'Skins': Freya Mavor reviews 'Mini', teases what's to come

Oh. My. God. First of all, if you haven't seen last night's episode of Skins yet, you do not want to read on any further.

Still with us? Now, wasn't 'Mini' a fabulous instalment? We had to give the excellent Freya Mavor a ring to have a chat about everything that went on... like the fact that Mini's expecting!

Read on to find out what's coming up for Mini and Alo, whether we can expect more shocks (yes) and why the pregnancy storyline was literally Freya's worst nightmare...

Mini's pregnant! How did you feel when you heard about the storyline?
"Oh God, I freaked out! The thing is, I have this weird thing about pregnancy. I don't know what it is but I have a recurring nightmare every month where I wake up and I'm nine months pregnant and I start going into labour. I don't know what it is - I don't know where this fear of pregnancy lies. I think it's mainly the fear of giving birth itself.

"But I was really, really nervous. I mean, of all the things they could have touched on they obviously had to touch the one that I'm terrified of! It was hard, it was very hard, but I think the bigger the challenge and the more the controversial topic, the more rewarding it's going to be to actually do it. I absolutely loved filming this series. I thought my storyline was very hard but really, really, really good fun and a lot of it left a lot of leeway for proper acting! I hope, anyway!"

Can we just check - is it definitely Alo's baby?
"Yes, it is! I'm not sure if I should say that, but yeah. I definitely think it's Alo, because you only see her sleeping with Alo. And although at the beginning she's very promiscuous and all that jazz, it's only with him. She's not some kind of floozy who's going off and sleeping with many people. It's just Alo, which is as it should be hopefully!"

At the moment, Franky's the only member of the group who knows about Mini's pregnancy. Will she tell anyone else?
"I think something this big, she kind of has to keep it a secret - it's almost like her duty. If your best friend told you something this big, it's not something you can take in your own hands to spread as a rumour. It's something that's incredibly personal and would affect the dynamic of the group entirely, especially because Alo doesn't know.

"It's a huge deal because the second Mini tells him he's involved. I think it's this whole thing about denial - she doesn't want anyone to find out and it's almost like so long as nobody finds out, it isn't actually true. So she puts it off and puts it off and it just becomes this cloud that's hanging over her that she just doesn't want to deal with. But she will have to deal with it at some point."



How far will we see the pregnancy? Is Mini going to keep the baby? Will we see a bump? What can we expect?
"Ahh! Well, what can I say? I don't even know what I can say! I think at the end of the episode, that whole scene where she has the scan, that really is an epiphany for her.

"It echoes massively the speech her mum makes to her when they're in Mini's room and it's very much that she sees this child and she thinks, 'I didn't have the ideal childhood, I didn't have the upbringing that I would have loved and I didn't have a family and I didn't have that support I would have liked', and she sees this scan and she sees the potential to start things new.

"I think I like that as a road to go down, because you could have gone down the whole 'get an abortion' thing which would have been a big storyline in itself. But it's very rare these days that you hear about young teens who get pregnant and decide to keep the baby - it's quite a powerful and strong thing to decide to do, especially for a character like Mini who's so look-obsessed and queen bee and all this stuff. For her to want to keep the baby, it's quite a bold decision to make."

Let's talk about Alo. The scene in the barn was really sad - has Mini ruined her chances with him now, or is there still hope?
"I think at that moment she's sort of abused his trust and his feelings for her so much that she finds herself in a situation where he can't trust her anymore, and he says he doesn't think she can love anything. So from that moment on I think she does decide that this is something that she can do, that she's going to have to do by herself.

"She knows she's pregnant, she's got all this stuff going on and she goes to him and when she needs him to be forgiving the most, he turns his back on her. Even though it's rightly so that he rejects her in that moment because she's treated him so badly, it's still very much a confirmation for her I guess - 'I'm in this on my own'.

"It's quite a sad episode in that she feels like she's having to deal with this burden but very much by herself and the one person that she does tell, apart from Franky, leaves her. That's what makes her go to see Alo in the hopes that he'll be different and he isn't - he's firm in his decision to keep his distance."



What else is coming up for Mini in future episodes?
"Episode nine focuses on Mini and Franky and their relationship, and that was really, really interesting to film. It gave a great story arc for both characters and it allowed a lot of space to expand on both their storylines, which is fantastic.

"A lot of the rest of the stuff is Mini just desperately trying to hide the secret from her friends for as long as she possibly can before it's actually physically impossible. But by that point it's too late and I think the gang discover her secret in the worst possible way. The episode where there's a big discovery, it's very dramatic. It was quite a revelation."

So there are more shocks on the way?
"Yeah, I definitely think so. I think the thing that's really interesting this year is that they really have tried to twist things and push barriers and make things more extreme and revelations all that more intriguing.

"It is a lot darker and the content's a lot more adult, I suppose. But I think it works, especially in contrast to last year, which was quite sweet and quite innocent in many ways. This year they've all grown up and their problems have all matured. Their problems have kind of followed them. So yeah, definitely lots of twists and turns!"

Skins airs on Mondays at 10pm on E4.