Sex Education season 3, episode 7 recap – “Hope’s disastrous Open Day”

By Daniel Hart - September 17, 2021
Netflix series Sex Education season 3, episode 7
By Daniel Hart - September 17, 2021
4.5

Summary

There’s plenty to process in the penultimate chapter — it’s a whole lot of emotions.

This recap of Netflix’s Sex Education season 3, episode 7 contains spoilers.

Read the recap of the previous episode.

Wow, episode 7 is a whole lot of emotions. Where do we go from here as we reach the finale? Audiences will binge to the end when they see the penultimate chapter. It’s a mixed bag.

Sex Education season 3, episode 7 recap

Episode 7 opens with Lily narrating one of her alien sex stories to an animation. In the present, Lily does not want to go to school as she feels embarrassed that one of her sex stories was published in the newspaper. She also does not want to go to school and has resided in her bedroom. She takes down all her fetishes in her bedroom to make it look plain in an upsetting moment. Meanwhile, Ola is worried about Lily and asks Otis to talk to her.

As for Maeve, her mother Erin rings her but puts the phone down — Maeve suspects she knows where she is. Isaac is still angry about her kissing Otis, and he makes it known that he wants someone who is sure about him. At school, Maeve makes amends with her best friend, Aimee. They apologize to each other, and then Maeve asks for Aimee’s help to find her mother. There’s plenty of personal anguish for Maeve in episode 7.

We predicted a rebellion was forming in the earlier recaps, and it arrives in episode 7. It’s Open Day at the school, and Viv and Jackson have plans to bring down the new headteacher Hope — they also involve Otis and Eric, planting both boys in the theatre control room, leaving them with instructions.

Hope is nervous about her speech, but before she heads on to the stage, she confronts Cal about how they wear their uniform and locks Cal in a room. Cal screams about their rights. On the stage. Hope gives a speech and says the scandals are a thing of the past.

But, unfortunately for Hope, scandals are not a thing of the past. Viv comes on stage as the head girl and reclaims Jackson’s position as the head boy. Otis and Eric launch the presentation screen — it’s all about sex and freedom of expression — this isn’t what Hope had planned; it’s a disaster. Hope enters the control room to stop the presentation, but Ruby enters and fights Hope to keep the presentation going. The assembly room erupts into chants — “we are Sex School.” Cal then heads down from the vents and swears at Hope while on stage. The Open Day is soon reported on the news. How long Hope will survive is now the question, but she has been an intriguing character.

Eventually, Maeve and Aime find Erin and Elsie near the seaside. After much persuasion, Erin agrees to return Elsie to the foster mother, Anna. Maeve assures her mother that Anna loves Elsie. Afterward, Aimee tells Maeve that they should be each other’s mothers and look after each other, solidifying their friendship after a recent fallout.

Jakob is an interesting character as he represents this growing trend of failed masculinity. We learn more about him in episode 7. Not knowing that Jean has gone into labor and is about to give birth, Jakob attends therapy. The therapist wants Jakob to talk about his feelings, including his deceased wife. Jakob opens up, revealing that his wife was cheating, but then she got sick, so he stayed by her side — he believes she would have left if she didn’t get sick. The therapist raises how he hasn’t grieved that his wife had an affair — he has a problem with trust, but he wants to try.

The ending

The ending of episode 7 will bring a bag of mixed emotions for the audience. As Jean gives birth to a baby girl, Jakob turns up. But there’s an issue as they celebrate their little girl — Jean’s heart rate drops, and there’s blood coming from her. Jakob is told to stand outside.

As for Michael, he’s found a passion for cooking in episode 7. At a dinner party, he suddenly gets irritable and tells the table he’s a failure and that his brother Peter is a “little shit” that helped his father bully him. Finding this newfound energy, he heads to Maureen’s house with a salad he made. He tells her he wanted to see her and admits he was hard to live with. Maureen pulls him in for a kiss, and they hook up. Go, Michael!

Later in the evening, Otis finds Maeve, and he admits he started the clinic to be closer to her, and it made him realize he was good at something. He confesses he was heartbroken because he believed she ignored his voicemail. He asks if they can be a team again as he wants to see her every day, even as a friend. Maeve tells Otis it was never about the money at the clinic, and she kisses him in the rain. As they kiss, Jakob rings Otis, leaving the audience wondering if tragedy has struck in Otis’s life…

Additional points

  • Eric is speechless that Otis and Maeve kissed in France.
  • Jackson and Cal hook up. Cal tells him if they progress to a relationship, it will be a queer relationship.
  • Otis checks up on Lily as she isn’t at the school assembly. Lily isn’t ready to speak to Ola again.

What did you think of Netflix’s Sex Education season 3, episode 7? Comment below.

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