My Mad Fat Diary S2:E4 review

This episode Rae has been making new friends. She is hanging around more with Liam from her therapy group. He has started going out with Amy, a member of the cool girl gang from the previous episode, but Liam hasn’t told Amy that he goes to therapy. She starts getting suspicious when Liam and Rae have always come from somewhere together; Liam tells Amy that he has been helping Rae with Sociology studying.

A few days pass and Amy is still suspicious of Liam and Rae’s friendship. Amy warns Rae to stay away from Liam, or she will punch her in the face. Rae tries to do what Amy asks by avoiding Liam, but eventually Rae has to tell Liam why she can’t hang around with him. He says he will tell Amy that nothing is going on between him and Rae, but he won’t tell Amy the truth – that he and Rae go to the same therapy group. Rae believes that Liam should tell the truth.

Meanwhile, Rae has other worries on her mind. In the previous episode she had revealed that Archie is gay to Lois, the girl he had been dating. Rae has been trying to save her friendship with Archie, but he doesn’t want to know. Lois gives Archie an ultimatum: tell everyone he is gay, or she will.

Finn has admitted to Rae that he is ready to be friends following their split. Finn offers to help Rae train to defend herself in a fight with Amy. The session doesn’t go too well and Rae ends up punching Finn in the face, splitting his lip. The end of the week nears and both Rae and Archie must face up to the others. Archie realises that his friendship with Rae is important, and they attempt to run away from their problems by taking a drive, but unfortunately the car breaks down and they decide that they can go back and be cowards together.

Friday comes and Archie is brave enough to tell his friends that he is gay. It turns out that Finn already knew, and Chloe and Izzy accept this news from Archie. Chop doesn’t seem to accept the news as well as the others, and may need more time.

Meanwhile Rae has been trying to persuade Liam to tell Amy about his therapy sessions and his anxiety. Having not seen Liam in a romantic way before, Rae is confused when she returns his kiss after she helps him with a panic attack. At the meeting with Amy, Rae says nothing had happened between her and Liam. Chloe steps in between her and Amy and declares Amy isn’t as hard as the rumours suggest. This action backfires on Chloe, as Amy hits her in the face and Chloe falls to the ground (Chloe believed nothing had gone on between Rae and Liam). Then Rae reveals that the night before her and Liam had kissed. Instead of hitting Rae, Amy runs off upset.

It was nice to see Rae being confident enough to admit her mistakes in this episode, and not hide, even though she is let down at the end by Liam when he isn’t there at the meeting between her and Amy (after he promised he would be). It has become clear that there may still be a spark between Rae and Finn. I hope this blossoms for the rest of the second season.