There are certain words that stir emotions. Words that cause rage and disgust in the masses. “Paedophilia” is such a word, and it has a narrative that goes with it, in dramas and in peoples’ imaginations. It goes like this: someone targets, then befriends an innocent child and through a scheme of force, reward or psychological trickery, abuses said child against his or her will.

This version of events is so entrenched in the psyche that it’s a brave enough drama that attempts to tell it differently and an insanely brave one that attempts to do it with an established, sympathetic lead character.

Alo doesn’t realise his new lover, Poppy Champion, is a child until the deed is well underway, not least due to her mature looks, casual substance use and sexual confidence. Her earlier, childlike behaviour (playing kiss-chase, and performing a knicker-revealing headstand), had been dismissed by Alo as her being weird. Besides, with a greater number of young adults desperately hanging on to youthful forms of expression and entertainment, it’s behaviour that doesn’t even seem that strange to the viewer.

Once Alo realises (in a Trainspotting-style reveal of a school uniform), he is appalled and, as you might imagine, is terrified as police are called, word gets out and his life falls apart.

He finds himself sleeping in a playground (as Mini points out, not the wisest of moves), has phrases such as PEEDO spray-painted onto his van and receives a The Thick of It level of Scottish invective down the phone from Poppy’s father, as well as a few punches when they meet in person. Note: never tell anyone that beating you up won’t make them feel better, as they are likely to test this theory.

It might be tied up a bit neatly by the end of the episode (and we wonder if the residents of the Skins universe will just forget about it in the coming weeks, too?) but it’s episodes like this that cause critics to refer to Skins using words like “bold”, something that’s been a little lacking lately outside the blockbuster opening to this year’s run.

The character of Poppy is another excellent turn from Holly Earl, last seen in Doctor Who’s 2011 Christmas special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

After her age is revealed, Earl and the production team do a phenomenal job of ramming home how young she is through a change in performance and costume (Alo kneeling down to talk to her like a small child is a particularly unsettling touch). When he visits her and her family later in the episode and we finally see her, without confidence or her sheen of faux maturity, as a sad neglected daughter, her desire to reach out to anyone friendly makes a lot of sense.

In all, through these experiences and the heavy references to Peter Pan, the episode give Alo a very harsh lesson in leaving childhood behind and embracing adulthood. It’s interesting, then, that he is yet to be given the information which would accelerate his journey: he remains blissfully unaware that Mini is carrying his child.

Skins really is a series that should be fearless, a series that can do anything and it’s utterly gratifying to see it live up to that potential, and even when the resolution is a bit too tidy – and it really is –  it doesn’t detract from the sheer bravado on display.

The best episode of Generation 3 yet.

Aired at 10pm on Monday 5th March 2012 on E4.

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> Christopher Jerden-Cooke is co-host of Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour Podcast.