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Another year, another end of a Skins series.
With the Skins Movie looming and the ruthless death of Freddie a series and a generation ago, it was time for the finale of series 5 and the almost-wedding of resident 3rd generation sweethearts Rich and Grace.
There were a few things we learned in this episode.
1) Rich actually looks pretty adorable with a Bieber-esque shorter hairdo.
2) Nick isn’t that bad. He may have just played the drunken ex-jock in the past couple of episodes, but he more than redeemed himself this episode.
3) Not every stranger slash middle aged newbie in Skins is a psycho killer. Apparently Freddie’s murder has scarred me to the point of delusion.
4) Matty is one crazy-eyed and confused bloke. Who do you want man?
5) Despite all the sleeping around with each other, apparently everyone can still stay best of mates. Liv forgave Franky (and Matty to a certain extent) for almost bedding Matty, and Mini seems finally fine with Liv (and Nick to a certain extent) for the brief affair with Nick. The power of forgiveness.
Now back to the finale then. So Alo is the best man for Rich and Grace’s almost wedding, and as usual, things do not go according to plan when the farm boy is involved. En route to the church, Alo’s van breaks down, which forces the lovebirds to hitch a ride to the church with a weird old couple (I was paranoid by this point of any impending deaths of anymore of my favourite characters) and the rest to find the church on foot (which is kinda mean don’t you think).
On the way, Nick and Alo bond over a rabbit trap, and the unholy trinity of Liv, Matty, and Franky continue their fruitless game of who-does-Matty-want in the woods. While all this commotion was happening, Professor Blood aka Grace’s dad aka their principal was speeding towards the church to stop the wedding. Rewind: Professor Blood does not like any of Grace’s friends, especially Rich, and wants her to transfer back to her old all-girls boarding school, so he puts a tracking device on her to keep an eye on her movements.
Wow, just realised how dramatic Skins really is. So yeah, in the end, predictably, Rich and Grace decided not to get hitched. Grace confronted her dad. Everyone’s happy. For now.
One thing I love about Skins is how the writers can make me feel like I have known the characters for ages, despite the fact that this series only contained eight episodes. Whilst I never really felt much for Pandora and Thomas in the previous generation, I am pretty much rooting for everyone at this point, which brings me to my last point.
Please for Freddie and Chris’ sake, don’t make series 6 a sob fest. The second series of every generation has brought nothing but heartaches and deaths, and I for one, hope series 6 is not the case. The statistics don’t look good though.
In generation one, Tony and Michelle decided to call it quits and go to faraway colleges while Sid never found Cassie in New York City. Chris passed away, leaving Jal with their baby. In terms of happy endings, only Maxie ended up with his boyfriend (and Anwar).
In generation two, Freddie obviously got slaughtered, and Cook was still in the evil psychologist’s ‘dungeon’ the last time we saw him, which left Effy with no one in particular. Katie ended up alone, with her twin sister Emily eventually patching things up with Naomi. Granted, JJ did have a happy ending (but with someone outside the group), but I digress.
The endings of the past two generations do not really leave me with much hope for solace. But for this once, I hope that a heterosexual relationship in Skins ends happily.
Now that would be a coupe de Grace (pun fully intended).