Ron Does Stuff

The previous episode was the gang’s last day in Paris. They’re headed back to England, with Nick now an out bisexual and the two teachers doing ~adult stuff~. Let’s see how all of these changes things once they’re back home.

We start the episode with the lesbians make-out session being interrupted by Tara’s mom. Apparently, Tara’s grandmother isn’t the most welcoming when it comes to queer people, so Darcy has to leave before she gets caught.

One half of the British homosexuals — Nick — is reminiscing about the Paris trip, and his happy recollection is cut shot when he notices that Charlie didn’t touch his food during the dinner in episode four. Meanwhile, Charlie’s happy reminiscing is spoiled by Ben messaging him, wanting to talk.

We then get an update on the heterosexuals. Tao’s happy that he and Elle are together, and in a moment that’s truly Asian representation, Tao’s mom can’t wait to tell everyone that her son has a girlfriend.

Over at the Nelson house, Academy Award winner Olivia Colman tells the family that Nick’s dad is going to be visiting next week, and Nick smoothly suggests that Charlie should come over. Nick’s asshole brother David asks why Nick is allowed to bring someone over, so Academy Award winner Olivia Colman asks if David has a girlfriend she should know about.

Charlie gets the invitation to the family dinner at the Nelson house, and you immediately know that it’s not going to be a fun time because his sister points out that their mom isn’t exactly a fan of Nick. Ben is also persistently messaging Charlie on Instagram, and I just wanna say, Ben, babe, this is not the way to go about this.

Of course, the heteros aren’t getting out of this unscathed either. Elle’s artwork is going to be displayed at an exhibition in the art school she applied for, but she can’t find the strength yet to tell Tao that she’s gotten in the school. She’s still keeping it a secret, and we all know how secret-keeping worked out so well between Charlie and Tao.

The gang go on a clothes shopping trip for the exhibit and prom, but we see Isaac peel away from the group to meet up with James, the guy everyone thought gave Charlie the hickey before Nick fessed up. Ben still hasn’t stopped messaging Charlie, and even if he really did change or whatever, this isn’t the best way to show Charlie this. Especially when you couldn’t even acknowledge Charlie in public before, while Nick just asked him to prom.

Tara, because she is a lesbian, has already figured out that Elle has actually been accepted to the art school, but Elle makes her promise to keep it a secret since she doesn’t know how well Tao is going to take the news. The gang also pool their resources to buy Darcy’s prom outfit, which I guess is foreshadowing about the conflict that’s going to happen between her and Tara. It’s not in the book, but maybe Darcy’s in some economic trouble and it’s going to affect her relationship with Tara.

Meanwhile, Isaac and James finally meet up and oh god I feel so bad for James because he essentially gets dumped before he and Isaac even become a thing. And Isaac is so nice about it too, even saying that maybe he’s the one with the problem. Kudos to the guy playing James because the pain on his face? So controlled but still so obvious. Isaac also gets to shout at the rest of the gang, for once, and I get him! It’s frustrating to be in a friend group where you’re the only uncoupled one and everybody is waiting for you to be with someone.

The day of the art exhibit arrives and Tao gets a nasty shock when it’s revealed that Elle’s been accepted to the art school. He can’t look Elle in the eye. Will this result in an epic crash out? We’ll have to wait and see.

Elsewhere in the exhibit, Isaac is fascinated by one of the pieces, which the artist explains is about his experience as an aromantic asexual solo polyamorous hijabi amputee and this makes something click in Isaac’s head. Maybe he is an aromantic asexual solo polyamorous hijabi amputee.

Over at the lesbian corner of the exhibit, Darcy’s mom is asking her to come home NOW and this might be the conflict that they’ll be having. Darcy promises that she’ll go to prom, but something tells me that this trip to the art exhibit will result in her mom forbidding her to go to prom.

It’s finally time to unveil Elle’s painting and it’s one of her with Tao, Charlie, and Isaac, people who she call her safe space. It assuages Tao’s feelings, and Elle, for her part, tells him that she really hasn’t made her final decision yet and might still just stay in the same school.

Outside the school, Nick and Charlie are confronted by Ben, who says he only wants to apologize to him and won’t be in the school next year anyway, so if he could just hear him out this one time. Ben says he’s a messed-up person, but he really did like Charlie, and that he was something good in his life. HOWEVER, Charlie has had an entirely different experience during their time together, saying that Ben made him feel less than and didn’t respect his boundaries or even asked for his consent. He tells Ben that because of him, he now has this voice at the back of his mind telling him that HE’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH and he can’t just ask Charlie for forgiveness so he can feel good about himself.

That’s Ben out of Charlie’s life then!

After coming back from Elle’s exhibit, Nick and Charlie now have to deal with Nick’s dad, who is now in England for the promised family dinner. Nick is nervous about telling his dad about him and Charlie but Academy Award winner Olivia Colman assures him that he doesn’t owe his dad that.

However, it doesn’t look like this dinner is going to end well at all. Charlie is picking at his food — those potatoes looked great too! — and then David essentially forces Nick to come out to his dad by dropping multiple unsubtle hits during the dinner. Tori at least stands up for the two, but Nick eventually just comes clean and leaves the table. The dinner further devolves as the cracks in Nick’s family are blown wide open because of what happened.

But at least, like squeezing pus out of an infection, all that’s out in the open now and maybe that family can heal. And at least Tori has promised pain for David if he ever talks bad about Charlie again.

Academy Award winner Olivia Colman does notice that Charlie didn’t eat a lot, and I don’t often say this about English food but that food looked good. Nick starts Googling about eating disorders. Over at Darcy’s place, she ends up in a huge fight with her mom, resulting in her running away from home. This is definitely the set-up for the season finale.