It’s April and Charlie discusses his progress over the past few months with his therapist, as he also contemplates taking his relationship with Nick to the next level.
Let’s recap what happened in this new episode of Heartstopper season 3.
NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Heartstopper season 3 episode 6, “Body”.
This season of Heartstopper is enjoying moving quickly through time and then catching us up on what has been going on. This episode opens on a therapy session where Geoff goes over Charlie’s progress since January: how he settled back at school where he received a lot of help from his friends and teachers, and then had a bad relapse a couple of weeks after which led to an argument with Nick and involved self harm. Overall though, Charlie has been doing better.
It is now April and as Charlie’s birthday is coming up, he explains how he doesn’t want to be defined by his traumas and Geoff reminds him that trauma is something that requires time to overcome. And in the meantime, Charlie should enjoy his sixteenth birthday and have a lot of fun.
At school, Nick gives Charlie his birthday present: tickets for a book presentation by an historian that Charlie likes a lot. Charlie is delighted, the two boys make out and get a little bit carried away. Seems like they are ready to take this between the sheets, but maybe not on school grounds.
Charlie is having a big sleepover at his house to celebrate his birthday with all his friends. As he gets ready for it, he talks to Isaac and Tao about how things are heating up between him and Nick and how he doesn’t know how to handle it. He is worried Nick might not be there yet. In addition, there is the fact that Charlie appears to be ashamed of his body. He doesn’t say that to his friends, but when they leave him to get dressed, we see Charlie try different outfits and settle on the one that hides his body the most.
The birthday sleepover
Charlie’s birthday party is a good old fashioned friends’ gathering, with a lot of alcohol poured over it. While Imogen isn’t sure where she stands with Sahar, Tara wants “a night out from everything.” She has been under a lot of stress since the beginning of sixth form and it catches up with her as she and the others talk about going to university. She is on track to go to Oxford, but the pressure bubbling inside her is so strong that she ends up having a panic attack in the middle of the party. Good thing Charlie is there to walk her through a breathing exercise.
Sharing a tent in Charlie’s backyard, Sahar and Imogen finally have a heartfelt conversation about what happened between them. Imogen admits she feels confused about who she is at the moment and doesn’t want to keep hurting Sahar. Agreeing they should focus on being friends, the two girls mend their relationship. Meanwhile, speaking of friends, Tori has one over as well! It’s Michael, the boy she met at the New Year’s Eve party, and she will not confirm whether they are dating or not.
The drinking continues and it loosens up Charlie, who tells Nick he’d like for them to have sex. Although Nick is on the same page, he’d rather wait until Charlie is not drunk to actually do it. The thing is that when Charlie is sober, per his words, he worries about how Nick might look at him, so he feels more comfortable talking about it while drunk. But that doesn’t last long because, sure enough, Charlie soon gets sick from all the drinks.
Not about art
Before the party at Charlie's, we caught up with Elle at her art school, where she found out she was invited to do a radio interview about the fact that her art has blown up on social media. After taking the time to think it through, Elle saw it as a great opportunity to talk about her art and accepted the request from the local station.
Accompanied by her parents and Tao, she goes to the radio station, excited to do the interview. However, it doesn’t go as she imagined. Instead of focusing on Elle’s art, the interviewer keeps asking her questions that relate to Elle being a trans woman. She insists on talking about difficult topics that are a bit much for a 16-year-old girl who initially came here to talk about her paintings.
It gets to the point where Elle cannot handle it any longer and she decides to leave, while her parents are giving an earful to the radio station producer who misled them about the content of the interview. Elle hugs her father and they depart, as Tao watches his girlfriend cry, helpless himself in that situation.
Body image
Back to Nick and Charlie: we catch up with them at Jack Maddox’s book presentation. He is the “hot” historian Charlie likes to follow on social media. And we understand why: Maddox is played by none other than Bridgerton season 2 heartthrob, Jonathan Bailey. After the talk and the book signing, even Nick has to admit the man is undeniably good-looking.
When the boys return to Charlie’s they have another make-out session that gets heated, but when Nick touches Charlie and tries to remove his clothes, the latter feels anxious. He explains that he is nervous about taking his shirt off and about how Nick might look at him, because Charlie is no Jack Maddox and because he has scars. Nick reminds Charlie that he loves him and that he wants him and no one else, but in any case, nothing is going to happen on Charlie’s bed just yet, not with his mother’s open-door policy anyway.
As the episode reaches its end, we return to therapist Geoff’s office, where Charlie puts words on his body image issues, and says he doesn’t understand where it comes from. He knows he is not ugly, so why does he react this way to Nick’s touch? Geoff points out that Charlie’s anxiety is related to the fact that he has a hard time letting go of control, which is something that intimacy requires to some extent. But as Charlie feels he doesn't have a lot of confidence, Geoff tells him he thinks Charlie has more than he thinks, and perhaps soon Charlie will come to see it too.
What’s next for Nick and Charlie? Will they take the next step in their relationship? Are they really ready? Watch the next episode of Heartstopper season 3, now available on Netflix, to find out.
