Character Analysis: Skins

Effy Stonem "Sometimes I think I was born backwards..."

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Character Analysis: Effy Stonem "Sometimes I think I Was Born Backwards"

This a look into the motivations, fears, and all around being of Effy Stonem.
Effy Stonem is a mystery even to herself. She has these moments of what I like to all philosophical fuckery. Now philosophical fuckery just means that Effy has a tendency to say things that are profound in a random fashion. For instance like her famous "Sometimes I think I was born backwards" statement she gives in Series 1. Now what makes this statement even more profound is that it is the first time we hear Effy speak a word out loud.

There is something inside Effy that feels broken. Yet she can see people clearly. She can see people's weaknesses, strengths, and also can get into people's heads better than most. This is proven Effy's episode in Series 2 when she gives voice to Sid's inner monologue in a creepy fashion. Not to mention her problem solving skills for Sid and for Tony. She sees people, because she is a watcher and she she is so detached.

Series 1 and Series 2 Effy spends most of the time acting the part of detached beautiful wizard. Fixing problems and seeing people. Her detachment though seems partly due to an extreme fear of intimacy. She does not like to get close to people and even voiced this to Tony asking what love is for. Tony being one of the only people who know the real Effy knows that Effy does care no matter how detached she may feel. She does take care of mother who has a depressive episode herself in Effy's Series 2 episode. She is capable of love, but the feelings of love scare her.
In Series 3 and 4 we are given an opportunity to get to know Effy Stonem even more; however, is like trying to bottle air. You know you are probably catching some of it but there is no way of telling if the air stays in the bottle or not.  

Effy is a thrill seeker. She loves the chase, she loves games, she loves talking in riddles, and loves to party. This is the only way in which Effy can successfully relate to people in the world. Emotions she does not understand as evident by her art topic for school. Though she may able to observe and analyze emotions she definitely does not know how to handle them, because they offer her no sense of control or comfort.

 
Another thing that I have noticed about Effy. Is she is always in control of the situation even if she is not talking. She is in control. Until she starts to get attached or fall in love then she starts losing that control in an epic fashion. However when Effy sits silently on the sidelines watching a scene unfold she is aware of everything and everyone. She is the puppet master and has the nuanced to pluck the strings if it interests her to do so. In the beginning of Series 3 she meets Freddie and Cook. Immediately she saw an opportunity to have some fun and to pluck a few strings. She understood these two boys and she also knew that Freddie would be the one who was too emotional to handle the game. She knew it from the beginning, but she did it anyway.

Attachments make her weaker. Effy like I said before is close to her brother. When Tony got hit by the bus it obviously took a huge toll on Effy and she took care of her older brother. That was her first attachment scare and feeling of having no control. The sad reality of potentially losing your brother wakes up the beast in Effy...the beast that has always been there....however now it is more to the surface. The second attachment that shows the powerlessness of attachment is with her parents. When her Mom has a depressive episode she takes care of her and is disappointed by her mother's affair. Then her Dad leaves the home. This created an unstable environment for Effy who was never ever that stable to begin with.

Those who seem like they have control never actually have it, because most of life is uncontrollable. Those who are healthy accept that things cannot be controlled those who are not try to composite or force it. That calm since of knowing all and controlling all only applies to other people, but her own inner world is not something she can control or dictate. A few other attachments that crush Effy in my opinion is finding out that Pandora slept with Cook. Then of course losing control of the game she started with Cook and Freddie then falling in love with Freddie despite herself also adds to that fight or flight feeling.

Effy needed to see a professional and the signs of her disorder were ignored or explained away. Being silent did not bring her the help she needed. Partying did not bring the help she needed. So when young Effy Stonem fell in love she was chartering into untraveled territory. Most people are scared in new relationships, but when your brain does not function in the way that it should it adds a whole new layer fuckery. Because Effy has not received the help she needs by entering a relationship with Freddie it weakened her defenses which allowed for her mental break to happen. She was not ready to handle the intensity and the lack of control that love supplies.

 
While Effy is recovering her psychiatric supervisor is John Foster. Dr. Foster likes to experiment with psychological manipulation especially when he develops a crush on Effy. So he uses techniques that are meant to distort Effy's reality. Now Effy is not a reality based person. What does that mean? It means her head does not process reality in a level headed manner. Therefore she falls susceptible to Dr. Foster's manipulations. If you already have a distorted reality then someone else distorting it even more is hard to figure out unless someone points it out. She does everything Foster tells her to do in order to get better and this even included eventually cutting Freddie out of her life. She also started to hang on to a lesson that Foster gave her that was addictive "It happened but it never happened." Meaning you can change reality if you are not happy with it.

 
Effy Stonem is a complex girl who desperately needed help. Though everyone failed to realize this, because she comes across as controlled and confident. The mysterious girl who knows everyone's deepest darkest secrets and can manipulate a situation could not for the life of her fix herself alone. She played games and partied hard, because it was the only way for her to feel close to anything you could possibly call pleasure or happiness. As she fell in love she became weaker, because she was not ready for it and she was not ready for the way it would make her feel about herself.