SKINS: In which everyone GOES TO HARVARD OH YEAH

 So, this was the last episode of season 4 and also the last episode EVER with this batch of ridiculous teenagers oh how sad.  It was okay!  RECAP:

We start out with a montage of gang goes about their business.  Emily is waking up with some random chick who is not Naomi, Naomi is sulking, Cook is banging some chick, Thomas is running.  We get the sense that Thomas runs a lot now and is pretty good at it.  Good for him!  Running is a great way to get in shape.  Freddie is not in the montage because he's dead, probably.  His sister finds a note in his room saying "I'm going away for a bit" but this seems suspect because all of his stuff is still there.  HMMM.  

Pandora and Katie visit Effy in the mental health clinic.  Pandora sings Effy a song to cheer her up, which is very sweet of her, although the lyrics could have been a bit more sensitive.  "Please don't slit your wrists anymore"?  Really, Pandora?  Anyways, the girls lift Effy's spirits.  Yay!  But then it turns out the crazy psychiatrist who killed Freddie is spying on Effy, and he has an expression on his face which is more "I want to practice unethical hypnosis on this pretty teenage girl and if someone tries to stop me I will bash their heads in" than "What a lovely song, Pandora!"  OH NO.

Cook is telling Naomi about how he is totally moving on from Effy.  "I'm totally moving on from Effy," he says.  Naomi scoffs because he is so not moving on.  That chick he was just banging looks just like Effy!  But she farts a lot!  Yuck! 

The crazy psychiatrist talks to Effy and tells her she can go home again.  Effy is like "Thanks for the help, guy.  I'll never forget you" and the crazy psychiatrist puts on his best creeper face and is like "No, no you won't ever forget me *coughbecauseIjustkilledyourboyfriendLOLcough* No, that is for sure!"  

Everyone goes over to Naomi's for a little party.  It's really awkward, though, because Naomi is so drunk and Emily is so having invited that one girl who is not Naomi.  Thomas and Katie hatch up a scheme to practice French together, which would make Pandora jealous so she'd get back with Thomas.  Freddie's sister shows up, and she tells Cook to go find Freddie, but Cook is like "He ran away! So what!"  So Freddie's sister gives him his journal and is like "This will prove there is something more mysterious afoot."  And it does!  Freddie's journal is practically the ravings of a lovesick maniac, because he just wrote "I love her" like a million times (he must have really loved her!), and then "JOHN FOSTER (the psychiatrist) WANTS TO HURT HER" on one page.  OH YEAH, A LEAD.  Then Cook starts freaking out when Freddie, like, talks to him, which is not a good sign because that must mean he's a ghost (or he could be in a critical, semi-conscious state, in which case it would be more urgent for him to communicate with a loved one who could rescue him.  So says Charlie St. Cloud). 

 Cook stood in front of a windmill at one point.

Then the police go to Naomi's house to try and capture Cook, who we remember is still on the run after having broken out of prison (HOW DID HE DO THAT?).  He escapes!  Good.  Also, Thomas is doing some more running, and this time he captures the attention of a trainer, who says "You're a great runner.  You should consider running at a university.  They would pay you to run for them!" but Thomas is like "No way, man, I don't want to run for the white man."  And we go back to Cook, who is hiding out in Freddie's shed.  Effy is there, too!  She tells Cook to find out what happened to Freddie.  "I can handle the truth, now," she says, "I swear I won't try to kill myself again."  OH GOOD.  They decide to throw a chill dance party in the shed for Freddie, because it's his birthday. 

JJ and Pandora show up first.  Pandora is like "Hey Effy, I should probably let you know I'm going to Harvard" and she's like "cool."  While Naomi is getting ready for the party, her MOM calls her and is like "how's it going?" Turns out Naomi's mom didn't abandon her!  She was just on, like, a very extended business trip or something!  Then she goes to the party and tells Emily "I'm sorry for being such a tit and for cheating on you with that girl who died!  Let's go to Goa!" and they are back together again FINALLY.  Effy seems to be not as crazy and suicidal anymore, which is good.  Thomas shows up and has a chat with Pandora.  Turns out he applied to go to "this school called Harvard" that morning, and they accepted him that afternoon on a running scholarship, in spite of his being expelled from college for an unspecified reason last episode!  Fantastic!  Harvard, you will remember, is the school that Pandora is going to go to.

 "Oh, you're going to Harvard, too?  Cool, bro."

Everyone is having a lovely time, and then Cook goes outside to take a piss, where he sees a strange guy lurking around Freddie's house.  He follows him and winds up in . . . the crazy psychiatrist's house!  OH NO!  And there he finds ziploc bags full of Freddie's bloodstained clothes and shoes!  DOUBLE OH NO!  So Freddie must really be dead.  Yikes.  Then the psychiatrist shows up, with the cricket bat murder weapon he used on Freddie, and says "Cook, you are such a loser.  You are nothing!  It will be so easy to kill you blah blah blah" and Cook is like "No way, man.  You killed my best friend and I am not going to let that fly.  I am COOK RAWRRRR!" lunge at the psychiatrist, credits.

THOUGHTS on this episode:

• Well that was a stupid cliffhanger ending.  There are so many unanswered questions now!  Did Cook get killed by the crazy psychiatrist?  No, of course not!  Did he kill the psychiatrist?  Probably!  Will he go to jail for killing the psychiatrist?  Most likely!  Will he break out of jail again?  Of course.  And will Effy recover from her debilitating mental illness and rejoin the gang for more adventures, albeit without Pandora and Thomas because they are at Harvard (LOLOLOLOL)?  WHO KNOWS!  I love mysteries as much as the next person who loves mysteries, but I was a bit disappointed by all the new mysteries and lack of closure here.  There should have been a proper send-off to the gang and I should have been equal parts sad and happy.  Hmph.  All I know is THIS MOVIE THING HAD BETTER HAPPEN LIKE RIGHT NOW (and it should be some sort of hybrid thing of flashbacks to when Chris was alive and Cassie didn't live in New York, and flashforwards to when Cook gets out of jail.  But that goes without saying).  Anyways, here's a neat gif of Katie telling me to deal with it.

• Thomas and Pandora are both going to Harvard.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  This is probably the most ridiculous thing to ever happen in the history of Skins which is saying A LOT.
• Sucks that Freddie is 100% dead.

THOUGHTS on this season:

• Really liked this season overall, even though it took that weird turn for the grim towards the end there, with Effy always trying to kill herself (yikes!) and Freddie getting brutally murdered.  That wasn't fun!  But I appreciate that they dealt with more interesting and weighty issues this time around, that it wasn't just PARTYING and DRUGS and LOVE TRIANGLES like in season three.  So that was good.  Plus, I love depressing things.  But Freddie still should not have died >:(
• Cook was great this season!  I hated him last season VERY MUCH but he turned out to be quite an interesting character.  That was probably one of the best redemptive arcs ever there (top 5 for sure), and he was a lot of fun once we learned he wasn't an unrepentant mega-asshole.  Plus, the guy who plays him is really good?  And I hope he goes on to have a long and fruitful career of playing angry teenagers who beat people up and yell "FUCK!" a lot?
• I'm going to miss Effy :(.  Never has there been an episode of Skins without Effy but now they will ALL be without Effy OH HOW SAD this is almost worse than when Freddie died :( :( :(
• I am EXCITED for the MOVIE!