Heartstopper Recap: My Favorite Holiday Yet

Heartstopper Recap: My Favorite Holiday Yet,We have a big development on the Elle and Tao front. A recap of ‘Heat,’ episode five of season two of Netflix’s ‘Heartstopper.’

Heartstopper Recap: My Favorite Holiday Yet

Season 2 Episode 5 Editor’s Rating3 stars ***

Photo: Netflix/Teddy Cavendish/Netflix “Heat” feels like exactly what it is: the middle chapter in season two’s Paris arc, a holiday where new relationships are born and old ones are tested. It’s a good episode, for sure, continuing the mostly-good vibes of the last episode’s first day in Paris. It’s just that this time, there’s a stronger feeling of unfinishedness, with a few confrontations delayed and a few characters shuffled around to wherever the story needs them to be.

That’s clearest when you look at where the episode starts and ends: Nick planning to meet up with his dad in Paris, a task that proves to be harder than it seems. They play phone tag for most of the episode, finally scheduling a spontaneous meeting at the very end. We’ll see that play out next time, but for now we’re left to wonder just how much disappointment Nick is in for.

Most of Charlie and Nick’s story in this episode is about the aftermath of Nick planting a hickey on his boyfriend’s neck. As the class fills out their assignments and later climbs up the Eiffel Tower, everyone speculates about the identity of the hickey artist; James is a popular suspect, being the other out gay guy in the class. Harry gets up to some of his old tricks, teasing Charlie about the hickey, until Isaac urges him to think about the way he makes people feel. It seems to actually get through to him because the next time his group runs into Charlie and Nick, Harry suggests they leave them alone.

This story ends up intersecting with the ramp-up of Charlie’s undereating. It’s almost a relief to see that story brought to a breaking point, even if it isn’t fun watching him pass out at the Louvre. The animations of fuzzy whiteness at the corners of the frame really emphasize the disorienting experience.

After Charlie wakes up, the teachers and Nick take him to the café, where he finally eats and opens up to Nick about his eating issues. The words “eating disorder” aren’t used, but there clearly is one. Essentially, in times of intense stress, Charlie finds himself limiting his eating. He’s self-aware enough to understand the source of this unhealthy defense mechanism: It’s a reaction to feeling like he has no control over anything in his life. It was at its worst last year, when the bullying was bad.

“Heat” features one other big culmination: Elle and Tao’s first (and second, and third) kiss, which happens at the Louvre. I have to say, I was a bit skeptical of this romance in the first season; I saw friend chemistry, but not necessarily sexual tension and Tao’s constant bratty behavior about Charlie and Nick obscured a lot of his charm in general. By this point, though, I’m sufficiently charmed, and that has a lot to do with the way Alice Oseman’s scripts have leaned into the awkwardness of the transition from friend to romantic partner.

It makes sense that after a forced date where Tao tried too hard to be more than friends, what actually allows them to connect romantically is returning to the low-pressure state of just being friends. As mates, Elle and Tao are profoundly comfortable with each other, and that raw themness is what lets them really see each other.

Elle and Tao each also get one final pep talk to make this moment happen. Charlie and Nick slip into supporting-character Cupid roles here, recalling what Tara and Darcy did for them in season one. First up is Charlie, who encourages Tao to go for it while they’re waiting at the Pont des Arts. There, Tao comes clean about something he’s kept bottled up: Last year, Charlie got outed because someone overheard Tao talking to Isaac. This revelation isn’t treated like a huge moment, though; you can see that Charlie thinks back briefly to the pain of that time, but he’s clear about not blaming Tao. He tells his friend that he’s a good person who deserves love, then writes their names on a padlock and attaches it to the bridge. It’s a nice twist that the lovelock cliché is used on a friendship this time — a love story just as worthy of attention as the others.

It’s Elle’s turn to get a bit of wisdom from Nick this time, after he gave Tao a helpful nudge last episode. As they’re sharing a nice moment talking about a painting, he muses, “You don’t have to understand your feelings completely to know you like something … You can just feel.” Elle immediately recognizes the truth of it, and it’s the final push she needs to pull Tao aside for their romantic adventure together.

As for Tara and Darcy, things remain very much unresolved, with Darcy repeatedly choosing to repress and ignore instead of dealing with whatever is really bothering her. Tara finally forces a conversation after Darcy gets a text from her mom at the Louvre and won’t explain what’s going on; it’s keeping with her pattern of hiding her family life from Tara, a tendency that Tara points out. She finally cuts to the heart of it: Sure, she may not have meant to say she loved Darcy the other week, but it was true, and Darcy knows that.

It’s tough to watch Darcy hurt Tara in this way, even if I have faith that they’ll work it out before long. Because we have so much more access to Tara’s point of view than Darcy’s, there’s a bit of an imbalance; watching Darcy deflect this consistently is frustrating, and the drama is only sometimes emotionally rewarding. It’s an unusual level of miscommunication for the characters in this show.

With their time in Paris dwindling, there’s even more urgency now for everyone to work out their issues and enjoy their final days on holiday with their chosen family. On this show, most of the biggest moments of growth come from talking to other people — saying the things that are hard to say, whether it’s telling the world about your sexuality, opening up about an eating disorder, venting about an unreliable dad, or just telling someone you love them.

Love Notes

• Very cute moment when Mr. Ajayi makes Mr. Farouk pose in front of a portrait that looks like him. It’s surprisingly delightful to see Farouk loosen up!

• Ben is still playing the victim to Nick, and I have no patience for it. There’s no sincerity to his claim that Nick “stole Charlie away” while Ben was still working through some personal things. Dude, you’re not even close to done working through those personal things.

• When Nick teases Charlie for liking his French-speaking, he calls him “mon amour,” which makes Charlie say, “Oh my god, you’re so cringe!”

• No real follow-up on Isaac’s situation with James in this episode outside of how it intersects with the hickey storyline. James really doesn’t want people to think he has a thing with Charlie, mostly because he doesn’t want Isaac to get the wrong idea.

VULTURE NEWSLETTER

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice

p aria-hidden=”true”>By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.