Sex Education season 4 episode 2 recap: Otis and O go to war

NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Sex Education season 4 episode 2. 

Things are slowly changing with Sex Education's characters. Otis (Asa Butterfield) has to contend with being jealous of Maeve's (Emma Mackey) new American friend, Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) has a sexual awakening and even Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) and Otis are drifting apart.

Let's break down what happens to them in Sex Education season 4 episode 2.

• Sex Education season 4 episode 1 recap

• Sex Education season 4 cast

Paranoia rages

Following his discovery of Maeve's (Emma Mackey) new American best friend Tyrone, Otis stays up all night torturing himself over his social media pictures. Otis' mindset isn't fixed by Eric, who after one quick glance at Tyrone's (Imani Yahshua) pictures confirms he's amazingly hot.

Otis accidentally tells Maeve he's worried about how close she is with Tyrone. Maeve is peeved Otis doesn't trust her, before revealing Tyrone is actually gay. While that's initially a relief for Otis, he instantly starts to feel guilty. That's only exacerbated when Maeve angrily hangs up on him.

Maeve is having her own struggles at Wallace. Having been dismissive of her first assignment, calling it boring and imitative, Malloy (Dan Levy) challenges her to write something in her own voice. After writing about her experiences growing up in a caravan park, Tyrone calls it a beautiful piece of writing. When she tries to show it to Malloy, though, his latest piece has just been rejected by the New Yorker. He instead reads his story to Maeve, who gives him notes on how it can be improved.

As she departs Malloy's office, Otis calls Maeve to apologize again. She reveals she's applied for an internship with Malloy that she's increasingly confident about getting. If she does, she'll have to stay in America for longer. Otis is annoyed Maeve hasn't discussed this possibility with him. They start to argue again. Maeve insists that, since they seemingly can't talk anymore without falling out, they should have some space for a while. Otis agrees, leaving their relationship status up in the air.

An emotional rollercoaster

Jackson approaches Otis and quietly reveals that Annabelle (Kirsty Bloom) shoved a finger up his bum during sex, which immediately made him cum. Otis reminds a confused Jackson that sexuality is fluid and that many heterosexual men get sexual pleasure from having their prostate's stimulated. Jackson then admits he was actually hoping to be queer as this would have meant he could be with Cal (Dua Saleh), who he still has feelings for. So much so he can't even be friends with them.

Jackson still continues to have sex with Annabelle. But when he tries to have a deeper conversation after their latest encounter, she says she wants to keep it casual. A bigger bombshell soon follows when she tells Jackson that she felt a lump on his testicle.

Just in time

Jean's sister Joanna (Lisa McGrillis) arrives to help with Joy. Jean (Gillian Anderson) isn't particularly excited by her arrival. While Joanna does manage to tidy up the house, she soon starts waking up in the afternoon and being unreliable. Jean is also ill-prepared for her debut on the radio, which goes disastrously as she's so preoccupied with whether or not Joanna is caring for Joy.

Finally, progress

Adam (Connor Swindells) starts working on a farm, but is surprised to learn he'll be riding horses, which he lied about on his application, as well as driving a car.

At a family dinner, Michael (Alistair Petrie) scolds Adam for not knowing what he wants to do with his life. Maureen (Samanta Spiro) tells Michael he needs to be kinder to Adam. So he vows to teach Adam how to drive.

Evolving friendships

At the same time, Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) apologizes to Isaac (George Robinson), who says he'll teach her different art forms after she admits to being tired of painting.

Eric also grows closer to Abbi (Anthony Lexa), Aisha (Alexandra James) and Roman (Felix Mufti). It turns out Abbi is also religious and struggling with her faith, which comes shortly after a pre-occupied Otis fails to listen to Eric's concerns about being baptized because the Church is the only place where he's not come-out. By the end of the episode there’s a distance emerging between Otis and Eric.

Gym work pays off

Otis decides the only way to make himself feel better about his body is to start working out. It's there where Otis finally starts to make some breakthroughs with his still struggling sex therapy clinic by helping fix Abbi and Roman's relationship.

All of Cavendish is in shock that the usually rock-solid pair are no longer talking. After spotting Roman working out in the gym, Otis casually asks him about their struggles. Roman explains he wanted to have sex with Abbi, she refused, then he caught her masturbating in the middle of the night, which felt like cheating.

Otis makes Roman realize Abbi is struggling, having moved into his house after being kicked out by her own family. They need to go back to basics. He asks if they would like to come in for couples therapy. After one session, Abbi and Roman are back to normal and suddenly Otis has a deluge of new clients.

Now it's O's (Thaddea Graham) turn to be jealous. She says they should team up, as two sex clinics on campus won't work. Neither wants to work with the other, so they opt to throw an election that'll decide which sex therapist will remain open.

Ruby (Mimi Keene), who is still struggling to make any friends at Cavendish, proposes to help Otis. At first, Otis refuses, but when he sees that O has created a music video to promote herself that has already gone viral, he changes his mind.

Episodes of Sex Education season 4 are available to stream on Netflix.