The article ahead is loaded with spoilers about the fourth season of Sex Education, so I recommend that you don’t continue unless you’ve seen the series finale on Netflix. With that said, the title of this article is a brief reflection I’ve been contemplating for a week, right after finishing the show. The ending of Sex Education is the best possible outcome for the series and for Otis and Maeve.
Yes, I’ve been on Twitter. Yes, I’ve read many fans’ frustrations over Otis and Maeve not reconciling and not ending up together. There are valid reasons for their disappointment, given that both characters are the main protagonists of the series, and their romantic relationship is the central axis around which the four seasons revolve. Up to this point, we all agree, but their ending is human. It’s real.
Laurie Nunn, the writer and creator of the series, made it clear in statements to The Hollywood Reporter: she always wanted to end the season this way. When she started writing it, she didn’t know it would be the last, but she was certain that this had to be the outcome for both characters: “They’re 17. I think it’s very hard to know your soulmate at 17.” This sentence is the key to everything. They are teenagers who are just beginning to discover themselves, to understand who they are.
The ending of Sex Education begs for a happily-ever-after, of course, but as Nunn herself points out, the characters would be “together in 10 years, when they’ve matured and grown up a bit.” “They’ll be married and bored,” she chuckled. And here lies the key to everything: maturity. The series finale teaches us that over four seasons, each character has gone through a process of growth, of becoming better. When I read comments like “Otis hasn’t changed at all and he’s back to square one,” I can only think that perhaps that person should watch the series again.
The Otis from the beginning is nothing like the Otis at the end. Maturing and growing up means being aware that sometimes, you have to let go. As much as Maeve and he love each other, she has aspirations, and he respects them above all else. And that, my friends, is the greatest proof of existing love. Accepting each other’s positions is the most important process. There might be other parts of the script where the outcome might be a bit more peculiar, like with Eric, but the entire Maeve and Otis storyline is the most significant display of both of their maturity: they love each other, they respect each other, but it’s not the right time. It’s about how not only have they grown, but we as viewers have also matured while watching them.
