Heartstopper: Episode 6

6. Girls

Nick and his mom settle for Pirates of the Caribbean for film night, and she teases him about his childhood crush on Keira Knightley, which leads him to explore the possibility of being bisexual. He finds new allies in Tara and Darcy as he runs into them at the rehearsals of a concert which also involves Charlie. The lesbian couple are the first friends to whom he admits that he's dating Charlie and he feels proud about it. The three decide to organize a triple date before the concert starts in an effort to also set Tao and Elle up after she admits to Tara and Darcy that she has a crush on him. She does not take their meddling lightly and berates the two for endangering her friendship with Tao, which she believes to be of more importance than the crush she is harboring on him. However, she is ecstatic after Nick and Charlie reveal their dating status to her. Tara finds it hard to deal with the stigma she is facing after coming out on Instagram, but Darcy reassures her that she is just there for emotional support.

Well, like some people would like to say, if you can enjoy the best of both worlds, why limit yourself to just one? It’s great that they are exploring Bisexuality as Nick’s story arc. Most of the time only the L and the G get all the love in LGBTQ+ narratives, with the acronym eventually becoming pretty much like French, the rest of the letters towards the end being just there but totally ignored. So far, the show has the L thanks to Tara and Darcy, the G because of Charlie, now the B for Nick, and of course Elle has been repping the T since day one. I also like how despite the fact the setup does not seem that contrived as if they were just shoehorning everything for the sake of being woke. Everything seems to have evolved naturally up to this point. I also love the dynamics between Nick and Tara/Darcy. In any other storyline, the guy would just be repressing himself to death being in the closet with only the out and proud love interest as his refuge, but here he seems to have found his own supportive tribe. All good so far.

“If you want my attention that badly, why don't you just throw something at me again, like your last remaining brain cell?” –Tao Xu

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