I love how, when Rich was watching Grace’s ballet recital, he was mostly watching her shadow. The scene was beautifully shot, but I don’t believe it was shot this way just for aesthetic reasons, because this is Skins and the creators are good at being clever and symbolic.
We know from Rich’s bedroom and his outfits that he likes the colour black. In trying to appreciate the beauty of Grace’s performance, I think he was drawn to the darkness of the shadows moving across the stage.
I also noticed in other scenes that Rich often looked down when talking to Grace. I think he was looking away from Grace because he felt confronted by and unworthy of how beautiful he found her.
gifs by glorious-fucking-head-fuck-thing
Nice!! I’ve watched it twice already and haven’t even gotten to consciously analyzing the visual symbolism. The first few times I’m just like, “prettehhh”. Rophydoes comes up with a lot of neat connections (and hilarity).
Anyway I love how skins couples its characters. Rich believes that only magnetic opposites attract, not people. But we know that opposites attract when the opposites are complimentary. Great couples in narrative are the ones that find in the other person the qualities they lack themselves, and so they help drive each others’ development. Gracie is so open and sweet, Rich shut off from everyone; Gracie takes pride in being a great friend and making sure everyone likes her, while Rich won’t compromise. And it was so entertaining when Gracie became a metalhead version of herself. <3 We feel an immediate dynamic between them, although it’s still in the platonic stage because Rich didn’t have a clue. And although he finally realizes that he could be with Gracie, he was passive about it at the end of his episode. Rich has begun this new challenge of compromising- because isn’t that what we all do sometimes when we don’t want to be alone?
It’s going to be fun to see these characters develop; and knowing skins, it probably won’t be as I predict: that Gracie will gain more independence from Minnie and Rich will actively pursue her (Cassie’s squirt gun = Gracie’s performance?). Even if it plays out like this, it’s already an interesting story.
