Subtext: This is where Sonja admits that Even’s love for Isak is real, and that their relationship is completely over. And since she still cares about Even, she passes the torch to Isak, helps Isak help Even in the best way she knows.



Blink and you miss it: Isak’s almost imperceptible smile when Sonja says that Even is better off with him than with her.

Subtext: One final shot of The Locker™, and this time it opens without any issues and Isak flings it open as wide as possible. Because he’s walking through school, talking openly on the phone with Eskild about watching over his bipolar boyfriend.



Subtext: Everyone forgot about kosegruppa, because that thing with this Even dude completely took over the show, but it’s nice that the show reminded us that that was actually a thing way back in episode 1.



Subtext: This entire clip is a mirror to the clip in episode 3, same characters, same place, same sequence of events. But the outcome is completely different this time. Vilde asks about having a pre-party at Isak’s, and this time he doesn’t protest, he just says yes. Isak walks over to Emma to invite her to the party, but this time it’s not to lead her on, and this time she turns him down.



Subtext: Although neither character is saying it out loud, they’re essentially having the “we cool?” conversation. Yeah, they’re cool.

Subtext: Isak is the worst liar. He has visible tells, and his friends usually see right through him, but no-one has really called him out on it, until Even does. The only big lie he’s gotten away with is that he likes guys, but Even saw right through that one as well. So to him, Isak is a really bad liar.



Subtext: Everyone forgot about Kosegruppa! Not a single person remembers it!



Subtext: It’s ironic that neither Isak not Even went to the first meeting with Kosegruppa because they wanted to be part of the revue. Both of them had ulterior motives, Isak wanted his weed back, and Even wanted to get closer to Isak.



Cinematography: Normally we always hear both sides of phone conversations, because they happen from the point-of-view of the main character. But this time Isak doesn’t give a shit about Vilde, he’s lying in bed with Even, so Vilde’s voice is just reduced to an annoying buzzing in the background, and he just wants to get out of the phone call.

Culture: Minutt For Minutt is the name of NRK’s series of slow television programmes. The first such programme showed a train trip from Oslo to Bergen, in realtime, without any cuts. Every single minute of the trip. All seven hours and sixteen minutes. Absolutely riveting.



So what Magnus is proposing is to stick a camera in front of Isak and Even and keeping it there for hours, no cuts, no edits, no nothing. This is of course a meta-comment on the show itself, because that is exactly what a lot of fans of the show would want to see.



Subtext: The meta-commentary just keeps coming in this clip. Because the conversation Magnus and Isak are having, is of course a conversation that David and Tarjei must have had. What is it like to be a part of a TV show with your best friend, and watching him make out with some other dude? How embarrassing is it to shoot sex scenes, knowing that your friends are going to watch them later?



Subtext: Of course Jonas is #1, he was probably Isak’s first real crush.



Subtext: And in yet another meta-commentary, the show points out that a lot of women are fans of the show because they think it’s really cute to see two guys being together, and that it is pretty shallow, actually. The dance group doesn’t give a shit about Isak and Even as people, they don’t know either of them, and the only reason they’re asking is because they want them to join their party and look cute. Isak does the 100% right thing by rejecting them.

Blink and you miss it: Eskild is wearing tights and mascara, a throwback to the clip in episode 5 when Isak comes out to Eskild.



Lost in translation: Linn uses the word “skeiv” to talk about the Christmas tree, which means both “crooked” and “queer”, so Eskild makes a little word-pun that just works a lot better in Norwegian than English.



Blink and you miss it: Someone made a gingerbread penis and decorated it with frosting. Someone also drew a penis on the gingerbread man with frosting. Together with the condom Christmas tree ornaments and Chris’ Christmas penis ornament, there’s even more penis at this party than at Dr Skrulle’s office.



Culture: In case you’ve forgotten the grade system that I explained back in season 1, a 6 is the highest grade you can get in a subject, so Isak is better than Sana at biology. He did answer the question on excretion correctly after all.



Lost in translation: Norwegian, along with a bunch of other languages, have a construct known as a disagreeing yes. Magnus actually says “jo, gjør det igjen”, but he’s using “jo”, the disagreeing yes, which is different from “ja”, the agreeing yes. English doesn’t have this construct, so to signal disagreement you typically have to invert your sentence, or if it’s less clear-cut like in this scene, you have to start your sentence with no. Because Magnus disagrees with Vilde, he doesn’t think her meowing was nothing, he liked it, he wants her to do it again.



Subtext: There is a little throwback here, both to the first episode when Magnus talked about making out with a girl with a cat-tongue, and to the second episode where he offered to have sex with Vilde. But here, she makes the offer to him.



Subtext: Eva is making a dig at herself, because the whole plot of season 1 was that she “stole” someone’s boyfriend.

Oh my love, we’ve had our share of tears.

Oh my friends, we’ve had our hopes and fears.

Oh my friends, it’s been a long hard year.

But now it’s Christmas.

Yes, it’s Christmas.

Thank God it’s Christmas.



Season 3 of SKAM uses a lot more subtext than the previous season, for several reasons. Both Isak and Even are carrying secrets that they are ashamed of, Isak of being gay, and Even of having a mental illness. And they keep masking these facts, they keep themselves closed, to each other, and to their friends, so you have to look at their actions to see what they really want.



This season also contains a fair amount of symbolism, of birth and rebirth, and it heavily references both Romeo+Juliet and Pretty Woman. If you’ve never watched either of those movies, I highly recommend that you do, so that you can see the scenes that this season is inspired by.



One final season left to go, and I already know that the last season is going to be heavier on cinematography and visual composition than the previous seasons, so if that interests you, keep reading!

