Girls

**Girls** is the sixth episode of the first season of *Heartstopper*, and the sixth episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

*Tara makes her relationship official on social media, but she isn't ready for the side effects. The friends try to play matchmaker with Elle and Tao*.

## Plot

**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Nick and his mom get ready for a movie night. She wants to watch *Mama Mia*, but Nick is interested in something a bit more centered on LGBTQIA+. In the end, they settle on *Pirates of the Caribbean*. It is through a scene between Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom as their characters that brings on some feelings and Nick realizes that he might actually be bisexual.

The next day, Elle, Darcy and Tara are hanging out at lunch. Tara reads through comments on her “coming out” post and deletes idiotic comments while Elle is busy texting Tao. Elle opens up about her crush on Tao but doesn’t want to tell him for fear of losing their friendship.

At Truham, Harry begins messing with Tao and Charlie and Tao fires back. He gets in a good jab and they walk past Nick and Imogen on their way in. Tao isn’t happy that Nick isn’t saying anything to his friends about how they are treating Charlie, but he doesn’t say anything about it.

Back at Higgs, Tara is still dealing with stupid comments on her Instagram post. Darcy finds her hiding in their special room, where they shared their first kiss. Darcy tries to ask her what is going on, but the music teacher finds them and yells at them for running behind for rehearsal. The homophobic comments eventually bleed into real life and not just popping up on Instagram. Tara and Darcy are subjected to them even during the rehearsal.

Later, Nick and Charlie are on a picnic together. Nick asks Charlie when he realized that he is gay. Charlie shares how he had a feeling when he was younger, but that not everyone has that.

Back at home, Nick continues to research bisexuality.

At school the next day, Nick walks Charlie to rehearsal when he bumps into Tara. The two chat and catch up and Nick tells her that he is seeing Charlie. She is also the first person he has opened up to about their relationship. Tara and Darcy spend their lunch break with Nick and they ask if he wants to be out yet. Judging by how his friends act and how the school bullied Charlie, he is a bit hesitant.

On their way back to the gym, Nick asks Tara if she is a lesbian or bisexual and how she came to know it. As it turns out, Tara admits that she is fully a lesbian and that kissing Nick at 13 was one of her big “ah-ha” moments. She reminds Nick that he doesn’t need to come out until he is ready though.

At Charlie’s house, Tori pops in on her brother, who is waiting for Nick to show up. He tries unsuccessfully to play off that they are just friends, but Tori doesn't seem to buy it.

Nick eventually shows up and the two try to do homework before getting preoccupied. Nick tells Charlie that he opened up to Tara and Darcy about them going out and that he wanted to tell them. Before Nick leaves, they decide to do the double date with Tara and Darcy making this their first official date. The four then decide that Elle and Tao should go and they should all play matchmaker.

The next day, as the triple date kicks off. Elle and Tao are the first to arrive. The group shares milkshakes and Darcy tries to meddle in on Tao and Elle’s relationship a bit. Charlie and Nick decide to go get refills and spend some quiet time together, where they decide that their next date will be just the two of them. When Tao gets up to help grab the milkshakes, Elle calls Darcy and Tara out for trying to meddle. She doesn’t want to risk Tao knowing and ruining their friendship. Tara comments how once secrets are out, there is no going back and it looks like Darcy is worried she is talking about them coming out.

Tao sends Nick and Charlie back to the table and Elle questions them about the whole Elle/Tao debacle. Nick tells her that they were really just hoping to go on a triple date. Darcy and Tara, her and Tao and Nick and Charlie respectively. Elle forgets her anger about the setup and shares her excitement about them finally being together. Charlie then tells her that Tao is the only one who doesn’t know yet and that he has been trying to find the right time to tell him.

As they head off to the concert,Tao and Elle share a sweet moment in the art studio. Tao eventually reveals how it was hard to get used to not having Elle around, and that he found himself buying an extra drink for Elle out of habbit. Even if she wasn't there anymore.

When they arrive at the concert, Tara overhears the girls making homophobic comments again and storms out with Darcy on her heels.

Elsewhere, Charlie teaches Nick how to play the drums some more while he gets ready for the concert. Charlie tells Nick that he wanted him to come to the show, but he is worried that people will start guessing that they are together and he doesn’t want him to suffer because of it. Nick doesn’t seem to care and opens up about how he feels like he is bisexual.

Elswhere, Tara and Darcy, get locked in their room together. Tara just wanted some peace and quiet. Darcy finally gets Tara to open up about how she is feeling. Tara isn’t dealing with the reactions to her coming out as well as she had hoped. People are treating her differently even though she is still the same person she was before. Darcy is worried that she regrets coming out, but that isn’t the case. Tara just doesn’t want to deal with homophobic people anymore, on top of struggling to figure herself out.

The two reconcile while Nick and the others run screaming through the halls, looking for them. Eventually the others find Darcy and Tara, and the concert is able to begin. All while Nick, Tao and Elle watch in support of their friends.

## Cast

* Joe Locke as Charlie Spring
* William Gao as Tao Xu
* Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent
* Corinna Brown as Tara Jones
* Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson
* Rhea Norwood as Imogen Heaney
* Cormac Hyde-Corrin as Harry Greene
* Jenny Walser as Tori Spring
* Olivia Colman as Sarah Nelson
* Courtney-jai as Himself
* Leonie Spilsbury as Miss Hyder

Co-Starring* Jack O'Doherty as Young Nick
* Livia Nelson as Young Tara
* Frewyn Thursfield as Orchestra Girl