Sex Education: Our Season 4 review

As we sit here trying to think of the most appropriate way to send our beloved characters off into the universe, it occurs to us that our hearts are full of bittersweet feelings, with a splash of peace and tranquility thrown in there too. Season 4 of Sex Education is the last season fans of this beloved show will ever get, so if we’ve got one piece of advice for you it’s this: savor every single second of it!

All of your fave sexually charged British kids are back at their coming-of-age shenanigans in this season, with all the regular characters coming back to share their stories of growth and development with us all. However, despite the fact that season 4 is in fact the last season of the show, quite a few new characters are introduced into the fold as well. Many of which are queer. 

Season 4 of Sex Education will make you laugh, it might also make you cry, it will hurt your heart and make you stop and pause, and it will leave you feeling full and complete, all at the same time. Sex Education was such a necessary story for the queer community and it is with a heavy heart that we bid it farewell. However, the writers gifted audiences with an excellent last season, and we promise that your rainbow hearts will continue to sing on long after the credits of this groundbreaking television show roll for the last time. 

Season 4 is set against the backdrop of a new school, Cavendish College. This school is quite different from their previous school and the kids here are much nicer, more welcoming, very spiritually grounded, and very queer!

Here’s what the kids of Sex Education get up to in Season 4.

Eric

After his breakup with Adam (Connor Swindells), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) finds himself in the throws of a religious identity crisis. Religion is a huge part of life for Eric’s family and Eric’s queerness interrupts his ability to connect with God and with himself. He is due to be baptized, and as the season opens, audiences learn that Eric has been skipping baptism classes. 

Because of the church’s stance on homosexuality, Eric is torn between living his life as his true, authentic self, and committing to his faith and the community it provides him. In addition to all this upheaval in his life, Eric and Otis (Asa Butterfield) are having trouble connecting and when the school year begins, Eric begins spending time with his new queer friends at Cavendish. 

Everyone knows that queer people need queer friends around them, and Eric gets to see the benefits of such friendships in full force at this new school. He goes on quite a journey this season and deals with repeated apparitions from God as he tries to navigate his religious crisis, and gets back in touch with himself in a raw, honest way. 

He makes an important life decision in episode 8, dropping quite a bombshell on Otis (and the audience) that leaves us gaping at the television screen scrambling for the pause button. 

Cal

When season 4 opens, Cal (Dua Saleh) announces that they have been on testosterone now for six months and reports feeling stronger and more comfortable in their body than ever before. Despite this being a very positive thing, and an excellent representation of just how important gender-affirming care is for young people, Cal is still in the throws of adolescence, and still in the middle of an identity crisis. 

While Cal’s mother is definitely trying harder to understand Cal better now, the memories of the initial rejection Cal felt when they came out to their mom still burns brightly. There is a definite wedge between the two of them that pulls at Cal’s heart and hurts them daily.

Cal finds solace in one of the new characters this season, Aisha (Alexandra James) but it’s not enough to make Cal feel full and make them feel like they are enough. Cal’s journey is incredibly important in this political climate. At a time when trans and gender non-conforming people are experiencing a conservative backlash by legislators around the globe, stories documenting the mental struggles an individual can suffer because of the trauma endured from being born in the wrong body, have never been more important to tell. 

Nothing incites change more than visibility, and Cal’s story is impossible to ignore. 

Adam

Sex Education’s resident bisexual babe is still going through it. Unlike his friends, Adam does not turn up at Cavendish College. Deep in the throws of depression, he drops out of school and gets a job on a horse farm. For Adam, season 4 is all about resolving his broken relationship with his father, and coming to terms with the fact that he is actually bisexual. 

His relationship with Eric clearly showed Adam that he isn’t straight, but the poor young fella has had quite the time of accepting that he likes a bit of the D, in addition to the V. His depression is hard to watch, as it’s pervasive for the entire season. 

He begins exploring an emotional connection with a female employee at the horse farm he’s working at, but the really cool part of Adam’s journey is that he manages to muster the courage to tell her that he is bisexual, that he has loved people of the same sex before, and he wants to be comfortable in his own skin living as an out and proud bisexual man. 

It’s a big moment for Adam, that gets met with nothing but easy acceptance from his crush. It’s also a lovely moment for the bisexual community at large. There is no bi-erasure in season 4 of Sex Education, which is a win for our bisexual babes everywhere!

The newbies

There are quite a few new queer characters in this final season of Sex Education, and we love to see it. When Eric arrives at Cavendish, he meets Abbi (Anthony Lexa). Trans, out, and living her best life despite many hardships, Abbi just wants everyone to get along and to be surrounded by love and positivity. 

Abbi was rejected by her family when she came out as trans and moved in with her boyfriend Roman (Felix Mufti), who is also trans. Roman comes from affluence and represents the difference that privilege has for access to healthcare. Roman was able to afford to pay for top surgery themselves and is living as a well-adjusted, confident person in their new body. 

They talk vehemently with Cal about how top surgery changed their life and made them feel so much more safe and at him in their own shell. This is a stark reminder of just how important said healthcare is, as Cal’s journey takes them on a downward spiral in the absence of such access to care. 

Aisha is part of their click. She is deaf and into Cal. She likes to gossip, is tired of how ableist society is, and has a heart the size of the moon.

Over in the United States, Thomas Malloy (Dan Levy) is Maeve’s (Emma Mackey) writing teacher for the prestigious writing class she is partaking in. He is harsh, rude, and has a very old-school approach to pushing Maeve outside her comfort zone. But he’s queer, he’s out, and his presence in season 4 provides plenty of moments of conflict as Maeve tries to navigate the big leagues in the U.S. 

O (Thaddea Graham) is Cavendish College’s resident sex therapist, who gives Otis quite a run for his money. The two end up in a season-long feud of cat and mouse to see who the student body wants as their therapist more. Otis ends up outing O in front of the whole school, who is forced to come out as asexual. 

What the hets are up to

Otis is having trouble with the idea that Maeve is a million miles away in the United States. He spends most of the season alienating those around him, including his mother, his best friend, his ex-girlfriend, and Maeve as well. He learns some very much-needed lessons on human behavior and manages to come out on top as the season comes to a close. 

Maeve continues to go through it in season 4. Her mother dies so she has to come back from the United States and deal with the mess that is her family. Her brother is using drugs and headed down the same path their mother went, and Otis is kind of being a butt about many things. Maeve confides in Otis’s mother (Gillian Anderson) that she doesn’t feel good enough to be a writer, who gives her the confidence boost she needs to pull up her bootstraps and head back to the States. 

Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) is still dealing with the trauma she incurred from her sexual assault, but she is at least working through it. She falls for Isaac (George Robinson), who happens to be Maeve’s sort of ex, and the two spend most of the season bonding, but pretending not to, out of difference for Maeve. In the end, love conquers all though, and the two end up in a good place. 

Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) continues to search for connection, desperate to feel loved. His journey leads him down a path of self-discovery, instead of one of romance, as he looks for answers about where he came from. When he actually finds the man responsible for his birth, Jackson realizes he may have bitten off more than he can chew. 

And Jean (Otis’s mother) demonstrates just how hard it is to be a single mother, work, and hold everything together in this modern society. Hannah Gadsby shows up as Jean’s new employer to provide some comedic relief for this very difficult-to-digest storyline. 

All in all, season 4 of Sex Education lives up to the hype. Very melodramatic, full of confronting stories of what it really means to be an adolescent in our modern life, it’s a stark reminder that young people go through a lot before they become the fully grown people that walk among us. 

Life is hard at the best of times, but Sex Education is a stark reminder that for anyone who sits on the margins, life can be brutal. Season 4 shows audiences that our differences are what makes us all so beautiful, and so special, and it’s our differences that make life so interesting. Humans have more in common than they don’t, and as Sex Education heads into the credits for the final time, it feels very much like this is the message the writers wanted to leave with us. 

Love trumps hate, all we really want is love, diversity is beautiful, and never underestimate the power of the human spirit. We are so grateful that this story exists, and these characters will continue to live on in our hearts forever. 

---

The last season of Sex Education is available to stream on Netflix now. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!

Featured Image: Courtesy of Netflix