in profound ways since her humble, silent beginnings of series 1, Effy is still on of the most interesting characters in a show full of interesting people.

One of the things I missed about the Effy from Series 1 and 2 though, was the fantastical, storybook element that used to follow her character around. In her first unseen skins (pop) she told a fable, in 2x06 she helped Tony back to sleep by telling him a tale, in 1x08, her first episode, her only line was a riddle. So I was happy that at least there was a bit of that in this week’s ep. Because you just don’t tell someone to “beware the moon” without the story getting freaky.

The episode started with a shot of Effy bouncing up and down– on Cook, as it happens. The image harkened back to the Effy of yore; detached and disinterested, this could’ve been a scene pulled out of series one or two, when our heroine was still an unemotive mystery. But it was a good way to encapsulate the Cook/Effy relationship. She screws him because he’s there and he screws her because she’s willing (and together, they’re screwed. Ha!) But while Cook plays the part of the fuck-all sex addict very well, his next appearance in the episode sheds new light on him. He comes to Effy with dinner (and a gateau!) He’s trying to be more than just a carnal relation-- he just doesn’t know exactly how to make the connections that he so desperately wants. But more on him later.

After Cook leaves, Effy comes down to find her mom going over the morning paper, (pointing out such horrible men as Nelson Mandela and Bono), and the girl who’s never met a shirt she couldn’t turn into a dress actually wears pants in this episode! (But I’m sure it was for technical reason only, as she had to shatter glass at her feet and then go running through the woods later on. We’ll hopefully be seeing all-legs-Effy again soon.) This might seem like me going off on a tangent but I mention her shirt because Sid and Nancy are on it. Now, this may have just been any other shirt from the wardrobe department or maybe it was more significant than that. For those who don’t know who Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen were, a brief history: Nancy was a teen groupie who had a relationship with punk rocker, Sid. They were addicted to drugs and each other, and no matter how tumultuous their relationship, they always came back together. Some say they were totally wrong for each other, some say that’s what made them so right together. Sadly, Sid and Nancy’s story ended with Sid “allegedly” killing her. Dunno about you but I see the Cook/Effy similarities.

When Effy goes to see Freddie in his shed, finally ready to tell him how she really feels, she catches him making out with Katie. And she has a rather strong reaction to it: she throws up in his driveway. Granted, who wouldn’t throw up after watching Fun Sponge and Tits and Lisp go at it, but it was just the beginning of what proved to be an episode full of strong and physical reactions. (Pandora hyperventilating in the car; the Effy/Katie fight.)

But the weirdness of the episode really starts when the gang’s on their way to “Gobbler’s End,” a place perfectly named for boogey men and serial killers to dump the bodies. If there was any kind of narrative formula to the episode it took the shape of Bad Horror Movie right from the start. When the gang gets lost (and Katie responds to the situation by doing the Smartest Thing Possible and throwing out the map), the gang meets the British Version of creepsters from such movie classics as Wrong Turn and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The kids are rightfully scared. The trio of goons was a pretty random addition to the episode, and many people online are grumbling about how unnecessary they were, but I gotta disagree. I think they were there to set the tone for the episode and make it take the strange turn that it did. They were part of the “what the fuck is going on” dynamic lent the episode it’s spooky vibe.

But it wouldn’t be a Skins episode if drugs weren’t in the mix.

By the time Effy shares her shrooms things are well on their way to being trippy indeed. Effy’s threshold for drugs has never been something to write home about, and as soon as she closes her eyes (with Panda at her side and Freddie at her hand) she officially slips into a demented wonderland. When she wakes up it’s apparently in the middle of a one-way fight she’s having with Katie. I was as confused as Effy was and I wasn’t even high. I mean, what was she accusing her of? Did Effy like, totally sex up Freddie in the middle of the woods? Oh, wait, that comes later. Before any of that can happen, Cook crashes the party.

He scares the gang into putting out their fire and pissing their pants in fear. This is the scene in which you either sympathize with Cook for being a misunderstood troublemaker just out to have a laugh or hate him for being an annoying little prick who doesn’t give a shit about anyone. If you feel the latter, you’re in good company. The gang is super mad at Cookie. So mad that Freddie gets in his face for his shenanigans and JJ has a mini rage episode on the spot and tells him to Fuck off (a little unjustly, I think, given that he was the one who drugged Cook in the last episode, but whatevs.) The scene escalates into a huge fight orgy for nearly everyone involved. Katie leaves after her relationship with Freddie is put into question. Pandora and Thomas finally have it out when Cook reveals that he’s been popping her cherry over. And over. And over again. And that’s bad news for Effy too. Not so much because her “boyfriend’s” been banging another chick but because Pandora has lied to and betrayed her, again.

The emotional turmoil gets to Effy and she runs into the woods where she meets up with Katie, and one of the trippiest scenes in the series since Tony’s whole trip of an episode in season 2 ensues. In the scene, Katie switches emotions and tangents at the drop of a hat, made all the more surreal because the scene unfolds through Effy’s perspective. Is what she seeing real? Is she imagining some of it? Is she experiencing time jumps? Is Katie’s lisp really that annoying?

Too much to handle. She hits Katie in the head with a rock. And from here on out, all the way til we finally find out that Katie’s okay, Skins became one of the most intense, insane, suspenceful, mindfuck of a show on television. If you’re spoiler free (the best way to go) you begin to question whether the show would actually have the balls to kill off a character. To actually launch Effy’s character in this new direction where her biggest problem in life is not who will or will not take her to Prom (or whatever the Brits call it) but having to carry around the guilt of taking a life. And you sorta believe they could do it because a) they like killing characters b) this show is just that fucked up and c) they’ve got a spare! (Without the terrible fashion sense!). But alas, Katies does not die. And though Effy didn’t kill anyone, she’s still going to have to carry around the guilt of doing what she did and then just leaving the Katie in the forest like that.

Kudos to the writers for pulling this whole thing off as absolutely realistic and sympathetic. You get why Effy didn’t tell anyone (who hasn’t been in a situation where they did something really really wrong and it’s just a matter of time til someone finds out) and you sympathize with her even though she’s the villain in this particular tale.

After maybe killing someone, Effy has some sex. Make no mistakes about it, Effy is absolutely out of her mind when she and Freddie make love. If I were a shipper of these two, I’d feel a little jipped that the first sex scene we get between the two of them involves Effy still partially tripping shrooms with blood on her hands. BUT, the prelude to the sex was interesting in and of itself. Cribbing from a scene in Spring Awakening, Effy asks Freddie to hit her so that she can feel something. And Freddie actually does the right thing. Effy, so attached to pain and darkness, is met with a kiss. Because, kids, kissing can sometimes make you feel something too.

That she is the villain is a sad fact when Effy goes to the hospital and meets up with Freddie, Emily, and Pandora. Of the three characters there, Emily has the nicest, most rational reaction to her– and she’s the girl’s sister! Freddie’s look of mere disgust may have been justified (to the untrained eye Effy did just attempt murder, after all), but it was still so disgustingly judgmental of him. He’s ashamed of Effy, we get that, but there was another character this episode who was ashamed of his girlfriend too and yet his reaction was so much more justified and heart-rending than anything Freddie’s capable of mustering. When Thomas confronted Pandora about her cheating ways, he isn’t such a huge dick about it. It’s the difference between “I want him back because I hurt him and I love him” and “I want him back so that he doesn’t think I’m a useless asshole.”

At this point in their relationship, how can Effy really ever be with Freddie without her integrity taking a huge hit? If they’re ever going to be together then Freddie just can’t be the judgment bastard that he is or Effy will never stop measuring her self-worth based on how he sees it.

But the worst reaction of the three came from Pandora, who was unwilling to listen to anything Effy would say. This stung the most, and needed to happen, so that the audience and Effy herself can see that if she ever had any friends she certainly doesn’t have any now.

Enter Cook. Just recently ousted from the gang himself, he’s there for Effy because now they can be alone, together. And she’s coming along for the ride because he’s all she’s got. The dialogue for the scene was clear: “Where are we going?” “Where are we?” “It’s always going to be you and me.” It’s a new frontier for Effy– she’s officially, as she said in a previous episode, off the rails. Although I’m not sold on Cook/Effy, the potential for something explosive to happen between them for no other reason than because they’re stuck together, is there. It’s like Sid and Nancy. They’re all wrong together, but, at least for now, they’re the only two people right for each other.

Notables from the episode:

-Naomi and Emily getting busy while the daft JJ has no clue that there’s more than just “wriggling” going on. Hehe.

- Kaya Scodelario’s acting in this week’s episode was spot on. Spot on. And I’m not just talking about the big emotional scenes (of which there were many). I’m talking about the little cast-off looks in between the big scenes. She’s really come into her own as an actress. Megan Prescott, please take note.