By Nital Jain
Season 3 of Sex Education returned to Netflix with 8 new episodes, the show proved to not lose its essence in Moordale’s third year with just more soft porn but it was interacting, relatable and educational as well. Season 3 was also more diverse than ever as it not only covered problems related to sex but a lot more that can happen along the lines of sex.
The third season takes us to the summer of Moordale Secondary School’s students, who are spending their summer with a sex spree. It comes as a shock to viewers when they see Otis with a moustache and not only that but also Ruby. Yes! The most popular girl in school, Ruby! They started it as a casual thing but eventually decided to be official. Adam and Eric are also official, Aime is still not over her sexual assault trauma but discovers feminism, things have spiced up a bit for Issac and Maeve, but nothing serious, Ola and Lily are perfect for each other and played all their alien fantasies all summer long. Jackson has found a new crush, Cal and everyone at school have become sex-positive, older and wiser.
After the Chlamydia outbreak in the second season, the authorities of Moordale school appointed a new headteacher Hope Haddon, who decided to make school a scary place in order to prepare students for the real world and also help with its sex school image. Abstinence makes a comeback at Moordale. In order to achieve her goals, she takes some extreme steps like, students are asked to wear uniforms, Maeve isn’t allowed to wear her statement nose ring or have her coloured hair, Lily isn’t allowed her alien hairstyle, Cal a non-binary student is forced to fit into ‘girls’ line, teachers are asked to not be friendly with students, the old toilets, where the sex clinic started is also taken down, etc. Hope chooses extreme measures to help with the image of the infamous ‘sex school’ which also makes the students rebel. The season shows how students try to take a stand for themselves but are silenced by extreme punishments which further adds to their agitation.
As the show proceeds we see that Otis is still not over Maeve and so is the case with her, Ruby and Otis are the cutest but when Ruby confesses her love to Otis, he is dumbfound making it obvious that he is still in love with Maeve. Ruby and Otis decide to break up because they didn’t have mutual feelings, Ruby is hurt but still manages to handle the situation. As Maeve starts seeing some potential with Issac he confesses that he deleted Otis’ voicemail (the last episode in season 2) because he was jealous of him and was also trying to protect Maeve. Which breaks the deal for Issac and Maeve as she gets very furious about it.
The class goes for a France trip where Otis and Maeve are stranded on a gas station as the bus leaves without them, they start talking and Maeve tells him about the voicemail she never got, Otis tells her what was in the voicemail and they KISS, making things easy for the viewers and their hearts. We see Ruby is hurt as she sees them kissing but can’t do anything about it, she probably knows now why Otis didn’t tell her he loves her.
With Otis and Meave’s story moving forward, Eric and Adam also build a healthy relationship, where Adam gets out of his comfort zone for Eric, making everyone realise how much he is trying to change and become better. While on the France trip, Adam bonds with Eric’s ex-boyfriend Rahim as Eric was in Nigeria with his family. Adam learns to even write poems for Eric with Rahim’s help which was one of the most adorable scenes on Sex Education.
While Eric was off to Nigeria he discovers his attraction to people of his colour and culture, he cheats on Adam there with Oba at a club. He feels that the kiss he had meant something and after he told Adam they broke up, leaving us without a tissue box to absorb the grief. Maeve being the smart person got into an American Program which she decides to go to because her second mother, best friend Aimee asks her to pursue her dreams without any boy coming in between.
Apart from these love stories we all see a lot of other students like Aimee and Cal discovering themselves and their sexuality, making the show more relatable and beautiful. I also loved how Layla another non-binary student seeks help from Cal with finding a binder designed for safer chest compression.
Along with the stories of all the students at Moordale, we also see adults struggling with their life. Jean Milburn, Otis’s mother is pregnant with Jakob (Ola’s father) child and finds it very difficult to confront him about the pregnancy and once she does, she questions her choice of being with Jakob throughout her pregnancy. Michael Groff (Adam’s father) is also seen struggling with his divorce and search for a job, which helps us learn more about his character.
Jakob being a fatherly figure to Otis and Ola was also beautiful and the most tear-jerking conversation was Jakob telling Otis, “ I know I’m not your father, but I’m not going anywhere.” Another one was when Ola confesses that she is worried that she reminds his father of the pain of losing her mom to which he reassures her that she only reminds him of Joy. Ola later suggests “Joy” as a name for the new baby.
All of that said, Who knew the most liberated character would be Adam? Who knew Adam was a better match for Eric than anyone else?
Who knew we would ship for Ruby and Otis? And who knew in the first season that our favourite characters by the end of season 3 will be Ruby and Adam? The season ends with Adam coming out to his mother and Maeve leaving for America for her educational programme.
Sex Education is definitely one of my most favourite series of all time and I would 10/10 recommend it to all age groups above 18, obviously!
