Naomi Campbell is a fictional character in the British television teen drama Skins, played by Lily Loveless. Naomi was a main character in the third and fourth series of the programme, as part of the show's second set of characters. Her story lines focused mainly on her romantic relationship with Emily Fitch and identifying her sexuality, and were warmly received by critics. Loveless reprises the role for the seventh series, in the feature-length Skins Fire, which catches up with Effy as she struggles to cope with adult life and Naomi struggles with a diagnosis of cancer.
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Characterization
Naomi is an individualist; passionate, political and principled. Throughout the third and fourth series, Naomi's sexual orientation is left ambiguous; after firmly maintaining she is straight, she later confesses to Effy and Emily, on separate occasions, that she is unsure, and she has shown an interest in Cook, to the extent that she nearly had sex with him in her centric episode, however she aborted the encounter due to her feelings for Emily. In the last episode of series 4, Naomi reveals that she fell in love with Emily when they were younger, but was afraid of Emily's effect on her, so she slept with boys to try to get rid of her feelings for Emily.
Much of the third series is about Naomi dealing with her feelings for Emily and questioning her sexuality. Up until "Pandora", Naomi maintains that she is straight and does not have feelings for Emily, who she knows is in love with her. However, in her centric episode, they share their first sexual experience. By the end of the series they both come out publicly as a couple.
Much of the fourth series deals with Emily and Naomi having problems with their relationship, mostly due to Naomi cheating on Emily while also having contrasting plans on whether they should go to University right after graduating or not. By "Everyone", their relationship is on the rocks, but Naomi finally reveals her true feelings: that she had always loved Emily and that she is done running, and presents to her two tickets to travel after graduation, and thus she and Emily reunite.
In season 7, Naomi's character has changed significantly. Her blonde hair is now brunette in colour, and she has also lost her idealistic, political personality. Instead, she has become an unambitious, unmotivated slacker who spends her days smoking cannabis and drinking with her friends. Worrying that her life has lost direction, Naomi aspires to be, and eventually becomes, a successful stand-up comedian. However, her brush with success is marred when she is diagnosed with cancer, which leads to her becoming quiet and frail, and ultimately kills her, making her the fourth major Skins character to die in the show's seven seasons.
Character history
Series 3
In "Everyone", Naomi is first seen sitting in the school auditorium during an assembly and is the last main character to appear (besides Thomas who debuted in the third episode). She is met with ridicule due to sharing a name with a fashion model. Cook sees her and tries to charm her but instead winds her up, by telling her that he'll show his tattoo. Raising her hand, she tells on Cook, saying that he wanted to show her something "inappropriate", causing the teachers to force Cook to show them his tattoo, which turns out to be on his penis. Katie also points her out to Effy, stating that "Naomi was the lesbian that tried to get off with my sister".
In "Cook", she is invited to Cook's birthday party, much to Katie's chagrin. She begins to complain, asking why they "invited the lesbian", but Emily produces a cake seemingly out of thin-air, turning the attention away from Naomi.
In "Thomas", Emily admits that she came on to Naomi, not the other way around. She and Naomi almost kiss again, but Naomi leaves, telling Emily that she is straight, something Emily needs to accept.
In "Pandora", as Naomi and Emily arrive together, Naomi urges Emily to admit that she is gay, but Emily denies it. After calling Freddie for help, JJ goes into the house by himself and sees Emily and Naomi kissing. Katie, too, witnesses the pair kissing, but is interrupted when her footballer boyfriend, Danny Guillermo, and dozens of his friends arrive at the house to crash the party.
In her centric episode, Naomi lives with her hippy mother Gina and fifteen other people in a communal living arrangement. At college, she avoids Emily to meet with her politics teacher, Kieran, instead. In the students' common room, they are informed of the upcoming elections for Student President. Emily encourages Naomi to run for president, but Naomi refuses. She later comes across Cook, who tries to persuade her to have sex with him. She jokingly tells him that he has a better chance of winning the student elections. He sees this as a challenge and decides to register. Kieran walks her home at the end of the day and urges her to run in the elections, giving her a registration form. When she arrives at her house, she finds Emily waiting in her bedroom with another registration form. Emily starts to leave when Naomi is rude and standoffish to her—despite taking Emily's advice to enter the elections—but confronts Naomi instead. She tells Naomi that, despite having kissed her twice previously, she is more interested in friendship than a sexual relationship with her, and Naomi invites her to stay for the night.
Series 4
In Thomas, she is present when the girl Sophia kills herself after taking MDMA. Although Thomas originally thinks Cook sold the drugs to Sophia, Naomi reveals that she did it, and begs him not to tell Emily. In "Emily", the episode begins with Emily in Naomi's house, looking at her girlfriend's pictures. They are planning a trip to Mexico after college finishes. A package arrives containing a pair of goggles that Naomi has bought for Emily, telling her not to ever forget that she loves her. The couple uses Emily's moped and visits the Fitch house, where Rob Fitch is cleaning out the garage. Emily talks to her mother, Jenna Fitch who insist they have a conversation about Emily's future. Emily brushes her off, and rides off to Roundview college with Naomi.
The police turn up with more questions about Sophia's death, they are both called in to be interviewed. Their names were listed by the family as close friends of Sophia's, even though they'd never met her. Emily learns that Naomi was dealing powder with Cook the night of the suicide and sold some to Sophia to pay for the motorbike goggles she bought her.
Behind Naomi's back, Emily visits Sophia's family to find out more about the dead girl. She discovers that Sophia claimed to be best friends with Naomi and Emily. While looking around Sophia's bedroom Emily discovers that Sophia was gay and she finds and takes a university prospectus with a key inside. She leaves and later, when flicking through the prospectus, she finds a photo of Sophia laughing with Naomi. She realizes that Naomi did in fact know the dead girl and suspects that she might have cheated on her with Sophia.
Emily interrupts Naomi's class by slamming a picture of Sophia and Naomi taken at the University Open Day, making the latter walk out of class. The two argue about lying and Naomi admits that she indeed met Sophia at a University open day which she was attending behind Emily's back. She insists they just talked and that nothing had happened between them. Still a bit doubtful, Emily tells her about they key she found and Naomi believes it is for Sophia's locker at the army base. They go to the army base and open it and inside they find a shrine to Naomi. They discover that Sophia was infatuated with Naomi and Emily makes up with her, having sex with Naomi in an army storage closet.
After a fight with her mother over her sexuality, Emily moves in with Naomi and they seem to have put everything behind them. However, when they go to a party later on, Emily becomes suspicious again when Naomi starts talking to other girls.
Series 7
In the two-part episode "Fire" of Series 7, taking place three years after the events of Series 4, Naomi is now Effy's flatmate, while Emily is working on an internship in New York. Naomi is largely unemployed, continues to drink and do drugs excessively, and vainly pursues a career as a stand-up comedian, much to the annoyance of Effy. At her first stand-up gig, she is booed offstage, after which she has a fight with Effy over her allowing two potential investors to flirt with her. She has been suffering from pain in her abdomen, which she earlier says the doctor has said is "hormonal hypochondria", but she has continued to have medical appointments, including one the day of the gig. The next morning, Effy is awoken by the sound of Naomi blaring loud music through the flat, and goes up to the balcony to confront her. Through tears, Naomi angrily reveals she has cancer. As time passes, Naomi eventually becomes a successful stand-up comedian (while undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy); she refuses to tell Emily that she's ill, not wanting her to give up her internship. Despite this, Effy continues to be further annoyed when she finds out Naomi isn't making enough money out of her career. After her condition takes a turn for the worse and becomes terminal, Naomi is made comfortable in hospital. Emily is finally called back from New York, furious about the secrecy and lost time; as Emily embraces Naomi in her hospital bed, Naomi gives Effy a smile over Emily's shoulder, happy that she can die peacefully with Emily at her side.
Reception
The "Naomily" storyline of Series 3 and 4 proved popular with lesbian viewers; a poll conducted by American gay women's media website AfterEllen.com ranked Naomi and Emily as the top two fictional lesbian and bisexual characters. She was also ranked No. 8 in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters of 2013.
A critic for PopSugar.com found Emily's plea to Naomi as Naomi left the campsite "heartbreaking".