Subtext: Although the show is never explicit about it, it shows how William respects Noora’s consent. Noora has repeatedly said she doesn’t want to have sex with him yet, which is why he pulls away from her during their morning in-bed makeout session. Noora wants to keep making out, but William isn’t interested in only that, which is why he’s pushing Noora away.



Subtext: This is the closest the show ever comes to saying anything outright about eating disorders, and even then Noora masks it by saying that her experiences at thirteen made her “‘kind of sick”.



Subtext: The overarching theme of this season is that Noora is constantly torn between doing what she thinks is right, and doing what she wants, and in case you still haven’t gotten this theme, William is spelling it out for us here.



Subtext: Right after making the decision to move in with William, to do what she wants, she tells him not to hold back when making out, because she also decided at that exact moment that she’s ready to have sex with him. Unfortunately, this is interrupted by William noticing a letter from the police.



Culture: Most Scandinavians are probably a lot more familiar with how the US justice system works, due to having watched numerous courtroom dramas or police dramas produced there. The Norwegian justice system is a lot less adversarial, much more boring, and a lot less suitable for juicy tv dramas, so most Norwegians don’t really know the details of their own justice system. Norway doesn’t have Miranda warnings, and the rules around witness testimonies in court are completely different, so the ‘right to remain silent’ actually isn’t a thing.



Subtext: Again, having Vilde be the adult voice of reason is pretty smart, because telling the police about the high-school drama about who-called-who-a-slut and who-had-to-get-back-at-who isn’t gonna work, they actually don’t care, the whole thing is ridiculous. Smashing a bottle over someone’s head is aggravated assault though, and that is serious enough for them to care about.



Culture: The song that starts playing at the end of this clip is called Si Ingenting by Kamelen, and the lyrics at this part of the refrain goes:

“If the cops ask, say nothing,

nothing, nothing, nothing.”



Culture: Skogtur is a vintage Norwegian porno movie from the 90′s with hilariously cringey dialogue. It can be easily found on the internet, but Google it at your own risk. Eskild is referencing the dialogue of the movie, but exactly which part is left as an exercise for the reader, because there are limits to the amount of research I’m willing to do for this series of posts.



Culture: William is flipping through Et dukkehjem, a play by famous Norwegian playright Henrik Ibsen, written in 1879. The main protagonist of the story is called Nora, and at the end of the play she leaves her husband to pursue her own life. At the time the play was written, it was considered absolutely outrageous to have a woman be so strong and independent that she could leave her marriage and children behind.



Blink and you miss it: Both William and Nico have asked Noora why she spells her name with two o’s.



Subtext: William only half spells out his reasoning, but it goes like this: If he can escape justice, if he can use his money and influence and rely on people to not speak up about what really happened, then Nico can do the same for his assault on Noora. It would be hypocritical of William to call out his brother for escaping justice, when he’s done exactly the same. So he takes his punishment on principle, to make sure Nico gets his punishment.



Blink and you miss it: Norwegian artist Astrid S whose songs have featured in the show make a cameo appearance.



Blink and you miss it: Also making a cameo appearance is Marius Borg Høiby, oldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and half-brother to the royal children Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus.



Did you blink and miss it? The BJ action Jonas talks about is the one in the very first episode this season that made Noora escape the flat-share to hang out with Jonas and Eva instead.



Subtext: This is extremely not-subtle, but we never actually see Noora reply to William’s text. However, since the music cuts in with the lyrics “I wanna fuck you” at this point, it’s pretty clear what she wrote him.



Season 2 of SKAM is much less subtle than season 1, the drama doesn’t rely on the characters having shared history, or details being kept from the viewers. Noora doesn’t mask her feelings towards William to us, it’s obvious that she likes him, and her struggle lies in allowing herself to like him.



So even though this season is much longer than season 1 by runtime, there’s actually less to write about in the context of this series of posts, because it’s just a lot more straight-forward. And from a cultural perspective, season 1 already put down the foundations on how the school system works in Norway, the only thing this season adds is that we get to see more of russefeiring, but I intentionally left that out of this series of posts, since everyone ought to be familiar with it beforehand, since it plays such a huge part in the story.



Season 3 should offer up a lot more sweet, juicy, delicious subtext though because of its subject matter, so keep reading!

