College flies when you’re having fun. Our quartet of freshmen is almost done with their second trimester and they’re already showing off the campus to newly accepted students who will join them in the fall. Pre-frosh weekend on The Sex Lives of College Girls doesn’t bring as many new faces to Essex as you may have expected, but it does bring some fresh perspectives and potential new beginnings.
Leighton’s ready to come out to her dad, who’s on campus with a pre-frosh cousin we never see, but chickens out when he dumps all of the current family drama on her. She’s not about to add to his stress if he’s in a bad place. But then they run into her doppelbänger, Tatum, at dinner with her doppeldäd, played by Mad TV’s Michael McDonald. The dads happen to be old college buddies and decide to sit together. Leighton hurriedly explains the situation to Tatum and apologizes for not being out of the closet. It was a deal-breaker for her last serious girlfriend, Alicia. Tatum says it’s fine — mostly, as she herself says, because they just started dating. Alicia was upset because they’d been seeing each other for a while and Leighton was scared to acknowledge her in public at all. Tatum and Leighton aren’t that serious yet. It wouldn’t be right for Tatum to expect certain things at this stage. This is a totally different situation.
But, when Leighton’s dad comments on how nice it must be for Tatum and her dad to talk about dating, Leighton comes clean and comes out. Her dad takes a minute to process, and then all is well. He was mostly upset with himself for not seeing it coming. He knows which of his daughter’s smiles mean she’s really happy, and Tatum makes her smile that smile! That was very sweet! So the weight is lifted, but he’s probably going to pester her about girls from now until eternity, and he invited Tatum to go golfing so … you win some, you lose some, Leighton.
Bela is actually hosting a pre-frosh in their dorm — her younger friend from home named Priya. The two had a dorky “big sister, little sister†vibe in high school, and Bela is excited to show off her cool college lifestyle. But Priya shows up with cute outfits and an immaculate vibe. Priya’s impressing everybody she meets, including random campus boys and even Leighton, who has never called Bella cool. Priya’s getting invited to parties, Bela’s getting smacked in the head by the book bag of a hot guy who didn’t even notice she was there while he was chatting up Priya.
Bela needs her dorm to throw a rager ASAP to impress Priya — something that the four of them were incapable of doing at the beginning of this season when they were banned from frat parties. But while they failed earlier in the season, they manage to pull it off now. I liked that Bela’s suitemates happily accepted Bela’s need for Priya to look up to her without judgment or questions asked. They get it. It does feel good!
But then, to add insult to injury, Priya ditches the party to go to the woods with the aforementioned book-bag swinger. Bela runs after her, and they make up after the briefest of fights. Priya points out that Bela constantly sharing embarrassing stories was making her feel like a loser, and Bela says she’s scared that Priya’s going to leave her behind when she gets to Essex. It’s the sort of confrontation we’ve seen on this show before, but unlike some of the more tenuous relationships it resembles, these girls have been friends for a decade. They can be real with each other and then hug it out.
Whitney, meanwhile, is having trouble keeping her hands off Andrew. The feeling is mutual. The two can’t get through a lab or a library study session without hooking up. Her friends tell her to only see him in public spaces if she’s worried about controlling herself around him, but that doesn’t work. Next thing you know, they get caught having sex in the library by none other than Whitney’s ex-boyfriend Canaan. (The full-body squeal from Bela when Whitney tells her what happened makes it worth it, almost.) Then Canaan drops by the party and the two have a nice talk. Maybe casual sex is working out for Whitney! It reminds me of a conversation Mindy Kaling herself had via fictional proxy on The Mindy Project in an episode called “Hooking Up Is Hard.†In that show, Jeremy tells Mindy that the perfect guy for a one-night stand is “someone you’re attracted to but don’t respect and don’t see a future with.†Mindy’s first thought is Draco Malfoy. Is Andrew the perfect wrong guy for Whitney? Is he her Draco?
Finally, Kimberly’s co-workers make her face a harsh reality about her relationship with Jackson. Her type is entirely physical. They have nothing in common. He listens to EDM and country. She listens to talk radio. He’s into wrestling. She’s … not. They don’t share any hobbies besides boinking. She pulls him aside at the party to see where they stand and Jackson says he’s not bothered and likes that she introduces her to new things. He’d rather not date a carbon copy of himself. So they’re dating! It’s decided! They don’t have to have a lot of shared interests to like spending time with one another, and they don’t have to do everything together. He even hits her with a bit of dry humor by pretending to think that wrestling is real. I’m so glad that we’re getting more from Jackson than his bod and his tragic climate-refugee backstory.
Then, in the final moments of the episode, Leighton gets a text from Alicia while in bed with Tatum. Yesssss! This is the kind of drama I’ve been looking for. Love triangles! Tough choices! Old feelings! Do you think Alicia has heard about how Leighton gave half the girls at school chlamydia? Do you think she’s jealous? This season had gotten a little monotonous and disappointing, but now I’m hyped.
Electives
• Andrew taking a sip out of one of those all-day water bottles to punctuate an insult was very funny. His comedic timing and “secret surprise arm muscles†(Whitney’s words, not mine) are great! But even when I agree with him about scooters not belonging on the sidewalk, he’s a bit too aggressive for me to like him still. It helps that Whitney recognizes that he’s a jerk with bad energy. It helps that she didn’t invite him to the party. Queen of boundaries!
• Canaan grabbing the Reagan book as he made his awkward exit? Also hilarious! This was a great episode for physical comedy.
• Why didn’t Leighton’s cousin come to dinner with them? Seriously, where was he??
• Alicia, as you may recall, is played by Midori Francis, a.k.a. one half of Dash & Lily. If you haven’t already seen the Christmas Netflix miniseries, get on it, and if you have, ’tis the damn season for a rewatch!
• Hidden-gem-of-the-week award goes to the stars Bela stuck around the eyes of her Seth Meyers poster. He looks beautiful.