*A few episode 7 spoilers.*
Season 2 finale. Overall, I think things come together pretty well, although I feel like this season isn’t as cohesive on the whole as season 1. Some shakeups in store for season 3!
As one of the unexpected consequences of Jean’s notes being broadcast to the whole school, she found out about Otis’s illicit sex therapy business. Needless to say, she doesn’t take it well, and as Otis questions his choices, he tries to turn to his dad for some answers. Maeve is gearing up for the quiz team finals, but she can’t get her worries about her mom’s recovery out of her head. Several stories come to a head at the school musical, where Lily is unveiling her adaptational opus and Jackson is making his onstage debut.
There’s some good stuff here. Lily and Ola have started dating, and when they have some difficulties getting physical, Lily is open and honest about her issues with vaginismus and Ola immediately starts brainstorming alternative ways of having fun. Stephen Fry hosts the televised quiz team final, and it’s always fun to see him. Otis’s dad is promoting a horrific, creepy-sounding book called Is Masculinity in Crisis?, ugh. And Jackson and Viv continue to be super cute.
The confrontation between Otis and Jean is rough. Both of them try to be very intellectual about it, but both wind up saying pretty hurtful things. When Otis tries to downplay the unethical nature of his unlicensed therapy, Jean icily replies, “You don’t invoice for a casual conversation. It’s wrong, Otis.” Also difficult to watch is Maeve’s situation with her mom. When she starts to suspect her mom is using again, she enlists Isaac and his brother to help her find proof, and it’s sobering to see the brisk, thorough efficiency with which Isaac’s brother searches every possible hiding place in the trailer. And even though Maeve has been resistant to her mom all season, this episode starkly demonstrates why: Maeve already knows, from experience, how devastating it is every time her mom lets her down.
In Eric’s storyline, the love triangle between him, Rahim, and Adam comes to a head at the school play (which is quite the event, since Lily’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet involves plenty of aesthetic inspiration from her love of tentacle porn.) Eric is playing in the pit, and as he wavers between boys, one of them makes a big move.
Nothing that goes down here is really unexpected. The plot beats are clearly signposted, and I admit that this sort of story doesn’t have much appeal for me. I’m sure there are fans, since any well-worn trope gets that way for a reason, but my reaction was mainly just, “Okay, so this is happening.”
There are a few things about this I like, though. Ncuti Gatwa does a great job playing Eric’s horror at learning that Rahim doesn’t like musicals. “People who hate musicals have no soul!” he cries. And I do enjoy that Eric, for all his overeager lameness, is portrayed as someone desirable, someone that two boys would both be vying for. That’s nice.
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