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My Mad Fat Diary S1.E06 “It’s A Wonderful Rae Part 2”
Last week, we left off with Rae’s mum coming home married to Karim, and Finn making googly eyes at Rae. This week, well…you have to wade through a lot of really bad decision-making, but the end is SO WORTH IT.
Let’s finish up Series 1! But first, grab a pint. We’ll wait.
The Official FYA My Mad Fat Diary Drinking Game
Drink once every time:
Rae doubts herself
Rae compares herself to someone else
Rae’s diary includes a drawing of genitalia or swear words
Rae’s mum says something dorky but well-meaning
Karim manages to communicate how lovely he is
Drink twice every time:
Rae sasses Kester
Rae gets positive attention from members of the opposite sex (take a shot if she actually acts on it without overanalyzing)
Rae does something to set back her progress
You exclaim, “I love this song!”
1.5 “It’s A Wonderful Rae Part 1”
Dear Diary
The fight is on…the catfight, that is. Chloe has designs on Finn, but he’s got it bad for Rae—they even have a “secret language” where he writes private thoughts on her leg with his finger.
This week, there’s a rave, but when Izzy spills the beans to Rae’s mum, Rae’s hopes of going are dashed. It’s even worse when Hot Doctor Nick tells her that her new medications prevent her from drinking booze. Well, what else is left? Chloe’s going to make a move on Finn if she’s not at the rave, Finn tells her that he wants her to go, and she’s tired of being bossed around by her mother and her doctors. So OF COURSE she decides to sneak out and go. And drink! And flush her meds down the toilet! And take drugs at the rave! OF COURSE.
This leads to Finn seeing Rae kiss Archie rather chastely, so when Chloe kisses Finn, he goes for it. DRAMABOMB! Also, Chop loves Izzy, but Izzy loves making out with some random dude. No one goes home happy.
Meanwhile, Rae’s mum and Karim are planning on having a priest bless their marriage, and a reception at the pub that the gang likes. Karim and Rae’s mum are madly in love, doing Dopey Old Person Things like getting some pet birds. But when Rae frees the birds from their outdoor cage, they end up dead—which breaks Karim’s poor little heart. Oh Rae, bad choices are bad!
Tix is not in a good place. The doctors can’t get her to eat—at all—and when she does, she exercises obsessively. Her heart is due to fail at any moment, and she’s losing so much weight that she may need to be hospitalized. She won’t eat, but Kester thinks she might do it if Rae comes to dinner with her, so he sets up a dinner date between the two of them. But Rae is caught up in going to the rave after her argument with her mum, and misses the date…which sends Tix into a tailspin.
DON’T DIE, TIX.
Shittiest Teen Comment
Rae: “Maybe you ought to start behaving like my mum, instead of like a twat!”
Awkward Mum Moment
Breathlessly announcing to Hot Dr. Nick that she got married, and waiting expectantly as if his answer were going to be something more than polite niceties. Rae’s expression is the best.
Best Song of the Episode
“There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” because it comes with Rae and Finn giggling privately over the fact that Chloe, wannabe sex goddess and new music enthusiast, doesn’t know that Morrissey is the same person as the lead singer of The Smiths. Sure, it’s mean to laugh at Chloe’s ignorance, but it’s also satisfying to see Rae come out on top. The runner up is Radiohead’s “Street Spirit,” which is the ultimate song for having a breakdown.
The Moment When We Are All Rae
No really, how many calories DOES sex burn? And can you sex yourself thin? Although this scene is heartbreaking because it shows how obsessive Tix is about calories and thinness, and how clearly Rae just doesn’t get it, it’s at least heartbreaking in a funny way.
Quotable Rae
On her bridesmaid’s dress: “I look like a cross between a profiterole and a prolapsed colon!”
1.6 “It’s A Wonderful Rae Part 2”
Dear Diary
Tix went into cardiac arrest the night of the rave, and she’s not doing well at all. Chloe is nattering on about having sex with Finn (she wants to—she hasn’t yet). Rae doesn’t know who her real dad is. She has no one to talk to. Chloe found her diary…and read it. And she’s not happy.
What’s the answer when you’re depressed, off your meds, and your life is in shambles? Suicide, again, she decides, and sets off to throw herself off a bridge. Only a car hits her first, and we get my LEAST FAVORITE TROPE IN THE HISTORY OF FILM: the It’s A Wonderful Life riff. God, I hate this self-indulgent twaddle, even in a show as fantastic as MMFD. Sure, it’s still funny and full of Rae charm, but there’s got to be another movie to riff on. TL;DR: everyone is sad and makes terrible choices without Rae around, so she decides to come back.
Rae wakes up on the side of the road, not the hospital, like she thought. One of her bullies has hit her with his car, and takes her to the hospital, where they very nearly have a heart-to-heart as Rae waits to be seen.. She isn’t seriously hurt, and goes to see Kester to talk—but he’s out of the office, and she finds him passed out on the bathroom floor of his home. Obviously he’s been fired or something, but he brushes it off as a leave of absence. He still gives her a rousing pep talk and convinces her to go to the reception (in the dress that she really wanted, her mother dismissed as too expensive, and then bought for Rae anyway).
And IIIIIIIIII…eeeee-iiiiii…will always love youuuuuu
The entire gang is at the reception, and her mother is pissed that she didn’t show up for the wedding. Chloe is furious with Rae, however, and tells Rae that she won’t tell anyone about what she read in Rae’s diary (which only ends up one page about not thinking Chloe deserved Finn)—but Rae needs to stay away from her and the gang. Rae miserably agrees.
In a moment of courage and sweetness, Rae gets up and congratulates her mother and Karim. Then she takes a moment to tell the entire crowd the truth about where she had been in the spring: not France, but the psychiatric hospital. She apologizes for what Chloe read in her diary, and basically confesses to loving the shit out of Finn without actually saying so. HERE LIES JENNIE, WHO DIED FROM SCREECHING “AWWWW.”
Then Chop confesses HIS love for Izzy, and Archie almost reveals that he’s gay (but backs out at the last second). Rae’s mom forgives her, and even Chloe is softening. Could it get any better?
THEN FINN TELLS HER HE LOVES HER.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shittiest Teen Comment
Rae was too busy despairing to make any truly shitty comments.
Awkward Mum Moment
“Oh Karim, my beastie.” GAAAAAAAAAAAH! But I’ll cringe through that any day to see Karim and Rae bond at the end of the episode–he’s such a sweet man.
Best Song of the Episode
THE MACARENA. Just kidding; it’s obviously ”Champagne Supernova,” which, while overplayed, still gives me goosebumps. It’s so perfectly of-the-moment, so bittersweet, so perfect to play when Rae realizes that she doesn’t have to be Chloe to land the boy she adores–and in fact, he loves her for her.
The Moment When We Are All Rae
Maybe we haven’t all written suicide notes, but we have ALL written ill-advised letters and desperately wanted to take them back. Luckily for Rae, she’s able to get it away from her mum before she sees it.
Quotable Rae
Rae: “At least I’ve achieved something: I’ve written the most boring suicide note on earth.”
That’s it for Series 1! For everyone who has watched all three series, you know that some of the best is yet to come. See you back next Wednesday to squee our faces off.
