Yahoo Lifestyle ‘The Sex Lives Of College Girls’ Boss Justin Noble Unpacks “Symphony” Of Season 3 Finale “That Chooses Joy”
SPOILER ALERT: This post spoils the finale of The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 3.
Another semester at Essex College has come to an end in the finale of Season 3 of The Sex Lives of College Girls.
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Showruner Justin Noble directed the Season 3 finale, which ends on a very different note compared to the Season 2 finale which had some tension brewing between Pauline Chalamet’s Kimberly and Alyah Chanelle Scott’s Whitney as well as some uncertainty for Amrit Kaur’s Bela.
“Very intentionally, this is a finale that chooses joy. These girls have come into their sophomore year of school. They’ve been challenged severely, and it felt only right that we should show the wins for all these young women who succeed in all these different ways,” Noble told Deadline. “The title for this episode was in the works for a while, it’s called ‘Essex Strong,’ and I’ll say that that was solidified a little later in November. [It’s] very much a time for young women to stand in their power and say what they need in this life and go out and get it because I don’t think we’re living in a world where it’s going to be handed to them.”
The ten-episode third season of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s co-created series wrapped up in several triumphant notes for some of the core four roommates while others faced some challenges that could reshape their future. Though each has a different path in school, they still come back together throughout the episode to be there for one another, and especially for their newest suite mate Kacey (Gracie Lawrence), who goes through a breakup right before her highly anticipated performance in the school musical with her ex Cooper (Roby Attal).
“At the end of the day, for any viewer who hasn’t caught on yet, the title of our show is almost a joke. It’s not about their sex lives. It’s not about these love interests that come in and come out,” showrunner Noble told Deadline. “They are fun. They’re plot. They’re will they won’t they. We love to watch them and see where they go, but the show is about the friendships that you find, particularly these female friendships among these girls. It was so important to show a moment where they were all there for [Kacey]. That’s the true love story of her season.”
Below, Noble also unpacks the symphony of moments that made up the last episode, from “the thirstiest character of all time” Bela Malhotra’s coming out as bisexual to Kimberly’s protest consequences and Whitney’s “Naomi Osaka-type” move standing up for to the Athletic Board on behalf of the soccer team.
On Bela Coming Out as Bisexual
In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Bela broke up with Arvind (Nabeel Muscatwalla) because he wasn’t comfortable with her using her sex life as inspiration for her comedy voice. With Kimberly’s tip, Bela decided to jump back into the comedy scene at Sips where they host a stand-up night, and its there that she meets Hailey (Melinda Belle Adams).
“Bela, for a long time, has lived in a sexuality spectrum for me, and we’ve made tiny little hints at it, truly for years at this point in wardrobe and accessories. Some eagle-eyed viewers have left comments on the show’s social posts, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re onto this. This is not as hidden as I thought it was,’” Noble said.
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“I wanted Bela’s coming out story to tell the opposite end of the spectrum of what Leighton’s was. Leighton (Reneé Rapp) was someone who came to college knowing exactly what her sexuality was and who she was as a person. She just wasn’t comfortable with it because of her upbringing, whereas Bella is the equally important and equally, in my experience, common coming out story, which is, they’re not aware of it until a certain point too, and it’s a realization to them. Something can trigger that and make them think, “Wait, maybe the way that I’m always fixated on beauty within my own gender is more than me just appreciating it or being jealous or something like that. Maybe I’m attracted to these people too.”
Of course, Whitney, Kacey and Kimberly immediately accept Bela’s big announcement, with less fanfare than Whit and Kimberly did for Reneé Rapp’s Leighton, which Bela is quick to point out.
“This show is just so queer that we’ve done so many coming out stories with so many different types of people, and this is Bela Malhotra, the thirstiest character of all time, coming out. So when she’s like, laying it on thick, and the way she pronounces bisexual — Amrit made such a meal out of that it was amazing — it was only fitting that the roommates would be like, “Yeah, okay, cool. We’re good to move on. Let’s talk about waffles now,” Noble added. “While [the roommates] are so accepting so much so that it’s not as much of a big deal for them, we wanted to make sure she still felt heard and appreciated, and so we have that nice scene in the middle of the episode with Taylor, who’s excited for her, and then with her mom.”
“We wanted to show that there was a little bit of a serious moment here, and while she was comfortable to rip off the band aid with her friends, it’s very different sometimes with parents. I think that’s particularly true in, some ethnicities more than others. South Asian Americans are definitely in that boat, at least in terms of the perception that the South Asian women who work on our show were voicing.”
On Kacey & Cooper’s Breakup Plus Kacey’s Big Singing Scene
The day of the big musical in which Kacey is set to serenade Cooper, who she has fallen head over heels for, he breaks things off with her because he feels like they’re not on the same page.
“One of the biggest challenges we had creatively this season was sunsetting Leighton as a character and then launching Casey,” Noble said. “Casey started as an index card on a wall in my office that just said ‘confidence.’ In terms of all the research conversations we had with young women, I wanted to tell a very strong and clear story about the epidemic of confidence issues that are tackling young people and especially young women.”
“Casey’s obviously introduced as overly confident. And then slowly over the season, we start to see cracks that that might be a front that she puts on. And we have that moment at the end of Episode Seven where she’s face, tuning her face, and we’re like, “Oh, there’s more going on here with her.” And then in the end of eight, I love that scene with her [other] ex Calvin (Tyler Barnhardt), where she just wants a reason why she was broken up with and he mentions that he didn’t want to stay a virgin for four years. And I think if the conversation had ended there, Casey would have turned and walked away,” Noble continued. “But he throws out these few lingering words saying, “I think any guy would,” and that was enough to make her think, I don’t want to lose another good one. Maybe I should push myself to be ready, and she’s just not. Without naming anyone involved, there were so many female writers in our room who are very passionate about telling this story, about feeling the need to be ready when perhaps they don’t think it was the best choice for them.”
Many of the most triumphant moments of the finale are set to Lawrence’s ballad performance of “Never Enough” sung by Loren Allred in The Greatest Showman.
“I knew that I wanted to have this big triumphant win for Kacey at the end of the season, and I knew I was going to be directing the episode, so I was into the idea of having everyone’s wins at the end of the season, like choosing joy happen as a symphony together, where we could do it without words,” Noble said. “Over time, I was like, ‘I’m giving myself way harder of an assignment than I would ever give another director,’ and it was a lot to pull off, but finding the song was obviously one of the first things to do.”
The song came to Noble on a walk in Palm Springs while he listened to a playlist of potential songs to fit the “musical of musicals” subject Kacey told her roommates about earlier on in the show.
“That was so that I could keep finding something that I thought resonated with her story, lyrically, emotionally, and would allow for what I wanted to achieve, audiovisually at the end of the season,” he said. “That song came on. I thought ‘Wait, this could work.’ And then I listened to it about 1500 more times and started writing what I saw in my head on screen to the song, almost to the time of the song, and that’s why we don’t take any time jumps in the song. We let it play out as it is because it was timed out like a music video.”
On Whitney’s Standing Up For Mental Health in Sports
Whitney, who has juggled an impossible load of commitments since the first season of college, reached a breaking point this season and turned it into a moment of standing up to authority. When she starts therapy, which is also a huge victory in and of itself, her counselor suggests she take a day off, but her soccer coach refuses to let her, and this brings her to quit the team.
“Soccer has put Whitney through the ringer since the pilot. We [found] her, in this toxic relationship where she’s almost being groomed by a soccer coach. She’s gone through the ringer in terms of everything that soccer could throw at her, and that was super intentional, all leading to this moment dating back before we wrote anything for the show at all. In season one,” Noble said.
Of course, because of Whitney’s talents and the collective team’s, the Athletic Board pays specific attention to this incident and wants Whitney to come back so that they can win Essex a shiny accolade in the soccer championships, but this would come at a price to Whitney and her teammate’s academic and overall well being.
“When Mindy and I did a research trip for this project, we talked to a lot of student athletes because we knew we wanted to have one in our suite, and I was wrecked hearing them talk about what their life was like, particularly hearing them talk about how much they miss out on and how they’re either jealous or sad of the lives that their other friends have,” Noble said. “It was one of those things where I didn’t fully understand why it had to be that way. I think there’s stories of people who are on scholarship for a sport and they have no choice but to keep it going to stay at the school. Whitney’s not that, but I wanted her to be this strong character who could stand up for change, take a Naomi Osaka type position and demand it for the people who maybe aren’t as strong with their words as her.”
On Kimberly Taking the Risks to Protest
Kimberly is on track to realize her dream of becoming a Supreme Court Justice, especially with her special spot in a seminar for older students with an esteemed guest professor played by Tig Notaro. Leaning into her passion for free speech and justice, Kimberly foregoes her teacher’s advice to protect her future by not showing up to a protest of Nathan Riggs making a speech on campus.
“We would love to have [Tig] more. She’s such a different vibe than we have in this fast-talking comedy. [Kimberly’s] the type of character who, since she was seven or eight years old, wanted to be a Supreme Court justice, like the day that she learned what they were in like a big picture book, that’s what it was. And she’s been working everything towards it to the point where she’s afraid because she wrote “Me gusta Cinco de Mayo” on a social post,” Noble said. “I think it’s important for characters like that to question if the thing they decided in youth is still in service to them. And I also think it’s a good time for people to question whether or not the Supreme Court is the best way to bring about meaningful change.”
Kimberly also found herself between two prospective guys, one she had already dated Eli (Michael Provost) and one who she joined the protest with, Noah (Trevor Tordjman).
“I like the idea of injecting into Kimberly’s life someone who can rattle her off course, the way that Noah does, and give her the hint that perhaps, as he says, you can make more change by working outside of the system than within,” Noble said. “I think that’s a meaningful ear worm for her to think on, and it could rattle her. I mean, it certainly led to a big change in her life. She thinks Essex is going to sue her, but we’ll have to see what she would do next.”
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No word yet on a Season 4 renewal, but Noble hopes to get the writers back in the room and “start cooking the way we always do” with “these girls and maybe some new ones too.”
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