Flow of Madness

Matty is the only main character to ever not have his own episode. We have never followed Matty through a personal journey and we have never had a chance to get in his head. Therefore many people do not feel as attached to Matty as they do the other characters. 

In Series 5, Matty is this mysterious character with crazy eyes. He enters a relationship with Liv (the girl his brother was sleeping with secretively). He seems to fall into the group quite easily compared to Nick. The two Levan brothers are quite competitive with one another and Nick harbors resentment towards Matty, because things seem to come so easily to him. Despite being in a relationship with Liv he has a deep infatuation with Franky who returns that same curiosity. Mini calls Matty out on his mind games. This whole thing plays out with Matty chasing after Franky and the series ends with a hug between the two of them. 

In Series 6, Matty plays a huge part in Grace’s death. With only a few moments with Matty to hold onto he runs away from scene of the crash. There were drugs hidden in the car that he would be held responsible for. His friend is lying unconscious on the car he accidentally crashed. He is scared and he runs. The longer he is absent the easier it is for the gang and the audience to blame him. When something that can’t be explained happens it is only natural for humans to look for a cause and many of the characters choose to blame Matty. He was the drive and he ran. The longer he is gone and the longer he doesn’t tell his story the easier it is to blame him. Even if it isn’t his fault. 

His phone calls and skype conversations sound like a desperate man trying so hard to be heard and listened to. He is dogmatically holding onto Franky and wants to desperately explain himself to her. Franky dealing with her own guilt blames Matty and doesn’t want to speak to him. He is trapped and lost in a foreign country with the authorities looking for him. With absolutely no support. He tries to reach out to his brother who has complicated feelings and is not doing everything Matty tells him to do. Franky then answers the Skype call wearing Nick’s clothes and that’s when Matty realizes his brother slept with Franky. 

Somehow he enters the country and tracks down Liv. He wants to explain himself especially to Franky. No one seems to want him to explain and it is quite obvious the gang does blame him. Except Rich who he apologized to and Rich tells him to forget about it Grace doesn’t mind. Eventually Franky admits she still loves Matty, but she needs to be on her own. This allows Matty to work things out with Nick. 

The last scene in my opinion speaks to me as real growth. Matty is mysterious, risk-taker, smart, and I think ultimately good-hearted. He has been running from fixing his life for quite some time. Especially since Morocco. At the end of the episode we see Matty facing what needs to be faced. He has stopped fighting and he has stopped running. It’s time to get his life back and deal with what needs to be dealt with.