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Mooredale
Students
In General
- Anorgasmia: Quite a few students struggle to understand why they don't climax despite their sexual urges. At least one student is revealed to be asexual, so her issue is relatively simpler than others.
- Bittersweet 17: Everyone's either 17 or turns 17 over the course of the series and they all experience large amounts of character development around the same time.
- Enemy Mine: It’s a typical high school with cliques and loners who hate or resent each other, but they all come together to rid the school of Hope.
- Everyonehas Lots Of Sex: The Series 3 premier is a montage of everyone shagging each other's brains out. Aimee and Steve are the only ones who keep their pants on due to her anxiety.
- Make-Out Kids: Every now and then a pair of teens will be shown frenching and dry-humping in full view of everyone else.
- Put on a Bus: The final season mainly focusses on the students of Cavendish Sixth Form, eliminating several Mooredale characters who didn't enroll.
Lily Iglehart
Lily Iglehart
Played By: Tanya Reynolds
"This wasn't in my plan. Boys that smell a bit sweaty were in my plan, not girls that smell like vanilla pods."
A rather awkward student at Moordale who enjoys writing and drawing erotic manga and is fixated on her virginity.
- Ambiguously Bi: While Lily spends most of season 1 looking to lose her virginity to a boy, in season 2 Ola kisses her and while at first she isn't certain if she even wants to remain friends, she eventually decides to be more than friends.
- Anorgasmia: Lily tenses up when it comes to penatrative sex. She tends to get around this by using sex toys.
- Casual Kink: Her interests in sci-fi and aliens is more than simply being into geeky stuff, it's a personal fetish for her. This has gotten her ridiculed her entire life, since as a child her overly-keen interest in alien sex organs (while being too young to realise this was inappropriate talk) lead to her weirding out other kids, and when she shares her fictional stories publicly, she's lambasted as a sexual deviant by the press and mocked by other students for "wanting to bang aliens".
- Closet Key: Ola realises her pansexuality after having a sexual dream about Lily. Lily herself doesn't seem to realise she's queer until Ola kisses her.
- Creepy Child: Implied to have been this in primary school. At such a young age, she was writing stories about sex that she'd often share with her classmates, who would snitch on her to members of staff.
- Creepy Loner Girl: She comes across as this at first - randomly asking boys she's never talked to for sex and flashing her breasts during an entirely platonic conversation with Eric. But her character becomes more nuanced later on. Played for Drama in the third season, when the press gives everyone this image of her and she is ostracised and depressed for a time.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Said to Otis, Eric, and OctoBoy. Stems from her early-season desire to lose her virginity and her utilitarian view of sex.
- Drama Club: She writes the songs for Moordale's musical production of Romeo and Juliet.
- Eccentric Artist: She has brilliant artistic talent, writing and illustrating her stories about alien erotica, and wrote an erotic musical production of "Romeo and Juliet".
- Ethical Slut: A very sweet kid who happens to be extremely horny and has a hobbyist's interest in sex through her manga.
- Exotic Equipment: She writes an erotic comic strip about a woman on a quest for (as Lily puts it) "alien dick", and the body parts it features most often aren't human.
- Flower Motifs: The fern, which symbolises dreams and fascination, which are major personality traits for a sci-fi fetishist.
- Friendless Background: She didn't have good relationships with students or staff in primary school, and until she met Ola, she's generally seen by herself, aside from her interactions with Eric and Otis.
- Idealized Sex: She writes fictional sex stories, but when the time comes with OctoBoy, she isn't able or ready to have sex.
- Interspecies Romance: The porn she writes about women and aliens.
- Jerkass Ball: She wasn't very attentive when Ola was grieving her mother, and was too focused on her alien story, to win a competition.
- Lack of Empathy: For Ola when she was grieving her mother.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: In a quite sweet example, she and Octoboy attempt to have sex in a blanket fort complete with fairy lights.
- Mars Needs Women: Discussed Trope, this is her preferred form of porn. She has a huge fetish for aliens.
- No Social Skills: Extremely forward when interacting with people. The fact that Otis, who's otherwise much more socially capable, is uncomfortable enough with intimacy to make even Lily roll her eyes, is used to underscore how hopeless he is. Was.
- Put on a Bus: She is among some of the former Moordale students who doesn't enroll in Cavendish.
- Teen Genius: She wrote a musical at sixteen or seventeen, which certainly accounts for something. The erotic comics she creates are also very well drawn, to the point she could probably do it professionally.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Ola's tomboy. Her interest in alien erotica is stereotypically more gender-neutral than girly, but unlike Ola, she isn't into handy-work. She also wears more feminine clothing, styles her hair in bunches and wears makeup.
Ola Nyman
Ola Nyman
Played By: Patricia Allison
"Do you think it means something if I'm having sex dreams about girls?"
Jakob's daughter, who strikes up a relationship with Otis that is further kindled when she transfers to Moordale.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Maeve's Veronica and Otis' Archie.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Usually nice, but can have passive-aggressive moments such as lying to Otis' face about his finger technique only to say to Lily that is was back, making Otis very understandably confused as to why she would give him the cold shoulder if she claimed she orgasmed.
- Boyish Short Hair: She has her hair cut short and a fairly masculine, straightforward personality. By the time of Series 3 it's grown out.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Nice as she is, she gets very uncomfortable with Otis' obvious attraction to Maeve and asks him to sever ties with her.
- Daddy's Girl: She's pretty close to her father, despite their occasional bouts of arguing.
- Dirty Coward: Doesn't have the ovaries to tell Otis his fingering technique was bad, but happy to gossip about it to her friends instead of doing silly things like solving the problem.
- Fire-Forged Friends: After a not-at-all-promising start, she and Maeve develop something of a friendship.
- Flower Motifs: The bluebell, which symbolises solitude and kindness. Ola values her personal space to the point of pushing away the people she cares about, but she usually means well.
- Foreshadowing: Before she discovers she's pansexual in season 2, she is often seen in rainbow coloured clothing, and reveals she loves Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
- Girl Next Door: She's a sweet, approachable girl who already spends a lot of time with Otis due to her father's job.
- Jerkass Ball: Ola tends to be a fairly selfish girlfriend, which puts strain on both her relationships. To be fair, Lily wasn't much support when Ola was missing her mother.
- Last Het Romance: With Otis before realising she's pansexual and attracted to Lily.
- New Transfer Student: Transfers to Moordale towards the end of season one.
- Nice Girl: Usually. Her reaction to catching Otis in a number of compromising situations (watching porn, shoplifting) is to laugh it off and hint that she'd be cool going out with him. She's also very supportive to Adam and keeps Jakob in the loop about how she honestly feels.
- Not Blood Siblings: In season 3, Jakob and Jean's relationship and decision to co-parent means that Ola and Otis are now, essentially, siblings. The fact they used to date makes it very awkward.
- Odd Friendship: Bonds with Lily, who definitely qualifies as odd. Eventually realizes she wants more than friendship with her. Also becomes the first person to call Adam a friend.
- Put on a Bus: Ola doesn't return in season 4 as she left with her father Jakob after he had separated from Jean due to him not being the father of Joy after all.
- Quirky Girl, Quirky Tux: Wears a tux or suit for formal occasions, never a dress.
- Strong Family Resemblance: An inversion, played briefly for laughs upon her introduction. She looks and sounds absolutely nothing like her father.
- Their First Time: She and Otis had their first time heavily planned out, but it comes to a crashing halt when she finds he's getting secret texts from Maeve.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Lily's girly girl. She has Boyish Short Hair, wears masculine outfits and helps her dad with handy-work.
Steve Morley
Steve Morley
Played By: Chris Jenks
"I love mindmaps!"
Aimee’s boyfriend after she breaks up with Adam.
- Academic Athlete: He is both well built and one of the top students at school.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He viscerally tells off Kyle for his crass comments about Aimee's sexual performance.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: It's unknown what became of Steve after Aimee broke up with him to get past her trauma of being assaulted at the bus.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Steve has diffculty befriending the other guys as they've either had sexual relations with Aimee or expect him to give them the horny detais of their own relationship.
- Nice Guy: He's very patient and understanding with Aimee. His kindness is one of the reasons she is hesitant to dump him.
Rahim Harrak
Rahim Harrak
Played By: Sami Outalbali
"Only boring people get bored."
A sensitive French exchange student who sets his sights on Eric.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Rahim initially saw Adam as the villain in their love triangle with Eric, but after Adam took a bullet for him, the two start talking and it becomes clear that Adam also sees himself as inferior to Rahim. They eventually become friendly enough for Rahim to give Adam pointers on poetry writing and it's implied they may grow into more.
- Foil: To both Adam and Anwar, Eric's other potential love interests.
- Rahim is a sensitive soul who is at peace with himself, while Adam is a self-loathing meathead until character development sets in.
- Rahim is a Straight Gay, a loner and fairly personable, while Anwar is Camp Gay, a social butterfly and a snob.
- Foreign Exchange Student: From France. When he's introduced, the horde of Moordale students trip over themselves to get a look at him, and rumors start flying around instantly.
- Head-Turning Beauty: In his introduction, the whole school stops and stares as he walks down the hallway. Even the clique at top of the popularity food chain "The Untouchables" are impressed with him and Ruby decides he will be her boyfriend. Lily says she just had a very small orgasm just from looking at him. Eric stares, calls Otis to have a look and then calls him the hottest man he's ever seen.
- Hidden Depths: Though presented as the quiet though very hot exchange student, he's incredibly observant and well-read, and even somewhat politically minded, as he notes Moordale's slow turn to fascism under Hope's leadership.
- The Missus and the Ex: Despite some initial friction over their relationship with Eric, he and Adam get closer during the school trip to France - aided by Adam taking the blame for Rahim's poo incident - and Rahim starts introducing Adam to poetry.
- Nice Guy: Very much so — Rahim is self-assured, straightforward, and a little socially awkward, but he takes Eric's eccentricities in stride, is understanding about his religion, and gives Otis a lecture about douching with a straight face,no bullshit. His willingness to help Adam help his ex with poems speaks volumes about Rahim's maturity.
- Informed Attractiveness: Considered very hot and hunky in-universe.
- Romantic False Lead: For Eric. Although Rahim is handsome and sweet, he doesn't make Eric feel the way Adam does.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Same-sex couple example, but he was the Savvy Guy to Eric's Energetic Guy; other than Eric's gender, they play the trope to the letter.
- The Stoic: He expresses very little facially, and has something of a resting scowl. It seems to make him even more attractive to people.
- Straight Gay: Unlike Eric, he's not outwardly camp, but is rather straightforward and serious.
The Untouchables
In General
Ruby Matthews, Olivia Hanan, and Anwar Bakshi
From left: Ruby, Olivia, and Anwar
The other members of the Untouchables, the most popular kids at Moordale.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: In Season 3, they have an unusual moment of friendship—Anwar and Olivia comfort Ruby when she and Otis break up. Notably, it’s the first time the two ever go to Ruby’s house.
- Carload of Cool Kids: Eric is impressed in the very first episode that they got a car and got even more cool over the summer. In Season 2, after Aimee denounces their friendship, they yell insults at her from their car.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- When Adam snaps at his father during the school dance and grabs him by the neck saying how much he hates him, they are among the students who are silently shocked.
- They all take part in the plan to take down Hope, even sharing some of their own embarrassing sex stuff. Notably, during the ritual humiliation assembly, again, they're just as silent as everyone else is when Adam, Cal, and Lily are degraded.
- The Fashionistas: AND HOW. Constantly dressed to the nines, obsessed with their appearances, and merciless towards those they deem unfashionable. They have their own rules about what to wear and when to wear it, including a specific day dedicated to wearing the color purple. While dating Otis, Ruby practically forces him to dress “cool” enough to hang out with the three of them. Needless to say they are absolutely horrified when Hope imposes a school uniform—Olivia’s literally brings her to tears.Hope: School uniforms will be introduced on campus from next week. They are compulsory, and it’s non-negotiable.Anwar: I think my soul just died.
- Flower Motifs: The crown imperial, which symbolises majesty and arrogance. Need we say more?
- Girl Posse: A clique of popular, fashionable jerks with one gay man (Anwar) thrown in.
- Gossipy Hens: To the point where they formed an entire study group just to smoke weed and talk bad about people.
- Granola Girl: They appear to be very steadfast in their vegan beliefs, though they do seem confused as to what veganism actually entails.
- Hidden Depths: By the end of Season 1, all of them have revealed some kind of vulnerable sexual hang-up that Otis helps them with. Taken further in season 2. While not to the extent of A Day in the Limelight, each of them get a bit of focus and development; Olivia has a lot of issues with her body and being herself in front of her boyfriend, as well as revealing a past sexual assault that deeply affected her, Anwar reveals that he is a virgin who doesn't have the first clue about how to have anal sex, which gives him a lot of insecurities with his boyfriend and Ruby has recently found out her father has MS, putting huge stress on her entire family. She also takes Otis' virginity and bonds with him afterwards.
- Pet the Dog: Strangely, they compliment Lily of all people when they see her wearing a normal hairstyle for the first time, possibly because they can tell how uncomfortable she seems about it. It’s really the only time they’re ever nice to someone just for the sake of being nice.
- With Friends Like These...: Towards Aimee. They constantly take advantage of her, using her house to throw parties and smoke weed in, and even use her mother's credit card to buy pizza.
Olivia Hanan
Olivia Hanan
Played By: Simone Ashley
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Olivia leaks Ruby's nudes in revenge for the latter's harsh treatment.
- The Dog Bites Back: Olivia cites Ruby's bitchy treatment of her as the reason for leaking a photo of her vagina and threatening to reveal her identity.
- Every One Has Standards: Olivia is empathetic when Aimee breaks down over her sexual assault, and later rides the bus with her in solidarity, despite having previously only been rude and unpleasant towards her former friend.
- For Want Of A Nail: If Olivia hadn't resorted to posting photos of Ruby's vagina, then maeve wouldn't have roped Otis into helping her crack the case. This meant Otis wouldn't have missed out on Eric's birthday. Eric then wouldn't have lost his phone and wallet, which forced him to walk home, get attacked by some bigots and suffer a breakdown that lead to a falling out with Otis and a school suspension.
- Hidden Depths: She opens up about the time she was sexually assaulted when in detention with the other girls.
- Pet the Dog: Despite her poor treatment of Maeve and Aimee, she is supportive of them both when they talk about their experiences of unwanted sexual attention.
- Put on a Bus: Aimee mentioned that Olivia enrolled at Taylor Secondary with Anwar.
Anwar Bakshi
Anwar Bakshi
Played By: Chaneil Kular
- Camp Gay: Downplayed. He's very fashionable and posh spoken but otherwise has no real campy traits.
- Everyone Has Standards: Anwar may be a snobby jerk, but he at least stands up to Adam's homophobic bullying of Eric.
- Hipster: Obsessed with the right fashion, healthy eating and goes for passion aggression rather than Adam's more straight up physical bullying.
- Pet the Dog: In episode 6, after making a mean comment that sets off Eric when he was at the end of his rope, gets punched in the face. Rather than take offence at the assault, he recognises that Eric was having a bad day and he was just unfortunate enough to be the straw that broke the camel's back with him. He accepts his apology and encourages him not to take it personally if he sees Anwar's mom giving him death glares around town (as Anwar used the assault to come out to his mom and claimed Eric was a gay-basher).
- Put on a Bus: After Moordale Secondary is permanently closed, Anwar enrolled at Taylor Secondary with Olivia as Aimee mentioned.
- Pretty Boy: A fine-featured and svelte young man who explicitly refers to himself as a 'pretty boy' when speaking with Eric.
Faculty
Mr. Hendricks
Mr. Colin Ray Hendricks
Played By: Jim Howick
Science teacher and conductor of the swing band at Moordale. Something of a minor mentor figure for Eric.
- Big Fun: He's very high-energy for a middle-aged teacher that lives out in the sticks.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: A traumatized and angry Eric accuses him of being this- a wealthy upper middle class geek who thinks he understands swing jazz. In fairness to Hendricks, his home life is mediocre at best and he actually does seem to know musical theory well, which you can't say for Eric.
- The Bus Came Back: Naturally, Hendricks doesn't have a major role after Moordale Secondary closes forever, but he briefly returns along with Miss Sands to attend Maeve's mother Erin's funeral after Aimee contacted them. He even gives a piano rendition of Erin's favorite song "With or Without You" by U2.
- Butt-Monkey: He is fairly put upon.
- In one episode, he horribly flummoxed by his partner's request for dirty talk; his frantic attempts wind up spoiling the evening.
- He has to teach sex ed even though he knows he's not qualified. This gets him involved, very much to his dismay, in the feud between Jean (who wants to handle that department) and Groff (who refuses to let her).
- Chaperoning the school excursion turned out to be above his capacity. Jackson and Cal take drugs, Kyle steals and Rahim chucks a sock full of poo out of the bus window, which almost caused a collision.
- Cool Teacher: His attempts at being friendly mostly come across as him trying too hard. However, he does encourage Eric to get out of his comfort zone and is understanding of Eric's explosive anger following a traumatic experience, so he is pretty cool in his own way.
- Endearingly Dorky: He's an awkward science teacher and conductor of the swing band with cheerful demeanor which is pretty endearing. He dates Miss Emily Sands who is a very Hot Teacher.
- Jerkass to One: There's only one student Mr Hendricks doesn't seem to like; this kid in drama class named Quentin. Whenever Quentin shows up, Mr Hendricks will chew him out for next to no reason.
- Large Ham: He's a sweet guy, but some of his antics come across as this.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Though he's not always the most clued-in, he's not a bad person and he does seem to genuinely care for Moordale's student body.
- Stepford Smiler: Eric mentions his alcoholism and Maeve can guage his personal despair by the loudness of his Hawaiian shirts.
- Totally Radical: He tries to connect with the students by speaking with casual familiarity. It needs some work.
Miss Sands
Miss Emily Sands
Played By: Rakhee Thrakar
English teacher at Moordale. Something of a mentor figure for Maeve.
- The Bus Came Back: She briefly returns in season 4 to attend Maeve's mother Erin's funeral with Mr. Hendricks after Aimee contacted them.
- Casual Kink: She loves dirty talk. While Hendricks is uncomfortable with it at first, for her it's simply something she happens to like because she feels like a dowdy schoolteacher all day.
- Cool Teacher: Very supportive of Maeve and later Adam.
- Not So Stoic: She giggles when Maeve makes a wisecrack about Mr Hendricks' Hawaiian shirts.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Practically the only one Moordale has to offer, and arguably her defining character trait. Emily is a fair and levelheaded instructor who is always willing to listen to her students and their perspectives. Her treatment of Maeve is demonstrative enough: she assists her in applying herself scholastically, helps her return to Moordale, urges her to join the aptitude scheme, and (fairly) demands that she be more of a team player in the quiz tournament. She also helps Adam when he wants to work harder in school and later encourages the Untouchables to seek out sexual health advice that Hope’s curriculum fails to cover.
- Secret-Keeper: Figured out about Maeve's fake essay-writing ring, and hasn't told anyone yet because she thinks Maeve getting expelled would be a waste of her talents.
Hope Haddon
Mrs Hope Haddon
Played By: Jemima Kirke
The new Headmaster, replacing Mr Groff in Season 3. She seems cool, but it turns out she has a very controlling and conservative view on education and school culture.
- 0% Approval Rating: All of the students under her authority come together to bring her down and when the plan is enacted the teachers just cheer them on.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While Hope's public humiliation can be seen as just desserts, her later breakdown over her inability to conceive helps make her sympathetic.
- Arc Villain: Of Season 3. Her desire to get Moordale "back on track" combined with her out-of-date views leads her to become more of a tyrant than Groff, turning the school into a borderline dictatorship that punishes and shames students for being themselves.
- The Baroness: Halfway between the Rosa Klebb (the main antagonist of the season, utterly opposed to casual sex and self-expression, and a Hate Sink) and the Sexpot types (attractive, revealing a hidden vulnerable side).
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's introduced as a Cool Teacher who dances in an Endearingly Dorky way to introduce herself to the student body, but it becomes clear she's as bad as Mr Groff.
- Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: A young, smart, attractive woman with an impressive CV in a position of power? Check. Forcing her conservative values upon her subordinates? Check. Blonde? Check.
- Broken Ace: Hope comes with an impressive CV - former Head Girl at Moordale, two degrees, teaching positions at the best schools in the country, and becoming the UK’s youngest headteacher at only twenty-eight - but despite her charismatic and ruthless persona, the show makes clear she’s barely holding it together trying to please Moordale’s private investors, while also trying for IVF. The latter is particularly painful for her, as she sees being a mother as “the one thing my body is supposed to do”.
- Dean Bitterman: Even moreso then Groff, surprisingly. While Groff was an outdated, bullying arsehole with a classist attitude, Hope is a barely restrained fascist who is so desperate to control the students she begins openly humiliating them as a form of punishment.
- Evil Is Sterile: She's a very conservative woman who oppresses her students, especially her non-binary ones, because they have functional ovaries - that, her Freudian Excuse reveals, she doesn't, because she's sterile, which is behind her conservative ideals.
- Faux Affably Evil: She's can appear personable enough that her cruelty isn't clear at first, but she has a very conservative view on what school culture should look like, including rigid binary uniforms, displeasure with any degree of self-expression, and a condescending attitude towards students, and is openly dismissive and unsupportive of queer students, to the point of punishing Cal for being non-binary and using their choice to present masculine in clothing (or, "sloppy") as an excuse to ignore their simple request for gender-neutral spaces.
- Female Misogynist: Downplayed for the most part, but Hope does have some pretty regressive beliefs regarding the purpose of the female form.
- Foreshadowing: When she meets Jackson and Adam for the first time, knowing only Jackson's name and status, she warmly greets Adam, assuming he is Jackson. While subtle, it shows a degree of racial bias in just assuming that Adam, the white kid, is the Head Boy and star student. Once she realises Jackson is black, her attitude towards him immediately shifts to dismissive. This then reflects her socially conservative nature as she soon forces a gender-based uniform and scoffs at LGBTQ+ positivity.
- Freudian Excuse: Hope's attitude towards sex is given some clarity in her last appearance when she tells Otis that she's unable to conceive. With sex having no utility for her, she develops a bitterness that she takes out on the students, especially the non-binary ones that have perfectly functional ovaries.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Essentially, she wants to rid Moordale of the "Sex School" reputation, and she does so primarily by punishing anything even remotely indicating sexual deviancy, but mostly this just affects the queer students. She's not openly homophobic or queerphobic (nowadays, being so would likely get her fired), but she makes a lot of dog whistle gestures, like criticising Cal's "sloppy" uniform (because Cal, who's non-binary, chooses to wear masculine clothing instead of the "proper" girl's uniform), and using that as an excuse to ignore any basic request for better treatment for LGBTQ+ students. This gets so petty as to telling Ola she can't wear a LGBTQ+ rainbow pin, and dismisses the implications by accusing Ola's beliefs of being "so fragile they rely solely on a pin" rather than acknowledge what the pin represents. She gets even more explicit in-private with Viv and later Otis, admitting to having some genuinely bitter views on their generation's "obsession with identity" and how they "don't know how to stay in line".
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a bigoted asshole, she genuinely encourages Maeve to apply for the Gifted and Talented Program, to the point she offers to try and find funding for her (though she later threatens to rescind her offer when Maeve disagrees with the new sex education course for girls). She's also desperately trying to have a kid, but is unable to conceive, which is contributing to her assholery.
- Jerk Ass Has A Point: While she should not have punished Lily or Cal at all, she was as far as she knew punishing Adam for throwing feces out of a bus window which endangered his fellow students, teachers and a small family. She was right to discipline him with the knowledge she had, but her approach to it was wrong. Ironically she did end of giving suspension which was a more a proper punishment to the real culprit Rahim, though it was for vocally opposing her punishment of Adam, Lily and Cal.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: While the school is on a school trip, she gets some character focus that shows her sadder personal life, namely her inability to conceive a child even after IVF treatment and how she desperately wants to be a mother. However, just before you begin sympathising with her, the doctor asks if she's thought of adoption, and she scoffs at the idea because she's "not ready to give up on having a child that's actually [her's]", which is a pretty cruel thing to say about adopted children. She also demands to speak to a different doctor after her current one (a black woman) refuses to recommend continued treatment for her. Pushes this to new heights when, in another attempt to establish her control, she introduces ritual humiliation at Moordale - forcing misbehaving students to wear signs around their necks and banning them from talking to their classmates.
- Kick the Dog: Hope solidifies her nastiness when she drags Cal off by the arm and locks them in a storage room as punishment for not dressing like a girl.
- Pet the Dog: She seems genuinely upset at not being able to help get the funding for Maeve joining the gifted and talented program.
- Putting the "Pal" in Principal: Subverted. She's a hip young woman who initially charms the Moordale audience, especially in contrast to Groff (who was a straightforward Dean Bitterman), but she quickly reveals herself to be an insidious bigot.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Subverted; she seems to be this at first, even seemingly approving of Otis and Maeve's sex clinic when she's informed of it, but when Jackson argues in favour of keeping the Wall of Cock because of its artistic and historic value, she fires him as Head Boy and promotes Viv to this role, because her butt-kissing personality and similar views make her more agreeable to Hope.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Ironic considering she was replacing another tyrant, but Hope manages to be nastier than Groff.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Hope wears heavy amounts of lipstick and mascara that do not compliment her face. Instead it makes her look Obviously Evil. Her fashion sense is so sloppy that Otis can see she's got lipstick on her teeth.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's trying to rebuild Moordale's reputation after the sex scandals from the previous season. However, her method of doing so is to crush any and all personal expression and instill rigid, somewhat outdated school culture. It becomes clear as time goes on, she's got a lot of pressure from the school board to rid Moordale of it's "Sex School" reputation, but her method of doing so is pretty much the exact opposite of what it needs. As time goes on, it crosses well into something you'd expect a school in a dictatorship to enact.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race:
- Her attitudes towards Jackson and Viv indicate this. She racially profiles Jackson and, upon learning "Head Boy and Star Athlete Jackson Marchetti" is actually a black kid, she goes from warmly welcoming him to dismissing him with a forced smile and being much more critical, until using his dissenting opinion to demote him from the position. Viv, who she promotes in his place, is much more conforming to Hope so she takes advantage of that, but then privately between them acknowledges that she only keeps her around as a Token Minority gesture to show Moordale is progressive to the press.
- Well, replace "race" with "gender identity". She takes advantage of Layla being a much more submissive non-binary student (and thus, one who is willing to just conform to her rules) to prop them up as a "good example" of what a non-binary student like Cal should do. Cal calls her out on this immediately. It’s also arguably significant that Layla is white, whereas Cal is black.
- Tragic Villain: Her Female Misogynist and anti-non-binary views stem from her frustrations over being an OG woman yet being unable to conceive a child.
Cavendish
In General
- Political Correctness Is Evil: Downplayed. They are forward thinking to an extent but they also seem to care more about looking good than actually being good. They have an accepting demeanor but forget to be accessible to those with disabilities such as Aisha and Isaac.
The Coven
In General
- Good Counterpart: As Cavendish's popular clique, they're supposed to be this to Moordale Secondary's the Untouchables.
- Replacement Flat Character: Abbi and Roman are this to Ola and Lily, being a queer couple that lacks their eccentricities or flaws. To a lesser extent Aisha is one to Rahim, as they both show an attraction to an established queer POC (Eric with Rahim and Cal with Aisha).
Abbi Montgomery
Abbi Montgomery
Played By: Anthony Lexa
- Hypocrite: Abbi doesn't want to have sex with Roman, but at one point while they're in the same bed, Roman catches her masturbating, and cites this as if she was cheating on him.
- Stepford Smiler: Due to how she suffered after transitioning, Abbi is always with this so-called "be positive" policy at the school, doesn't work on how to communicate with Roman whenever she rejects his requests for them to have sex and hates gossip.
- Trans Tribulations: Her parents kicked her out and she’s been living with Roman and his family ever since.
Roman
Roman
Played By: Felix Mufti
- Dogged Nice Guy: Despite Abbi rejecting having sex with Roman, he refuses to break up with her. Eventually, when Abbi finally reveals her vulnerable side to him and Aisha, she and Roman do have sex.
Aisha Green
Aisha Green
Played By: Alexandra James
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's on the plus side, but her flirting with Cal shows that she's got an impressive amount of sexual charisma.
- Nice Girl: She’s genuinely the sweetest of the three, who are all pretty kind themselves.
Students
Isaac Goodwin
Isaac
Played By: George Robinson
Maeve's neighbour, a disabled young man with a similar childhood, who lives with his brother Joe.
- Abusive Parents: Like Maeve, his parents aren't around. Might be even worse, as they didn't just up and leave, but according to him actually forced him out somehow for being too much of a burden after his injury.
- Birds of a Feather: He certainly thinks so; like Maeve, he was the child of drug addicts who then abandoned him, with his disability being a direct consequence of their neglect.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He becomes the Brooding Boy to Aimee's Gentle Girl.
- Disabled Snarker: He's in a wheelchair which he uses to gain sympathy from strangers, but as he demonstrates with Maeve, he uses it to hide his sarcastic wit.
- Defrosting Ice King: He comes across as mysterious, treating others with suspicion and obfuscating details of his life. He gradually becomes more comfortable with Maeve and opens up to her. Repeated once more with Aimee.
- Flower Motifs: The common foxglove, which symbolises deception and protection. Isaac wants to be Maeve's shining knight and will manipulate her life to make that possible.
- Foster Kid: Isaac mentions that he and his brother had to leave their foster home after his accident as their foster parents couldn't handle taking care of him.
- Heel Realization: In season 3, he's realised deleting Otis' message was a creepy, manipulative move, and tries to confess and apologise for it before him and Maeve act on their feelings. Naturally this slows any relationship progression between them for the time being, but Maeve does come to forgive him for it over time.
- Irrational Hatred: By Series 3, this is basically his attitude towards Otis. When Maeve’s sister goes missing, he calls Otis an arsehole and tells him to leave, based on one drunken incident Otis had. He completely ignores the fact that what him deleting Otis’ voicemail was even worse.
- It's All About Me: Maeve's little sister goes missing and Isaac's first thoughts are his and Maeve's relationship, never mind this was after he admitted to Maeve that he deleted Otis' voicemail.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Gives several contradictory stories on how he became confined to his chair. The most recent and plausible story is that he fell out of a tree, trying to prove he could out climb to his brother.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Maeve kisses Isaac, his conscience seeps through and he comes clean about trying to keep her and Otis apart.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When the unreliable elevators at Cavendish leave him unable to get to his exams, Isaac enlists in Aimee's help to stage a public spectacle so he can loudly chew out the campus for their negligent attitude towards disabled students.
- Stalker with a Crush: Implied. He pursues Maeve despite her initial refusal to get to know him (due to her general antisocial demeanour), and it's shown he watches her from his window whenever she leaves.
- What You Are in the Dark: The end of Series 2 is this. He viewed it as protecting Maeve, since he believes Otis is a Jerkass who mistreats her, but he clearly did wrong deleting the voicemail, and realises as much the following season.
Sarah Owen / O
Sarah Owen / O
Played By: Thaddea Graham
- Asian Rudeness: Is Chinese-Irish and is a cruel bully to Ruby (when they were 10) and to some of the students at Cavendish.
- Big Bad: In season 4. As the sex therapist at Cavendish College, Otis views O as a threat and tries so many ways to take her down and replace her. Played even straighter with Ruby as her bullying towards the latter contributing to Ruby being a mean girl in the first place.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: O projects the air of compassion and calmness expected of a therapist, but as the series goes on it's revealed she's not as nice as she lets on. Aside from bullying Ruby in their childhood, she also tries to turn the campus against Otis based solely on the fact that his father is a problematic arsehole. When Ruby successfully has her cancelled, several students come forward saying that O wasn't as helpful as she could have been.
- Broken Pedestal: All of the students at Cavendish looked up to O and always turned to her for sex advice...until Ruby posts the traumatic video in which a young O and Ruby's bullies cruelly make fun of her bedwetting problem to spite her, causing all of them to turn on O. But that doesn't mean Otis is left off the hook, either. None want to vote for either O or Otis, and are more than willing to vote for Conor. Conor and Otis helping out by quitting is what makes them regain their trust in O.
- Evil Former Friend: She and Ruby were friends, but she joined a group of mean girls who bullied her due to her bedwetting problem.
- Evil Is Petty: During the debate, she lies to everyone at Cavendish about Otis being a misogynist by bringing his father up and the book he wrote over his sex tactics.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While it's over the top to accuse Otis of being disrespectful to women and girls based on his father's own approach to them, it's fair to say that Otis does have issues with the opposite sex. In fact his hostility towards O may even be fueled by the fact that she's a girl as he wasn't nearly this intimidated when another boy tried the sex therapy racket. She's also on point telling Otis that he's only using Ruby to win the elections as the sex therapist and when he gets what he wants he'll push her away, just like he did before when they were dating.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She is famously known by everyone as "O". Her real name is Sarah Owen. When Ruby meets her again, however, she pretends not to know her and always insists that she be called by her nickname.
- Villain with Good Publicity: She's famous on social media because of her dynamic personality.
- With Friends Like These...: Towards Ruby when they were 10.
Beau
Beau
Played By: Reda Elazouar
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Whenever he sees Viv with other boys or Jackson, her close friend.
- Graceful Loser: To his credit, he took Viv's criticisms of his obsessive attitude in stride and it's implied he'll levea her alone from now on.
- Stalker with a Crush: Even after he starts dating her on good terms, Beau pines for Viv so much that it creeps her out, especially when he can't stand the idea of seeing her with another guy.
Faculty
Gloria
Principal Lakhani
Principal Lakhani
Played By: Eshaan Akbar
Wallace University
Faculty
Thomas Molloy
Thomas Molloy
Played By: Dan Levy
Maeve's condescending teacher.
- Kick the Dog: Molloy throws Maeve's phone out of a window when it suddenly rings and later not only does he dismiss her Southchester novel, but also destroys her confidence by telling her that she doesn't have what it takes to be a writer and instead tells her to quit.
- Stern Teacher: He's very strict to his students and his protégé Maeve.
- Was Too Hard on Him: After Maeve was away for a while and returned to Wallace, Molloy admits that he feels remorseful for being so harsh on her and not acknowledging her abilities.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like many professional and respected writers, Molloy has been rejected countless times by publications, and admits after getting a story turned down by the New Yorker that he can't help but be bothered by it. As such, he is harsh on his students to push them and get them used to a fickle industry, especially as many Wallace students are from privileged backgrounds. Ultimately deconstructed in that Maeve left Wallace because of him, and it took a pep talk from Jean to get her back on track.
Students
Tyrone
Tyrone
Played By: Imani Yashua
Maeve's classmate and close friend.
- Gay Best Friend: He's revealed to be gay as he has a boyfriend back in Illinois, and only spends time with Maeve because they're good friends. As Maeve mentions him a lot, Otis becomes paranoid and suspicious, accusing Maeve of cheating with him, but she tells him not to worry about it, although she's upset and hurt that he thought she would be capable of doing such thing to him.
- Twofer Token Minority: He's black and gay.
Ellen Rasmussen
Ellen Rasmussen
Played By: Marie Reuther
Maeve's roommate and friend.
- Graceful Loser: In the end, Maeve is the one who ends up getting interest from the publisher of her Southchester novel over Ellen's own work during her time at the internship. She feels rather disappointed but takes the loss with dignity and is happy for her roommate's achievement, even sharing that instead of writing she wants to set up a tech company or get into banking.
- Ethical Slut: She is not shy about having a lot of sex with her boyfriend Chris in her dorm room, but she is still a good friend to Maeve. Ellen even clumsily apologizes to Maeve when she forgets to put the sock on the door.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Despite coming from a wealthy family, she is still very nice to Maeve, even when she shows Maeve's novel to the publisher from which she got the internship.
- Innocently Insensitive: When she is chosen to do the internship over Maeve, Ellen brags about it to Tyrone and Maeve, who congratulate her, but unintentionally hurts the latter's feelings when she becomes despondent after all the hard work she's done to earn it. Maeve also puts on her music's volume higher so that she won't hear Ellen talking about the internship over the phone any further as it's only making her worse. Later on, as Ellen lets Maeve know that her brother called, she wordlessly ignores her. Ellen then finds Maeve's novel in a trash bin, which was after Mr. Molloy bluntly told Maeve to quit writing. In the finale, it is revealed that Ellen, out of remorse, showed Maeve's novel to the publisher and they called her to express interest that she work for them.
- Ms. Fanservice: While she's quite attractive, Ellen's naked body is not shown that much as she first appears covering herself with a bedsheet, and one time when Maeve walks in on her and her boyfriend in the middle of intercourse, only her bare legs can be seen.
- Naked on Arrival: The first time she's introduced, Maeve finds her dorm's door locked and Ellen comes out wearing nothing but a white bedsheet.
- Spoiled Sweet: Ellen's family are wealthy enough to get her into Wallace, and is likely why she got the coveted internship, but she uses her time there to show the publisher Maeve's work, which gets her their interest, doing so just because she thought it was brilliant.
