After 4 Seasons, Sex Education Reaches a Disappointing Climax

Sex Education's fourth and final season offers no shortage of exciting narrative possibilities. After three seasons at Moordale Secondary — which closed following the students' "F*ck the Pain Away" rebellion against Jemima Kirke's conservative head teacher — the action shifts to Cavendish Sixth Form College, where kindness is king and sexual pleasure and the full spectrum of gender identity are celebrated.

The progressive environment throws off the dynamic of previous seasons, which were as much about Otis' (Asa Butterfield) sex clinic as the romances and jealousies playing out around it. Updating the setting also introduces a host of new characters who diversify a dramedy that has traditionally operated from the perspective of its white, male, cisgender protagonist, as well as new problems for Otis and O (Thaddea Graham), Cavendish's original sex therapist, to evaluate in their rival clinics.

Season 4 makes an effort to merge this fresh sensibility with existing storylines. Otis' season-long campaign to win the school's sex therapist election triggers familiar anxieties about his own sexual inadequacy and his insecurities about being left behind by Maeve (Emma Mackey), who's participating in a prestigious writing program in the United States. As Otis struggles, Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) flourishes among Cavendish's openly queer student population and is invited to join the cool clique, a group known as "the Coven." Eric's sudden popularity creates a rift in his relationship with Otis, who fails to understand why Eric, a gay, Black man, would seek out friends with whom he has more in common.

The blending of old and new can also be seen in Ruby's (Mimi Keene) storyline. After spending years as Moordale's queen bee, Ruby is hopelessly lost at Cavendish. Here, she faces the worst fate of all: anonymity. Despite detesting their "no gossiping" rule and performative compassion, Ruby is desperate to infiltrate the Coven, and when that fails, she puts her marketing know-how to good use as Otis' campaign manager. Ruby has often been relegated to the background, even when she was dating Otis last season, but the Season 4 arc fleshes out her backstory, giving Keene more to chew on. And though Ruby's lingering feelings for Otis don't quite land, her surprising history with O leads to some of the season's more powerful moments of introspection.

While Ruby's journey works in the context of the show, Sex Education Season 4 introduces so many new characters and their attendant conflicts that creator and showrunner Laurie Nunn struggles to bring everything together, leaving the season feeling disjointed. Many of these characters, particularly Coven leader Abbi (Anthony Lexa), remain underdeveloped until the 83-minute finale. Others are shoehorned into the lives of former Moordale students — like Vivienne's (Chinenye Ezeudu) controlling new boyfriend Beau (Reda Elazouar) — in ways that feel inauthentic to the young adults we've seen blossom over the past few years.

And then there's Otis, who has hardly grown at all since the British series debuted on Netflix in 2019. Sex Education has always been about Otis' many hangups, sexual and otherwise, but four seasons in, his inability (and unwillingness) to get out of his own way has gone stale. He's still hopelessly stuck on Maeve, but with more dynamic relationships popping up elsewhere — including that of Cal (Dua Saleh) and Aisha (Alexandra James), who is deaf — their conventional will-they/won't-they romance no longer holds the same power, even if Mackey continues to deliver in the role.

Otis also remains unable to see anything beyond his own insular world, leading to more friction with his mother Jean (Gillian Anderson), who spends the season navigating postpartum depression and her fraught relationship with her sister Joanna (Lisa McGrillis). It's not a spoiler to say that Otis eventually snaps out of it, because Sex Education focuses on the good in all of its characters — see: the continued redemption of Adam (Connor Swindells) and his father Michael (Alistair Petrie) — but getting to that point is filled with obstacles that could be easily overcome if Otis thought about someone other than himself for even half a second.

As has been the case in previous installments, Eric becomes Season 4's saving grace — literally, as he undergoes a spiritual transformation over the course of eight episodes. Even as Eric wrestles with his conflicting identity as a proudly gay, Christian man, a storyline that culminates in an emotional moment of self-acceptance, he remains Sex Education's comedic center; his one-liners and delightful line reads prevent the show from falling prey to its naturally sentimental impulses and becoming overly saccharine. (That said, there are still plenty of these moments, including a lengthy group sing-a-long to U2's "With Or Without You" in Episode 6.) The vibrancy Gatwa brings to the screen doesn't negate the dramedy's flaws, but it does make them easier to overlook, especially given how central Eric's journey is to the final season as a whole.

By the time the finale fades to black, the season's disparate storylines have been neatly tied together as the young adults of Cavendish and their parents embark on the next chapter of their lives. Though they come in many forms, each of these characters get a happy ending: Conflicts are squashed, romantic bonds are strengthened, and sins are erased, all thanks to the power of therapy. It's certainly an uplifting way to finish, but for viewers who have come to love Sex Education for its frank, unromanticized look at relationships of all stripes, it makes for somewhat of a disappointing climax.

Sex Education Season 4 premieres Thursday, September 21 on Netflix. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.