It's Hard to Get By Just Upon a Smile

So maybe I don't quite appreciate the tonal shifts from episode to episode. After the high stakes darkness of the previous episode, for a season finale, this episode felt quite disposable for much of its running time.

Talking about stakes is something that sort of bothers me. It's something that Sam Van Hallgren did all the time on Filmspotting But really, this episode felt like it had no stakes.
What were the stakes?
-would Maxxie go to Anwar's birthday party despite Muslim intolerance towards homosexuality
-would Tony be able to finally convince Michelle to get back with him
-would Sid be able to tell Cassie about his feelings before it was too late

While in the grand scheme of the show, those really are some high stakes, instead much of the time was spent on Anwar preparing for his birthday party and his zany DJing uncle. And while I was a fan of Angie and Chris, the plot twist that she is engaged was just lame. Even the rush for Sid to find Cassie was deflated by shear zaniness. Sid being committed. Really?
The only really strong moment for me was Maxxie and Anwar's dad, which was able to show tolerance in a mature and realistic way, and makes me wish that more people were that level headed.

Luckily, the episode was still able to pull of an astounding conclusion, in a way that made me feel that maybe the creators were so excited about the execution of the end, that maybe they quickly overlooked the rest of the episode. Of course it reminded me of Magnolia, which really can never be a bad thing, but it also really is a great combination of plot and lyrical content.

So on to Season 2. I have to wonder what the impact of Tony's accident will be. It should be interesting to see such an arrogant self-confident character who basically think he can do and get away with whatever he wants struggle. And what about Sid and Cassie? Is she still leaving?