The Sex Lives of College Girls – Season 3 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Parents Weekend 2

In The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 3 Episode 5, Bela conducts an experiment to prove women are just as horny as men. She’s doing it in part to stop thinking about Arvind, as she wants to hook up with him but doesn’t want to be his rebound.

Kimberly is still mad at Eli for leaving her when she was high at the party. She’s starting to wonder if they’re rightly matched, what with her intellectual pursuits and his focus on partying. 

She’s currently throwing all her attention to school, even achieving a pass to apply for her law professor’s prestigious symposium, although it’s usually only for juniors and seniors.

They all get ready for parents weekend, and Bela invites Taylor to join her and her parents for dinner. But she lies to Arvind that her parents won’t be coming when he invites them to hang out with him and his parents.

Whitney enjoys having her musician dad around for the weekend. She learns that Isaiah is also a musician and has played piano his whole life. Her dad instantly sniffs out that they’re in a situationship.

Later, mental health services calls Whitney to follow up with her after she swiped into their facility. But she assures them she doesn’t need anything.

Eli accepts Kimberly’s mom’s invitation to dinner, which Kimberly isn’t happy about. What’s even worse is that her mom really likes Eli.

When the suitemates and their parents meet for dinner, Kacey’s mom advises her to cover her arms with her sweater, but Kacey pretends this doesn’t bother her.

Arvind brings his parents to the same restaurant and finds out Bela lied to him.

Later, Whitney calls the girls into the bathroom to tell them she was scrolling during dinner and came across her dad’s dating profile. When she hands her phone to Kimberly, she accidentally swipes right on him.

Back at the table, Kimberly has to take Eli aside to break up with him before he bonds further with her mom. She says their lives are too different from each other. They’re able to hug it out and say they’ll remain friends, but she didn’t realize that meant he would come back to the table with her.

Eventually, Kacey comes clean with her mom that she and Cal broke up. Her immediate reaction is to blame her daughter, but Kacey’s suitemates back her up that it was Cal’s fault for cheating on her. Taylor wisely advises her that she should worry about why her daughter was too scared to talk to her.

Kacey assures her mom she’s doing okay without a partner. They make up. And when they take a picture together, Kacey shrugs off her sweater and bares her shoulders, asserting that she looks better like this.

Whitney and her dad talk after he notices she saw his dating profile. He tells her he’s realized he wants to meet someone and build a real connection. Maybe she could do the same thing with her situationship. Inspired by this, Whitney asks Isaiah to go out sometime for real. He accepts.

Kimberly’s mom tells her it wouldn’t hurt to keep an open mind and not to decide everything about her future right now. That night, Kimberly gets accepted into the symposium.

Bela’s parents tell her they are proud that she goes for what she wants and isn’t too scared to fail. With this in mind, Bela apologizes to Arvind and tells him she likes him. Happy to hear that, he kisses her.

The Episode Review

This has to be one of my favorite episodes of the show so far. You can tell the writers and actors had a lot of fun with it. The clicking? The swiping right on Whitney’s dad? All the awkward connections and texting under the table?

Some suspension of disbelief is required–because why would you be scrolling through dating profiles during dinner while sitting right next to your dad? But ultimately, this episode was pretty much gold.

If one thing actually bothered me, it’s the way Kacey’s arc with her mom was handled. Her mom’s reaction to hearing about her breakup was so out-of-order, but the conflict between them was then brushed over so quickly. I hope we’re on a path to see Kacey grow into herself further because she didn’t stand up for herself here as much as I would have liked.