Skins

Tony is recovering from the massive head injury he sustained at the end of Series 1. Sid and Michelle are nowhere to be seen. Looking after an invalid friend has just been too much for them. So Maxxie is looking after Tony for the day. Maxxie wants to leave college and become a dancer but his parents are giving him hell about it. Tony wants to go back to college but his parents won't play either. Their world has been rocked to its foundations and they just don't know what to do with their crippled son. So Maxxie wants out and Tony wants in and they're going to have to help each other. That's if the gay hating ASBO boys on Maxxie's estate don't get them first.

Sketch is a new character. A weird loner, shut up in a horrible council flat looking after her disabled Mum. And Sketch is Maxxie's stalker. Everything in her life is about Maxxie. If only he would even notice her, if only she wasn't hopelessly in love with him. If only he wasn't gay. Sketch is prepared to do anything to get her man, and if she can't have him, she's going to make sure nobody can. As the college production of "Osama: The Musical" teeters towards disaster, Sketch finally comes face-to-face with the man of her dreams. But will she get him?

Sid hasn't coped at all well with the fact that his best friend Tony is a shadow of the man he was and that Cassie has moved away to Scotland, where as far as he can tell, she is having the time of her life. His mood is not helped when his Grandad; Malcy Jenkins, a notorious and unintentionally hilarious Glaswegian Hard Bastard arrives, dying of cancer to make Sid's Dad's life a misery and say his final goodbyes. Malcy has never liked his son and he likes Sid even less. And he's brought Sid's transcendently stupid Uncle Sandy, the apple of his eye, along for good measure. So it's family meltdown. And when Sid comes down for breakfast and discovers that his own father has had a heart attack and died in the night, his life crisis deepens into a chasm of despair. Sometimes life is just too sudden, too cruel…just too cruel. Fathers and sons. What can you do?

So Michelle's Mum Anna has gone and done it again. Another new husband. And worse Michelle has to move in with them into their new, poncy house. And again, even worse. Michelle hates her new big-titted emotionally manipulative step sister Scarlett. Before she knows what's happening, Scarlett is invading her life, co-opting her friends and offering unwanted advice about what to do about the still incapacitated Tony. So when Scarlett inveigles herself onto the group camping trip to the Gower and starts to move in on the emotionally fragile Sid, Michelle's got to do something. Sid needs Michelle, he's her friend, he lost his dad, so she sleeps with him and it's fantastic, the fuck of a lifetime and…hang on. How are they going to tell Tony? And who's that arriving at the door to say a joyous hallo; surely it's not Cassie, back from Scotland and full of hope for Sid? Bloody hell, now they're in trouble.

It's been a long road full of tribulations, drugs, petty theft, non attendance and resounding failure for Chris at College. So when the CCTV cameras catch him shagging Buck Tooth in the Science Corridor, the Director calls time. Chris is out. And out of his college accommodation as well. Homeless, and completely fucked, Chris is going down hill fast, until Jal steps in with a challenge. Get a job, get some focus and she'll try to unwind a little and be a better friend. So Chris gets a job, several of them in fact; he just can't stop being fired. Never mind, he's got the smallest bed-sit in Bristol to live in and Jal 's hanging around a lot and…Oh my god, he's just noticed that when Jal unwinds, she's gorgeous. Totally, totally gorgeous. Thus starts the affair of the century. If only… if only they'd used some contraception…

Tony's world is a strange one. Isolated, alone, desperate to find the way back to himself, he lives in a world of half understood dreams. Nobody understands how the world looks to him except the strange beautiful Girl he meets after a panic stricken encounter with Sid and Michelle in a club. Who is she? What is she trying to say to him? And when Tony goes to a university open day and runs into her again; his head tells him that she is an angel. The only thing is; can he ever trust his head again?

What is it about Effy? The mystery girl's had a lot to deal with; the Stonem house is in disarray, Jim's working abroad, Anthea's away with the fairies, and Tony's moping after Michelle. On top of this, Effy has her GCSE art coursework deadline looming. What she needs is to sort out her family's problems, her academic future, Tony and Michelle, Sid and Cassie, without losing her reputation for being the wildest kid on the block. But what she doesn't count on is spoddy Pandora, the new girl she's been lumbered with, turning out to be best friend material. The future's bright, the future's Pandora.

Jal's trying to keep the pregnancy a secret until she works out what the hell she's going to do. But Spanish Orals, A-level Revision, Music Auditions, and needy friends are pressing down on her and her secret is starting to leak out. What's more, Chris has asked her to move in. Will a visit from her Mum make everything better? It'll make her realise that the person she needs to talk to is the father of her child; Chris. What Jal doesn't know is Chris' got his own secret. And before Jal's has time to come to terms with what's been happening, Chris is wheeled away to the operating theatre. This is serious. This is life or death.

What's niggling Cassie? She's back together with Sid, Chris is in the clear, Michelle and Tony are back on, A-level exams are over, and to celebrate, Sid's organised a dinner party where everyone tries to get along. Everyone that is, except Cassie. How can they all forgive and be happy, when all this love is mixed in with so much pain? And then comes the total kicker. Chris isn't in the clear. He collapses again, and this time it's fatal. Chris is dead. So what does Cassie do? She runs and runs and keeps going; until she reaches New York. Yes that's right. New York. And she meets an American guy. He's friendly, lets her stay, no strings attached. It's a clean cut kind of love but it's curiously empty…so is love with the pain it comes with worth it? It just might be.

It's the day of A-level results, and also of Chris's funeral. The gang have made a pact not to look at their grades til after they've said goodbye to Chris. But Jal can't face getting out of bed and Cassie's half way across the world. Then, to cap it off, Chris's Dad appears and tells Sid the gang are banned from the funeral. So who does Sid go to? Tony. Even though they're not really friends anymore. By the end of the episode, our friends will have said their goodbyes to Chris and each other, Tony and Sid's friendship will be set in stone, and Sid will be on his way to where he belongs: half way across the world. It's the end of an era. But look who's coming up behind. It's Effy…the new Queen of Skins.