*Episode premise spoilers, which spoils the end of episode 6.*
Last week, I talked about how episode 6 of Sex Education’s second season did All the Things and basically blew up as much as could possibly be blown up. In light of that, episode 7 feels a bit oddly muted. Even though there’s still a lot of big stuff going down here, I don’t feel like the fallout matches the intensity of the previous episode’s build-up.
After getting monumentally drunk at his party in the last episode, Otis winds up sleeping with Ruby, one of the “untouchable” popular kids. When they can’t find the condom and realize they were both too drunk to be 100% sure they used one, they go on a mission to get Ruby a morning-after pill. At the school, someone (a.k.a. Headmaster Groff!) took Jean’s notebook, full of countless sex secrets from students and faculty alike, and put up photocopies all over the school, causing mayhem. Viv told Jackson’s moms that he intentionally hurt himself to get out of swimming, and his moms have found a therapist for him to see, but family conflicts come to a head on the car ride.
Pairing Otis with Ruby is fun. Not as a couple, of course, but in an, “Oh god, what just happened??” kind of way. Ruby cracks me up with the way she directs Otis with claps like a dog, and I love the moment where Otis awkwardly promises to step up if Ruby does turn out to be pregnant, which just horrifies her further.
The biggest thing to come out of the storyline about Jean’s notes is six of the major teen girls getting detention together when a teacher suspects one of them of having written a derogatory insult about her on the bathroom wall but can’t figure out which one. This gets Maeve, Ola, Viv, Aimee, Lily, and Olivia (another of the popular kids) stuck in a room together. There are some preexisting interpersonal conflicts to deal with, confessions to be made, and a surprising moment of solidarity from six girls who don’t otherwise have a lot in common. Also, I love this line from Viv: “You guys are such clichés. Except for you, Lily, you are genuinely weird.” Naturally, Lily thanks her for this.
Jackson’s plot is okay, and things between him and his moms have needed a reckoning for a while, but it takes a weird turn. As a result, it winds up with Jackson comforting/reassuring his white mom, the one played by Hannah Waddingham. Now, Waddingham is terrific and she does a nice job here, but I don’t like that a story about a Black boy’s mental health becomes about a white woman’s tears. I mean, really?
On the whole, it feels like the show pivots from the biggest things that were at issue in the multiple blowouts of the last episode. Because Otis is with Ruby, we barely see him deal with the things he said (very publicly) about Maeve and Ola while he was drunk. The Jean’s notes deals less with the massive shockwaves rippling through the school, or even Jean herself, and focuses more on the six girls, one of whom may have written something sexist about a teacher. And Jackson isn’t firmly the lead in his own subplot. Maybe the show is saving these big guns for the season finale? While that would be workable, I can’t help but think that the momentum from episode 6 has been too disrupted for it to land as effectively.
Eric has a small subplot in this episode, and it too is a mixed bag. He’s not sure what to expect when Rahim asks to accompany him to church with his family, and it gets tricky, to say the least. From reminding Rahim that they can’t get overly cozy in church to one of his sisters asking Rahim if he’s Muslim (he’s an atheist, which, to Eric’s mom, is probably worse,) this feels a little like Eric’s side misadventures early in season 1.
Not everything goes wrong, which is appreciated. I enjoy Eric and Rahim’s conversation afterwards about religion, and they’re able to come at a sensitive topic from very different perspectives in a respectful way. But there are also some shenanigans that feel forced in terms of the triangle, and I’m not a fan.
A few choice moments from Ncuti Gatwa, as usual. Again, he’s excellent in his conversation with Rahim after church—he’s open/listening, he’s a little dreamy over his boyfriend, and he’s clear-eyed and firm about his own beliefs. Additionally, his reaction to learning about Otis’s latest predicament is fantastic, and I love his stunned reaction to Maeve brushing off Otis’s attempt to apologize, simply saying, “That…was withering.”
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