Other Doctor Lives: Sex Education: Season 3, Episode 2 (2021)

*A couple relationship spoilers.*

So-so episode. Some of the plotting feels sloppy, with parts of it tending toward clichéd and parts of it being a little too telegraphed.

Since the summer, Otis has been secretly hooking up with Ruby, but in the premiere, he put his foot down about not wanting to feel like her embarrassing secret. Ruby agrees that they can see each other publicly, which turns out to be a lot more work than Otis expected. Eric and Adam are ready to go “all the way,” but they run into some speedbumps that throw their plans into question. Hope is instituting changes at the school, which leave the students feeling wary and confused.

After Otis and Ruby’s drunken hook-up last season, I said they were fun in scenes together, but after two straight episodes of it, they’re wearing on me. Naturally, Ruby is a stern task master once she and Otis take their situation public, dictating his outfits and generally ordering him around. There’s an amusing moment where Otis is talking to Eric, looks at Ruby’s purse in his hand, and exclaims helplessly, “And why am I carrying this thing? She’s not even here!” Overall, though, they hit every beat of the “dorky guy gets together with bossy popular girl” trope, which isn’t all that exciting.

It also serves to further draw out the Otis/Maeve ship. On her end, a lost message prevented them from getting together in the season 2 finale, and since then, she’s been growing closer to Isaac. But it’s all just wasted time. Isaac all but has an “I’m Just a Midgame Love Interest” sign flashing above his head in this episode, and he acts accordingly.

Outside of Ncuti Gatwa, the storyline I’m most interested in so far this season is the new headmistress Hope. “New principal seems like they’ll be chill but is actually tyrannical and micro-managing” is nothing original, but I’m liking how the show is handling it so far. One of Hope’s new rules requires students to walk single file in the hall, and everyone is perplexed by the line she’s had painted down the middle of the floor to facilitate that. There’s a recurring bit where the students speculate about the line’s deeper meaning—Rahim takes to this activity like a duck to water—and I enjoy a cute scene of Otis and Eric hopping back and forth over the line as they head up the stairs.

When it comes to Eric’s plot, the first thing that must be said is that Eric’s visceral excitement is as adorable as it is ridiculous. As he and Adam first broach the subject of anal sex, he sings and dances atop Adam’s bed, and later, when he gives Otis the scoop, he is physically bouncing off the walls. Ncuti Gatwa has always imbued Eric with so much zest for life, and when I see scenes like this, they make me think, “He’s going to be such a fun Doctor.”

Of course, things can never be as simple as “teens want to have sex, they do, everything’s great,” which is fitting. Supporting characters who don’t encounter any obstacles stay pretty static—they need challenges to keep things engrossing. However, while I appreciate aspects of the obstacle Eric and Adam run into, it’s marred by how obvious it is. From the jump, I knew exactly what was making things awkward, and even though 1) Eric still feels nervous about Adam anyway and 2) Adam’s issues with communication are explicitly part of the problem, it was annoying to immediately realize what was going on and then wait the entire episode for Eric to catch up.

Also, for a show that’s never been shy about sex scenes, Eric and Adam definitely get the pan-away treatment. It’s not full-on Renly-and-Loras-era Game of Thrones, but it’s noticeable. And also like Game of Thrones, it’s even more noticeable given the fact that the show hasn’t been hesitant about female-centered queer sex scenes.