Hoping for a night of wild abandon, Cook invites everybody to his birthday party at his uncle's pub but the party collapses after Effy's friend Pandora throws up. Cook manages to persuade everyone to gate-crash a party being thrown to celebrate the engagement of a girl called Kayleigh, but he falls foul of her father John White, a drugs baron to Madame Greta's brothel; he again encounters John White and a fight ensues and White threatens to kill Cook if he sees him again.

Freddie's sister Karen is entering the Next SexBomb contest but he disapproves of her trying to win the sympathy vote because their mother is dead. JJ tells him Cook wants to see him but he is tired of doing what Cook wants and goes to see Effy to reveal his feelings though she rejects him. Despite having turned their shed into a dance studio,Karen loses the contest,thanks to Cook persuading the local pub customers to vote against her. Freddie decides he will definitely explain to Effy how he feels about her but finds she is with Cook.

JJ visits his psychiatrist after feeling 'lost and confused' about his life and friends. He is given lots of medical drugs to calm his Aspergers. He finds that Emily goes to the same clinic as him and they spend some time together; Emily calms JJ down,admits to him that she is a lesbian, and offers advice to help him sort out his numerous issues. JJ and Emily then visit Freddie and walk in on him having sex with Katie. During the confrontation, JJ accidentally informs Katie that Emily is a lesbian. Later, JJ visits Effy and asks her to stop interfering in his friendship with Freddie and Cook. JJ then visits Cook and discovers that he is also having casual sex with Pandora. Later, the group goes to a You Love Her Coz She's Dead gig, where Cook is beaten up after getting into a fight with some ravers. Before the chaos Effy and Naomi have a heart-to heart-outside, where Effy reveals that she knows about her and Emily. Naomi is hit by a wave of relief when Effy states that she does not mind if she is gay or not. Cook has taken JJ's Stun pills; they calm him and also make him tell the truth. Cook reveals that Effy loves Freddie back, but she cannot admit it and does not want a serious relationship. He bizarrely even admits to being genuinely hurt by this as he loves Effy too before admitting to having sex with Pandora, which Thomas overhears. JJ invites an upset Emily back to his house for the night, so she does not have to go home and face Katie. The next morning they sleep together; Emily tells JJ it is a "one-time charity event."

Effy and Cook go into hiding with his father, but Effy contacts Freddie, who turns up with JJ, though it is Freddie with whom Effy ends up sleeping. Cook asks his father if he can leave the country with him on his boat but Cook, Sr. threatens him and must be restrained. Eventually Effy and the boys take the boat back up the river after Cook pushes his father overboard. But despite Effy's evident feelings for Freddie, who ends up with whom is inconclusive.

Effy and Freddie are living together but Freddie is troubled by Effy's morbid outlook and her obsession with death. He visits his grandfather Norman in his residential home and the old man tells Freddie that he believes Effy should have psychiatric treatment. Effy then locks herself in a bathroom and attempts suicide, but is taken to hospital and survives. Freddie visits but she rebuffs him, but Cook, who has apparently escaped from custody, turns up and advises him to persevere.

As Emily, Naomi, Pandora, and Thomas make up, the gang become concerned for the absent Freddie and hold his birthday party in his absence. Cook, who has read Freddie's notebook which mention's Foster's obsession with Effy, follows the psychiatric worker home and breaks into his basement, where he discovers a bag containing Freddie's blood-stained clothes. Foster comes in and attacks him but ,with a cry of "I'm Cook" the youngster hits him back with the baseball bat and avenges his friend's death.