After 18 months of waiting, Sex Education<\/a> has returned to Netflix<\/a> with its hotly-anticipated\u00a0third season, promising shocks, spills and plenty more sex for the students at Moordale High\u00a0School.<\/p>\n Now firmly in its stride as a show, Sex Education hasn\u2019t been afraid to flesh out some of its background characters, making them people with stories and arcs we can invest in \u2013 and\u00a0it\u2019s a decision that\u2019s certainly paid off.<\/p>\n It may have come as a bit of a surprise to viewers that, after leaving Maeve \u2018the voicemail\u2019, nerd-turned-sex-therapist Otis had started hooking up with Ruby Matthews<\/a> \u2013 the head of the Untouchables and Moordale\u2019s answer to Regina George. Before season three, Ruby\u2019s character had never been more than a cliched popular high-schooler, the effortlessly beautiful and relentlessly b***hy queen bee, permanently flanked by her two worker drones. But it was this decision to pair her with Otis, as well as Mimi Keene\u2019s excellent performance and fundamental understanding of her character, that finally made Ruby a three-dimensional figure.<\/p> As Otis \u2013 and the viewers \u2013 get to know Ruby more, we quickly learn her tough exterior is a fa\u00e7ade (as it tends to be with the pretty and popular at school) which belies insecurities. Her house is smaller and more ordinary compared to the lavish mansions-in-the-woodlands that her classmates occupy, her mother is often absent due to work and her father is bed-bound, forced to smoke medical marijuana to help ease his chronic pain. Ruby\u2019s desire to appear strong, glacial and independent is merely a defence mechanism to keep herself grounded and guarded.<\/p>\n \u201cRuby is very embarrassed of who she is,\u201d Mimi Keene<\/a> previously explained to\u00a0RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cPlaying someone who\u2019s feeling shame and feeling embarrassed is\u00a0very different to what\u2019s come before. She\u2019s never been embarrassed before. She\u2019s\u00a0just proud of everything and who she is.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s in part what makes Ruby such a compelling character now we\u2019ve finally got to know her,\u00a0and the fact she\u2019s dropped her ice queen image and let her guard down in front of Otis means viewers are now rooting for them as a couple. And once we get past the initial shock of their\u00a0coupling, it\u2019s clear to see they\u2019re actually quite a likeable and well-rounded pairing \u2013 Otis softened Ruby\u2019s harder edges, while Ruby made Otis more assertive and dynamic, no longer\u00a0just a lapdog.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s a shame that after four episodes building up such a great and unexpected new partnership between these two characters, this fresh dynamic is then ripped to shreds in order to give way to the now-stale will-they-won\u2019t-they \u2018intrigue\u2019 of Otis and Maeve.<\/p>\n It\u2019s totally understandable why the writers revert to type, having spent so long\u00a0establishing a connection between the pair. Fans were furious when Isaac deleted Otis\u2019 voicemail and have been longing for the couple to finally admit their feelings. But after three\u00a0seasons of continued mixed messages, missed opportunities and awkward encounters, the\u00a0continued fake-outs have become boring. They\u2019re now so typical of each series, they\u2019re\u00a0almost to be expected.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s a shame, because after all the intriguing and rich character development the writers\u00a0put into this series, it seems lazy that the latter half of season three once again revolves\u00a0around Otis and Maeve\u2019s potential frisson. So many more interesting things were being done\u00a0with their characters separately that they both become boring when brought back together \u2013 Maeve\u2019s romance with Isaac, and the way they choose to\u00a0navigate intimacy, was far more moving, intriguing and heartfelt than scenes Maeve and Otis\u00a0have shared. It seems reductive and redundant to try to force this flawed and failed romance\u00a0on two characters when it no longer even makes any narrative sense.<\/p>\n As always, the third season of Sex Education ends with Maeve once again leaving Otis out on\u00a0his own, choosing to travel to America as part of a Gifted and Talented Programme and the\u00a0pair saying their goodbyes. Now this is the third time that\u2019s happened, there\u2019s no longer the\u00a0excitement at seeing whether the pair will ever get together. It seems that even for the most\u00a0die-hard fans, that ship has well and truly sailed.<\/p>\n Judging by the reaction on social media about Otis and Ruby as a couple, it would be\u00a0brave for the show to deviate so wholly from the high-school tropes they used as the building\u00a0blocks to shape their characters.\u00a0Seeing nerdy Otis make things work with popular girl Ruby would be a far neater and more\u00a0satisfying ending than forcing two characters together who have simply outgrown each other.<\/p>\n![\""Otis\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/09\/otis-maeve-sex-education-3-2a6e0c7.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"otis-maeve-sex-education-3\"\\"")
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