Skins 3x03 "Tomas"

“Hello I’m Tomas, so glad to meet you!” that is how the episode starts and is showing us a new character.

Tomas turn on a tape recorder and starts to dance to some Hip Hop music. Through small and quick shoots we get to see how he gets ready for his first day in a new country. Ready for his new life in Bristol he goes out to call his mother at a payphone. Obviously he has some pressure from the family front. He needs to get a job and flat soon, before his mom and siblings come to join him in this incredible town. I mean It has to be incredible, it has all sorts of cool interesting people who smokes, take pills and drink like there is no tomorrow.
Even though he is nice to everything that moves, well even to the things that are unmovable like for example the payphone who rip off his phone card he is polite to. But even so no one is friendly back, but when he see Donuts his life is about to change.
Because of these donuts that he got from helping the not so nice Indian from getting his store vandalized he meets Pandora and Effy at a bus stop.
Propping his mouth full of frosting and donuts he gets stared down by Pandora, or rather the bag of donuts.
So after Pandora is mashing her mouth full of donuts, smoke and some more donuts she collapse after drinking some beer on that. But even though she was collapsed she manages to introduce Effy and herself before she ends up high and knocked out, hanging over Tomas back.
Tomas carry Panda back to Effy’s house where they make sure she is alive and I believe breathing is a sigh of that.
But when Effy walks in on her mom doing the monkey dance (sex) with her father’s best friend Tomas feels obligated to say hello to them as well, even though they both are half naked. So when the greetings are done he goes home to wash of half melted doughnuts and whatever else Pandora has been eaten, drinking and smoking. But when he wakes up by the doorbell the next morning, followed by a smack in the face as he opens the door he fall asleep again. Johnny White, oh what can we say, he is a charmer of the boys. Hits them while he likes being hit himself. To show off his manly hood to Tomas he swoop a whole coup of noodles, warm noodles. Tomas gets really scared, doubt it is because the noodles, but because if he do not come up with enough cash to give Johnny boy, Johnny will haunt him down and make him pay some more and he only accepts cash and pain.
In the next scene we get to understand how much his family means to him when he records a tape to his siblings, singing a song for them to learn. Alone on a mattress with a single lamp he sleeps to wake up early next morning to get some work. He ends up at a contract service where he gets a job as cleaner on Roundview collage (aka where Effy & Co goes). The work is shit; I mean who would want to work at a school where you just clean up your old new mess. While getting rundown by everyone, he sees Effy getting stalked by Katie who is getting stalked by Emily who ends up talking to a flirting Tomas. But after seeing Pandora dance like a gazelle he understands that she is the woman for him.
But as a animal stalked by its predator she flee the gymnasium as soon as the bell rings leaving Tomas all alone with a fake tree who could make even the most tough skinned tough guy get chills of horror.
What we didn’t know though is that Tomas indeed has very fast fingers; I mean playing that strange string thing who I guess is a cool African version of a guitar. Playing that, dreaming back to his family, Pandora comes in noticing Tomas crying. So she decides to do the good thing. Bring Tomas to her auntie for tea. The aunt has a very interesting collection of chainsaws that she happily shows of in her living room. But when Tomas gets to see the tea he gets a bit suspicious. We finds out that Auntie had a lodger who needed somewhere to grow his “tea” but when he got deported back to Jamaica she did not know what to do about it

more than drink it. But guess what, its magical tea, or in other words Marijuana... Weed. Tomas sees a great opportunity to get the cash that he needs to pay of Johnny boy. So he convinces the unknowing Auntie to let him sell it. Pandora who still not has understood that the tea is magical soon realizes when Tomas lit up a big enough joint to smoke the royal castle out. Pandora who just decided she likes drugs took it in, feeling the rush and attacks Tomas, Tomas soon attack back like a lion haunting the willingly gazelle.

Effy who is having dinner with her cheating mom and unknowing dad miraculously gets saved by Panda and Tomas. But when Pandora tells Effy she’s been “Snogging” no one believes her. But that is not why they decided to save Effy from total misery. They need help. Help selling the weed. So Effy call up the gang and meets them at a park where they get to know what the hell Effy’s new friend needs help with.
Katie of course is there because Effy asked her to, Cook is there because he thinks he might be getting laid. JJ and Freddie are there because Cook is and Emily is there because she has nothing better to do. They get there instructions about what to do, Naomi who is a bit late. Of course gets a ‘oh no the lesbian is here, run for your lives’ comment from Katie. But Emily who now starts to get annoyed over her sister’s rude comments tells the truth about the kiss. Emily was the one kissing Naomi under the influence of MDMA (Ecstasy) and alcohol, but she was too scared to tell her sister. So she said it was the other way around after Katie finding out about the ‘accident’. Sisters can be a bitch, believing what they want to hear.
They party that they are going to deal some ‘tea’ at is underground. A lot of drunk, willingly and possible rich brats jumping around like monkeys. But there are consequences. Johnny boy and his brainless gang of dudes are at the party. When Johnny sees Tomas he goes mental, well more mental than usual. No one is dealing on Johnny boy’s turf.
But the crowd seems to like Tomas stuff better since Johnny boy ends up on the ground with teenagers dancing and running over him like a train on a bumpy rail. Tomas gang spread itself out to sell some weeds but when Emily runs into Naomi the selling stops. Emily decides to tell the truth to Naomi, telling her she was not drunk or high when she kissed her. She simply wanted to do it and still want to. Naomi who is slightly chocked asks Emily if she is gay. Emily says she’s not. Effy who heard it all it all just stands there with a smirk on her face. Tomas comes running in, he has not learned to see who is who of the twins;
Tomas: “Who is you?”
Emily: “Gay, no hum I mean I’m Emily”, more they didn’t have time to say until Johnny boy knock on Tomas shoulder telling him that no one sells on his turf, so Tomas runs, hiding on stage showing of some mad Mc’ing skills and flirt with Pandora from the stage. The raping soon scares away Johnny boy leaving Tomas and his newly made friends to sell in their own pace and peace.
The time must move on faster underground because when they get up it is a new day and Tomas now has enough money to pay Johnny boy AND to buy some furniture for his family’s arrival.
But as in every bad action movie, when the ‘good guys’ leaves there hiding the ‘bad guys’ will be there. Cars comes driving, tires is screaming and Cook is about to get killed when Johnny boy sees him. Tomas decides to embrace his destiny as a hero and challenge Johnny on his terms.
Johnny who is bad ass and can kick your ass in ways you did not think was possible decides they are going to have a eating contest of Naga Jolokia (the world’s hottest pepper). Johnny wants to show he’s a man so he takes one from the plate, eat it and show how manly he is. The first one to give after loose so Tomas grabs a fist full and eat it since he wants to get over it. Everyone is holding their breath, everyone is so tense a melody could be played on their bodies, well everyone but Tomas who eats them as candy. Well he kind of sees them like candy. He grew up with them, wasn’t allowed to eat them but did anyway. Just like candy and children. Johnny tires to grab a fist to, shaking like a bunny before its sadistic killer. Johnny who isn’t as manly as he though starts to sweat, cry and finally fart so much that the room needed to be cleared out of everything breathing, he lost. So Tomas is now free from Johnny’s regime and can live a happy life with his new friends, newly found stash of drugs and a girlfriend who is willing to lay on the back and strip her clothes of. Pandora lies in his bed, wanting him to “pop her cherry” but just when he is about to make a popcorn machine the doorbell rings.
You can guess the scene that Tomas furry mother gets thrown in her face. Twins high on booze and drugs, Effy and Cook having semi sex and Pandora coming out half naked wondering when he is coming to make some love.
Poor Tomas gets forced to go back to his French speaking Africa and Pandora seeks comfort at her chainsaw loving and now smoking Auntie.

- Elin