The fourth and final season of Sex Education was released on 21 September, and fans of the show were quick to make their way through the eight episodes and share their thoughts on the characters, old and new, and the new storylines presented by the show’s creators.
The reviews seem mixed, with some embracing the new characters introduced through Cavendish College, which is on the surface the perfect, all-good, all-inclusive environment complete with, as Eric (played by Ncuti Gatwe) says, “All the gays everywhere!”. However, others have called it an underwhelming finale, especially since it didn’t quite deliver the Otis-Maeve ending everyone was hoping for.
Discussing the show sans spoilers seems an impossible task, so those who haven’t watched Sex Education Season Four yet are advised to not read further. However, instead of discussing what the season did right and got wrong, this article will look at some moments and plotlines that stood out.
Otis and Eric’s friendship
The friendship between Eric and Otis (played by Asa Butterfield) is one of the best on-screen friendships today. They are quite open about their feelings for each other, show up and support each other, but also mess up and hurt each other. It is a realistic friendship, and one with contrasting personalities.
While they have always had their ups and downs, Season Four explores a quite prominent crack in this friendship. While Otis tries to establish his sex therapy clinic as the original against Cavendish’s already existing sex therapy clinic run by O (Thaddea Graham), Eric finds that he has a lot in common with the new friends he makes at Cavendish.
Otis, as usual, is preoccupied with his own problems and drama, and doesn’t lend the listening ear Eric so needs from him. This pushes Eric even more towards Abbi, Roman, and Aisha or The Coven, who – and this is a personal opinion – aren’t easy to like, but over time, reveal their true selves to not be as perfect and kind and positive as they first come across as. This makes the characters somewhat more tolerable towards the end of the season, but regardless of how you feel about them, the way Eric finds happiness with them is lovely to watch.
Towards the end of the season, Eric tells Otis that he feels that his best friend doesn’t seem to listen to his concerns and that certain differences between them, like religion, ethnicity, and family background, seem to be conveniently overlooked by Otis.
This is an important aspect to their friendship and could have led to a longer or better conversation between Eric and Otis, giving viewers a look into their friendship as they both mature and learn more about themselves.
Parents and children
Adam (Connor Swindells) was always a character who seemed to float about, not finding anything he could or wanted to hold on to. His relationship with his father, headmaster Groff (Alistair Petrie), was one that many could relate to, unfortunately, where constant criticism, doubt and anger from his father made Adam not only treat others in the same way but also give up on himself.
This is explored rather beautifully in Season Four, as Adam is able to find a job he loves and also find the ability to open up about his sexuality, something he struggled with in the past. And as we see Adam grow into a better human being, we also see him face his biggest enemy: his father.
“I don’t want to feel like a failure anymore because I’m not a failure. You are a failure. You are just a sad man who does a job that he hates because he’s too afraid to do anything else,” Adam tells his father at one point.
Later, Groff tells Adam that it’s not that he doesn’t like Adam, because he does love his son. Groff confessed that he just doesn’t like himself. “And I’ve made you feel small because of that, and I deeply regret it,” he says.
We see their relationship slowly heal and improve, as they both help each other realise their potential. While Groff learns to be kinder to Adam, Adam helps his father realise that his anger towards his son came from a dislike he felt towards himself. We see Groff discovering what he loves doing with his life and following his passions.
Sex Education has always been a show that not only tells us why teenagers behave the way they do, but also how parents influence their children’s behaviour and thinking, and what a big impact a parent can make on their child. Adam’s story is one of the best examples of this.
So is Jean’s story, as we are shown how Otis’ mother deals with baby Joy, postnatal depression and anxiety, and a new job as a radio host. We see how she struggles to be a mother to Otis, and has to also deal with her sister Joanna. The Fourth Season explores the relationship between the two and how incidents from their childhood have shaped their relationship.
Maeve deals with a lot
Maeve (Emma Mackey) is one of the main and best characters in Sex Education, and the ending she and Otis get in Season Four is quite fitting. Maeve is in America, following the writing programme of her dreams, with her teacher Thomas Molloy, played by the amazing Dan Levy.
She returns to Moordale when Molloy says she isn’t cut-out to be a writer and her brother informs her that their mother has been hospitalised. While dealing with loss and grief, Maeve also finally goes on a date with Otis. They don’t get that fairy-tale-like happily ever after and like most relationships in the show, Otis and Maeve too, have to deal with certain issues.
However, Maeve herself has to deal with loss and grief and also come to terms with how her childhood trauma has affected her. After Jean explains where Maeve’s self-doubt stems from, Maeve is able to get back on the right track.
She returns to America and confronts Malloy about what he told her. He defends himself and says that he was only trying to push her to be better. This is something we see in a lot of movies and TV shows, where a teacher is overly critical and even mean just so the student does better. And usually, they are shown to perform better, but Sex Education sheds light on how this tactic doesn’t always work.
Maeve tells Malloy: “I don’t think you were. And even if that is true, your words really crushed me. And I almost didn’t come back because of you. And unlike most students on this campus, I haven’t grown up being told I’m brilliant or deserving. If I take a risk, and it doesn’t work out, I don’t have a safety net to fall back on. And you’re going to come across other students like me, so I just want you to know that, as a teacher, your words hold a lot of power. I went home and reminded myself what I’m made of and where I want to go. You don’t get to be the gatekeeper of my dreams.”
Other characters
Some of the other characters that really stood out this season are Aimee and Ruby. Aimee finds a passion for photography and uses her art to deal with her trauma. Meanwhile, we see how Ruby struggles to make new friends at Cavendish, where she meets a friend-turned-bully from her childhood. It was somewhat disappointing that the season didn’t better explore the friendship between Ruby and Otis.
Characters like Cal and Jackson also add to the season, allowing the creators to explore a range of topics, from gender dysphoria to a cancer-scare to toxic positivity to bullying and exclusion.
Whether or not Season Four met viewer expectations, it did have its moments of tears and laughter, love and anger, confusion and kindness, and creator Laurie Nunn presented quite a lot of themes, topics and issues through a colourful set of characters in eight episodes that at times seemed to fly by and at others seemed to never end.