TV Review: Skins 6.10, "Everyone"
rating:5
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So here we are at the final Skins episode of series six and the last-ever regular episode. The series has, overall, been fascinating, entertaining, enjoyable and generally pretty great, and I'm pleased to report that the finale holds up well. We start off with Mini (Freya Mavor) lying in the hospital after last weeks near miscarriage. Yes, she is still pregnant and the baby is fine. Also, her friend Liv (Laya Lewis) is there with her, keeping her company. Meantime, Franky (Dakota Blue Richards) is shown returning home after last weeks adventure. We watch as she proceeds to trash her dads room, and eventually uncovers her adoption records. She takes them and flees, hitching a ride with a trucker to take her the long distance from Bristol to Birmingham. Back in Bristol, Nick (Sean Teale) and Matty (Sebastian de Souza) are sitting in a café walking about what to do with their relationships with Franky. As they do, Nick is tracking her progress to Birmingham on his cell phone. The two eventually decide to go confront her, and begin with Matty stealing a car so they can drive there. Up in Birmingham, Franky has tracked down her old social worker, a woman played by actress Annette Badland, who Ive liked in everything Ive seen her in, even when some of the things Ive seen her in (like certain Doctor Who episodes that shall not be named), were utter crap. Anyhow, the social worker says she cant help Franky by giving her the information she needs thats in a filing cabinet right nearby. Then she pointedly heads to the bathroom. At the hospital, we see that Alo (Will Merrick) has arrived. He seems to be quite excited and happily overwhelmed by the prospect of being a father. No mention is made of his pending criminal charges, and, annoyingly, we never find out what happened with that, unless I blinked and missed it at some point. Franky tracks down her mothers house and does a little B&E to get inside after no one answers the door. The place appears to be deserted and she settles down to sleep and mope, only to awaken the next morning to the sound of a woman entering the house; a woman who turns out to be Frankys sister who tells her that, sadly, their mother has died. While this is happening, we catch up with Nick and Matty who appear to have been driving all night. Nick is certainly about to fall asleep at the wheel. I find this a bit odd. Admittedly, Ive never been to England, so perhaps theres some real traffic problems on the road from Bristol to Birmingham, but from what I can tell on MapQuest its all of a 90 minute drive. Perhaps Nick drives like an old lady. The boys get close to Franky and she spots them. She calls them on their cell phone and basically tells them to piss off, then runs away. She coincidentally happens to get a lift from the same truck driver as before, but when she finds out he plans to return her to Bristol, she jumps out and gets kind of messed up, since he was moving at a fair speed. She ends up at the same hospital as Mini, and obviously isnt too badly injured, since shes able to go to Minis room where Liv is also visiting. The two have a brief conversation where Liv calls out Franky on her BS and then Mini wakes up and tries to call them both down. Meantime, we finally move on to other characters, catching up first with Alex (Sam Jackson) who we find coming home after a long night partying. He talks with Liv briefly and we learn that hes about to go spend a year or so living in Thailand. Interesting choice. The two have some wonderful moments together and it reminds me how happy I am to have him paired up with Liv, since it really improves her character. The only one we havent yet checked in on is Rich (Alexander Arnold) who, we learn, has been accepted to some fancy college. He dances in his underwear, of course, and then Nick shows up, wanting to know if Matty can crash there for a few days. As they discuss this, Alo shows up with tickets for everyone to attend Alexs big going away party. We also get a nice moment where Rich and Matty get to talk about Graces death. Alexs party is some massive indoor pool party affair. Its really rather impressive and makes me wonder where the boy gets his money. Maybe he lied in his first episode about not being a rent boy? Anyhow, everyone is basically there, including Franky who, when she sees Matty and Nick, runs for it. She eventually ends up in a small room, trapped and unable to run anywhere else. And then she sees Grace (Jessica Sula), who has some words of advice Aside from not learning about Alos legal situation, this episode was pretty much everything that I hoped for. Frankys character was somewhat redeemed, and all the other characters are left in basically good places. Plus its quite nice to have a series end with a birth rather than a death. It was also lovely that Rich got the last word. In fact, other than not learning about what Alos legal resolution was going to be, I havent any complaints about this episode. Everyone got a resolution to their storylines and it was a satisfactory resolution. Its going to be annoying having to wait for next year to see the three special episodes catching up with each of the generations, but Im happy they will at least have that ending. Im also sad that the series as a whole has finished, but at least it went out on a high note, and theres too many other shows that cannot say the same.