🍂 Heartstopper, S2 Recap: Of Being Kind and Being Brave

"I have a boyfriend!"

We start the season by picking up where we left off in season 1, and life is good.

Charlie tells his friends and family about him and Nick. His parents are cautious, and Tori is worried about Charlie getting bullied again. Charlie tells Tori that he’ll be ok, and he’ll protect Nick.

At Tara and Darcy’s encouragement, Elle tries to flirt with Tao, but it seems to be slow-working.

Year 11 GCSE study session starts, and Nick is seated next to Ben in the hall. Ben says if Nick wants to keep his relationship with Charlie quiet, Nick “should probably stop acting so gay” for Charlie. On another day, he says he doesn’t think Nick wants to ever come out, and as a boyfriend, Nick is just as bad as him.

Now that they’re not spending much time together during class — as all tragic star-crossed lovers are — Charlie rejoins the rugby team.

Charlie invites his friends, including Nick and Imogen, for a sleepover, during which Nick comes out to Imogen. Imogen says it’s already obvious to her. Leaving the sleepover, Nick kisses Charlie to their friends’ cheers.

Imogen reveals to Nick that she’s seeing Ben. She’s offended when Nick tries to warn her about Ben.


Charlie’s not eating

Charlie’s not doing well on the report card day. His mother bans him from seeing Nick until he finishes his coursework. He sneaks out a few times anyway, which results in him being grounded for the rest of the semester.

Nick’s dick of a brother, David, is home. He barges into Nick’s room when Charlie’s there one day and tries to embarrass them, making Charlie leave. Charlie tells Nick later that he should have stood up to David, but Nick says he can handle coming out.

And Charlie's avoiding eating is getting obvious.


The night of the GCSE party

Elle’s looking into enrolling at Lambert’s School of Art. On their Open Evening, she makes new friends with Naomi and Felix. She starts to hang out with them more, making Tao feel left out. Tao tells Charlie and Isaac that he wants to ask Elle out and starts planning a grand date for her. The date turns out disastrous, and they end up fighting.

Another two miserable souls are Tara and Darcy. Tara slips saying “I love you” to Darcy, but Darcy awkwardly plays dumb about it. Tbf, Tara kind of brushes it off right after as if it's not important.

Nick’s relationships with his rugby friends are still strained. Some of them — Otis, Christian and Sai — try to reach out to him, and it is hinted that they know about him and Charlie. At the party, Nick tries to come out to his friends but feels overwhelmed and ends up not doing it. This plan to come out takes a toll on Nick and, secretly, Charlie. But Charlie consoles Nick and says maybe they should forget about telling people for a while.


Important things happen in Paris

The gang, which is now expanding, has a good time during their French class Paris trip. Mostly. They roam the streets, visit the museums and climb the Eiffel Tower.

And naturally, Nick unintentionally gives Charlie a hickey, which stirs quite a scandal among their classmates because Harry Greene cannot hold any other types of conversations. Some of them speculate that it was James who did it as he’s the only other out gay on the trip, to the misery of everyone involved.

And sweet, sweet, James has a crush on Isaac. On the night of Tara’s birthday party, the two kiss, but Isaac is not feeling it. We see Isaac sitting alone at the end of the eventful night, probably confused and frustrated at himself for being different.

Imogen joins the gang when Ben’s being annoying to her. At dinner, she calls Ben out in front of the whole group, saying he’s obsessed with Charlie and he’s being a terrible boyfriend. Later, Ben accuses Nick of ruining his relationship with Imogen and says he wants Charlie back. Because audacity.

During an assignment, Isaac, who’s paired with Harry, tries to knock some sense into Harry’s skull. When someone tries to pick on Nick and Charlie later, Harry surprisingly sticks up for them, but Charlie still says no when he wants to join Tara’s party.

The show also does this again — Nick and Charlie holding hands while climbing the Eiffel Tower — and no one is suspicious of them? I don't get it.

Tao was not very friendly towards Nick before but seems to be changing course. He and Elle also mend their relationship in Paris. He tells Charlie he’s messed up so many things: ruining his date with Elle and accidentally outing Charlie the previous year. Charlie reminds Tao how great a friend Tao is. He puts a lock on the bridge, writing his name and Tao’s.

Charlie passes out at the Louvre. Nick tells Charlie he notices that Charlie has not been eating enough. Charlie confesses he feels like eating is the only thing he can control in his life, so he chooses to skip it sometimes. Nick says he wants to know the next time Charlie's having a rough day so he can be there for him.

Nick plans to see his father, who lives in Paris, during the trip. Nick tells Charlie he’s not close with his father, but he has this idea of introducing Charlie to him. Charlie says from now on they should share with each other if they have something going on in their lives.

Charlie goes with Nick to see Nick’s father, Stephane. But the meeting is short, leaving Nick dejected.


I’ll never play truth/dare

Still in Paris, they have a party in Tara’s room for her birthday and play truth/dare. When it’s Charlie’s turn, someone dares him to kiss James because of the hickey rumour. When Charlie refuses, he’s dared to kiss Ben. Ben’s annoyed and leaves. When they push Charlie to go “truth” and reveal the person who gave him the hickey, Nick confesses to the room that it was him.

Tao and Isaac stay in the girls’ room that night, so Charlie and Nick finally have the room to themselves. They sleep in the same bed but admit that they aren’t ready to do anything beyond kissing.

After days of awkwardness and pretending not to understand Tara’s love confession, Darcy finally tells Tara that she loves her.

To complete the night, Darcy, sick from drinking, throws up on Mr Ajayi’s bed. Farouk says Ajayi can share his bed, and they kiss.


Safe places

Isaac visits James at the bookshop he’s working at and tells him that he doesn’t have romantic feelings towards him. James is understanding about it.

Best lines during the meeting:

“Sorry, some man just bought, like, 15 of those Penguin cloth-bound classics,” James says to Isaac when he finally gets to take a break.

“Wow, that’s like life goals.” Lmao, Isaac.

Elle’s accepted into Lambert but doesn’t disclose it to Tao, who's worried about her moving away. The gang goes to see her art, which is selected for an exhibition there. The art is named “Safe Place” — a drawing of her, Tao, Charlie and Isaac in Truham’s art room. At the exhibition, it is revealed that Elle got a place at the school. Tao tells Elle that he’s happy for her and will always be supportive of her decision.

Someone at the exhibition talks about asexuality and the freedom that comes with it to Isaac. Later in the season — on the prom night — we see him pick a book about asexuality from the library.

Ben apologizes to Charlie, but Charlie says his relationship with Ben messed him up, and he doesn’t want to see him again.

Nick’s father is visiting, so his mother invites the Springs to dinner. David outs Nick to Stephane, and a family drama detonates. The silver lining is, Charlie’s mother starts to warm up towards Nick.

Later that night, Nick googles about eating disorders when his mother notes that Charlie didn’t eat much during dinner.

We also finally meet Darcy’s critical mother. After a fight with her, Darcy runs away from home.


That last episode needs a hug

Nick comes out on Instagram. Charlie’s ecstatic about it, but his eating habit is heavy on Nick’s mind.

Nick confides in Tao that he feels like all the attention for coming out is a lot on Charlie.

Nick wonders if they should skip his Year 11 prom, but Charlie says he wants to go as he feels like everyone’s expecting them to be there together.

Darcy's not showing up at the prom, and Tara isn’t able to reach her. Tara asks Nick how they help someone who doesn’t want to talk about their problems. Nick says maybe they just have to try. Tara leaves to look for Darcy at Darcy’s house and meets her mean mother.

When Darcy finally shows up, the gang decides to leave and continue their night at Nick’s house.

Nick asks Charlie about the bullying incident after he was outed. Charlie confesses he used to cut himself sometimes. Nick wants Charlie to tell him if things ever get bad again. He says Charlie’s not a burden to him, and Charlie has been helping him go through the scary changes in his life in the past months. He's about to tell Charlie that he loves him when the moment is interrupted by his mother coming home.

The season ends with Charlie one Send button away from sending his love confession to Nick.

A lot of adults could use the life lessons shared by these sweet, sweet, fictional kids — like respecting boundaries, caring without conditions and making space for people to be who they are.


Image: Netflix