The series centers on Otis Milburn, a repressed schoolboy whose parents are both sex therapists. He begins helping other students out with their sexual problems for profit, when it allows him to spend more time with the scathing yet lovely Maeve Wiley. Together they begin their clinic and turn tidy sums of money as Otis genuinely tries to help people with their sexual problems. As the show grew in popularity, Sex Education expanded to become an analysis of the problems today’s youth face, going as far as tackling subjects like LGBTQ+ acceptance, parental separation, sexual health in teenagers, sexual assault, and more. The varied themes have led to many great moments in the series. Here are our picks for the best scenes and moments from Netflix’s Sex Education and why they’re so great.
8. Aimee Pays for Maeve’s Trip
Maeve doesn’t like taking handouts from anybody. She’s too proud to ask for help most of the time and has a strict code of conduct that she never crosses. So, when Maeve wonders why Anna would pay for her school trip to France, Aimee tells her that she actually paid for it. This sparks a fight between the two as Maeve scolds Aimee and tells her that she’ll pay her back. Aimee snaps back at Maeve for the hurtful things Maeve says, and the pair end up not speaking for a while. Aimee and Maeve are best friends, so to see them argue over such a selfless act on Aimee’s part shows two things: that Maeve can be horrible when she feels wronged (even to Aimee), and that Aimee is capable of telling Maeve some home truths, too.
7. Otis Buys Maeve a 5-Year Diary
Otis and Maeve’s story of friendship—and their growing feelings for one another—is the backbone of Sex Education. His feelings for Maeve dominate the first season, while the second season sees the situation switch to Maeve hiding her feelings for Otis. On Maeve’s birthday—which she despises—Otis buys her a five-year diary in which he has ripped out all of her birthdays for the next five years (so she won’t have to celebrate another one). As Maeve smiles widely and turns to Otis, we feel it coming: this is it, the moment she’d finally tell him how she feels. “Pale Blue Eyes” by The Velvet Underground drifts into the scene. All grows quiet… …and then she chickens out. She even goes as far as threatening him for buying her a birthday gift. It’s a relatable moment, but one that had fans screaming with frustration at their screens.
6. Adam and Eric Get Together
Adam and Eric’s relationship in Sex Education is by far the one that has come along the most in the show—given that their relationship started off with Adam ruthlessly bullying Eric at school for being gay. However, after Adam experiences a long journey of self-discovery and opening up—as much as Adam ever does—he learns more about who he is, and in doing so, he grows closer to Eric. They secretly begin a sexual relationship through the second season of the show, culminating in Adam revealing his feelings for Eric, and the pair start dating. It’s a beautiful moment as they cast aside the past and embrace their love for one another.
5. Ruby Allows Otis to Meet Her Dad
Ruby Matthews is the “it” girl at school: the leader of the plastics and the glamorous-yet-selfish tip of the school’s popularity pyramid. However, when she begins dating Otis in the third season, it’s clear that there’s more to Ruby than just self-image. After she sleeps with Otis, she tells him about her father and his fight with multiple sclerosis. After Otis asks Ruby about where she lives, she eventually allows him to see her house and her dad. Ruby’s outwardly scathing behavior at school suddenly makes sense seeing her deal with her dad and his illness, and we suddenly had a lot of empathy for her.
4. Ola Kisses Lily
Lily Iglehart often feels like the beating heart of Sex Education. She’s always just being herself—to a fault—and she never much cares what anybody says since she loves being who she is. However, her quest to have sex with anybody—so that she can “get it over with”—eventually leads to her spending time with Ola, who is Otis’ unofficial step-sister and ex-girlfriend. Ola realizes that she has feelings for Lily as they spend more time together, and then kisses her. This causes Lily to retreat, but she soon realizes her own romantic feelings for Ola, and they start dating. That initial kiss is a moment where we feel so happy for Lily, as she might have finally found somebody that likes her for who she is.
3. Otis and Maeve Kiss
After two-and-a-half seasons of watching Otis and Maeve dance around their mutual attraction, they finally air their true feelings for one another—while stuck at a rest stop somewhere in France, no less. The honest talk about Otis’ voicemail, which Maeve never got, begins with Maeve asking him to tell her what it said—which he does line-for-line. She lets down the last of her defenses towards Otis and kisses him, knowing that it’s the pure distillation of their feelings towards one another. Sex Education is an eager romantic-comedy series, so once Otis and Maeve finally realized their feelings for one another, it felt like the show could move out from under the strain of their storyline.
2. Aimee and the Girls Get on the Bus
The most devastating and well-handled storyline of the show is the sexual assault that happens to Aimee. When she gets on the bus with a cake in her hands, a random person assaults her as she stands there. This leads to Aimee suffering severe anxiety over the incident—though she denies it at first—causing her to retreat from her boyfriend. When she, Maeve, Ola, Lily, Olivia, and Vivienne are all caught in detention, Aimee finally breaks down—and they all come to her emotional aid. The next day, when getting on the bus, Aimee finds that the girls are all there to be with her. The sequence is a powerful reminder of the resilience of young women and what many of them have to suffer through alone—and more than that, it shows us what real friends are.
1. Maeve’s Abortion
Sex Education has a way of taking significant matters and dealing with them in very humorous fashion. But when Maeve finds out that she’s pregnant in the first season, she searches among her limited friends for somebody to pick her up from the abortion clinic. Eventually, she asks Otis—who agrees, believing it to be a date. While waiting in the waiting room, another woman begins to ask Maeve questions. Maeve is initially annoyed, but the pair form a bond that helps Maeve get through the abortion—and upon seeing Otis arrive early, she tells Maeve to keep the “sweet ones” around. After the procedure is finished, Maeve looks around the reception, thinking that Otis has left. However, he appears from a corner of the waiting room, and the smile on her face says it all. The sequence first showed Otis’ commitment to being there for Maeve, as well as Maeve’s less spikey side, while giving us a glimpse of what could be between them. Read next: Happy Netflix shows to watch when you’re sad
