Sex Education creator explains Ola and Lily’s disappearance in season four
Lily and Ola did not return for season four of Netflix’s Sex Education. (Sam Taylor/Netflix)
Sex Education creator Laurie Nunn has explained why beloved sapphic couple Ola and Lily were struck from the show’s fourth and final season.
The iconic sex-positive Netflix series is going out with a bang and giving fans more laughs, more diversity, and more orgasms than ever before the students and staff of Moordale High say goodbye for good.
And what would Sex Education be without its emotional, representative, authentic-feeling LGBTQ+ storylines?
This season, viewers are treated to a deep-dive into Cal Bowman’s (Dua Saleh) plot, as they go through the pros and cons of being on testosterone for six months and their journey as a transmasculine non-binary person. Then, we’ve got new characters Abbi (Anthony Lexa) and Roman (Felix Mufti) from Cavendish Sixth Form College who have made headlines by debuting the show’s first-ever transgender sex scene.
And there’s our old reliables like Adam (Conor Swindells) who is navigating life as an openly bisexual man, and Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) who is exploring whether or not religion and queerness can both find a space in his life.
But one LGBTQ+ couple was notably missing from this season: Lily (Tanya Reynolds) and Ola (Patricia Allison).
After dating Otis (Asa Butterfield) for a little while earlier in the show, Ola found real love in Lily, an eccentric student who has a thing for erotic alien fan-fiction and role-playing.
The couple hit a rough patch in season three, when Ola told Lily that she didn’t believe in aliens, but the lesbian lovers eventually made up by the season’s end – with a little help from Otis.
But both Reynolds and Allison announced their departure from the Netflix series after season three dropped.
Now, series creator Nunn has explained why she brought the girls’ story to an end before the series finale.
“Those storylines felt like they had just come to a really lovely ending in series three, and I felt like the characters of Lily and Ola just really felt like they ended in a really happy place,” she told LADbible.
“Particularly because they’re a lesbian couple, I wanted them to not have any more pain or trauma, and just be left happy together. So that felt like a very organic place place to leave them.”
Reynolds confirmed her departure from Sex Education back in July 2022, telling the publication: “There’ll be lots of new characters and people will forget all about little old Lil’.”
Allison made a similar announcement during an appearance on Capital 1Xtra that same month, telling listeners: “I absolutely have loved being on Sex Education so, so much, and playing Ola. But unfortunately, I won’t be joining the team for season four.”
Despite the beloved characters’ disappearance, Sex Education season four is being met with rave reviews across the board.
We’ll miss this show, for sure.
