Sugar Rush: Episode 3 Recap

Welcome back to SheWired's Sugar Rush recaps. The breakout BBC show, currently airs on here!  

After spending the past two weeks getting to know Kim, her incredibly dysfunctional family, her best friend crush, and all of her own innermost thoughts – this is the episode where we learn our 15-year-old vixen’s true intentions. And they’re not that innocent.

As the episode begins, Kim rifles through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom while her father, the goofy, loveable and oh-so-clueless Nathan brings slutty mom, Stella, breakfast on a tray. Oops, he’s unknowingly interrupting a clandestine phone call between his wife and Dale, the carpenter she’s been banging behind his back. Nathan comes in at the most inopportune times. Just now, Dale was about to tell Stella “the things I’m going to do to you…” Noticing her husband’s arrival, Stella slips the phone out of sight. Nathan grins, offering her breakfast with a cheery, “Happy Anniversary” greeting and a kiss. Naturally, her response is less than warm. Probably anxious to get back on the phone and hear the rest of Dale’s ideas…Stella, you bitch, you have no heart.

Kim is then outside, walking to school, and passes pesky neighbor boy Tom, whose only redeeming quality is that he has gay dads. At this particular moment, he’s actually adjusting the zipper on his pants. Charming, as usual. The show certainly does a good job of hammering the point home that Kim is better off dating girls than the alternative.

Once at school, some insipid high school is spitting from the top of the steps down to the floor as Kim walks by. Kim is momentarily distracted, until she notices that Sugar is standing at her locker ahead, doing what every girl does as soon as she arrives at school in the morning – removing her underwear under an extremely short skirt. What?? Yes, you read that correctly, Sugar is taking her underwear off not-so-subtly in the middle of the hallway at school. Kim is obviously rendered paralyzed by the sight.

Next thing we know, she and Sugar are in the school bathroom so Sugar can toss the removed underwear into the trash. And now we see the supposed reason for taking them off in the first place – there’s a piece of gum stuck to them. How this makes any sense at all is beyond me, but it gives Kim the chance to stare longingly (and a little weirdly) at the discarded “knickers” in the trashcan. Sugar leaves and other girls enter, mid-conversation about some scandalous gossip they’ve heard. The subject? Date rape. Kim’s response? A strangely excited look and then a voice-over thought moment of: “I mean, how desperate would you have to be?” We’re guessing Kim may be getting just that desperate. Yikes. She discreetly takes the underwear from the trash before she goes.

Outside later on at the pier, Sugar bounces up and down on a trampoline, still sans underwear. Kim looks on with a mix of fascination and horror, noticing that a group of boys have gathered on the opposite side for the little “show” Sugar is putting on. They are taking pictures with their camera phones. Don’t be too judgmental Kim, taking pictures with a camera phone hardly compare to the kind of taking advantage you’re planning to do.

At home later, Kim is back in the medicine cabinet and then searching through a pillbox in the kitchen too. Her voiceover, meanwhile, is assuring us that while she “may be desperate,” she’s “not a freak.” Judging by her frantic search for pills that will knock out her best friend, we beg to differ. Stella walks in talking to Dale – again – and, noticing Kim’s rifling, interrupts her, asking “What are you doing?” Being the stellar mother that she is, she doesn’t even bother to insist on a response from her potential pill-popping, best friend drugging, freak of a child and attends to more important matters, like pouring herself a glass of wine.

She changes the subject from her original question to, “How was school?” She and Kim have a brief exchange, but as soon as Kim smells one of Stella’s paranoid, guilty parent chats coming on, she makes a b-line out of the kitchen. Nathan passes as she hurries up the stairs and she barely manages a wave to her utterly oblivious father.

He sees Stella and asks if she is ok. She waves him off saying she simply has a headache and then adding that she has to go out to the hairdresser’s in a half an hour. We all know this is bullshit. Nathan does not and offers to drive.

Their bizarro alien of a son, meanwhile, has been upstairs all day under a makeshift fort of sheets and blankets in his room. Nathan enters and hands a requested tub of blue paint into the fort. Inside, Matt has a small army of toys and dolls that he has covered in blue, gooey paint. The worst part? Seemingly out of inanimate objects, or perhaps just sick and twisted enough to resort to this anyway, Matt reaches into his pet hamster’s cage and removes the writhing little critter. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. This one he’s not going to simply paint. Matt’s sadistic little mind apparently thinks that his precious pet should be dipped into the vat of paint. Oh, and by dipped…I mean drowned. He plunges the helpless animal into the paint bucket and that’s the last thing we see. If you ask me, a lesbian daughter and a cheating wife are the least of the Daniels family’s problems.

Next we’re in the car with Stella and Nathan. They are clearly still at least a block or two away from her hairdresser’s because Nathan asks, “Are you sure you want me to drop you here?” Stella assures him that she simply needs the walk outside. He leans in for a kiss and she brushes him off again. Seriously, Stella.

And then we have the pleasure of seeing slutty Stella in bed with her personality-less but very Ken-doll good-looking boy toy. Gross. He’s going down on her and she’s completely expressionless. Lovely. She also starts in on the first semi-serious family-related conversation she’s ever had on the show. Brilliant timing, Stella. I’m sure your carpenter buddy loves talking about your weird kids and your husband’s vasectomy while he’s going down on you.

A minute later, Dale has come up for air and the two share a cigarette while leaning back against the headboard. He turns to her and asks, “"Look, are we going to fuck again? Because I've got half an hour left of my lunch break, and a boner the size of Britain that is killing me." Suddenly, it occurs to Stella that Kim’s taking pills may be reason for concern – maybe, she announces to Dale, “she’s going to kill herself.” She gets out of bed and Dale watches her go. I guess that boner is going to have to get taken care of some other way. Not to worry, he orders porn as soon as she’s out the door.

Kim is walking along the sidewalk, also on her way back to the house, when she passes….guess who? Tom. Finally, she says what we’ve all been thinking: “Tom! You’re following me.” Bingo. At least you didn’t get that oblivious thing that your dad’s got going. Tom attempts to ask her out and fails miserably. To add to his humiliation, his dog, which he has on a leash, has attached itself to the back of another dog and is now humping away. Kim is long gone now.

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(continued)

Once home, Kim flops on her bed, in typical teenage style, and sorts through her pillaged pills. Stella enters unexpectedly and Kim pretends to just be doing homework.

“Can we talk?” Stella begins.

This is Kim’s cue that Stella is about to go into one of her more serious, embarrassing, and utterly annoying attempts at a mother-daughter bonding chat. She flashes back to two other examples from her past: One in which young Kim’s pet rabbit has clearly died and the manipulative Stella tries to convince her that the entirely different colored brown bunny replacement is the same pet. Nice try, Stella. And the second is the usual “now you’re a grownup” tampon moment. Charming, on both accounts. Kim’s voiceover assures us that she is, in fact, totally aware that absolutely anything is possible when Stella begins a chat with the three words “can we talk?”

More flashes, this time fantasies, in which Stella tells Kim, first, “Dale and I are emigrating,” second, “"I've kicked your father out, Dale's moving in and your room's becoming the showroom for our new decorating business" and third, "Dale and I are related. He's your brother, Kim." All three are horrifying yet hysterical possibilities.

Instead of any of the above though, Stella questions Kim about the pills and Kim answers, “Okay…there's this girl, Sugar, who I like. I really like. I suppose you could say I'm obsessed. And basically, if I don't shag her soon I'm going to explode, so I thought heavy narcotics might ease things along a little bit." Whoa. Can you say fantasy sequence? Bummer, I thought that might have finally been the big reveal.

Nope. Kim’s real response is much more teenage typical. The pills, of course, are for a “school project” where Kim has to investigate “domestic dangers” and “toxicity in the home.” Liar, liar pants on fire.

Stella tries to probe the topic for about 3 seconds, asking, “Kim, are you ok?” but is quickly interrupted by Nathan entering the room to announce that their cab has arrived. He does have a brief moment of pleasure mixed with confusion at the sight of his wife and daughter having what appears to be an actual conversation and asks, “Is everything alright?” Stella and Kim do not elaborate on the subject of their conversation and so Nathan and Stella leave for their anniversary evening. Just before leaving the room, Stella adds that she hopes Kim wouldn’t “do anything stupid.”

Kim realizes then that her mother thought she was planning to kill herself. Don’t worry, Stella, she’s not suicidal, she just wants to date rape her best friend. Kim gathers up the drugs – Maybe to get rid of them? Maybe to execute her plan? – and encounters creepy and now completely painted blue brother, Matt, in the hallway. He tells her he’s hungry and she blows him off.

Down in the kitchen, Kim drops the handful of pills on the kitchen table and makes a b-line for the liquor cabinet. Classy. She imagines slipping a pill into Sugar’s drink, watching her friend pass out on her shoulder and finally getting the chance to have her way with her.

The doorbell rings, interrupting this twisted fantasy and, speak of the devil, it’s Sugar herself. She greets Kim with the words: “Fuck me.” Wow, maybe this will be easier than Kim had expected. But then finishes her sentence with, “I need a drink.”

Meanwhile, Stella and Nathan are out walking around town after their anniversary dinner. He turns to her after a moment and scolds himself out loud for not complimenting her hair earlier – remember, he thinks she went to the hairdressers earlier…He tells her she looks lovely and she gives him a tight-lipped smile. He reaches over and holds her hand, going on about how great it has been for the family to spend quality time together since the move. Let’s review how the Daniels family (minus oblivious Nathan) is really doing: Stella is doing the carpenter in the kitchen, Kim is about to date rape her best gal pal, and Matt has just drowned his pet hamster in blue paint. Yeah, Nathan, the move has done splendid things for the family dynamic. He does take a moment to ask Stella if he and she are doing alright. She assures him, “Of course, yeah.” He kisses her. She recoils.

Next thing you know, they’re walking in the front door and all we see is a horrified expression on their faces and Kim standing. Whatever is out of the cameras sight is what has stopped everyone in their tracks. Stella exclaims, “Kim! Oh my god!” I guess the only thing worse than date raping your best friend is being walked in on your parents while doing it.

Voiceover Kim comes on as we cut from that evening to the next day, “Things hadn’t gone quite as I’d planned…” They are at the pier and Sugar walks up to Kim, leaning on the fence of the boardwalk, and announces vaguely, “Quite a night…”

Finally, we flashback to how things really went down. Kim watched Sugar come in the door with a pizza. She took it from her and put it down on the kitchen table, on top of the pile of pills. Sugar bent over in her tiny little skirt to take her shoes off and then went into the kitchen too. She picked up the pizza to find all of the pills and looked at her friend with surprise. "Bloody hell, Kizza,” she said, “There was me thinking we were going to have a quiet night in. Bender it is." We are then to assume that Sugar downed some pills and wine and Kim had her way with her…

At the pier Sugar continues, “It’s not right you know, it’s twisted.” Voiceover Kim says, “I hadn’t really meant to drug Sugar.”

Back to the night before…Kim walked into the kitchen to find the pills gone and Sugar passed out on the couch in the living room. There was her chance! Rather than excited at the sight of her possibly comatose friend, Kim tried to wake her up and shook her briefly. When Sugar opened her eyes and turned her head, it was revealed that she was not passed out at all, simply wearing headphones and smoking pot.

Nathan and Stella walked in and did not find their daughter date raping a girl. What they did find was their son passed out and covered in blue on the foyer floor.

Back at the pier, Sugar asks Kim how the little guy is doing. Kim tells her that they pumped his stomach and that “Nathan reckons he was trying to do himself in.” Sugar puts her arm around Kim to comfort her and Kim leans on her. We all know that he really thought the pills were “space food,” but Kim’s not about to ruin the moment and interrupt Sugar comforting her.

At home later, Matt is restless in his bed with a neck brace on. Stella and Nathan are in the hallway and pass Kim. Kim gives a weak “goodnight” and then her voiceover comes on explaining that it can “really take it out of you” to hide pills to date rape your best friend, have your mother question your suicidal tendencies, and nearly kill your little brother all in one night. No kidding.

Stella and Nathan go down to the kitchen where Nathan appears distraught over how oblivious he was to the fact that his kid is monumentally fucked up. Stella, for once, actually comforts him and assures him, “We’ll get help.”

Flash forward to their visit to a shrink with the little space alien. Stella smokes, she and Nathan assure the shrink that their relationship is fine, and Matt just sits in silence.

On the pier, Sugar invites Kim to spend the night at her place and get away from dysfunction central. Her voiceover announces, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” At the much-anticipated sleepover later, Kim is positively giddy to be sharing a bed with her best friend. Sugar reveals that her mother tried to kill herself and that she thinks it’s pretty insane that Matt did now too; after all, “he’s just a fucking kid.” Before going to sleep, Sugar reaches to her bedside table and grabs a bottle of pills, popping one and putting her head back on the pillow. Kim looks at her inquisitively and Sugar explains that they’re sleeping pills that will “knock you out dead!” Lights out.

See you next week.