"I'm going to dance, I'm going to sing so who gives a *beep* about anything"
In the book, he's dead, but it may be different in the TV version.
He is dead, but why did he keep telling his mum that he was alive, even near the end of episode 3 ?
He didn't, it was the orphans that she was hearing but because she was fixated on her son she assumed it was him.