College Girls’ Sex Lives Season 3 Ending Explained: What’s Next?

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “The Sex Lives of College Girls” Season 3, Episode 10.

“The Sex Lives of College” ended its third season with an unexpected reveal: an upcoming story for Amrit Kaur’s Bela.

Although Bela’s romantic interest only dates throughout her time at Essex, Hailey (Melinda Belle Adams), the storytelling show host who made it to her in last week’s episode, becomes the host of the storytelling show she made last week. After kissing Hailey at a party, Bela officially comes out as bisexual to her roommates – a twist showrunner Justin Noble has said since Season 1, but one that doesn’t surprise him.

“Bela has always been this character that would try anything, try something, do something,” Noble told TheWrap, adding that many sheltered teens like her have “massive explorations” in college. “I wanted Bella to be a counterweight to the story we did with Leighton (Reneé Rapp) – Leighton came into college knowing exactly who she was. But it was closed and that made it difficult. “

“Bela is not that person,” he continued. “She is the form of queer representation in which she discovers it alone in real time, as we see.”

Although Kaur found out before the finale table of the season three finale, Noble recalled that Kaur raised it, that reaching Bela could be scary.

“Stories that come out stories aren’t usually for the person who came out at 14 and had it easy – it’s always like the kid who lives in an area that isn’t super accepting, whose parents see things as TV- Show characters say, as TV show characters are playing in front of them or on the news, and that it might be a little difficult for them to come out,” Noble said. “Our show and other shows can be a bit of a road map if someone does it that honors someone who has this fear, this struggle that they might have but then comes through and gives a happy ending because God, who wants to see a bad one? “

Below, Noble unpacks the rest of the girls’ Season 3 journeys and teases what’s ahead for a potential Season 4 once he and co-creator Mindy Kaling get the official green light from Max.

TheWrap: This twist with Arvind caught fans off guard. Have you thought about keeping him longer?

Justin Noble: Arvind was obviously very uncool in the way he handled it, but in the scheme of life and thinking about relationships and even friendships and what people go through and have struggles and come back, I think we could see Arvind again. I think there is a way to do that. I believe in the power of forgiveness for people. It’s not usually on TV very often.

Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) also has an interesting arc in the final episodes. How does the protest change how she might pursue her professional goals?

Kimberly came to school so nervous – so much of Kimberly is strangely inspired by a little bit of me, because I went to a school like this and didn’t know anyone there, and I was afraid of that aspect and my parents thought they had her thought they were from the right class to be there. Her target is the ultimate example of the following rule, so she can do no wrong, and then we see a few mistakes that give her pause and people say, “Chill. You don’t have to put that pressure on yourself. “ This protest is an interesting road for her because she knows what she believes is right, but it does not correspond to the rules that she has set for herself given the person she wants to be professionally. She of course makes the choice to be true to what she believes, but that comes at a cost, so we’ll have to see what that means for her.

There definitely seemed to be a spark with her and the protest organizer. Ideally, would he be back in Season 4?

I think it could be him.

Whitney’s (Alyah Chanelle Scott) storyline focuses on the pressures of being a student-athlete. How did that come about?

This was something we decided very early on because we knew Whitney was going to be the football player – it felt like other people didn’t. They have to wake up early for practices, they have to get their lifts in. They have difficulty maintaining their classes due to all the time. We talked to a number of coeds and some soccer players, and we just felt deeply for how much they had on their plates compared to some other people who said, “Oh, I think I could do this comedy group audition.” – They didn’t have the luxury of doing things like that. I was inspired by Naomi Osaka’s story in Tennis a few years ago, and I wanted Whitney to be like a poster child because he would push back against that.

Whitney is not a doormat figure – she pushes for what she wants and I think she sees injustice. She had a particular – intentional – in football posing with Coach Dalton and it was time for her to speak up and demand change and we see her getting it.

Kacey (Gracie Lawrence) also went through her first post-Calvin breakup. Why did you decide to end this one fairly quickly and how will it be a learning experience for you?

For Kacey, it was an opportunity to tell a story about self-confidence that felt so important to all college students, but especially young students. From the moment we meet Casey, there’s the foreground of extreme self-confidence, and then mom comes to visit, and mom cracks that veneer a little bit, and we see that maybe she’s not as strong as she was in front of her brings out. In the gay rodeo episode, we see that it’s a lot deeper than we thought – when she fading the photo of herself and changing everything about her face, it just kills me. Just a little throwaway comment asking what exes would say about you sets her off on this journey of needing to know from Calvin what it was all about. Calvin basically says, I don’t think I could have stayed a virgin for four years, and adds this one forceful, sustained comment and says, “I don’t think anyone could.” And she makes a bad decision in a true way that felt like what our writers in the room were talking about. She became a little too quick to bind. But the friends are there. The show is always about the love story between these girls and they rebuild it and she has her biggest confident win of the season.

Taylor (Mia Rodgers) seems to find the strength within herself to stay sober, but being moved off campus means she’s a little more isolated. Do you think this was a positive decision for her?

Fully. A lot of Bela’s advice throughout the season has been correct and she says, “God, this girl doesn’t quite get it.” And then I love in Episode 9 when Bella is like, “This is bad – you shouldn’t do this,” but Ash is a good person and she’s a good person for Taylor to have. I just wanted to set up a nice, happy queer story with the two of them, as opposed to another mistake made in relationships. There are so many queer women in my life who have lived up to the U-Haul lesbian stereotype, and we’re just going to show a version of that that’s very positive. They move together, they have different amounts of makeup, and they are there for each other.

I’m assuming some fans might start shipping Bela and Taylor – are you getting romantic vibes from them?

I’ve seen these comments all season – I really wanted to say, “Don’t you see how inappropriate it would be for Bela to move her?” Not only is she a first-year student who has Bela in her care, she’s also in a vulnerable, sober travel space, so I really don’t see her like that. I think they’re a beautiful friendship, but because queer audiences remain so thirsty for love stories between queer characters for decades, once a show has two queer characters, they end up together because shows in general don’t have an abundance of bonus queer characters. Our show just has a lot of queer characters, so it’s a little different when it’s just queer friends. Other than that, nothing in the future seasons is limits. Hopefully Taylor wouldn’t be a first year student, but I think they have a sweet friendship, which I like – I like how Taylor Nadle’s Bela and she are a little different. I love what Ruby Cruz brings to the ashes, and I love the dynamic between Taylor and Ash, even though we don’t see a tremendous amount of it this season.

What storylines would you like to dig deeper into in a potential Season 4?

Kimberly has this season’s cliffhanger – she believes the school will sue her for property damage. I would love to see how that works and if Tig Notaro’s character would play that when she needs to come to her aid. We have several new love interests appearing in these two episodes at the end of season three. We have some doors closing and various extracurricular and school things, so it’s okay. So Mindy and I and the writers will be ready to decide which way to go.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The Sex Lives of College Girls” Seasons 1-3 are streaming now on Max.