Sex Education’s finale is completely reasonable and a total letdown

polygon.com:

Netflix’sSex Education captivated me from the first episode I saw nearly four years ago. It was fun, heartwarming, and frank about all things sex and relationships. And unlike other TV shows, its supporting characters — especially the Black characters, like Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Vivienne (Chinenye Ezeudu), Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling), and Cal (Dua Saleh) — were fully fleshed-out and engaging. But, like all classic teen rom-coms and coming-of-age stories, there was a central love interest between the main characters: Maeve (Emma Mackey) and Otis (Asa Butterfield).

Maeve and Otis coming together is the impetus for the series, with her approaching him to start a sex therapy clinic as a mutually beneficial situation (he gets to help people with his knowledge; she gets cash to help basically raise herself). But that shared passion led to shared romantic feelings, with the writers keeping us in a will-they-won’t-they limbo until the end of season 3, when Maeve finally admits her feelings for Otis and they kiss at last. When Maeve got into a U.S. writing program at the end of season 3, the pair — after finally kissing — agreed to try long distance.

[Ed. note: The rest of this piece contains spoilers for the end of season 4 of Sex Education (which is the end of the show).]

But in season 4, Maeve and Otis’ long-distance connection is clearly disintegrating. Then, when she comes back for the death of her mother, they’re still not in sync (and understandably so; grief isn’t really the best atmosphere to build up a romantic connection in). After Maeve realizes that she actually loves it in America, they mutually decide to break up for good. It is, quite simply, bullshit.

Let’s be clear: There are some incredibly valid