'Skins': Episode two 'Rich' recap

Skins opened strong last week, and this time around the show continued to surprise us. The episode seemed like your typical Skins instalment for a majority of the time, and then amped things up hugely in the last ten minutes, leaving us with, ahem, something in our eye. Or several things in our eye.

We're going to spoil things now, so if you haven't seen the instalment then you might want to look away now, as it were. Were you surprised by the ending? Certainly, the signs that things weren't as they seemed were there if you were looking for them. We'll admit that we were expecting the death, but we want to know what you thought.

Let's go back to the start, though, and pretend we don't know just yet. Alo and Rich have teamed up with a friend, O'Malley, to form a band. But when Rich spots the time, he decides to leave - he doesn't want to miss visiting hours at the hospital. Sure, Blood's been banning him... but what if she wakes up this time?



Outside, he leaves the umpteenth message on Grace's phone, telling her that he loves her. Imagine his surprise when she calls him back, asking why he's not there. He needs to "try harder" to get in! Hurrah, Grace is awake! Rich can't stop smiling at his phone... until he tries breaking into the hospital.

To be honest, stealth-Rich is quite amusing - the only problem is, he's rubbish at it. Nurse Pauline (hurrah for Isy Suttie) catches him right away, and though she's sympathetic, she can't contradict Blood's wishes (especially when Blood appears and asks security to remove Rich).

But that's not going to stop Rich, who sneaks into the air vents (and, to his horror, overhears that Blood's planning to move Grace to Zurich to help her recuperate). But it turns out that air vents aren't too safe, and he soon crashes into Grace's room.



Of course, she's pleased to see him but urges him to think of a way to stop her being sent to Switzerland. Before that, though, she's feeling 'in the mood', as it were - so Rich climbs into bed with her. Naturally, it's no surprise to see Blood turn up - and Rich is soon being dragged from the hospital by security guards with his trousers round his ankles.

Back at home, Rich's parents are a bit concerned about him and want him to go on holiday with them (his mum - brilliantly played by Liza Tarbuck - thinks he might be suicidal). But Rich can't imagine anything worse, so they tearfully agree to leave him behind. Nice move, parents. Honestly, who are these people?

When they've left, Rich heads straight over to Grace's house, but soon discovers that they've already left for Switzerland. He can't get any phone signal, so he climbs into Grace's bedroom. Before long, he's found some old home movies and is sitting watching Grace dancing, as a toddler and so on. It's actually a really beautiful sequence.



Soon, Alo turns up and Rich tries to avoid him, but the promise of weed is too much and he lets him in. Soon, they decide the best thing to do would be to trash the place (although at least they do it in style, dressing up in Blood's clothes, styling their hair, and playing croquet with pool balls).

Alo wants to hold a gig at the house, but Rich is distracted when he hears his phone ringing (the ringtone is 'Für Elise', to show it's Grace.) He rushes outside to find it but he can't get any signal, and when Alo tries to help he just erupts in anger. But Alo has an idea of how to find Grace - check the fridge.

Sure enough, they find the clinic's brochure on the fridge and call it. Rich uses a bizarre mix of various European languages but eventually gets the receptionist to put the call through to Grace (prompting a cute Alo-Rich dance to the hold music). But, of course, Blood answers, tells Rich to stop, and hangs up.



Alo tries to comfort his friend, but Rich just wants him to go home and goes to comfort himself with more home movies. He's soon interrupted, though, by sex noises - Mini's come over to see Alo! Rich walks in on them and is furious, but Mini's pretty annoyed herself that Rich didn't tell her Grace woke up.

But Grace calls Alo's phone, so Rich takes it and walks out. Grace tells him that Blood's going to move her again, but she doesn't know where. Rich begs her to meet him in Paris, but before they can arrange anything, Blood returns and she has to hang up.

Later, Rich is surprised to hear Alo and O'Malley rehearsing downstairs - Alo's still eager to hold a gig in the house. Rich is less keen, and throws Alo's amp outside. Soon, Alo and Rich are fighting in the garden. Alo claims that he's trying to help Rich - music helps everything - but Rich says he's just doing it so Mini won't be embarrassed about sleeping with him.



Alo throws a punch, Rich headbutts him, and it's all getting quite ugly. Rich tells him that they'll gig when he breaks it off with Mini (which Alo is understandably not keen to do). So Rich throws Alo's guitar in the tree and storms off. Alo doesn't do himself any favours - when he sees Mini in the window smiling at him, he can't help himself.

Sweetly, Rich goes to see Liv at a cafe. She's upset that no-one told her Grace had woken up, and soon begins crying. Rich adorably orders her some biscuits, and she does feel better (I like this scene, because we haven't seen much of Rich and Liv, and they were lovely together).

Anyway, they call Franky to tell her that Grace woke up and are pleased to hear she can speak fluent French - they'll go and find Grace in Paris! The plan perks Rich up and he goes to make things up with Alo (he even keeps Mini sleeping with him a secret for the pair of them).

Unfortunately, Alo's spread the word of an empty house in the country but Mini points out that all they need to do is charge everyone £5 and they'll have loads of money to go and get Grace back. So they throw a huge party and Rich and Alo even perform with their band. But suddenly, Rich sees Grace's face in the crowd...



He rips his guitar off and runs through the crowd, but can't see her anywhere. He even accidentally mistakes someone else for her. Alo says he made a mistake and they'll look for her the next day, but Rich can't wait that long. He pushes his way upstairs and finds Grace waiting for him in her bedroom.

Rich apologises about the house trashing getting out of hand, but she replies: "Everything does, sooner or later." She tells Rich that she left Blood behind because he "can't get past things" and pauses, before saying that she probably loves Rich. She tells him that "everything's better now" and they have sex, but the music has kind of a dark undertone... Afterwards, Grace turns over and goes to sleep. Rich tells her he loves her, but there's no response.

The next morning, Rich wakes up but Grace isn't there. He walks through the trashed house and hears his ringtone again. Finding his phone in a bouquet of white roses, he answers it - and Grace tells him that she "had to go". She tells him that everything is beautiful and that she loves him before hanging up.



But when Rich looks down at his phone, he realises that it's completely broken. Grace couldn't have called him at all. What's more, Blood's car is in the drive.

Rich heads back inside and sees Blood sitting on the stairs - this imposing, scary man reduced to someone curled up in a ball. He says that Grace "had to stay", before admitting that she died the day before. Rich realises that Grace never woke up at all, while Blood sobs about what Grace would think about him turning off the life support.

It's a stunning scene - worth the entire episode - and Alex Arnold and Chris Addison absolutely nail it. Rich comforts Blood that Grace knows that's what her dad was supposed to do and sits down next to him, saying that Grace loved him. Blood admits that that is why he is here, and Rich puts his hand on his shoulder as he cries. As the music ramps up, and the episode ends, it's tough not to have a lump in your throat.

Whatever you think about the concept of the instalment - the 'Grace is alive! No she's not' fakeout - there's no denying that the last ten minutes or so was Skins doing things very well indeed. Even if that did mean everyone suddenly had to do a lot of blinking and looking away... What's more, we're betting the repercussions from this could last for some time!



What's the skinny?

• Sorry Rich, sorry Alo... I'm not sure whether 'Filthy Woman' is going to be a hit.
  
• Those posters barring Rich from the hospital were a bit harsh, no?
  
• "I love you, Grace, but your dad is a total bellend."
  
• "Mind my catheter!" Sexy.
  
• Is there any better sign of depression than spelling out "F**k this" with alphabet spaghetti?
  
• Rich's mum Anita says: "It's just young love. It's not real." To be honest, I would have forgiven Rich if he'd been furious about that. What a thing to say!
  
• Shall we try and keep a list of signs that Grace was dead all along?
  • One, obviously, is the lack of phone signal, and the mysterious phone calls.
  • Two: The scene with Rich's parents, who are concerned (I don't think Anita's Take A Break article was about depression, but grief, plus there was the talk of "fixing" Rich and him upsetting Grace's family.)
  • Three: Alo coming to be there for Rich, who is clearly in dire need of a friend, and sticking by him despite some difficult moments (I'm not saying he was perfect, but he tried).
  • Four: Rich seemed inordinately angry when he walked in on Mini and Alo, like it was disrespectful.
  • Five: Liv and Mini asking why Rich didn't tell them that Grace had woken up and, more importantly, Liv sobbing and asking where her friends had gone.
  • Six: Rich wanting to meet Grace in Paris and her telling him: "It's not that simple."
  • Seven: Rich seeing Grace in the crowd and Alo telling him: "You're seeing things." Rich: "Nothing works without her, Alo. None of this... It f**king hurts so much."
  • Eight: Grace tells Rich that she "left [Blood] behind". He "can't get past things".
  • Nine: When Grace meets Rich at her house, the bruising and general messed-up nature of her face is gone - it's all perfect again.
  • Ten: Grace isn't there when Rich wakes up. Obviously.
  • Eleven: Rich finds his phone next to a bouquet of white roses, and Grace tells him she "had to go" and he knows why. (We're leaving out the fact that his phone is broken - from thereon in it's definitely clear that she's died.)
  • Have we missed any? Did you spot any clues?
• I loved the whole home movie aspect of the episode. Particularly good was Rich watching Grace dance, because it took us back to the moment he realised he liked her last series - watching her dance recital.
  
• I really like watching Alo and Rich's friendship - it seems like one of the most realistic relationships on the show. I particularly loved the scenes when Alo first came over and they played their own version of croquet.
  
• "I do like f**king s**t up."
  
• Rich's pathetic attempts to speak various European languages - even to an automated voice - was pretty entertaining.
  
• Mini and Alo are quite fun together. "She always makes such a racket, like a paddling pool got punctured or something." "I wanted a f**k, he's available." (Romantic.)
  
• Also: "Why don't you just wipe yourself down and p*ss off?"
  
• I understand trashing the house to upset Blood. But that's Grace's home too - you'd think they'd have more respect for her memories, right?
  
• "I thought you were metal." "I thought I was too."
  
• Rider. Ugggh.
  
• I'm not expecting an awful lot of explanation next week - but what do you think was real and what was not? For example, we know that the house must have been trashed because Blood refers to it, and that's definitely a real moment. But how much do the other Skins know? Is Rich in denial? When he gets kicked out of the hospital with his trousers down his ankles, is that a fantasy or dream? What do you think? Does it matter?

What did you think of the episode? Let us know below!