SKINS 4.7

WRITER: Jamie Brittain
DIRECTOR: Daniel O'Hara
GUEST STARS: Hugo Speer, Morwenna Banks & Chris Addison

[SPOILERS] With only a few episodes left to go from the current cast, Effy (Kaya Scodelario) and co completely ignore the previous episode and head toward the end amidst a flurry of mental illness, questionable acting, and a surprise shocking ending...

The episode begins at a psychiatric hospital with Effy talking to her slightly strange counselor John (Chris Addison), where, in a nice throwback to Skins 1.0, it's revealed that Tony being hit by a bus in the end of series one was a major source of Effy's mental collapse. Following some obligatory shots of the patients, and a closing shot of Effy's counselor being apparently as mad as her, she returns back home. Soon after arriving back, she goes and vists Freddie (Luke Pasqualino), before proclaiming that, as Karen O and the Kids might say, "all is love", though she's still showing the textbook hints of madness. Along with Pandora she heads back to college, and it's results day (apparently the writers glossed over the A level exams themselves -- one of the most important parts of sixth form life) where the headteacher (Giles Thomas) convinces Effy to lie about her results -- printing out three A's to replace her three fails, so as to boost the college's average grades. Anyone who's recently sat A levels will know what an utterly unrealistic crock of shit that one is.

Effy freaks out about the deception, and makes a bit of a creepy speech when all of the gang are telling each other their results. "I think I'm finished," she says, bidding farewell to the group, before slipping off. Katie (Megan Prescott) utters the legendary line, "she dumped you again!", which got a laugh but brought the tone down a little. A repeating heartbeat-esque sounds starts in the background. She once again visits the increasingly unnerving John, and then Freddie comes to visit, with the gist being that Effy gets freaked out by the prospect of love. She then sets fire to a load of her belongings, just in case the audience hasn't picked up on the fact that she's gone nuts.

Cook (Jack O’Connell) returns and finds Effie, who is now referring to herself as Elizabeth. Apparently Effie’s forgotten, or perhaps repressed, Cook from her mind. Finding themselves at the very spot that she saw Tony get hit by a bus at the end of the first season, her madness reaches a climax. Eventually, Cook takes her to Freddie for one last bit of the trio's tedious love triangle. "I'm done here", Cook says, leaving the room. Yeah, aren't we all.

Deciding that John is doing more harm than good for Effy's wellbeing, Freddie goes to visit him in his house. After the two speak, and Freddie demands that John stop treating her. Freddie goes to find Effiy upstairs in her room, only to turn and find John follow him up the stairs with a baseball bat. The camera reverts to a viewpoint shot from Effie's room, where we see the door rattle, hear Freddie's paniced voice, the sound of a baseball bat crashing into a body, and blood spray upon the window. Altogether relentless, grim, and almost utterly unexpected.

Surprise gruesome ending aside, the episode was once again a little tedious. As I've said on previous episodes, the fact that it's hard to really care for Effy's wellbeing detracted from the experience, which is even more apparent in an Effy-centric episode such as this. Freddie's character came across whiny and irritating, although Effy's mother, played by Morwenna Banks, was a much better turn -- the writers ignoring the usual "crazy-parent" stereotype in favour of a genuinely caring one. But most of all Effy's acting once again fails to convincingly portray a mentally ill teenager -- although it has improved from last week.

11 MARCH 2010: E4 (HD), 10PM