One of the disadvantages of recapping a show that’s clearly been designed for bingeing is that while you can sense the drama building across multiple storylines, it’s with the knowledge that major developments are clearly on the horizon. Because the first two episodes of the season seemed to serve largely as set-up, episode three of Sex Education is where the season’s major storylines really start to coalesce, especially the evolving conflict between Jean and Otis, now that Jean has truly embedded herself in the school.
Sex Education does have one recurring element to help differentiate its episodes, and so Otis’s new client of the hour is Olivia, whose parents don’t know that her boyfriend Rahim’s parents aren’t Indian, and that Olivia and Rahim’s “dance practice” is actually spent having very enthusiastic sex. Olivia, though, has one kink that’s proving to be a turn-off for Rahim: She likes to cover up his face with a pillow while they’re having sex, something which freaks him out.
However, the catch is that with Jean now establishing a presence at the school, the students (and adults!) now have another potential avenue for pursuing advice on their sex lives, and so Malek goes to her, as opposed to Otis, in search of advice. Unfortunately, Jean’s counsel leads Malek to accuse Olivia of some ugly things, which is what leads her to coming to Otis for his advice about the fact that she’s self-conscious about her… what is the preferred nomenclature these days? Eh, “o-face,” as coined by many different media properties including Office Space, will do nicely. Otis’s advice, for Olivia to be open with Malek and for them to try to see each other “at their ugliest,” seems to do the trick. It’s not a seismic development, but it does point at the potential for Jean and Otis to butt heads as the season continues.
And at the moment, things between Jean and Otis aren’t great in general, because with Jean and Jakob’s relationship now out in the open, Jean is trying to get her new boyfriend, her son, and her son’s girlfriend/her boyfriend’s daughter bonding together. This leads to the unconventional foursome having dinner and playing board games, which proves to be a disastrous evening, largely due to Otis struggling with Jakob’s table manners — and more importantly his struggle with seeing his mother in an actual relationship with a man, as opposed to just having casual sex.
But Otis’s problems are nothing compared to those of poor sweet Aimee, who starts off the day in a great mood, thrilled to be pursuing her new plan for a career. However, transporting her homemade cake via bus isn’t the easiest thing on a normal day, and when an asshole passenger chooses to jerk off onto her leg, the day gets even worse for her. To be continued
