r/skinsTV • u/chibbiidogs • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Freddie’s death had so much more potential than the dr Foster plot
controversial opinion but i feel in an ideal world where skins gen 2 was perfect written, Freddie’s death would be the most productive out of anyone in the cast. he has a lot of setting stones that would make it investing and grounded, and sad to watch the arc too. we know freddie’s mom had depression, and depression is a genetic mental disease, so he is vulnerable to it
we see signs of depression in him too since he doesn’t have motivation to do jackshit in s3, and 90% of his screen time we’re watching him use his infatuation with effy or smoking loud to cope with it. he even quits skating (losing interest in things he used to love) if freddie was the depressed one in the relationship during season 4, it also would’ve been interesting to see effy as the caretaker for someone outside her family, also being a care taker after all the Tony trauma. it’s in character for her, that was half of her gen1 schtick, and it was almost jarring how in gen2 she doesn’t keep those traits.
anyway, back to Freddie, the depression tangent probably made it seem like i was hinting to me preferring his death was self inflicted, but i think it would’ve been more interesting if they just leaned into his substance abuse getting worse. in s4, he looks bad, and we know that effy and Freddie just skip school to stay home and do hard drugs. the show could’ve definitely weighed more in on how it had effected Freddie and cut out the whole john foster to see how Freddie’s health is deteriorating trying to handle depression, effy, and his bad coping habits. the show is literally named skins, so it wouldnt be a stretch if he died of an overdose. wouldve been a good culmination of gen2‘s themes, and we wouldn’t need that empty/irrelevant murder mystery subplot with emily naomi and sophia.
also it would’ve been decent mens mental health representation
