Skins Fire - Part 2 Review

July 11, 2013August 10, 2015Mata 4 Comments

You don’t know me at all, and you never will.

Before we begin the breakdown let’s get this out of the way, it’s not a series of Skins unless a favourite character is involved in a life threatening situation/dies. It’s definitely not Skins unless you’re left with the feeling that nothing is resolved. The writers of Skins have never given you that conventional ‘happily ever after’ you crave so much, so why on earth would you think they’d give you one now? Skins has always been about moments. Whether it was living in the moment, realising a moment’s gone or waiting for a moment to pass. Every episode of each series captured certain moments of a character’s life, and I suppose this, the end of Effy and Naomi’s stories, was comprised of their final moments. If you can call it that, with Skins there’s no such thing as ending, well outside of death, sometimes not even then. Even if things are resolved for the odd character, that moment of resolution is still, in the end, a moment in their life from which they then move on. On to another moment, on to something else that we won’t ever know about. However I’ve gotten ahead of myself, I’ll stop and back it up now. Let’s unpack part two of Skins Fire- not completely, because that would take all night, but we’ll scratch the surface a bit and touch upon why a lot of the fans are crying.

Naomi has cancer and it’s killing her. At the start of the episode we find that Naomi’s doing relatively well in the comedy world, we begin the episode at another gig where people are actually laughing at her jokes. It seems the only person not having fun is Effy who leaves during Naomi’s stand up to go see Jake, her boss. (Who, everyone agrees, looks like Freddie. But that’s something we’re not going to talk about.) What cuts everyone up about Naomi’s terminal illness is the fact that it will kill perhaps one of the most popular ships Skins has ever produced, the force known as Naomily.

This relationship hasn’t been an easy one to follow, what with Naomi’s initial reservations and betrayal, and considering Skins track record with ruining/killing one half of fan favourite ships, see Chris and Jal, Effy and Freddie, Grace and Rich. However, considering Naomi and Emily were still together years later in Skins Fire, it seemed things might end well for these two. However Naomi keeps the truth from about her illness and the fact that her health is continually declining as she isn’t responding to treatment from Emily because Emily matters more to Naomi than the truth. Through it all Lily Loveless’ performance goes from strength to strength, from annoying layabout flatmate to dying woman who refuses to let her illness get in the way of the woman she loves’ internship, there is something extraordinary about the ‘feels’ produced by Naomi stating she’s ‘going to die’ to Effy after confronting her about the shitty friend she’d been over the past few months.

Effy Stonem, mysterious, complex and sometimes rather egocentric, Effy. As predicted, Effy’s career as a trader and her relationship with her boss seems to soar for a while until the inevitable moment when it begins to crumble. Spurred on by Jake, Effy seeks out Dom’s help to illegally obtain information to create trading profits and enjoys what appears to be a few months of hedonism both in her career and in her relationship with Jake. The problem is people, namely a colleague and subsequently the FSA, catch on and rather than have her back Jake throws Effy under the bus. Up until that point Effy thought her relationship with Jake was real, as Naomi pointed out she’d been living in a fantasy for the past few months and a shitty one at that. The fact that in the end Effy chooses to eventually name Jake and go to jail if it meant Dom wouldn’t be implicated showed a sense of growth in character for her. Although it came after a digression in behaviour, in which she reverted to her old method of manipulation after Dom’s, rather justified, outburst about how she made him pathetic.

This moment, I reckon was just Effy’s reflex reaction to situations outside of her control, she tries to rein it back in to something she can manage. Only something goes wrong and in that fevered moment Dom runs off. Any theories?

However in the end Effy’s chooses to implicate Jake and take the time in jail pleading for Dom not to be involved as he was not at fault. The episode leaves us in a lurch, Naomi and Emily reunited but for how long before Naomi dies? And Effy off to jail for an indeterminate amount of time. And yet, in that final moment, when Effy’s sitting in the back of the police car/taxi and she smiles I suppose we know that she’ll be okay. If there’s one thing we know about Effy Stonem is that she rises from the ashes after burning up and allowing her fire to consume herself and those around her.

Special Mentions:

- Emily’s reaction, when Effy finally took it upon herself to call her, was heartbreaking. You can understand the anger, the fact that Effy’s had this time with Naomi. This moment when you think, Effy’s just called Emily now against her wishes, surely she should have had the foresight a while ago to call Emily against Naomi’s wishes earlier?

- “What the fuck is wrong with you? She’s alone in there, I don’t wanna- you know what? Fuck it, fuck this.” Dom’s anger at Effy bringing that shit up whilst her friend was lying in the hospital room was completely justified. C’mon Effy!

- Next week it’s onto Skins Pure we go! Cassie’s episode and it’s not set in New York as I originally thought! Have you seen the trailer? People already saying they think Sid is Cassie’s stalker will be disappointed to find they have a glimpse of her stalker in the trailer and he, unfortunately, is not Sid.

Convos with Friends, well just Freya, again!

Freya: It is perfect. Exactly what it should be… However the part with Dom reigning control in that particular scene, I have no idea what to make of it. Truly. Your notion of ‘theories?’, I’m asking the same damn thing. Anyone got any ideas?

Mata: Hmmm I don’t know aye, like maybe he realises that she’s not really doing it because she loves him like he wants her to and that it’s sort of like a ‘just trying to get you to do what I want and am not enjoying it’ type situation and he feels guilty about it, apologises and runs away? I don’t know, that scene threw me off a bit because I really like Dom’s character even though some of the fandom say he’s not worth caring about. Haha it might just be because I heart the actor lol.

Freya: I heart his character in skins. It’s the contemporary version of unrequited love I think. He finally sees the trees through the forest and consequently decides it’s eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth so to speak. Screws her over (literally) just like she did him. as eff peels her layers off, you see the real dom for what he really is. Hiding behind this nice guy facade. It’s bitter sweet when eff resorts to sexual play. It’s comforting but saddening to see she hasn’t quite grown. She’s hidden under this pseudo-profession. Texting via phone sucks. Too many theories, not enough fingers… Aaaah wish you were here!

Mata : I don’t know about him having a nice guy facade, I think Dom was genuinely a nice person. However I do believe that in that moment he might have allowed himself to believe that she wanted him despite knowing that she’d only really started talking to him for information to get ahead. Effy may have developed feelings for him but not of a romantic nature and he realised that during that scene. I don’t know haha, I’m just trying to understand it. Someone quoted my review in a forum and said I either disregarded generation one’s resolutions or just forgot, I sort of forgot lol but mainly because even though there were some resolutions not everything was tied up in a pretty knot. And Skins Fire was just following Skins protocol heh. I wish I was there too! =[

Skins Fire - Part 1 Review

July 3, 2013August 10, 2015Mata Leave a comment

Better late than never, better late than in a ditch somewhere. Words to live by, kids. Now, onto our thoughts regarding part one of Skins Fire. We know Effy’s living in London with Naomi, and working as some sort of assistant at a hedge fund, from the trailers and sneak peeks. Although the trailers seemed to portray Naomi as the one holding it together we find that Naomi’s unemployed and living the life of a serial drinker and resident unambitious. This, to me, rings a little weird. I always thought Naomi was a character with a healthy drive for success in some undisclosed field. Apparently not, although she does decide she wants to go into stand up comedy. Here’s a hint, her first gig doesn’t go very well.

I would say it’s strange seeing Effy being the responsible adult, but to be honest it actually makes sense. Effy’s always been intelligent, perhaps too intelligent for her own good. In those earlier series her intelligence, and the boredom of not having that intelligence challenged, used to land her into quite a bit of trouble. However with a focus and a challenge, it would appear that Effy can keep things together fairly well. Although I don’t know how easy it is to get into the world of trading, Effy seemingly uses what she’s got (with some help/insider info) to find her way out of being an assistant and into being a successful trader.

Now, as with everything Skins, it’s only a matter of time before things come tumbling down in the most spectacular way. Especially with Effy, I don’t know it seems, as a character, Effy always winds up not being able to handle the situations she finds herself in. When she’s solving other peoples’ problems she’s fine, but eventually her world/mind/life crumbles when it seems things are going well. We would all do well to remember what Effy’s mum, Anthea, said in regards to her daughter.

“She was four years old the first time she beat me at hide and seek. Four. I was looking for her for hours. When I finally found her she just smiled. You know, that Effy smile that means ‘you don’t know me at all, you never will’.”

Things start to slightly unravel, externally, towards the end of the episode with Naomi pointing out that the investors Effy has to schmooze are gross and grabby and Effy snapping at her before shoving her and telling her to go home. The next day we’re shown Naomi going in for an MRI scan before Effy is woken up, still wearing the clothes she’d gone out with the investors in, by extremely loud music before going up to the roof to get Naomi to turn it off.

Boom. Naomic bomb.

Effy, perhaps needing more of an escape than a late night trip to a club alone, winds up at her bosses’ place for bow chika wow- Wow I’m sorry for that.

Special Mentions:

- How did I not realise in the trailers that Dom was Adam (Craig Roberts) our whiny 40ish year old teenaged vampire from Being Human/Becoming Human? Honestly, he was my favourite.

- I’m sure there are a few of you out there who will think that Effy’s boss looks a little like Freddie. Coincidence or intentional slap in the face to Freddie fans? (Also, cancelled Sirens feels.)

- Emily’s in New York! Exciting! There may be some major conflict regarding Naomi’s illness. I’m thinking Naomi keeps it from Emily until the last minute, or tries to break up with her for a ridiculous reason in some misguided martyr’d attempt to save Emily from seeing her disintegrate. I’m just glad that Naomi and Emily are still together, if living apart at the moment. But surprise, surprise there will be no happy ending, potentially. (Also, Emily slapping Effy in that preview, what what?)

- I love that Effy still has the ability to reduce another character to nothing with just a few cutting words.

More thoughts? How about Convos with Friends!

Freya: I agree. I can’t help but feel like Eff still had it relatively easy in terms of her obstacles. The ever-so-helpful Dom came at an uncanny time and it all seemed superficial how she understood Trading 101 so easily, albeit with chalk and concrete. Maybe she had a super good sensei, yes? She’s a super genius? I don’t know, but overall it was Skins. Didn’t feel like it ever fell away too far from the Skin’s tree, so I’m happy about that.

Mata, err Me, guys: Yeah I always saw Effy as somewhat of an overly-intelligent figure in the series, like Tony but much more sophisticated in her manipulation of people. And she’s always been calculating, I just figured this was a more practical use/manifestation of that traits- along with her other skills. However it was always her emotions that seemed to stump her, overwhelm and eventually lead to her downfall, from which she then starts to rebuild again. Some people (read as tumblrers) have theorised that maybe Effy was abused as a child or something. Although it always harks back to the first words she uttered on the show, that maybe she was born backwards. Idk, I’m just glad Skins is back haha.

What do we remember about Effy Stonem? She was the ever mysterious, silent, little sister of Tony who became a chip off the old block before going nutso. The deterioration of her mental state was something that had been hinted at from the very beginning, after all her first words on the show were ‘Sometimes I think I was born backwards.’ However “Skins Fire” follows Effy, now 21, working a dead-end job in the city where she apparently starts an affair with her boss. She’s flatting with Naomi, which is interesting and also means we get to see Emily, YAY!

Speaking of Naomi and Emily, how about that hug? The trailer shows a conversation between the two where Naomi is talking to Emily about Effy, however where does this hug occur? When Emily arrives to see her, or when she’s leaving? What does it meeeeean?

Yet in the end the episodes themselves are centered around Effy’s descent into lord knows what. I’m ready to see things go up in flames. And I also foresee Effy, rising from the ashes. If anyone’s a phoenix, it’s Elizabeth, Effy, Stonem.

The series’ tagline, ‘time changes everyone,’ isn’t something new. Everyone knows that time makes strangers of us all and for the returning Skins alum change is something we both dread and look forward to. We’ve had our gripes with each change of the series, shux remember when we found out that the first generation cast weren’t going to be returning save for Effy? This is the final series and I suppose the biggest change will be the fact that after this series, there won’t be another.