A wholesome queer teen relationship takes Sex Education to another level
TV Features For Our Consideration
Over the course of eight episodes, season two of Netflix’s Sex Education tackles many topics through an earnest and empathetic lens, paying tribute to classic teen tropes but also subverting them in unexpected and delightful ways. Main characters and secondary characters alike who appear at first glance to fall into clichés are deconstructed and given inner lives that are rich and complex, including compelling queer storylines that focus on Ola (Patricia Allison), who is introduced as Otis’ (Asa Butterfield) love interest near the end of the first season, and Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Otis’ vibrant and outspoken best friend.
Historically, queer people on television have not often been allowed to have happy endings, and queer pain is a key aspect of Eric’s storyline in the first season of Sex Education. Though he ends season one proud of his identity and confident in his own skin, it only comes after he experiences homophobic bullying at school, disapproval from his conservative Christian family, and victimization in a horrific hate crime on his own birthday.
Luckily, Eric’s upward journey continues in season two. After a harrowing first season, Eric’s main conflict in the second revolves around a love triangle between his new French boyfriend, Rahim (Sami Outalbali), and Adam (Connor Swindells), his former bully-turned-secret hookup. As Eric decides what his heart really wants, the storyline also expands to include another positive queer narrative: that of Ola’s self-discovery.
Upbeat, straightforward, and always brightly dressed in rainbow-colored outfits with a sharply tailored style reminiscent of queer icon and musician Janelle Monáe, Ola is Otis’ first-ever girlfriend. Though she is unfazed by Otis’ inexperience and awkwardness and is happy to take things slow, it’s clear from the jump that they are never quite comfortable together, always fumbling slightly and missing each other’s cues.
At the beginning of season two, Ola transfers to Otis’ school, where she is assigned a mentor, the sublimely bizarre Lily (Tanya Reynolds). Introduced in the first season as one of Otis’ clients, Lily is an avant-garde comic-book artist and writer who has created her own space-erotica universe. She dreams of having a perfect sexual experience that mirrors the orgasmic stories she writes—but is unable to do so, due to vaginismus.
Lily and Ola quickly become close friends, but as their friendship strengthens, tension elsewhere starts to grow between Otis and Ola, who is unhappy about his continued friendship with Maeve (Emma Mackey). This leads to a confrontation in episode four, when Ola asks him to leave her house because he keeps ignoring her to read Maeve’s texts. It seems obvious that the main issue in their relationship is Ola’s jealousy, as she believes that he has unresolved feelings for her. However, as soon as episode five begins, the narrative is immediately subverted after Ola has a dream about kissing Lily.
The dream starts with Ola and Otis lying on her bed, talking about Tank Girl. They start kissing, and Ola asks him to kiss her harder. As Otis flips her over, he is suddenly replaced by Lily. Confused, Ola asks where he is. In response, dream Lily replies, “I think I might have killed him.” What makes Sex Education stand out is how quickly Ola accepts her dream. Over the course of the episode, she both explores and takes action upon the discovery of her queerness (an online quiz declares she is “pansexual, apparently”). Ola dreams again about kissing Lily: a surreal psychedelic vision with romantic saxophone, swirling lights and thunderclaps, the screen bursting with the chemistry that is missing between her and Otis. As it fades away, the camera cuts to Ola, smiling with pleasure in her sleep.
In short order, Ola breaks up with Otis and runs to Lily’s house to kiss her for real, and as she pulls away, she sighs with satisfaction. “That’s what it’s supposed to feel like,” she declares. Unlike Ola, Lily isn’t as quick to accept that she might be interested in girls, and at first completely avoids her, because “boys that smell a bit sweaty” were in her plan, not “girls who smell like vanilla pods and sometimes car air freshener,” leaving her confused and unsure. Ola understands and agrees to be just friends, but right as she starts to walk away, Lily finally accepts what she really wants and stops Ola from leaving with a kiss.
Through the development of Ola and Lily’s relationship, Sex Education also highlights how open communication and patience can make a huge difference in a relationship. Episode eight of the second season showcases this by directly paralleling episode eight of the first season, which opens with Lily having sex, wearing the same personally designed role-play costume inspired by her space-erotica universe.
In the first season, Lily and her male partner are both dressed up, role-playing different characters. When he tries to lean in for a kiss, Lily pushes him away and says, “Get to the sex!” While he is more than happy to oblige, her vaginismus immediately gets in the way, and the scene ends with her leaning back in frustration, leaving both of them unsatisfied. In the second season, Ola and Lily start by kissing on the bed, Lily in full costume while Ola is dressed normally. Ola tries to finger her and Lily immediately seizes up, but instead of giving up in frustration, she explains her issue to Ola, calling her vagina a “Venus fly trap” and musing that one of the reasons she has vaginismus may be because she puts too much pressure on herself.
Ola listens patiently, and her eyes light up as soon as Lily reveals that she can experience pleasure if she keeps to the outside and is the one touching herself. “I have an idea,” she says, leaning in with a kiss. The camera cuts to them lying next to each other, engaging in mutual masturbation, climaxing at the same time. Spent and satisfied, they give each other a high five. It’s a far cry from Lily’s experience in the first season, when she is afraid of being the “weird virgin girl,” desperate to have sex with anyone so that she isn’t behind all of her classmates.
Ola and Lily have a high school relationship that is grounded and sweet, and it is delightful and revelatory to see a queer relationship between two young women that isn’t centered on trauma. Their relationship shines as a normal, fun, and wonderful example of young love, with all its ups and downs, as they discover what they want and how to go for it.
29 Comments
Great show and great performance from Ncuti Gatwa. Watched Schitt’s Creek inbetween seasons 1 and 2 of this and feels like both are massive step forward in gay storytelling – simply in the fact that much of their story is simply straightforward relationship drama.
I hope Gatwa has a huge career ahead of him. He’s got great talent and just a magnetic screen presence. Any scene with Eric just lifts the energy immediately.
I quite enjoyed the second season, except the bit where they made the handicapped due the villain at the end.
Great article, and I loved the show, but I have to say that I TRULY love that still of Eric in the mirror room. I definitely watched most of this show at like 70% engagement and between that imagery and the costuming in the other stills here, I should probably go back and pay more attention the second time around.
Sex Education ruined teen dramas for me. I could no longer enjoy stuff like Gossip Girl or The OC and I certainly couldn’t enjoy ANY of Netflix’s other American teen shows because of how good Sex Education is as a teen drama show alongside End of the Fucking World.At least I can go back to Dawson’s Creek and early seasons of Skins in some form due to the former’s meme status and the latter having so many good actors, but Sex Education gave me standards for teenage television that I don’t think American show runners can provide anymore.
You might check out Atypical too. Not as dark as End of the Fucking World (my favorite of the three), or as raunchy as Sex Education, but its got a similar sensibility. Bridgette Lundy-Paine, who plays the younger sister, is absolutely fantastic.
I really liked the first season of “End of the Fucking World” but I have not been able to get through season 2. None of the characters were all that likable, but they somehow got worse in season 2 and it just made it hard to watch anymore. Seconded on Atypical though. Sex Education is the best of the lot in my opinion though.
I 100% agree that Lily and Ola were the most positive couple this season. To me it was really epitomized in their final love scene, and the way they were both gleefully laughing at the end of it. When you’re laughing out loud because you can’t contain all the happy – that’s good sex.
I wouldn’t say that Eric’s family are disapproving. Unsure about how to deal with having such an “out” son perhaps, worried about his safety in a World that often treats such personalities with hatred, but never shown as anything but loving and concerned about him.
Yeah Eric’s family just wants him to be happy and safe. If anyone was judging him this season I feel like it was Rahim, and they way he was clearly looking down at Eric’s family (and Eric himself) when Eric brought him to church. Rahim was too cool for school, this season, and Eric doesn’t need those pretensions! Much as I agree with the notion that falling for an abuser is super-unhealthy, I liked that it was addressed and discussed and Adam is genuinely earnest about trying to take responsibility and make amends and…“Ask me again.”“…please?”Oh my GOD that’s good TV.
If anyone was judging him this season I feel like it was Rahim
Agree completely. A friend of mine asked me if I was Team Rahim or Team Adam, and I said Team Adam without hesitation. Adam is an asshole & a bully in the first season, but we also see the reasons why he’s that way, and we quickly start to feel for him, especially since he knows he’s like that & hates it. Rahim is just a snob, looking down at everyone. Yeah, rejection sucks, but I just can’t feel that bad for him at the end of the season.
Yeah, that’s the impression I got as well. Not embarassed or ashamed that he’s gay, but more concerned with his well-being, knowing that Eric draws attention to himself in a world where too many don’t accept it.
I think they might be the classic example of a family that’s kind of against homosexuality, if only because of tradition, until they realise that someone they love is gay, at which point they start to go, “Oh shit, how do we be supportive? This is new territory!” ‘One Day At A Time’ treads similar ground really well.
Ola looks like she’s Ruth Negga’s little sister. Somebody needs to make that happen if either of them are in a role that calls for a sister.
thank you for pointing this out, because I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out why she looks so familiar.
That’s it! That’s who she’s been reminding me of. Been driving me bazookas since day one.
Lily…is…everything! My favorite character on the show. I’d watch the Lily Show in a heartbeat.
This show is so sex positive and non judgmental that it makes other teen dramas pale in comparison…
What do I know Patricia Allison from? I swear i’ve seen her and her face is very recognizable. I havent seen Sex Education, and on IMDB she only has two other productions that I also haven’t seen. Waht could she be from? Does anyone know where else I may have seen her? Any other non imdb listed productions or?
It’s a good show but somewhere in the back in the mind I can’t help but feel that the main impetus of the writers is a to create stories which gets brownie points in the progressive press rather than to follow an independent, less box ticking vision. It’s just a little too careful and calculated.
This show is so good. And makes just about all other teen dramas just laughably insincere in comparison.
Cannot rec enough
the sublimely bizarre Lily
My favourite character in the show.
I thought this show was about Scully sleeping with her stepson or one of her son’s friends. It’s good to see they’ve bettered their marketing for this go-round.
I was personally heartened by this shows treatment of asexuality and the beautiful words used to describe it.As someone on the ace spectrum, it meant a lot to see it dealt with so well.
I’ll be the voice of dissent…I really like the show, but I found a number of plot developments this season to be forced.Lily and Ola are presented as completely heterosexual throughout the run of the show… until the plot leaves them both single and it becomes the easiest path to change their sexuality and pair them off. Ola has a complete sexual awakening basically overnight, while Lily goes from a girl actively seeking out dick-pics online to gay/bi because… her friends wants it?If I felt the show had laid any groundwork at all for these character changes, I’d be onboard. But instead, the whole story felt like a writer pushing characters around. Considering how blatantly the writer’s hand could be felt in final moments of the season, where Otis/Maeve got stuck in a ridiculous series of inane plot contrivances, I ended up mildly disappointed in the season, despite loving season one.
On the topic of this show’s queer storylines, I thought Anwar, the ulta-cool gay kid in school, got a lovely one this season. When he and his boyfriend want to have sex and he discovers he has no idea about douching, there’s a whole new level of vulnerability to him that the actor (Chaneil Kular) sells really well. It’s a really interesting way to show someone who’s comfortable with their sexuality, but, possibly because they still don’t have enough of a community to talk to, isn’t necessarily comfortable with everything that goes along with it.
I agree with everything everyone’s been saying (and frankly, I got a bit annoyed last year with all of the upset about “Eric falling for his bully” which seemed to jump to an assumption that this show never seemed to be making, IMHO). I hate to say this but, while I love the character of Lily, and I appreciated how Ola’s story was told this year, I also found… Ola deeply annoying for most of the season. I know, I know, I’m a terrible person. I’m sure in hindsight this was partly done on purpose, but as a gay guy, it reminded me of too many “queer allies” I’ve encountered who initially I appreciate, but eventually just wish they’d shut up–there’s almost an arrogance as to how woke (sorry for using that term) they consider themselves.
Really? I could tell almost instantly that Adam was attracted to Eric. Bullying didn’t seem to be the dynamic driving that relationship forward. It always struck me that Adam’s interactions with Eric was along the lines of “Stupid boy doesn’t know how to tell girl he likes her, so he teases her.” Only with two gay guys, one of whom hasn’t clocked to the fact that he’s gay yet.