'Sugar Rush' Recaps Episode 2

In last week's episode of Sugar Rush, BBC's teen lesbian drama that is now airing on Here! At 9pm on Fridays, we met Kim and her wacky, eccentric family, who have just moved from London to gray but trashy Brighton, England.

Episode two opens with a voice-over of Kim saying:

"I'm a 15-year-old queer virgin. My mum's a whore, and now she's so scared I'll tell Nathan, she's trying to be my best mate. Who said family life was simple?" And there you have it. In about 10 seconds, Kim has summed up everything that happened in last week's episode and has hinted about what we have in store for us in this one. Brilliant.

Kim takes this opportunity to reflect for a moment on what it means to be 15 and suddenly realizes that parents don't know everything; or, in Kim's case, don't know anything. Scenes flash of Nathan and Stella telling various lies and exhibiting their respective obliviousness and recklessness. Stella does some coke, Nathan talks about painting the house, everyone acts outwardly cordial and downright normal. We even flash back to the bent-over-the-kitchen-counter with Dale scene as further evidence of the not-so-secret sleaze that exists in the house. Gross.

And so we have established the theme for this episode: sex, lies, and betrayal. Or is that the theme for the whole season? Hard to tell.

Cozying up next to Sugar on a boardwalk bench, Kim bemoans her mother's bullshit, her father's complacency, and her own apparent willingness to go along with it all. Sugar assures her that it's only because she's "such a good liar." Comforting, Sugar.

Flash to Kim in her bedroom. Stella enters, acting somewhat motherly for the very first time and shows some interest ina little mother-daughter bonding. She spritzes some of Kim's perfume on her own wrists, borrows a little lip gloss and asks her daughter how she is doing. If we didn't know better, we'd say Stella has maybe turned a corner and is suddenly looking to be a part of her kid's life. But, we do know better, and the whole act is smashed to bits when Kim interrupts Stella's pathetic attempt at concern and says: "Concerned mother isn't in your nature, so just spit it out."

"Can I borrow your jeans?" Stella answers - giving up the ploy.

Kim now officially hates Stella (as if she didn't already) and rolls her eyes. Nathan walks in just as Kim begins to confront her mother about the Dale situation. Panic in Stella's eyes. Quick subject change by Kim.

And now we're back on the park bench and Sugar is offering Kim some friendly advice about how to handle her bitch of a mother: "Get even."

Back to the bedroom. Kim has changed the subject away from Dale, but now there's a twinkle in her eye. "Stella was just in here borrowing jeans, she wants to take you bowling," she announces to Nathan, who looks genuinely thrilled at the suggestion. Pour schmuck. He'd love to go, but reminds Stella that it is in fact parents' night at school, so any other plans are out of the question. Looks like Stella's date with Dale is off.

Cut to Kim and Sugar wandering around the boardwalk, splitting a flask of vodka, spinning around on amusement park rides at Brighton Pier and plotting their revenge for Stella.

Meanwhile, Nathan and Stella have managed to make it to the parent-teacher conference. Miss Forbes would like to have a "general chat" first about Kim's social adjustment to Brighton before diving into the school stuff. Stella and Nathan shrug, making clear that they assume everything is going just peachy. The teacher prods a little further, suggesting that Kim doesn't seem that happy. Parents shrug again, genuinely clueless and possibly beginning to realize just how out of touch they are. The teacher doesn't get too far with this line of questioning, so surrenders with a lovely statement of irony: "Well, I'm sure you know your daughter better than me." Ha.

By now, night has fallen and the conversation between Sugar and Kim has turned serious in the meantime and Sugar wants to know if Kim thinks she's a "slag" -- the Brit term for slut.  Kim debates (in the form of voiceover) what is more important: the truth or love. "No, of course not," she assures Sugar. And the winner is: love.

Stella and Nathan have returned from the parent-teacher conference and are debating in the kitchen what could be going on with Kim. So much for knowing their kid better than Miss Forbes. They agree that they should talk to her, and Stella is quick to offer having a motherly chat with Kim herself. Stella assumes of course that the strange behavior Miss Forbes was referring to can be traced back to Kim unintentionally having a front row seat to her sexual adventures with the carpenter. Nathan is surprised that Stella is taking an interest, and she is quick to add that maybe while they're at it, he should talk to Matt. After all, the kid does walk around with a goldfish bowl on his head.

Naturally, in Stella's world of mother-daughter bonding, nothing could be better than a trip to a spa. She tries, unconvincingly, to persuade Kim into going with her to spend a girls' day. "You can bring Sugar," she adds. And suddenly, the spa idea is not so bad after all.

Flash forward to the day at the spa and the three of them (Stella, Kim, and Sugar) are wrapped in towels and getting waxed. Well, to be more precise, Sugar is getting waxed while Kim holds her hand. Cute. And painful.

Unfortunately, Stella and Sugar seem to be getting along just a little too well. Sugar laughs at Stella's inappropriate stories, and Stella clearly feels she has just met the daughter she never had. Kim sits sullenly between them. So much for getting revenge.

Meanwhile, during the father-son outing, Nathan and Matt have just finished surfing. Nathan is loving the bonding time, but something is clearly on the young boy's mind. And a second later, we find out what it is. "Dad, I'm from another planet." Oh lord. Well, that would explain the fish bowl, wouldn't it?

Back to the spa. Stella is telling the girls how envious she is of them. She thinks it must be great to be their age and do anything they want and not feel guilty. Kim stays silent. We all know that the poor girl hardly lives a carefree life. Sugar interjects, champagne in hand: "I never feel guilty about anything." Stella is pleased and responds, "You are very good for my daughter." Sugar agrees, adding, "I help keep her straight!" Poor Kim.

The bubbles have now gone to their heads (at least for Stella and Sugar) and Stella starts in on the wildly inappropriate conversation of how boring sex can become after you're married. Kim is horrified. Sugar is in hysterics.

Cut to the lobby where Kim is stomping off, fully dressed and utterly disgusted with the afternoon's conversation points. Stella hurries after her, ever suspecting a possible blackmail if she pushes her daughter's buttons. Stella asks what's wrong. Kim tells her to end the affair. Stella refuses.

Further down the street (Kim has by now escaped the spa and is headed home in her solitary misery), Sugar catches up with her and wants to know what's wrong. Clearly, no one in Kim's life is terribly perceptive. Kim is turned off by Sugar's blasé attitude towards the whole sex conversation and frustrated that she seems to be taking her mother's side. Just when all hope seems to be lost, Sugar puts on a mischievous grin and pulls Stella's gold card out of her back pocket. Jackpot!

This having brightened her mood, Kim agrees to set out with Sugar to commit "the perfect crime" - a shopping spree funded by Stella herself. Unfortunately, after a montage of Sugar and Kim trying on expensive boutique clothing, the girls find themselves with a possible roadblock to their perfect plan when the salesgirl rings up the order and requests the PIN number. Kim suddenly has a flash of memory. Stella's whore-ish ways have dated back for quite a while now, and Kim remembers that she changed the PIN to "something she would never, ever forget." The PIN was the date Stella "shagged Simon Le Bon." The girls stumble out of the shop, giddy with their purchases and thrilled that they are systematically fucking Stella over.

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Time goes on and the shopping spree becomes more and more about Sugar having fun and being the self-indulgent, self-absorbed teenager that she is. I love ya Kim, but really, what do you see in this girl?  Once Sugar gets on the phone, ordering alcohol via Stella's credit card, Kim finally wises up and decides she's had enough. Voice-over Kim comes on at this point to comment on the current situation with Sugar: "She had no sense of consequences, and in the end, the only person she cared about was herself."

Where have Nathan and Matt been this whole time? Oh, it turns they're just hanging solo in a deserted beach café. Matt's head is safe inside the fishbowl once again, and it appears father and son are just getting down to this "other planet" stuff. Matt explains quite eloquently how he really was born on another planet. It's lonely for him on earth, there isn't anyone else like him. He just doesn't fit in. Nice metaphorical parallel to how poor Kim feels as an isolated baby dyke stuck in Brighton.

Speaking of which, she and Sugar are in Sugar's room at this point, and things are about to get heated. And not in a good way. Sugar offers Kim a "present" she picked up for her in the course of the shopping spree - a tube of cover up for the zit Kim has been hiding under her bangs all day. Kim is disappointed, again. Voice-over Kim announces, "My life was one big cover up, one big lie."

Nathan debates how to best handle this unusual conversation with his son. And, somehow, even being one half of the worst parental pair in history, he manages to endear us to him again. He confirms Matt's suspicions, telling him that he was in fact born on a different planet, and that he himself was as well. The kid beams through the glass.

Kim tells Sugar that she's ready to go home now. She's had enough of their "revenge" day. Sugar looks disappointed for a second, but not because she'll miss her friend. "Hey, could you at least leave us your mom's credit card?" She asks. Kim fumes. She throws the cover up stick back at her, shouting, "I'm tired of being your lap dog!"

Kim decides she's had just about enough of everyone's lying, cheating ways. From now on, she is going to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

So, in the spirit of keeping her resolution, she finishes her exit from Sugar's room with: "Ray would shag the homeless, which is a good thing because you look like a fucking tramp." Nicely put.

Kim goes home and guess who is there? That's right, the naughty twosome are back at it again, this time in the living room. Knowing that her daughter is at the end of her rope, Stella tries to tell Kim that she was just ending things with Dale. Ahem, Stella, your shirt is still unbuttoned. Kim starts to say that she will not stand for this any more when the back door opens and Nathan and Matt start inside. They can be heard just one room away. Dale hops under the door frame - still shirtless, naturally -- and pretends to be hard at work. No pun intended.

Matt enters, announcing that they had a fabulous day together, and Nathan trails behind, wearing the astro helmet himself now. Nathan and Dale are within the same frame briefly and the juxtaposition of the two is almost too much to bear. Kim takes the opportunity to spill her guts, pointing to her mother, saying: "She's fucking the decorator!"

Nathan looks shocked.

Sadly, this was a fantasy moment and in reality, Kim covers for Stella (so much for that resolution) and says she was just trying on the clothes they bought together. "We had a really girly day together," she says, smiling at her clueless father, who still has the fishbowl on his head.

Stella comes up to Kim's room soon after and finds her crying on the bed. And, just for a side-note here, this Kim kid has really mastered the art of looking forlorn. She spends 2/3 of every episode wearing a miserable frown. Stella puts her arm around her and half thanks, half congratulates her for lying once again: "That was very brave what you did."

Kim bursts into tears and tells Stella that she just wants them to be a proper family. Stella assures her that they are, and that she and Nathan won't be splitting up, "just so long as you don't say anything..." she adds. Bitch.

Kim goes off on her and then leaves her in the room with some of the clothes from the spree.

The whole family joins up again in the kitchen downstairs. Stella has on the new outfit, suddenly looking more like a mom and less like a stripper.  Nathan tells her she looks great. Kim announces that the outfit is significantly "less tarty" than what Stella usually wears.

Nathan smiles, thrilled that the whole family had such a nice day.

Voice-over Kim returns to ponder the day. "Maybe I should have told the truth, told Nathan that he was with the wrong woman, that she was bound to break his heart."

And in a nice parallel to her own life, we then see Kim and Sugar standing outside a club together. Sugar drops her coat in Kim's hands and walks off to make out with some guy in line. Kim looks on, forlorn and jealous. What was that about being with the wrong woman, Kim? About being with someone who is bound to break your heart?

The poor kid can't help herself. See you next time.