Sex Education Season 2 Premiere Recap: Hands-On Experience Helps Otis Get Back in Business
Sex Education is back exploring the many dalliances of Moordale High, including Otis’ own. Unfortunately for ‘shippers out there, we may be quite a ways from actualizing “Maevis,” so let’s lean into the will-they-won’t-they trope, if we must, and kick off Season 2 with a proper recap.
We could start praising the killer rendition of Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” that leads the episode or dive into Otis’s newfound, uhh, hobby, but I guess we’d wind up in the same place either way. Our young protagonist is getting a lot of hands-on experience, which should assist his chosen quest of doling out sex advice to fellow classmates. Asa Butterfield’s boyish charm and facial quirks work wonders in this montage, especially when Otis is caught in the act by his mom… inside her car! Welcome back, Sex Ed (and more Jean this season, please!).
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A LITTLE MOTHERLY ADVICE | Jean tells Otis she’s happy he’s reached a milestone in his pubescent development, but there’s a time and place for everything, and exposing one’s genitalia in public is a criminal offense. Watching Otis squirm and hearing Gillian Anderson rattle off about enjoying oneself is so oddly satisfying. Bring on the awkward, Season 2! Otis heads to school and we find a shirtless Jakob stashed away in Jean’s bedroom. Jean’s not quite ready to tell Otis she’s sleeping with his girlfriend’s father.
Otis confides to Eric that his body has complete control over him. “You’ve discovered the wonders of your own penis, my friend!” guffaws Eric. Apparently getting an erection while looking at cheese (brie, for the record) doesn’t make Otis feel as “normal” as everyone tells him it is. Despite having the “untapped sexual knowledge of a tantric master,” plus a girlfriend, Otis says he and Ola are taking things slow (read: he’s still a virgin).
At school, everyone’s in a panic about a plague of chlamydia. Opportunistic (and unethical) Simon spreads fake news to hawk chlamydia masks, showing us how much these kids really do need Otis. The kid can barely walk through the halls without getting accosted by peers seeking advice, only he’s not giving it out. “Maeve has moved on and so have I,” he says. “End of story.”
With campus looking like the set of a zombie film, Headmaster Groff is putting out fires left and right. The chairwoman of the board demands to know what he’s doing about the hysteria — cue an emergency assembly!
PROMISES, PROMISES | As a sea of mask-wearing students watch an a cappella group butcher Jermaine Stewart, Aimee texts Maeve, who’s now working at a pretzel shop. Maeve recognizes a woman — her mom! — and takes off running. Turns out Mom has a young daughter and is working a 12-step program. Although she’s newly sober, it takes just one snappy, “Don’t talk with your mouth full!” from mom to piss off Maeve, who’s clearly not ready to make amends. Mom also has a new beau she met at Narcotics Anonymous, and she vows to tell him about Maeve and her brother, Sean. “Promises don’t mean sh-t anymore, Erin,” Maeve responds.
Back at school, Eric has Adam on his mind when the boys are approached by Fiona, who needs Otis’s help. Rumors are circling that she’s the reason for the STI outbreak, but it’s not true. Otis reluctantly agrees to help; he meets with two of Fiona’s accusers and makes the Mean Girls write down a list of their recent sexual partners.
Meanwhile, Lily gives Ola a tour of the school and a new guy struts by, turning everyone’s heads — including Eric. (Adam who?)
Otis and Eric approach Jackson. He had sex with both accusers who then contracted the disease, and this all turns into Coolio’s “Too Hot” video fairly quickly. Jackson says he never has sex without protection and he’s been tested; he even offers proof. Jackson slaps Otis in the arm, which again sets off Otis’s member. This premiere is never-ending awkward for the “Pleasure Master.”
Later, Jean and Jakob are hot and heavy downstairs while Otis and Ola mack it upstairs. When Little Otis fails to stand at attention, Otis runs away and falls downstairs, catching his mother and Ola’s father in the act. Secret’s out. (A lot of things are out, actually – somebody grab Jakob some pants!) Otis doesn’t take the news well: “I was starting to feel like a normal teenager, but now you’ve made me feel like a freak again!”
At the assembly, the headmaster takes a lot of heat until Jean stands up to drop some knowledge on the ill-informed parents. She offers a suggestion that’s met with a round of applause and… are you thinking what I’m thinking? Maybe she’ll get a job at the school? More Anderson Jean for everyone!
SAVE MAEVE! | Maeve approaches the headmaster asking for a second chance at school. She presents student essays that have boosted the school’s grade-point averages, and tells him she wrote every one of them. “If you let me back in, I won’t tell everyone your school is full of cheats,” she threatens. Her words fall on deaf ears. Leaving the office, she runs into Otis, but tells him she’s just visiting. The two are clearly happy to see each other. Otis tells her he misses her. She half-smiles before telling him he’d better get to class. Miss Sands then vouches for Maeve and threatens to tell the chairman that Groff’s son won the essay contest by cheating, and voilà! Maeve finds herself re-enrolled!
The STI culprit is found to be Owen, a boy who says he got treated, but was too ashamed to tell the girls. Otis gives him an ethics lecture and Owen, who overheard Otis’s earlier issue, tells him to be honest with Ola about his “wanking problem.”
Groff tells Eric that Adam will no longer be coming back, and Eric is shook. His mood is brightened in the hallway when the attractive new male specimen tells him he likes his shirt. Eric smiles and walks away. Is there new love brewing for our beloved Eric?
Otis finally admits to Ola that he’s addicted to wanking and that he might’ve broken his penis. Ola promises they’ll figure everything out together because it’s all new for the both of them.
Jean gets a phone call from Moordale’s chairwoman who calls the state of the school’s sex education “appalling.” When Jean offers to make recommendations for someone to revamp the curriculum, the chair replies, “…or, you could do it.”
Lily clues Ola in about the sex clinic Maeve and Otis ran together and the poor girl looks perplexed. Meanwhile, Otis offers Maeve her old job back, but she declines until he offers to up her cut. “It’s good to be back in business,” says Otis. Maeve offers the tiniest smile as he walks away.
Are you psyched Sex Ed is back? Grade the premiere, then hit the comments below!
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