Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, ‘Sex Lives of College Girls’ finds a wonderful balance between comedy and coming-of-age narrative elements. The four female roommates at Essex go on a sexual exploration that proves to be fruitful in their journey of self-discovery. With every new episode bringing in amusing discoveries on their path, this season is as consistently hilarious as the previous one. It uses the skills of its performers to bring out different topics in discussion, from race and gender to sexuality.
Streaming on HBO Max, it certainly makes up one of the better comedy series to have come out this year.
Sex Lives of College Girls (Season 2) Episodes 5 & 6 Recap
Episode 5: Taking Shots
The 5th episode, titled ‘Taking Shots, ’ is written by Sheridan Watson & Justin Noble and directed by Thembi Banks. Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) decides to sell her eggs for a huge sum and learns about an injection that increases the egg count. She brings it to try it on for herself and does not mind the minor side effects it may have. After all, she is more concerned about paying her college tuition fees. Leighton (Reneé Rapp), who happens to have a better grasp of inserting injections, decides to help her with it. While Bela (Amrit Kaur) and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) bail on this responsibility, she seems game for it.
Leighton credits her skill to giving Botox injections to her mother during the pandemic, which, she jokingly conveys as a difficult time also for her wealthy family. And this does not stop at just one injection, and she gets tied to this chore for days to come. Since it needs to be injected at the same time every day, they meet every night for this act, which almost becomes a ritual for them. By this time, these four roommates get to be part of college parties and also host them on their own. So, the injection happens to be during the same time as parties at night.
Bela, who bails on her casual fling partner & the Catullan editor – Eric (Mekki Leeper), gets jealous seeing him with another girl named Dana (Audrey Gerthoffer). Over the period, she makes many attempts to break their relationship due to the same reason. While Eric and Dana behave politely despite her antics, it reaches a point where he gets frustrated by it. During one of the parties, she introduces them to an attractive guy as her date to make Eric jealous. Soon afterward, Eric meets Bela in private and speaks with her about her jealousy.
She notes her wish from before to be a freewheeling sexual diva during her college years and, instead, now wants to be in a committed relationship with him. After she accepts wanting to date and not just engage in sexual intercourse with him, they get back together as a couple. Meanwhile, in their biochemistry class, Whitney gets mistaken for another black girl named Moriah (Chantalle Williams) by a white guy named Paul (Zach Reino). He gives her Moriah’s paper instead of hers and mentions the goof-up as an honest mistake.
Whitney does not want to take the matter casually and speaks to him after class. He starts crying out of white guilt and does not want to be known as racist. As a result, she is left with the job of consoling him even if the fault is his. During this time, Leighton gets asked by two math nerds to join them in an extracurricular activity, knowing her to be one of the brighter students. She refuses to do so out of concern about her public image.
However, when she takes Kimberly to the doctor, she keeps checking up on the Livestream, where those guys from her math class solve an extremely difficult problem. Kimberly senses her passion for it and, after returning to their dorm room, persuades her to join the activity in person. When Leighton leaves the room, Kimberly goes out and ends up locking herself out. That is when the next-door attractive guy – Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert), invites her to his room since he sees her unwell.
He takes care of her for the night until Whitney comes in to take her back to their room. Later, in the bio-chem class, Paul comes in to speak with her about his illuminating new-found understanding. She mentions their relationship not to be confined to just race issues and for him to only accept his mistake. Once again, he takes it the wrong way, and she feels bad for making him feel terrible. Meanwhile, while saying goodbye to her Math classmates, Leighton comes across Tatum (Gracie Dzienny), who behaves exactly like her. She gets attracted to her and decides to know who she is.
Episode 6: Dopplebanger
The 6th episode, titled ‘Dopplebanger,’ is written by Mindy Kaling and directed by David Stassen. Bela gets to be a student liaison for comedy star Dan O’Connel and is elated by it, even if her job entails being his assistant for the day. She wants to use this opportunity to get an unpaid internship on his successful show. Meanwhile, Whitney and Leighton talk about Jackson letting Kimberly speak in her dorm the previous night. While Whitney thinks it to be a sign that their romance is blooming, Leighton thinks that he would now be less attracted to her since he has seen her as a sick person.
Leighton is on her mission to find out more about Tatum and speaks with Willow, who informs of a similar interest she had in her early phases of sexual exploration. She calls it Dopplebanging, i.e., wanting to have sex with someone because of the uncanny resemblance they share with you. Meanwhile, in her bio-chem class, Whitney is assigned to be on a team with a white guy named Andrew (Charlie Hall). He always makes fun of her and Bela, saying that they do not belong in that class. He even goes on to say that he will do the assignment independently without her interference to ensure an A for all.
Kimberly learns that her café manager is made to resign, and she sees the passion with which her colleague, Lila (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino), works for the customers. So, she persuades her to apply for the manager’s position. Meanwhile, Leighton learns which class Tatum is in and approaches her. However, Tatum humiliates her in a style that Leighton herself is known for. While bringing Dan to college, Bela is initially nervous. She does not share any of her work in the car ride either since she does not want to seem like a pushover. However, soon after, she impresses her with humorous insights and reminds him of himself from his college days.
As a result, he accepted her proposal to send some writing samples to be considered for the intern position. Meanwhile, Whitney does not budge on Andrew’s suggestion to let him work on his own and goes to the class to partake in the assignment. He is not happy with her arrival, and she ends up spilling coffee over the assignment papers, which adds to his displeasure. He later shares the reason for his distaste. He considers Whitney having an easy way out after graduation (due to her mother being a senator), unlike him, who genuinely loves the subject and strives to do the best in it.
She makes a case for herself, saying that she is just as passionate about it as him. Just after that, she finds an error in the assignment written by him, and he acknowledges it. While that smoothes out their relationship as classmates for a bit, soon after that, he takes his sweatshirt off, and looking at his bare, chiseled body; she gets attracted to him. Later, at one of the parties, Eric joins Bela and learns that Dan has asked for a specific drink. He takes it to Dan himself and approaches as an enthusiast in the comedy world while praising the inventiveness of Dan’s show. He also mentions being the editor of the Catullan.
Dan likes Eric’s style of approach and goes on to give him his contact number. However, that upsets Bela since Eric swoops in on the opportunity that she has been working on for a while. He mentions that they have already discussed that he or she will do anything to get into the inner circle of the comedy world. So, she becomes unsure how to feel about the scenario. Meanwhile, Kimberly helps Lila to get in touch with the side of herself that cares about her job and is passionate about it. She strikes a chord, and Lila ends up getting the job.
Sex Lives of College Girls (Season 2) Episode 6 Ending, Explained
After the unsuccessful attempts, Whitney finally approaches Tatum in a way that would be just as insulting as she spoke with her. They end up bonding incredibly well in this encounter, where she shares her contact number and realizes that Whitney is also from New York, just like her. On the other side, Kimberly is bored with being considered a sick child that needs to be taken care of and approaches Jackson to mention the same. Since she mentions being ready for anything, she ends up having sex with him.
Meanwhile, Bela goes up to Dan’s room and invites herself in after kissing him on the door. It might be just her impulse to act on the opportunity before it is too late. Sadly, it also conveys the mentality perpetuated over the years that sex is the icebreaker between different genders. However, the belief system is more at fault here than her. And while Whitney is embarking on her journey with Tatum, it would also be interesting to see what the new probable couples bring to the table in the next episodes – be it Whitney & Andrew or Kimberly and Jackson.
