SKINS: the gang learns about friendship and MARRIAGE

So, this last episode was the finale of season 5.  Already!  We have finished.  I thought it was pretty great!  I mean, it certainly made me FEEL a lot of FEELINGS, and that's definitely a good thing.  But I'm not sure if the 25% delightful romp through the English countryside, 25% adorable rom com, 25% hilarious bromance, and 25% getting-lost-in-the-woods horror movie thing was tonally dissonant, as they say, or brilliant?  I think I'll go with brilliant, just because I enjoyed all of those parts.  It was all good!  I laughed, I thought "ooh, that's pretty," I went "aww!" and I feared for someone's life!  SUCCESS!

Montage time!  Grace is prepping for her MARRIAGE, Rich and Alo are recovering from what looks to have been a craaaaazy stag night, Liv is moodily smoking a giant spliff, etc. etc.  Franky leaves a note at Matty's, saying something like "Stop giving me googly eyes, it makes my head hurt."  Matty sees it and is like "huh."  Mini shows up and is like "Be nice to Franky, she is a precious snowflake!  And stop giving her googly eyes, I want to give her googly eyes now, too!" and Matty is like "Alright."

Everyone is getting ready for the wedding!  Franky used her vast mental deposits of creativity and sartorial know-how to craft up some lovely dresses for all the girls.  Grace looks so pretty!  The cake looks delicious!  Meanwhile, Rich got a haircut :O and now he looks like a metal Justin Bieber :O but also it looks very nice!  Good for Rich!  Clean starts, new beginnings, opening an exciting new chapter in the book of life!  It's all very exciting.

The gang head off for the wedding, but not before Mr. Blood gifts Grace with a fashionable bug pin, which is also a BUG, like the sneaky tracking device kind.  Yikes!  Watch out, Grace!  

LOOK at this mixing of plaids!!

So, the wedding is way outside of Bristol, somewhere in the dangerous English countryside.  The roads are so rugged and treacherous out there!  Alo's van breaks down and now the gang are stranded in the middle of nowhere, looking all sad and dejected in their fancy wedding outfits.

Some of the gang try to find out where to go and Matty just whips out some COCAAAAAAINE.  Grace yells at Franky for goofing off, but it's okay because she's so fabulous and she's probably really stressed about her WEDDING anyway.   Then!  Daisy from Spaced shows up in a CAR and is like "I can give TWO of you a ride!" 

DAISY FROM SPACED!!

So Grace and Rich ride off with Daisy from Spaced to the church, and along the way they learn a valuable lesson about how being married makes some people lame.  Daisy's husband used to be into Napalm Death!  Mad cool.  But now he's some sort of lame hippie.  And Rich is like, clearly making a mental note to not become a lame hippie.

SKINS: the gang learns about Shakespeare and Grace's magical wardrobe

So, this last episode was pretty good!  We finally got a closer look at the mind and wardrobe of the fabulous Grace Violet-Blood, plus there was a lot of DRAMA.  Good stuff!  RECAP.

Rich stayed over at Grace's one night and now he has to escape by sneaking suavely, oh so suavely, past . . . PRINCIPAL BLOOD?!?!  Because he is GRACE'S DAD?!  Turns out Principal Blood, bribe enthusiast extraordinaire and hated authority figure, is Grace's dad, but she's been keeping this interesting fact quiet since it would damage his reputation or something.  Anyways, Rich gets caught and now Grace's parents know who he is.  Grace is like "Parents!  This is Rich!" and her parents are like "JUDGING."

Grace's dad is mad at her for hanging around with the gang, who are all not as posh as they should be.  So he threatens to send her back to this all girls school that is very far away from the rest of the gang WHICH IS NOT A GOOD IDEA :( and this makes Grace cry WHICH IS EVEN MORE NOT GOOD :( so now she has to get an A in her drama class in order to stay in Bristol.  She's like the director of this Shakespeare play, and the rest of the gang minus Nick are the actors.  Mini is a horrible actor. Franky has to get all romantic with Matty, which makes Liv very upset so she's like "Grace, Matty and I are leaving your play forever and ever GOODBYE!" and now Grace is going to fail her class.  Liv is such a great friend!

Rich meets with Principal Blood, who did a background check on Rich's poshness because this is something that really needed to be done before he could have dinner with the Bloods.  Turns out Rich is not posh enough.  Who would have thought!  So Principal Blood bribes him into performing badly in Grace's play so that he can blackmail his own daughter. 

Formal wear!  SO METAL!

SKINS: the gang sticks it to the man!/Alo's parents

So, this last episode was an Alo episode, and it was pretty fun!  Except for that part when he blew the cow up.  And when that guy was mean to Franky.  I guess some of it was kind of sad?  Anyways.  Alo!  Great character.  Farm stuff.  Here's a RECAP.

Alo lives on a farm, and it's his birthday, so his mom gives him a shovel.  What a thoughtful gift!  The gang has planned a party for Alo but he can't go because he needs to help out on the farm.  He rides a tractor around while blasting some dubstep, which makes me think that farming might not be so LAME when you can blast some dubstep while doing it.

Farm stuff.

Alo shirks his farm duties and goes out to PARTY, and then his parents decide to take him out of school and use him a slave labor on the farm because he's like SUCH a disappointment.  They all go to meet with the principal at school, and he's like "yeah, good idea Alo's parents, education is not for everyone."  Alo is kind of sad but then the gang "does a kidnap" on him and they go to a pub.  Fun!  The gang is like "you gotta stick it to the man, Alo!  Burn the farm down!  Show your parents who's boss!" and Alo is like "yeah gang, that's nice and all, but I love my parents!" and they are like "LAME."  Then Alo's parents show up and kidnap him back to the farm because Alo's dog is part bloodhound, and a very good tracker.