A cold open, rather than the anticipated theme music. A shot of a sidewalk, with a crowd of people walking towards us, presumably on their way to work. It's raining, and there's some ethereal music in the background. Moving in through them, we can see Effy. We're on a bridge, and she's standing at the railing, staring out over the water. Effy is dressed mainly in black, with a red shirt emerging from the bottom of her jacket.
The scene changes to an overhead view, and Effy is now walking through the city, still with the same music in the background. Zoom out to a shot of downtown London.
Effy walks into a building, swipes her access card, and goes through a turnstile. The interior walls of the building are very red - the same red as her shirt - and twice the walls are interposed between the camera and Effy, so that that the whole screen and her face are only shades of red. Krzysztof Kieslowski would be proud. The music rises, the red elevator doors close, and we cut to the title screen: Skins, Fire, with only a crackling, burning sound in the background.
We've seen some action-packed opening scenes in prior Skins series - Tony's morning routine in S1, Maxxie dancing in S2, Freddy skateboarding down the street in S3, the disco and Sophia jumping in S4, Morocco in S6 - and this is much slower and more introspective. The walking crowd is in slow motion, as if to highlight the new pace. The only music is the ethereal strings, nothing like the fast-paced, upbeat music of all of the previous openings. Is this the new face of the new, "more mature" Skins? No longer in-your-face action, but something more understated?
Close-up of a photocopier, making copies. A caption tells us it's spring. Effy walks through the office, distributing photocopies, and gets a few muttered acknowledgements. We see that Effy has removed her black coat, and is now wearing a white shirt over her red one. The shirt has long, flowing tails - Effy's style hasn't changed too much. Effy returns to her desk for more secretarial work, and exchanges a few words with a fellow assistant. A woman in a long blue dress walks up, and she's important enough not to to know Effy's compatriot's name (Jane). She's whisked away by someone who could be a ten-years-older Freddy, and we learn two things: The woman's name is Victoria, and Effy is interested - she stares after them long enough for Jane to comment on it.
Effy has prepared a tray of coffees, each different, and she double-checks it against her written list before steeling herself to bring it to the meeting. She rolls her eyes before entering - some things haven't changed! - and finds not a meeting in progress, but Victoria in Freddy-lookalike's lap. Effy stammers through an apology and Victoria quickly makes an exit. Effy makes a nice recovery, asking if she can get anything for unruffled man. He takes a swing and a miss at her name ("Emmy, is it?") and she corrects him, giving the impression that it's not the first time. He declines her offer and she goes to leave, rolling her eyes and quietly calling him an idiot. She's perhaps not quiet enough, as he turns to watch her leave, and then shakes his head and sighs - but he's smiling, so he might be interested in her rather than offended.
Getting involved with your boss, or your boss' boss, is always the way to get ahead, right? It's clear where this is going - almost as clear as when watching Naomi and Emily alternate staring at each other, in the first episode of Series 3 - but this surely can't end as well.
Effy and Jane are outside on a smoke break, gossiping about what Effy just saw. They spot someone named Dominic coming towards them. Dominic is about their age, clearly infatuated with Effy - he's picked up an extra sandwich, "just passing by", for what is not the first time - and has the social confidence of JJ (or, well, most nerds, but the JJ comparison becomes more apt later).
Dominic stumbles his way through asking Effy out, going so far as to offer to help her with her work (are we still in college?), but Effy sweetly turns him down. He assures her that he's still available, should she want any Freudian slips, er, tours of the city, before fleeing in embarrassment and bumping into a passerby because he's too busy waving at Effy to look at where he's going. Jane mocks him, but Effy quickly cuts her down to size: "You look like a horse when you laugh down your nose like that."
Later, inside: another shot of Effy walking, taken through a wall, but the wall is clear this time. Not-Freddy is watching Effy as she walks by, seemingly unaware of his attention.
Some things haven't changed: Effy is still a magnet for every male eye, and she can still size you up and cut you down in moments. But this is a kinder, gentler Effy, and it looks like she might have matured after all - eye rolls not withstanding.
That night, people are fleeing the office and Effy is packing up to leave, but Victoria stops her and asks her to create a monthly report, right then. And to bring it to them, where they'll be drinking, when she's done. Effy agrees, as you do when you're an office drone with hopes of continued employment, and gets to work.
In the next scene, Effy is outside a pub looking in - there's no subtle metaphor here! - at the Victoria and the business types, drinking in the red-walled pub. Victoria catches her eye, and rushes outside to collect the report, glancing at the cover and proclaiming it "perfect". Victoria is overly gushy, either because she's been drinking or because she knows how inconvenient the request was, take your pick. She starts to hurry back inside, but pauses to invite Effy in for a drink - only decent, given how long it must have taken Effy to produce the printed and bound report - but Effy demurs. Effy stands for a moment, still looking into the pub, backlit by the reds of taillights and traffic lights, before turning away. On the Tube home, between dizzying shots of Effy riding the escalator, she interestedly reads her own copy of the report.
At this point, it's worth noting how little Effy has spoken. She has been our focus the whole time, either on screen or showing us what/who she's seeing, but has said almost nothing. She's been talked to, at length - by Jane, by Victoria, by Dominic, by mysterious not-Freddie - but has responded with the bare minimum. She's said enough to get by, or to brush them off. It's like a return to the late-S1 / early-S2 Effy, the Effy who was recovering from a trauma. Does she need her big brother, again? Effy's family has fractured, and might well be spread across Britain or even as far as Rome by now. What support has she had, since the end of her college years?
When Effy walks into her apartment, we can hear Naomi laughing loudly. She sighs as she kicks off her shoes and drops everything to the ground; she wanders in to the living room to find a party in full swing. "Hey", Naomi (no longer blonde!) says brightly, "Where've you been?" Not an unreasonable question, given the hour, but Effy's in no mood. "Working," she retorts. In her tone, we can hear clearly, "As always. You should try it sometime." Random partygoers call out to her, and she exchanges sarcastic remarks for their offers of drinks. Naomi comes up, in an effort to be the friendly flatmate. This might not be Naomi's episode, but you can't tell that from the way Lily Loveless steals this scene. Her performance is brilliant, and her delivery of each line is flawless:
Effy: Have enough money to pay the rent this month?
Naomi: *head tilt* Potentially… Sit down, have a beer.
Naomi exchanges her spliff for a helium balloon, thrusts the spliff onto Effy, then rushes off to find food for one of the partiers. She finds a steak which seems to have been defrosting in the fridge. She's mystified as to its origin, but offers it to the random regardless. Let's hope Effy wasn't planning on that for her dinner; she might take it out on Naomi's Garibaldis.
Effy wanders into her room, and we can see that one wall is covered with bar charts and graphs and reports. The decorating theme is reminiscent of her old room in Bristol, except that images of death and violence have been exchanged for the stodgier and more mature maths. Assume the reports are from her job, and insert your own joke about the mania and soul sucking of the financial world. Effy studies the papers for a moment, then takes one down and compares it to the new monthly report. Red pen in hand, she begins to circle and question numbers, opting to ignore the sounds of breaking glass coming from the party in the rest of the flat.
Still obessessive, at least Effy is no longer seeking the chaos and is choosing order - she's drawing meaningful connections in what she sees, rather than inventing conspiracies that exist only in her mind. At least, at this point, we can only hope that's what she's doing.
Lying in bed later, Effy can hear Naomi's side of a Skype conversation with Emily. It's not a happy conversation, as might be expected of people frustrated by the long distance in a relationship. "Don't you dare", Effy mutters to herself, only for Naomi to open her door. Effy claims she's asleep, Naomi sighs and curses, and Effy pulls aside the covers and invites her in. Effy reassures Naomi that Emily does love "useless stoners" like Naomi, and is not being seduced away by the "hot dykes" of Naomi's fears. Naomi reveals that she's planning to go to New York to see Emily, needing "some fanny time fast" before she "bursts into flames". "Romantic", responds Effy, drily, and points out that Naomi needs to find a job first. Naomi reveals that she wants to be a stand-up comedienne, Effy ends the conversation end there, and Naomi puts her arm around Effy before dropping off to sleep.
Let's stop here and talk about the downward spiral that is Naomi. Stand up comedienne? Stoner without a job? When last we left Naomi, at the end of S4, she wanted to go to university to study politics or law, and go off to fight injustice. Sure, she drank a lot and drugged a lot - but a big part of that was likely dealing with the pain of Emily shutting her out for so long. She and Emily reconciled, they went off to spend a year abroad … then what? Emily is gone to New York, and Naomi's lost her dream? Is she just dealing with Emily's absence? Or - spoiler alert for later in the episode - is she dealing with the amount of physical pain she's going through? It's a huge, abrupt personality change for this character, and it seems likely the writers have a very good reason for that.
Naomi is snoring, and Effy can't sleep. There's some pensive piano music in the background. Effy looks at Naomi briefly, considers, then gets up and gets a dress. Next, we're in a club - lit by only a red strobe light - with a pounding bass. Effy's dancing and some guy is trying to make out with her. Effy's expression is unreadable, possibly resigned, possibly relieved. Cut to black. End of Day One.
When life gets too much, too confusing, you go to the club - this has always been Effy's method, from the time she was 14 in S1. The more things change, the more they stay the same.