Sex Education – Season 4 Episode 7 Recap & Review

The Student Protest

Episode 7 of Sex Education season 4 begins with a flashback. Jean is worried as their mom’s boyfriend flirts with a teen Joanna. At present, Jean agrees to loan Joanna the money but she gives a sister contract which is several pages long. Maeve tells Otis that she will enrol at Cavendish while Jean calls to invite them to dinner.

Celia shows up and turns out the radio show is on pause as O is cancelled for bullying Ruby. Celia says they will work it out but Jean wants to focus on being a mom and leaves the radio show gig. Meanwhile, Cal is struggling with dysphoria. They cannot seem to find their groove and just want to go back to how they were when they were a kid. As for Jackson, he cannot find the sperm donor and Roz says there may be a mix-up.

At college, everyone is proud of Ruby for outing O. Otis apologises to her but she says she is helping Connor as the third candidate. O is not happy either but everyone says that she and Otis are problematic and they’d rather vote for Connor as the school counselor.

Isaac is worried about talking to Aimee who says Maeve is fine with them being just friends. She takes him to see her photos while Maeve watches them. She is conflicted about enrolling. Just then, Dodgy Mo calls and says Sean took off and she needs to take her mom’s ashes. Aimee shows Isaac her self photo with the jeans she wore when she was assaulted. She is feeling more like herself and is doing what she loves. He is happy for her and she thanks him.

The mock exams are about to take place and as Otis heads to the lift, he avoids Eric. He ends up getting stuck with O and starts panicking that they are going to run out of oxygen. Meanwhile, Aimee and Isaac wait for the lift and are annoyed as it is stuck. He gets the cleaning lady to get the principal but Aimee notices he is looking rather mischievous. 

A boy asks Viv about a question and Beau gets jealous. He crushes her wrist and tells her not to lie as he saw her coming on to the boy. Viv is terrified while Aisha worries about Cal. The fire alarm goes off and everyone rushes off but no one alerts Aisha. She only heads out after seeing no one around her. She is then forced to ask Jackson about what is going on.

The students are stuck on the staircase as Aimee has blocked it with furniture. Isaac shows up and gives a speech about disability and how he has been asking for the lift to be fixed but no one cares. Aisha pipes in on how no one even alerted her and if there had been a real fire, it could have gotten serious. All of the students feel bad and decide to help by protesting for better facilities for disabled students starting with the lift.

At the farm, Adam needs to move the tractor as Jem is not around. He accidentally breaks the fence and his hands start shaking when Jem urgently tells him to get down. Joanna spots Jean taking down the tree house and tries to help. But Jean micromanages and they fall. They end up in a huge fight as Joanna calls her out for being controlling, not allowing her to see Dan and giving pages of the contract.

While the students protest, Eric notices a fish sticker on his shoe reminding him of his dream. Otis and O are still stuck in the elevator and they share a chocolate. Cal tells Roman about their dysphoria and that despite their mom communicating better, they cannot get the care they need. Roman says he had to spend 10k pounds for his transition and Cal panics as they cannot afford it.

As they hand around snacks, Cal gives bread to Eric who recalls his dream. He tells Abbi he is getting signs he should be baptised but he feels guilty. Everyone is fighting for who they are and maybe he should too. Adam thinks he is about to be fired but Jem says he has good instincts and the tractor was just a mistake.

Meanwhile, Joanna leaves and Jean shouts after her. Maeve arrives just then with her mom’s ashes. It is awkward at first but Jean tells her about her mom. As they cook, Maeve cuts her hand and starts crying. It spills onto her thoughts of wanting to get a job to stay stable. But her dream is to be a writer which was squashed by Molloy. Jean tells her she got into the college in the first place, so she deserves to be there.

O tries to make small talk but she keeps provoking Otis by asking about Maeve dropping out and his sex phobia. Otis is annoyed and asks about Ruby and if O is faking being asexual. She is hurt but she ends up revealing that she does feel bad about Ruby. Since she was the only POC student and also asexual, she wanted to fit in. So, she learned about sex and relationships to act like the rest. But she could still not let anyone close, so the clinic was her safe space.

The lift is finally fixed and everyone is shocked to learn O and Otis were stuck. The exam is rescheduled to the next day. Eric avoids Otis while O says she can help with his phobia. It doesn’t have anything to do with having sex. Seeing his mom heartbroken, Otis is afraid of getting his heart broken as well so he doesn’t let anyone in. He considers this and also tells her to apologise to Ruby. He finally heads home and is surprised to see Maeve and Jean getting along.

Adam confronts Michael and reveals his first thought on messing up today was disappointing him. He claims Michael hates him but he is not a failure. Instead, Michael is a failure as he continues to live a sad life doing what he hates. Adam leaves and later that night, Michael tells the school he wants to help with the catering for the fundraiser as he loves cooking. 

Jackson goes home and goes through his mom’s stuff till he finds a love letter from someone called Jerome to Roz. He goes to tell Viv but is shocked to see her crying as she is scared of Beau who keeps texting her. She says he was right about Beau and he hugs her.

As for Maeve, she tells Otis she is going back to the US. However, she always wanted to escape Moordale. She doesn’t know if she will return but they can make it work. He says he doesn’t want to hold her back. They tear up as they kiss. They have sex and the next morning she kisses him goodbye. 

Maeve meets up with Aimee and Isaac and reveals she was confused about their relationship as she was scared of losing them. But they don’t need her permission to explore their relationship. She is just happy for them. She then asks them to help spread her mom’s ashes at the trailer park as she had great memories there.

The Episode Review

Episode 7 of Sex Education Season 4 as an individual episode is pretty great. It hits all the right notes and addresses several issues while being funny. O’s motives are revealed, and so are Adam’s who is understandably shaken by his father’s strict parenting. However, the main conflict is not really conflicting. It feels that there are several tiny conflicts and no major overlying one that furthers the plot.

There is nothing to tie all the subplots together except that all the characters are friends or acquaintances. If the season 4 episodes were released weekly, it wouldn’t have anything to keep you wanting to tune in every week. But maybe since it is sort of a goodbye letter to our favourite characters, we can let it go and consider each episode having an independent story.