by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

While I came into Sex Education relatively recently, I can securely say that it’s one of my favorite teen shows of the modern era with this new season. It’s a coming-of-age story that doesn’t stop coming, except when it needs a bit of talk therapy in the abandoned bathrooms.

Set at Moordale college, the series follows Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) and Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey) as they start an underground sex therapy clinic at their school. Otis is the therapist, a skill he picked up from his mother Jean (Gillian Anderson), with Maeve handling all the rest. But since it’s an ensemble, the teen cast is rounded out by Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa), Adam Groff (Connor Swindells), Jackson Marchetti (Kedar Williams-Stirling), Aimee Gibbs (Aimee Lou Wood), Lily Iglehart (Tanya Reynolds), and Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison).

The first season starts off strong and classic, with Maeve as the alternative girl who’s whip smart, but has a mother and brother with drug addictions, feeding into her trust issues. Her childhood best friend Aimee is still friendly with her but she’s in with a popular group now—including queen bee, mean girl Ruby Matthews, played by the wonderful Mimi Keene, who becomes a lead in later seasons. Maeve’s also secretly hooking up with Jackson, the star swimmer and head boy at the school. Otis, on the other hand, has a dysfunctional relationship with sex, but discovers he’s quite good at giving advice like his mother. He’s only got one friend, Eric, and he’s got a huge crush on Maeve. Classic!

As the seasons go on, we get properly introduced to the adults that fill out the world of our teens, including Adam’s parents, Headmaster Groff (Alistair Petrie) and Maureen (Samantha Spiro), teachers at the school, Emily Sands (Rakhee Thakrar) and Colin Hendricks (Jim Howick), and Jakob Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt). And because Otis is doing an underground sex therapist business, the way the school handles student sex and the expression of it at the institution changes over time. When season two opens with a student chlamydia outbreak, they hire Jean to be the official sex counselor, which obviously leads to drama between Jean and Otis. Headmaster Groff eventually gets sacked, taking Jean down with him by spreading her notes Mean Girls style. Season three sees Jemima Kirke joining the cast as Headmistress Hope Haddon, who means to whip the school into shape after it’s been branded as the “Sex School.” She is unsuccessful, though, with the students rallying around each other in support… which ends with the school being sold and closed in the middle of the academic year.

Like any good new season of a show, though, a lot has changed since the finale of season three. Maeve’s in America, doing a writing course with guest star Dan Levy. Jean and Jakob have broken up, leaving her and Otis with baby Joy and no other support (both Patricia Allison and Mikael Persbrandt did not return for the final season of the show). Additionally, following the closure of Moordale Secondary School, all our teens are left to go to a new school (or to not, allowing them the perfect reason to not appear again). 

And what a new school Cavendish College is! As Eric notes, it’s queer. Like… really queer. We have four solidly new characters who are all well drawn and fit perfectly into both their already existing world, but also into the established vibe of Sex Education before now. We’ve got O (Thaddea Graham), the student sex therapist who already operates out of Cavendish. She becomes Otis’s nemesis in a plotline that allows them both to grow in very distinct ways. It’s sometimes toxic but, ultimately, they’re both better off on the other side of their feud. 

Then, of course, there’s the “Coven” consisting of Abbi (Anthony Lexa), Roman (Felix Mufti), and Aisha (Alexandra James). Abbi and Roman are a t4t couple whose relationship is rocky, but ultimately loving and strong… once they finally start communicating well. It’s a really well explored dynamic and such a wonderful thing to see on a mainstream show. Additionally, Aisha is one of my favorite additions to the cast. She’s a queer, polyamorous, deaf character who gets a chance to shine during an episode where the students take on the ways the college is ableist (the elevator breaking down, ensuring that Isaac can’t take his mock exam is the catalyst for a student protest).

Speaking of Isaac, while there’s not a whole lot for him to do this season, he gets a few moments to shine. Mostly, he’s properly instrumental in the continuation and ultimate conclusion of Aimee’s story. Which I could just cry about forever and ever. Aimee and Jackson (we’ll get to him in a moment) have remained two of my favorite characters from the very beginning of the show. They’re both on very specific journeys and I love them so dearly. Aimee’s journey from being someone who enjoys sex to someone whose relationship is forever complicated by it, is some of the best realistic storytelling the show does. I love her and Isaac’s relationship more than I ever liked his and Maeve’s (which I did, by the way, shitty behavior notwithstanding). Plus, between the girls getting on the bus with her in season two and her finally dealing with the pants at the end of season four, Aimee gets to grow so much while still being the fun-loving girl we met in season one.

Okay, so let’s talk about Jackson! He started off as the jock who was hooking up with the outcast girl, so I wasn’t sure where I stood with him for all of season one. He’s very sweet, and it’s clear he actually likes Maeve and wants to be public with their relationship. He’s also trying to balance being the sports star at their school with who he actually wants to be. Throughout the series Jackson is shown to be a complex and interesting character, who eventually breaks out of the chokehold sports had on him, his life, and his relationship with his mom. Also, his relationship with Vivienne Odusanya (Chinenye Ezeudu) is supreme, God-tier writing, especially in seasons two and three. Plus, Jackson’s relationship with Cal Bowman (Dua Saleh) really makes me love Jackson more than I thought was possible. While their relationship doesn’t work out, ending with Jackson pulling away from them in season four, the end of the series leaves them in a potentially good place—at least as friends.

Now, as someone who lost their mom this year, Maeve’s storyline this season hit me like a ton of bricks. There are two major episodes that deal with it (if you were curious, Aimee having all their friends come to the funeral when Maeve thought no one would… absolutely sent me off the deep end), as well as a truly powerful conversation between Maeve and Jean, which put me right on my ass. In all honesty, I think it’s some of Gillian Anderson’s best work in the whole show. Maeve’s complicated family relationships have all been leading to this kind of ending and I think the series handles it with a lot of care and humanity (not that I was expecting anything different). And while the publishing stuff isn’t accurate (when is it ever?), I think because the show leaves it as an open story, her sendoff of Dan Levy’s character is the real win in Maeve coming into her own and gaining the confidence she’ll need in adulthood. 

As for the other leads of the show, I think Eric’s storyline is magnanimous. I enjoyed the journey he’s been on the last four seasons, and his identities (being both a gay man and a devout Christian) come together in the most wonderful way by the end of the show. I adore Adam and the evolution of him in his sexuality, but his relationship with his parents and finding his place outside of school touched me the most. I do love his storyline in season four, but I wish he hadn’t been quite so separate from the rest of the teen cast. That being said, I think you can really feel the missing pieces of Ola and Lily in this season. They make up for it with the new students, but I wish we could have seen Ola and Lily at Cavendish. They would have made such a splash!

One of the best things about Sex Education is the ways that different relationships, both romantic and platonic, come together and are showcased. For instance, Adam’s platonic relationship with Ola is great—especially when they both confide that they’re polysexual (Adam being bisexual and Ola being pansexual). Ola and Lily’s friendship is great, but it’s even better when they start dating and feel like they really get each other (despite some ups and downs). I find Ruby and Otis’s relationship has a great arc, especially as it tries to come into any kind of balance with his and Maeve’s. (It never does, but it tries in such a beautifully messy teen way.) I also love Jackson’s relationships with Maeve (romantic), Vivienne (platonic), and Cal (romantically unrequited). Not to mention the new relationships this season with Eric and Abbi, who find queer Christianity as their common ground. Plus, Cal and Roman’s conversations about top surgery are absolute bangers. They don’t get a lot of time together, but those scenes pack major punches. 

Sex Education is about how being alive, especially as a teenager, is traumatic—but it’s also about how coming together as a community can help heal some of the trauma. Ultimately, it says the kids really are alright. And so are the adults. I can’t wait to carry these characters with me, wherever I go.