Skins

- Season 4

(2010)

Focuses around Thomas and his coming to terms with life and love in England.

Emily confronts Naomi over her supplying Sophia with drugs. Emily has learned that Sophia was gay and her locker is a shrine to Naomi, who denies any sexual relationship with Sophia. Emily and Naomi then move in together, but at a party where Cook assaults another guest for no apparent reason, Emily gets Sophia's brother to open a box that contains Sophia's hand-drawn account of her affair with Naomi, who rejected her for Emily, hence her subsequent drastic actions.

Cook is remanded in custody following the GBH charge but later released, with an electronic tag, to live with his alcoholic mother Ruth and adoring younger brother Paddy. He's also expelled from college for the assault. Appalled to learn that Ruth had sex with Freddie, he steals her car along with Paddy and trashes it. Then, becoming alarmed that Paddy might turn out like him, he admits to selling Sophia the drugs, takes the rap for Naomi, and gets sent down.

Things are not going well for Katie. Following a pregnancy scare she learns that she is infertile and loses her job as a wedding planner when she gets drunk and aggressive at her client's hen night. To cap it all her father's recklessness has rendered the family bankrupt and they move in temporarily with Emily and Naomi,creating stress all round. Emily and Naomi fight at a barbecue,causing Naomi to admit that it was she and not Cook who supplied Sophia with drugs. The two girls do make up whilst Thomas,learning of Katie's situation,comforts her.

Effy and Freddie are living together but Freddie is troubled by Effy's morbid outlook and her obsession with death. He visits his grandfather Norman in his residential home and the old man tells Freddie that he believes Effy should have psychiatric treatment. Effy then locks herself in a bathroom and attempts suicide, but is taken to hospital and survives. Freddie visits but she rebuffs him, but Cook, who has apparently escaped from custody, turns up and advises him to persevere.

JJ falls for Lara, who works in the sweet shop with him, but when he visits her flat, he discovers that she is a single parent with a baby, Albert. JJ's family disapproves of Lara as being a tart, and Emily tells him she thinks Lara is using him to get back at her violent ex-boyfriend Liam. JJ gets into a fight with Liam, who tells him that he loves his child and gives JJ his blessing if he will care for Lara. JJ gets back together with Lara and serenades her on the ukulele.

Effy spends some time in a psychiatric hospital and is discharged under the care of psychotherapist John Foster, but her friends are concerned about Foster's influence over her, isolating her from the rest of them. After she freaks out at the scene of Tony's accident, she returns to hospital, where Freddie visits her and encounters Foster, whom he warns to stay away from her. Foster invites Freddie to his house to talk about Effy.

As Emily, Naomi, Pandora, and Thomas make up, the gang become concerned for the absent Freddie and hold his birthday party in his absence. Cook, who has read Freddie's notebook which mention's Foster's obsession with Effy, follows the psychiatric worker home and breaks into his basement, where he discovers a bag containing Freddie's blood-stained clothes. Foster comes in and attacks him but ,with a cry of "I'm Cook" the youngster hits him back with the baseball bat and avenges his friend's death.