Skins US: 1x08 Daisy.
Now that the first season of Skins US is almost over, with only two episodes to go, it’s Daisy’s turn to kind of give an overview of what happened so far and to put it into perspective, and one of the reasons why I enjoyed this episode much more than most of the previous ones is that Daisy is, in a way, an outlet for the critical viewer. When Abbud and Stan visit her at her job, a fast food place where she earns good tips because she is required to wear revealing outfits (“This place is offensive to women. Awesomely offensive.”, comments Abbud), they recap all the messy relationships the show has provided so far: Stan loves Cadie, but Cadie probably doesn’t love Stan, and Stan also kind of loves Michelle but Michelle loves Tony who has been spreading Chlamydia like a boss but especially to Tea who no longer wants anything from Tony but it going out with Betty and Abbud is still kind of pissed that Tea didn’t end up sleeping with him if she is compromising her “not built for boys” stance anyways. Daisy listens to this and can’t believe how ridiculous her friends are, especially since she has real problems, like a dad who can’t make rent and a mother who left to have a career in music and left chaos and destruction behind, which leaves her completely alone with her goal to use her incredible talent and go to music college. Skins has never been at its best when it was about triangles (or shapes with even more sides). It’s a strange coincidence that Daisy is airing the week after Alo was confronted with a similar issue: sometimes, teenagers face problems that are bigger than love and sex and drugs, and it’s hard connect to others who don’t have similarly overbearing issues.
Now that the first season of Skins US is almost over, with only two episodes to go, it’s Daisy’s turn to kind of give an overview of what happened so far and to put it into perspective, and one of the reasons why I enjoyed this episode much more than most of the previous ones is that Daisy is, in a way, an outlet for the critical viewer. When Abbud and Stan visit her at her job, a fast food place where she earns good tips because she is required to wear revealing outfits (“This place is offensive to women. Awesomely offensive.”, comments Abbud), they recap all the messy relationships the show has provided so far: Stan loves Cadie, but Cadie probably doesn’t love Stan, and Stan also kind of loves Michelle but Michelle loves Tony who has been spreading Chlamydia like a boss but especially to Tea who no longer wants anything from Tony but it going out with Betty and Abbud is still kind of pissed that Tea didn’t end up sleeping with him if she is compromising her “not built for boys” stance anyways. Daisy listens to this and can’t believe how ridiculous her friends are, especially since she has real problems, like a dad who can’t make rent and a mother who left to have a career in music and left chaos and destruction behind, which leaves her completely alone with her goal to use her incredible talent and go to music college. Skins has never been at its best when it was about triangles (or shapes with even more sides). It’s a strange coincidence that Daisy is airing the week after Alo was confronted with a similar issue: sometimes, teenagers face problems that are bigger than love and sex and drugs, and it’s hard connect to others who don’t have similarly overbearing issues.
Abbud: He loves Cadie, I love Tea, everything’s screwed up, nobody’s talking, so we have come to see you so you can fix everything.
Daisy: I have to fix everything?
Abbud: Yeah, that’s what you do, right, you fix everything?
And Daisy does fix everything, and hold everything together. She takes care of her little sister who deals with her father’s strictness by throwing parties, a problem Daisy has to solve. She respects that her father has taken to hating all kinds of music (“I need quiet. Keep thing quiet, you hear. “) because they remind him of his wife, even though it means sneaking out to make music herself. She tries to get her friends to talk to each other.
Daisy: SAY SORRY
Abbud and Tea: WHO?
Daisy: BOTH OF YOU.
Tea: But I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not married for Christ’s sake.
Abbud: But Tony is though, practically.
Tea: Well, that’s not my problem, is it, cause I’m not seeing him.
Abbud: Yeah, well, you’re not seeing much of Michelle either. She hates you now.
Tea: That’s it. I quit couples counselling.
Abbud: No, don’t. You said you loved me.
Tea: I said we’d get through it, stop going back to that.
Abbud: I’m not getting through it. Alright? Just say something to make this alright.
Tea: I made a mistake. Which is stupid because he’s a boy and that’s not my style.
Abbud: What is your style?
Tea: I have to roll it so everybody can judge me don’t I. I screwed him, okay, and it was terrible. There’s something in him that I can’t help wanting. Is that such a crime?
I gave Abbud’s episode a lot of credit for what I thought was the resolution: that the friendship between Abbud and Tea is more important than all the other stuff, and worth fighting for – but the following episodes chipped away on that idea, going back on the idea that Abbud loves Tea again and again. It’s difficult to like a character for his good traits (and the same applies to Stanley) when there is always this overbearing character flaw (Abbud not accepting that Tea would probably not even sleep with him if she was straight because they are FRIENDS). It’s also getting increasingly harder to watch Tony, who, at the end of this dialogue, leans smugly against a door frame listening to Tea explain herself (and it’s always Tea who has to explain herself, never Tony), while the show doesn’t bother with actually showing what that magic something is that Tea sees in him.
Tony: So are you, Dais?
Daisy: What?
Tony: Pretty great. Why hasn’t anybody seen that side of you?
Daisy: Yeah? You’re volunteering again, Tony?
Tony: No, I’ve got enough issues.
Daisy. Yeah, and I wanna practice, so.
Tony: All work and no play, huh?
Daisy: You mean the way you play, Tony? Cause that’s not playing, that’s fucking everyone up.
Tony: Yeah. I’m an idiot.
Daisy: Yeah, you really are.
There is an exclusive club of people on Skins who manage to shut Tony up, and that club is, incidentally, identical to my list of favourite characters. I never got the impression that nobody sees the “pretty great” side of Daisy – Stanley and Abbud seem to be very conscious of it at the Diner, and she actually was presented as close friends with Tea and later Michelle (even though the show isn’t very consistent with the friendships). It’s just that Tony has never seen this side to her because he doesn’t appreciate her qualities.
Abbud meets Daisy by the harbour after she had an argument with her dad.
Abbud meets Daisy by the harbour after she had an argument with her dad.
Daisy: I was thinking, if the wind blew too hard and would set this thing clear into the harbour?
Abbud: Well, that won’t be too good.
Daisy: Causes unhappiness.
Abbud: Not yours.
Daisy: I’m not so sure. It’s crazy. He won’t even have the radio on.
Abbud: Why?
Daisy: In case he hears her.
Abbud: Wow, that is extreme.
Daisy: My family is just rules. And silence.
Abbud: My religion’s got a shit-ton of rules too. The one that really makes sense to me is ‘do no harm’. That’s you, Daisy. You do no harm. That’s why you’re so cool.
Daisy: Thanks. I’m pretty down with that too.
This is Daisy’s conflict: The trumpet is her future and her happiness, but it collides with her dad’s idea of what she should do, and it also symbolizes what he claims destroyed his relationship with his wife (ambition). Daisy wants both, and she spends the episode trying to figure out what to sacrifice.
Daisy suggests having sex – “No drama, right, no emotions, or anything complicated, Just sex. […] Just mindless self-gratification” – and Abbud is on board, naturally, but there is a lot standing between the idea and the actual execution. Abbud helps Daisy to break up a party her sister Dee Dee threw, and to clean up the chaos she caused (and get rid of Eura the quiet puke-monster with the help of a significantly unconcerned Tony).
Daisy suggests having sex – “No drama, right, no emotions, or anything complicated, Just sex. […] Just mindless self-gratification” – and Abbud is on board, naturally, but there is a lot standing between the idea and the actual execution. Abbud helps Daisy to break up a party her sister Dee Dee threw, and to clean up the chaos she caused (and get rid of Eura the quiet puke-monster with the help of a significantly unconcerned Tony).
Daisy: You’re all gonna help me clear this shit up, you’re all gonna get over whatever bug you have in your asses, and you’re all gonna shut the fuck up and help me.
They clean it all up, but the damage to the piano is irreparable, so Daisy covers it up and just hopes that her dad is never going to uncover the piano (it does, after all, remind him of everything he’s lost). Ironically, the piano, with all the emotions that are connected to it, also happens to be the most valuable possession, and Daisy’s dad finds it destroyed when he tries to sell it to make rent. Daisy takes the blame, because she is the one in the family carrying the burden, and her father demands the money she saved for her audition.
Abbud: Daisy, that’s not right.
Daisy: Just leave it ‘bbud.
Abbud: No… you can’t do this.
Daisy: Just go.
Mr Valero: Beat it, kid.
Abbud: I know she loves me and you don’t deserve it. She’s never gonna leave you cause she knows you can’t take it. You’re her dad. Grow up.
Seeing this whole scene play out is probably the moment that makes Abbud realize that Daisy’s situation is much more complicated than the soap opera issues he has been worrying about so far. Daisy is working hard towards her goal of becoming a professional musician, in a hostile environment with no support whatsoever, AND she has to deal with her father’s emotional issues that make it impossible for him to support his children. Just this once, Abbud stands up for someone else, and not for entirely selfish reasons – and he doesn’t leave.
Daisy makes a decision at the end of the episode. She loves her family. She cares about them. She decides to use the money to buy her dad a new piano, instead of making her own dream come true. It’s a heart-breaking moment because it’s clear that she has been working incredibly hard to get there, and has the talent to actually achieve her dreams – but when it comes down to it, she is more protective about her family than she is about her own aspirations. Her father comes around too, realizing, while listening to the music at the auditions, that he has to value what he is instead of grieving what he lost (“I don’t know what I got, do I.”)
Daisy makes a decision at the end of the episode. She loves her family. She cares about them. She decides to use the money to buy her dad a new piano, instead of making her own dream come true. It’s a heart-breaking moment because it’s clear that she has been working incredibly hard to get there, and has the talent to actually achieve her dreams – but when it comes down to it, she is more protective about her family than she is about her own aspirations. Her father comes around too, realizing, while listening to the music at the auditions, that he has to value what he is instead of grieving what he lost (“I don’t know what I got, do I.”)
Mr Valero: I need the money for the rent.
Daisy: Fuck the rent, dad.
Mr Valero: Yeah.
Daisy: Why don’t you try it?
They play together, and Mr Valero smiles quietly to himself when he recognizes how incredibly talented his daughter is – “She’s got a lot of her mom in there, except she cares about people.”
Random notes:
In my head, parents who take out their issues with each other on their kids are going to a special kind of hell. There was nothing the episode could have done to redeem Mr Valero – this is just something I NEVER forgive. The idea that a parent would be opposed to their kid choosing a career as an artist was fine when Maxxie’s dad did it, because he was sincerely concerned about the future of his son, but here it’s such a hateful, fucked-up situation (“No. I don’t want that. That’s not for you.”) that I really couldn’t enjoy what was meant to be a beautiful moment between daughter and father at the end.
Mr Valero: You heard me, girl. And don’t be defying me.
Daisy: If you bend my horn, I swear I’ll leave you and never come back. You’re such an idiot. It’s no wonder she left.
Don’t shrug at me, what is that even supposed to mean? I said don’t shrug at me, would you look at this place? Stop shrugging at me. […] Jesus, now you’re doing it too? What is this, an indifference convention?
Eura isn’t Effy. I wonder if Dee Dee is going to come back for Eura’s episode (the finale).
“on the way to bone you”- Romantic, Abbud.
Oh, I guess Busty Bocadillo has conditioned Daisy to expect that her boobs are magic and that explains what can’t even be called revealing tops, since most of her tops are merely adjacent to her bras with no overlap whatsoever.
If Stanley and Cadie as a couple is the endgame of Skins US I will take everything good I ever said about the show back. Cadie seems to genuinely enjoy herself with Warren –
“I just pretend the ball isn’t a real ball but like a globe of superheated energy and the net’s god’s waiting room”
And Daisy’s attempt to point out to her that they have nothing in common and barely anything to talk about really only served to remind the viewers that Stan and Cadie don’t have, either (while Stan and Michelle kind of do).
Also, Stan has never looked more ridiculous than in the scene with Warren – beaten up already, wearing a T-shirt with fast food on it.
Abbud: Hm. Daisy.
Daisy: Yup.
Abbud: I’m gonna go.
Daisy: Sure.
Abbud: Mindless sex, right?
Daisy: Totally mindless.
Abbud: No complications?
Daisy: None.
Abbud: Well then.
I assume that this is the beginning of a great romance but who knows.
Webisode (in which Tea is more precious than all season so far)
Diary
Random notes:
In my head, parents who take out their issues with each other on their kids are going to a special kind of hell. There was nothing the episode could have done to redeem Mr Valero – this is just something I NEVER forgive. The idea that a parent would be opposed to their kid choosing a career as an artist was fine when Maxxie’s dad did it, because he was sincerely concerned about the future of his son, but here it’s such a hateful, fucked-up situation (“No. I don’t want that. That’s not for you.”) that I really couldn’t enjoy what was meant to be a beautiful moment between daughter and father at the end.
Mr Valero: You heard me, girl. And don’t be defying me.
Daisy: If you bend my horn, I swear I’ll leave you and never come back. You’re such an idiot. It’s no wonder she left.
Don’t shrug at me, what is that even supposed to mean? I said don’t shrug at me, would you look at this place? Stop shrugging at me. […] Jesus, now you’re doing it too? What is this, an indifference convention?
Eura isn’t Effy. I wonder if Dee Dee is going to come back for Eura’s episode (the finale).
“on the way to bone you”- Romantic, Abbud.
Oh, I guess Busty Bocadillo has conditioned Daisy to expect that her boobs are magic and that explains what can’t even be called revealing tops, since most of her tops are merely adjacent to her bras with no overlap whatsoever.
If Stanley and Cadie as a couple is the endgame of Skins US I will take everything good I ever said about the show back. Cadie seems to genuinely enjoy herself with Warren –
“I just pretend the ball isn’t a real ball but like a globe of superheated energy and the net’s god’s waiting room”
And Daisy’s attempt to point out to her that they have nothing in common and barely anything to talk about really only served to remind the viewers that Stan and Cadie don’t have, either (while Stan and Michelle kind of do).
Also, Stan has never looked more ridiculous than in the scene with Warren – beaten up already, wearing a T-shirt with fast food on it.
Abbud: Hm. Daisy.
Daisy: Yup.
Abbud: I’m gonna go.
Daisy: Sure.
Abbud: Mindless sex, right?
Daisy: Totally mindless.
Abbud: No complications?
Daisy: None.
Abbud: Well then.
I assume that this is the beginning of a great romance but who knows.
Webisode (in which Tea is more precious than all season so far)
Diary
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