Heartwarming / Sex Education

Series 1

• Pretty much everything about Aimee and Maeve's friendship. The two of them could not be more different yet they are best friends. Maeve is noticeably more patient with Aimee than most people she interacts with. Aimee is shown to be one of the few people who treat Maeve with respect, never once joining in when the Untouchables bully her. This ultimately culminates in her ditching her popular friends for Maeve at the end of season 1, and the friendship only grows stronger throughout the second season.
• Otis and Maeve's heart-to-heart by the swimming pool.
  "You're compellingly odd, Milburn."
• During the party episode, Otis helping a girl get over her insecurities about letting her boyfriend see her naked. Specifically, he persuades her to share five things she likes about herself, all things her boyfriend wholeheartedly agrees with.
  Otis: If you don't like yourself, how are you supposed to believe Sam does?
• Maeve's abortion is handled with a massive degree of sensitivity. And then there's Otis waiting through the entire procedure, in the company of some annoying evangelists, to pick her up. With flowers and a sandwich.
• "It's my vagina!"
• Otis giving Maeve his sweater in a classic You Must Be Cold gesture. She hangs onto it, too.
• In his typical snooty manner, Anwar thanks Eric for punching him as his mother's ensuing sympathy gave Anwar the ideal moment to finally come out to her. And from the sound of things, his mother turned out to be a staunch ally.
• Eric managing to get over his assault and once again openly embrace his sense of style at the school dance. Then he bumps into Otis, and they rekindle their friendship by sharing a dance to the tune of "The Origin of Love". Even more astoundingly, the entire school watches on and seems rather charmed by it.
  • Earlier, Eric's father Abeo fully coming to terms with his son's homosexuality.
    Abeo: Maybe I have a lot to learn from my brave son.
• The Longing Look Maeve gives to Otis while he talks down Liam from killing (or just seriously injuring) himself at the school dance.
  • The speech itself, with Otis empathising with Liam over unrequited love (unaware that his own unrequited love is now, in fact, requiting him).
    Otis: Look, sometimes the people we love don't like us back. It's painful, but there's nothing you can do about it.
    Liam: You don't understand.
    Otis: I do. I do understand. I know what it's like when someone doesn't feel the same way about you, it's...someone you can't stop thinking about. It hurts. But, you can't make people like you.
    Liam: I don't like her. I love her.
    Otis: I know. But love isn't about grand gestures, or the moon and the stars. It's just dumb luck. And sometimes, you meet someone who feels the same way. And then sometimes, you're unlucky. But one day, you're gonna meet someone who appreciates you for who you are. I mean, there's seven billion people on the planet. I know one of them is gonna climb up on the moon for you.
    Liam: (cheering up) Really?
    Otis: Yeah, you're brilliant! You're very dedicated. You're gonna make someone very happy one day. [...] And it won't happen if you fall off a moon and die.

Series 2

• Following Aimee being sexually assaulted and unable to be intimate with him, Top-Heavy Steve is confused but also quite impressively understanding. In the season 2 finale, he even admits he doesn't care if they never have sex again as long as he gets to talk with her.
  • In Season 3 during the student's sex revolution, Steve can be seen wearing a sign saying "I think I might be demisexual". Given how demisexuality works, his above statement isn't an exaggeration.
• Florence, Jackson's co-star in the school play, comes to Jean and admits that she is not interested in sex at all and fears she may be "broken" because of it. Jean gently diagnoses her as Asexual and assures her that she has nothing to worry about.
  Jean: Sex doesn't make us whole, and so how could you ever be broken?
• Maeve, Ola, Lily, Viv, and Olivia joining Aimee so that she can return to riding the bus after her traumatic experience. Keep in mind, these are five girls who couldn't be more different if they tried, not to mention how they were fighting in detention just days before. Yet in the end, the girls are all able to put aside their differences and come through to help Aimee. And just when you think it could be a one-time thing, the rest of the girls, courtesy of Ola, break cars at the junkyard so Aimee is better able to vent out her feelings.
• Jackson teaching Viv how to talk to boys. Viv returning the favour by being his confidant about his self-harm habit.
• Jackson finally clearing the air with his mother and telling her in no uncertain terms that he will always think of her as his real mum.
• After Adam screws up again by leaving the store unlocked, Ola tries to cover for him by saying it was her fault for not reporting a damaged key. It gets them both fired. But when Adam asks her why she did it, she becomes the first person to call him a friend. A big hug ensues.
• Jean befriending Maureen Groff and going out on the town with her, the first time the latter's had fun in a long time.
• Maeve's entire relationship with her little sister Elsie. Maeve grows to love her and look after her, and along with Otis and Aimee, Elsie is the only other character Maeve shows genuine fondness and concern for. It makes it bittersweet when they have to separate.

Series 3

• Ruby is shown to have genuine romantic feelings for Otis and is also shown to be caring towards her father. It’s nice to see her act this way rather than the one-dimensional Alpha Bitch. She even tells Otis that she loves him!
• [Anwar and Olivia comforting Ruby after she breaks up with Otis.
• Having been humbled by losing his job, being unable to find another, living with his older brother, and misinterpreting a gesture of friendliness from Maureen as a desire to get back together, Groff actually talks to Jean and starts to work out some of his issues - namely, that his father and older brother bullied him relentlessly as a child, and whenever Groff got upset, his father would tell him that Real Men Don't Cry, which has resulted in him never expressing sadness or experiencing joy as an adult. Jean advises him to find something that does make him happy, and he does so - by cooking, something his mother (whom he loved dearly and was the only family member who was kind to him) loved doing.
• Otis and Maeve finally reconciling and starting a relationship near the end of season 3. Even if they have to put things on hold shortly afterward, their relationship is in a better state than it's been in a long time.
• Maureen comforting Adam after he comes out to her and tells her that he and Eric broke up. She had learned of their relationship from Aimee earlier that day and asked Adam in an attempt to get him to bring him around so she could get to know the boy that she heard had made her son happier.
• Miss Sands attending Adam’s dog training competition and cheering him on with his mother as he performs and gets an honourable mention. What’s more heartwarming is that she gets to see herself proven right that Adam is truly exceptional at something he is passionate about.
• Otis listens to Hope and gives an amazingly empathetic, affirming, and validating response. Made extra heartwarming by Jean overhearing him, because it's exactly the sort of thing she might have said. No, he's not qualified to be a real therapist, but Otis clearly has a gift for it.
  Otis: So what you gonna do now?
  Hope: I've been trying to get pregnant... [sniffles] for three years. I'm currently trying to start another round of IVF.
  Otis: Well, I hope it works out.
  Hope: It won't. It won't. You have no idea what it's like to wake up to the feeling of failure every morning. [sobs] I'm sorry, I'm clearly having...some kind of breakdown.
  Otis: How are you a failure?
  Hope: Because my...my body won't...won't...It doesn't do the...the one thing it's supposed to do. The one thing I want it to do. But you can't have everything, I suppose. And dwelling on it makes me weak.
  Otis: I don't think you're weak. I think...saying you feel disappointed by something you want but maybe can't have...makes you honest. And admitting your vulnerabilities makes you courageous.
  Hope: Yeah. [sob] It's very hard. [sob] But thank you.

Series 4

• The Groff family gradually come back together. Michael and Maureen admit they still love each other. Michael also listens to Adam's issues and tries to be a gentler parent. He then hugs his son in a way that shows without a doubt how much love is in his heart. Their collective arc ends with the three of them sitting in front of the television set, finally at ease.
• The sight of Mr. Hendricks and Miss Sands appearing at Erin's funeral. They were basically the surrogate parents for the main cast, so naturally when one of their own is grieving they turned up to provide comfort. Miss Sands tells Maeve that the latter inspired her to go back to university and pursue her dream job. Mr. Hendricks also plays "With or Without You" on piano, with all of Maeve's classmates singing along. Overall the two teachers were a very welcome sight.
• After the long-distance proves to be detrimental to their relationship, followed by the death of Erin, a disastrous attempt at a first date followed by sex and a dinner date at the Milburn home that goes awry, Maeve and Otis finally consumate their love. In this moment of intimacy, Otis was finally able to overcome his anxieties about sex and Maeve was able to rediscover her ambition. While it sucks that they broke up as soon as they'd done the deed, it's clear that they'd healed each other.
• After Cal disappears, Jackson was the first to figure out where they might have gone and finds them by the ravine where the two used to smoke weed, accompanied by Eric who had just received a spiritual encounter. While Cal and Jackson don't show any signs of getting back together, it's still touching to see how much Jackson cares about them.
• (By process of elimination) Otis wins the sex therapist election. Instead of basking in the glory, he admits that he'd been acting like an insecure arsehole and concedes to O. O for her part admits that collaborating with Jean has convinced her that they could do something similar.
  • Ruby publicly forgives O. This gesture makes her the Queen Bee once more, only now she's revered for more than just her looks.
• As the series ends, Otis still hasn't heard back from Maeve, but on his nightstand he finds Maeve wrote him a letter thanking him for helping her come out of her shell. Meanwhile, Maeve took one of Otis' trademark stripy shirts with her to the U.S. If fate would only allow it (and Eric has already witnessed as much), Otis and Maeve will eventually seek each other out once more.

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