Flow of Madness

This is the last part of my larger Franky Analysis. This covers Series 6. 

Here are the other parts in case you didn’t read them! 

Part 1: Welcome to Bristol Franky
Part 2: Forming Bonds 

The summer between the finale of Series 5 and the first episode of Series 6 was definitely a time of growth for Franky. Despite the growth she still has these underlying issues that are just below the surface that needs to be dealt with. She spends the summer with Matty experiencing what it means to be in an intimate romantic relationship. Upon spending so much time with Matty and then deciding to go traveling with him for a longer period of time than the rest of the gang in my opinion is a recipe for disaster. Everyone who enter a relationship know there are important landmarks that the couple must encounter in order to determine if they are strong enough to survive. A vacation is one of those things. Being stuck with a person every moment of every day in a foreign land can drive even the healthiest minded crazy. Franky though has never had a relationship and until recently she has also never had a healthy friendship or a loving family. These are all new things to her. My interpretation of Franky’s attitude toward Matty is that she feels suffocated under the weight of the relationship. She is starting to get that “flight or fight” feeling inside of her and Matty being the person he is wants a conversation with Franky. He wants to make things right, but Franky needed space as unfair as that may seem. She needed room to breathe. When someone is in “flight or fight” mode and the person who is causing this feeling keeps coming at you eventually you will follow your instinct. Franky’s instinct was to get in that car with Luke.

The decision to go with Luke may have been selfish. However I do want to argue that when you only had yourself to rely on for so long—you do not think anyone will care enough about you to chase you. Franky though had two people chasing her: Matty and Liv with a clueless Grace in the car. The chase set things in motion that ended with Grace dying. Due to the circumstances of the accident Franky feels guilty and she all the feelings of being tainted comes back to the surface. Matty ran off and Grace died both of these actions brings up Franky’s abandonment issues. In her episode she goes off to find Luke in order to punish herself through his world of violence. She allows her a surreal escape and empowers her with false control. Nick being the type of friend he is and his new developing feelings for Franky tries to save her from the situation. Franky goes with Luke in order to distract Luke from hurting Nick more. I do want to emphasize that last statement, because she did. Many point out that psychotic laugh that she did while Luke was beating on Nick. However that is a mad woman’s laugh…a woman who has lost sense of reality in herself…and after that moment she came back to the real world. Luke then raped her and she ran out of that house as fast as she could.

The love that Franky has for her first female friend is intense. Franky loved Grace. She was her rock and that one loving voice that Franky began to rely on is now gone. Franky fights Grace’s ghost in her episode not ready to deal with her due to her guilt; however, at the end of the episode Franky calls for Grace. She apologizes and wishes that she could take everything back so that Grace could be there. This is the point that I cannot be angry with Franky. Because there is not enough hate in my system that could ever measure up to the hatred that Franky feels towards herself—which breaks my heart.

Franky after her episode is trying to make a go of it; however, everything that is wrong I still there festering underneath. She then finds out about Mini’s pregnancy and due to that mutual secret their friendship gets stronger and Liv is left behind. Mini’s baby then became a sort of outlet for Franky and she took it as a chance to get things right again. This baby is going to get the love that she never got. Some people find this storyline bizarre and it many ways it is, because I think they could have shown Franky’s issues in a different way though it is understandable. Franky’s abandonment issues are at an all-time high and on top of it Matty returns to Bristol.

Franky obviously still cares for Matty and she also cares for Nick. However she is too confused, too angry, and too broken to be in a relationship with either of them. She runs from them for so long postponing the inevitable, because she does not want to hurt either of them. Grace appears to Franky when she is desperate for advice and Grace tells her what she needs to hear. That she needs to speak her truth in order for things to be righted. So when the Levan boys catch up with her instead of running she tells them that she cannot be with either of them. They need to love one another and she needs to figure things out on her own.

I purposefully left out her search for her sister and mother, because I wanted to talk about this issue last. Her feelings of being tainted, her abandonment issues, and her strange behavior towards Mini all link back to Franky’s desire for a mother figure. She has never had the safety of unconditional love and she has been constantly given up and verbally accosted by others her entire life. She would grow attach to people like he social worker only to be disappointed and yanked from their affection. Grace dying for Franky was more than just losing a wonderful friend. It was a symbol of everything that has ever happened to Franky. People leave her. Nothing good can ever stay in her life. In the end everyone leaves. You may blame Franky for Grace’s death of find her behavior appalling and in some respect it is. Because there is no beauty in the breakdown only beauty in the recovery—Series 6 was her breakdown. It was ugly, it was annoying, it was in your face, and it was not glamorous. It is what all breakdowns are…toxic…and it hurts everyone. Franky searches desperately for her Mom, because she wants answers and in the she finds not only her Mom but an older sister. The future for Franky will not be easy, but she may be able to get the help she needs and maybe the answers that she needs to move on in her life.

Personally I want Franky to be happy, because everyone deserves second chances. I feel like she earned hers.