Episode 4 of Sex Education, Season 4 finds Meave back in town. Otis is already distracted with his little unexpected sleepover with Ruby and the election, but he keeps it together to be there for Meave. Eric is having some kind of calling for the church as he is slowly drifting away from Otis. Jackson is worried about his little problem an Mr. Groff is not able to get it up.
Read the detailed recap of the episode below. Like always, please read beyond this point at your own discretion as there are spoilers abound.
Sex Education (Season 4), Episode 4 Recap:
Things turn up absolutely heated for Mr. Groff after his dinner date as Gloria is more interested in pouching on him than discussing his ex-wife. However, he is unable to perform, and the date doesn’t end well.
Meave arrives back home, and Anna and Elsie come to pick her up.
Otis seems to be juggling two things at once again. He receives simultaneous texts from Meave and Ruby, and we are not sure where it is going to go for him.
Jean is worried that she might get fired soon because her show is not doing well while Joanna tells her about her date with the banker guy.
Eric comes to Otis’ home and meets Joanna, who tells him that he has gone to meet Meave. He is a little angry to know that Otis did not update him about Meave’s arrival.
A nice little moment between Jackson and Viv is shown where he tells her about the lump and how it is worrying him about what it might be. She hugs him by saying that she is there for him. However, Beau, who Viv claims to like, looks at them hugging, assuming something between them. It all gets cleared up soon when he directly talks to her. I mean, wouldn’t it just be nicer if we were all honest about our feelings all the time?
Oh, and a really odd moment is while Eric is riding his bike. He finds the Holy Bible in the middle of the road, and when he picks it up, a bird shits on him. Is this a metaphor for Eric to dive into or away from this Christian faith? I am unsure at this point.
Aimee and Otis drive Meave to the hospital, where she meets his brother. However, Otis’s mind is more stuck in the campaign at school and Ruby’s messages. Since he is not in the sessions, O takes advantage and brings some of his clients to her side by offering free t-shirts. This angers Ruby.
In art class, Aisha tells Cal that she is ethnically monogamous and asks her if she would like to go out on a date with her. Cal agrees.
Meave and her brother Sean, who have been waiting all this while to hear about their mother, learn that she has passed away after being admitted to the ICU.
Joanna shows up for her date with Joy and really connects with the Banker dude because both of them seem to have reached a point in life where they have no time for bullshit and honestly is the only way forward.
Since Otis is nowhere to be found, O takes in most of his clients and has secretly organized a debate to put her back in the driving seat. She calls Ruby inside her office and psychoanalyses her by saying that she is helping Otis out to get him back after he left her heartbroken. We can see that some of her analysis is true, but since Ruby is stronger now than she was as a child, she challenges O.
As Meave tries to find dirt on O, she is blown off by Abbi for trying to gossip. We can, however, see that Aisha knows something but doesn’t want to reveal it in front of Abbi.
Meave and Eric discuss why Otis has blown them off, and it comes up that Eric uninvited him to the party and that Meave is in town. Both of them are shattered by these revelations but keep their cool about it.
As Aimee and Otis are killing off some time waiting for Meave to come out, Aimee indirectly asks Otis if she should tell Meave about her liking for Issac, and knowing Aimee, it’s pretty clear that she might pop that revelation up to her at the absolute worse time.
Back at the farm, Jan, the lady Adam is working for, teaches him how to ride a horse. While he is initially scared, it comes naturally to him.
Meave requests her brother to see her mother’s body because she won’t be able to have a picture of her being alive in her mind after doing it.
At the radio station, Jean is just told that her show has been formatted to include some new co-hosts. The first of the hosts is ‘O.’
A nice little call-back to Adam’s penis episode is tucked in when he discusses Mr. Groff’s date with the teacher, where he might have suffered from performance anxiety. So, he takes a blue pill (viagra) and calls Gloria. However, he again goes down mid-performance.
Sean comes out and informs about his mother’s passing to Otis and Aimee, who are still waiting in the car for Meave. He tells them to let her be there and complete her crossword, and when she is ready, she will come out on her own.
Eric blows off her mother’s request to do another church thing again. Another weird bird pooping incident happens, and Eric is forced to take a homeless woman who claims he is lucky, back to the thing his mother had asked him to come to.
So, all dressed up for his party at Abbi’s, Eric takes the woman down to the church thing. He gets to the church and ends up helping because his mum needs extra hands. Even Abbi comes down to help, but his pastor tells him that they have to shut down the church soon because their funding has been cut off.
Meanwhile, Jean’s show now has a balance between her knowledge and a young blood’s energy level. So, when Mr. Groff calls to ask about his inability to have sex with Maureen listining, O and Jean team up to tell him about him still having emotional ties with his ex-wife.
Sex Education (Season 4), Episode 4 Ending, Explained:
Why did Meave want to complete her crossword puzzle before heading out?
Aimee completes her final crossword and heads out. This is an amazing and cathartic moment where we see her process years of trauma and frustration, represented as the final hint of the crossword puzzle. It all ends one way or another.
Maureen shows up at Mr. Groff’s doorsteps and tells him she misses him too, and all of it is really confusing for her, too. The two of them hold each other close and kiss.
The ending of Episode 4 of Sex Education Season 4 shows Meave, Aimee, and Otis all tucked into their beds in Meave’s room in Anna’s home. Otis keeps receiving Ruby’s messages, but he avoids replying to them. We are aware that Ruby is still stuck on him, but is Otis, too?
