Grace Blood

Grace Violet Blood, also known as Grace Violet, is a fictional character from the third generation of the British teen drama Skins. She is portrayed by Jessica Sula.^[1]

Synopsis

Series 5

In "Franky", Grace is introduced as one of Mini McGuinness's friends. Unlike Mini and Liv, however, she takes an immediate liking to Franky, whose quiet, isolated nature immediately earns her sympathy. She accompanies the gang on a trip to the local shopping centre, where she robs a store. After escaping the police, Mini, Liv and Grace go to Franky's house, where they discover some embarrassing pictures of Franky have been left on her social networking account. Later, she is dismayed when Mini has the pictures pasted onto the walls of the school, and when Franky returns home, she discovers Grace has come to apologise personally. Grace appeals to Franky to come to Mini's party. At the party, Franky confronts Mini, but Grace cannot bring herself to say anything against Mini. Instead, she gets Alo and Rich to kidnap Franky and take her to the local swimming pool, and they bond as a gang of their own.^[2]

In Rich, Franky recommends Grace help Rich learn to interact with girls, due to his own shyness around them. Rich is very much against the idea at first, because Grace "represents everything he despises in the world." He also makes constant rude remarks and sexist comments to her that get on her nerves. Eventually, though, she is able to use her acting skills to transform herself into a cynical metalhead very much like Rich, and is able to quote some of his favourite bands. But Rich, though impressed, tells her that her meek nature allows her friends to walk all over her, to her offense. Rich is ultimately unsuccessful in chatting up a girl he likes, and Grace immediately takes the opportunity to ask Rich out. But he turns her down, and Grace is distraught. To her relief, though, Rich has a change of heart after getting deafened by a record and watching a ballet performance of hers. She then takes him to a Napalm Death concert, at which they have a good time. Although Grace is reluctant to let Mini and Liv know she has feelings for Rich, they agree to remain in touch.^[3]

In Mini, Grace recruits the help of Franky to organise the dresses for the charity fashion show Roundview is organising, but their reasonable ideas are laughed at by Mini who, out of pure pride and arrogance, decides to overhaul the show to match her own ideas. She continues to insult Grace after the meeting, who is offended by Mini's unkindness and stops being her friend. She then forms a relationship with Rich, and they share a kiss at the after-show rave.^[4]

In Alo, Grace and Rich turn up at the party that Alo has arranged at his farmhouse (in order to spite his domineering parents). There, they secretly make a plan to have sex that night, for the first time. Alo turns up at Rich's house after his father has a heart attack, but cannot bring himself to burden Rich with his troubles, due to Rich's elation at having finally had sex with Grace.^[5]

In Grace, Rich is aghast to discover that Grace's father is David Blood, the snobbish, pushy headmaster of Roundview College. David is less than impressed to discover that Grace is having sex with Rich, whom he perceives to be below his family, and decides that it is time she is sent back to Mayberry's College, an all-girls' boarding school where Grace originally attended. Grace is upset, and persuades him to compromise, and he agrees to let her stay at Roundview if she gets good marks in her AS Theatre Studies exam, a production of Twelfth Night. However, Blood intends to sabotage her play by persuading Rich to do badly on purpose, with the promise of recommending his father, a low-ranking Civil Servant, for the position of Headmaster of Roundview College when he leaves. Grace's production is also marred by the love triangle formed between Liv, Matty and Franky, whose conflict spills out onto the play when Liv makes Matty quit.

Grace, at the advice of her mother and after identifying with Hamlet in his sea of troubles soliloquy, decides to instead force Matty and Liv to rejoin the play, and makes it more interesting by including a kiss between Olivia and Cesario, forcing Mini, and later Liv, to kiss Franky. Rich agrees to have dinner with the Bloods, which is uncomfortable at best, and notes to her that she is a different person around her father. Despite their success in the play, however, Blood decides that Grace must return to Mayberry's anyway, to her fury. Her mother's effort to console her is unsuccessful, and merely results in Grace deriding the fairy tales and children's stories her mother used to read to her. However, at that moment, Rich turns up outside Grace's room, creating a re-enactment of a scene from Romeo and Juliet, and asks her to marry him. Grace agrees and responds with Miranda's soliloquy in The Tempest.^[6]

In Everyone, Grace and Rich put their wedding into action, and arrange one just outside Bristol, forging her father's signature onto a form in order to make it legal. Unfortunately, Alo (the driver) has not brought a proper map with him, and gets lost in a secluded forest with his van damaged. Grace and Rich hitch a ride to the church, arriving just in time to get a later slot. Fearing their friends won't show up, they recruit an elderly couple to be their witnesses. However, the gang does eventually show up, but so does Professor Blood, who had placed a tracking bug in a brooch he gave Grace. Blood is eventually talked down by Nick Levan, and sullenly agrees to let the ceremony continue. But Rich and Grace decide they no longer need to marry, and leave their relationship at that.^[7]

Series 6

In Everyone, Grace and Rich travel to Morocco, for a holiday with the rest of the gang. The two find themselves having to sleep on the roof, but Grace is optimistic as ever, and enjoys the holiday. However, tragedy strikes when Franky goes off with Luke, a British drug dealer on holiday, who blackmails Matty to deliver some cannabis into Marrakech. Grace, Liv and Matty instead get into Matty's car and chase Luke's vehicle. Matty's dangerously fast driving eventually results in a severe car accident that injures Liv and mortally injures Grace. Matty flees the scene, knowing that he will most likely be arrested if he is caught, and the last thing he sees is Grace's bloodied, almost-lifeless body in the ruins of his car. Grace is transferred to a hospital in Britain, and David Blood has refused him, or anyone in the gang, permission to see her, although a sympathetic nurse manages to smuggle Grace a CD of Rich's, which she had previously recorded vocals for.

In Rich, Rich has been waiting for ages for Grace to come out of her coma, and making every effort to sneak past David Blood to see her. One day, he receives a phone call from her, and rushes to the hospital, where Grace is seemingly all right. As they are about to have sex, Blood enters and has Rich escorted from the premises, telling him that he is having Grace taken to Switzerland. When Rich attempts to reason with him later, he arrives to discover that the Bloods have left. Distraught, Rich breaks into their house and squats there, occupying his time by doing drugs, practicing with his and Alo's band, and watching Grace's baby videos. His attempts to reach Grace in Switzerland fail, as Blood merely intercepts the call, but he later receives another call from her, and arranges to meet her in Paris. The gang decide to hold a fundraiser in the Bloods' house to raise money for a trip to Paris, which results in the house getting trashed. During the party, however, Rich sees Grace in the crowd, and follows her upstairs, where they have sex. The next day, however, Rich wakes up to discover the room empty. He receives a final call from Grace, who cryptically tells him that she has to go, and that "it's so beautiful out here." Confused, he looks at the phone and discovers it is actually broken. He goes back inside, where David Blood has returned. Blood explains that Grace had never come out of her coma (revealing that Rich's visions of her were hallucinations) and tearfully informs him that Grace has died.

Grace's death is a major blow to the gang, and results in many of them going off the rails - Franky gets herself involved with Luke's organised street fighting, Liv embarks on a wild-living lifestyle with her new friend, Alex Henley, Mini attempts to reconnect with her wealthy father and ends up getting pregnant, Nick and Matty find themselves at odds over Franky, and Alo accidentally commits statutory rape. Nevertheless, Liv, Franky and Rich all continue to suffer hallucinations of Grace appearing before them, often at times of emotional distress or crisis. The gang eventually manage to move on from her death after Mini's baby is born, and the series ends with Rich staring heavenwards and saying goodbye to her.

References