Sex Education: Why Aimee Really Wants Otis & Maeve To Be Together

In Sex Education season 3, Otis and Maeve’s relationship finally makes some progress, and it is Aimee who repeatedly pushes Maeve to tell Otis how she feels. The Netflix series doesn’t shy away from portraying complex teenage relationships and friendships, and ever since season 1, Aimee and Maeve have been an instance of a positive female friendship. Despite their differences, Aimee is the only person Maeve ever opens up to about her feelings.

The Sex Education season 2 cliffhanger revolved around Maeve and Otis’ relationship, when Isaac, the neighbor Maeve was getting close with, deleted the voicemail in which Otis confessed his love for her. Since Maeve never received the voicemail, in season 3 she started a relationship with Isaac while Otis dated Ruby. Meanwhile, Aimee dealt with processing the trauma from her sexual assault and is encouraged by Maeve to talk to Jean Milburn. Since it’s apparent that Maeve and Aimee want what is best for each other, why is it Aimee who always encourages her to pursue a relationship with Otis?

Aimee knows that Maeve is emotionally closed-off because of the difficult life she’s had, and encouraging her to date Otis is her way of getting Maeve to be more open. Maeve and Otis have been in a will they/won’t they relationship since season 1. When they started the sex clinic at Moordale Secondary School, they went from being business partners to friends. Otis developed romantic feelings for Maeve, and believing them to be unreciprocated, he began dating Ola, which ended up making Maeve jealous. Aimee pushed Maeve to tell Otis how she felt, but Aimee’s advice led to disastrous results when Otis reacted poorly to Maeve’s confession, causing him to break up with Ola and drunkenly insult both women at his house party.

It’s the lack of closure between Maeve and Otis that Aimee continually brought up the possibility of a relationship between them. Aimee voices what the audience is wondering about why they weren’t together. In season 3, Maeve dealt with the aftermath of reporting her mother to the police and applied to a Gifted and Talented Program in the US. She harbored feelings for Otis, but since she never got the voicemail, and he believed she was avoiding him, they spent most of the season apart. It’s Aimee who brought up Otis, when she asked Maeve how she felt about him dating Ruby. During the France trip, when Maeve tells her she hooked up with Isaac, Aimee brings up that Otis and Ruby broke up. Aimee doesn’t believe that Maeve is over Otis, and she is proven right, because when Maeve admits she never got Otis’ voicemail, he tells her that he loves her, and they share a kiss.

Aimee and Maeve are very different, a fact that leads to them falling out in season 3, episode 5. Aimee has a tendency to act naively, whereas Maeve takes things seriously. So when the students are in France, Maeve gets angry when she finds out Aimee paid for her trip, pointing out that the two of them are from entirely different worlds, and calls Aimee a people-pleaser. Aimee is hurt by Maeve’s words and accuses her of pushing her away just like she pushed Otis away. Unlike Aimee, Maeve is used to distancing herself from other people, which probably stems from her fear of being let down by people she loves, given her relationship with her mother.

Encouraging Maeve to date Otis isn’t the only way in which Aimee expressed her support in Sex Education season 3. In the season finale, Aimee finds out that Maeve got into the writing program in the US. When Maeve says she isn’t going because she doesn’t want to mess things up with Otis, Aimee gives her a harsh pep-talk about how she can’t give up the opportunity for a boy. Even though Aimee ships Maeve and Otis, at the end of the day, all she wants is for her best friend to be happy.