Skins US 1.04 “Cadie” Review

Cadie, Cadie, Cadie… Your life is definitely, completely screwed up.

Last night’s episode of Skins focused on the pill-popping/walking medicine cabinet known as Cadie Campbell, who hides her pain, inflicted by family and friends, through her excessive drug use, which might not be the main cause for her fractured state. Cadie’s problem in life, sadly, actually conceived her, only to toss her to the side like a bothersome house chore they would rather not deal with. With parents like these, it’s a wonder Cadie hasn’t succumbed to something tragic before hand, which is a sad thought to have.

Let’s discuss The Campbells for a second. You have Cadie’s father who seems like a rogue taxidermist, unless what was shown tonight with the animal’s insides on display was completely normal. Even still, it’s pretty warped that he takes more interest in his hobby than his own daughter, which he considers a broken object that needs repairing.

Then you have Cadie’s mother who is the quintessential ex-beauty queen and only care about her image, which she will maintain no matter the consequences. I’ve never heard a parent push their kid to get more meds in order to be happy. If your child needs medicine to live a “normal” life to begin with, then that’s a problem. It’s a red flag problem that you have to be epically, blissfully ignorant to ignore, which is kind of a more frightening depiction of the modern American family that is sadly growing more and more prevalent in today’s society. Then for her mom to tell her that emotions aren’t real, because you can’t physically touch them? Someone please get child services on the line, STAT!

Next on the table of dissection is Cadie’s “friends and boyfriend” who unconsciously use her to their advantage in terms of drugs and, in Stanley’s case, to save face on an lie concocted by Tony. Any other person in Cadie’s situation would’ve put their foot down and fought by now, but Cadie is desperate for someone to love her and goes to some extreme lenghts to do just that. Unfortunately, no one was listening and those who got the message received it a tad too late. The episode ended with a dire outlook for Cadie, who was knocked around on all cylinders throughout the hour. Easily the most troubled of the group, Cadie could also be possibly the first one to succumb to it all. Stanley might be her only hope now, but how long will it take before he sees that?

Birds played a huge part in the episode, but I saw them as a representation of Cadie being a bird trapped in the cage of her mind. Her bedroom consisted of a bird nest-like quality with the scraps making up the design of the room, or maybe an abstract version of her mental state. The only puzzling thing about this motif was her apparant (?) fear of pigeons in particular, which can be interpreted in numerous ways, albeit none of them clicked for me.

In other happenings in Baltimore, Tony confronted Tea about their tryst and why she’s been avoiding it. It was hard to see Tea so vulernable against Tony, who is only worried about this issue out of control. Inititally it seemed as if Tony actually had feelings for Tea, but now the obsession factor has crossed over into an area of control. So Tea did “feel something” when she was with him, but what does that have to do with Tony? Again, does he like Tea or does he want to control her? Has Michelle gotten too boring for Tony with her constant need to please him with Tea presenting a new challenge? Time will only tell with these two, but I bet Cadie will be the one to unintentionally unleash the knowledge of Tea and Tony’s secret to the rest of the group.

Another solid episode, which gets extra marks for veering even farther from the UK version with not pinning Cassie’s anorexia on Cadie’s character. They both still suffer from that one drug that always disappoints, thought, which is love.

So what did you all think about the episode?