College Drama
9 Messiest ‘Sex Lives of College Girls’ Moments So Far, Ranked
Our favorite, cringiest college students are back. They’ve won some, they’ve lost some, and they will likely lose some again. While the sex lives of college girls can be assumed to be the messiest chapters of a human’s life, nothing prepared the world for just how chaotic these girls can be, namely Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Bela (Amrit Kaur), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and Leighton (Reneé Rapp).
Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble (who both went back to their respective East Coast universities to conduct research for the show), The Sex Lives of College Girls follows the friendships of these four roommates at the fictional but very real-feeling Essex College. The series explores sex positivity, hookup culture, girl code, and more. With all of the characters on their worst freshman-year behavior, you can imagine how much trouble they get into. But now double that.
While some of the girls are making big life changes like transferring schools, joining sororities, or swearing off love (for now), we wanted to take a walk down memory lane and recount the girls’ most iconically, chaotically messy moments in the series so far. And we ranked them.
Keep reading and comment below if we missed any.
The Sex Lives of College Girls, Season 3, Thursdays, 9/8c Max
9. Whitney hooking up with her annoying lab partner (Season 2 Episode 7)
Right from the jump, Whitney and Bela find a classroom opp in their biochemistry and biophysics class after he tells them to shut up because they were talking too loudly. They later learn the rude peer’s name is Andrew, played by Charlie Hall (also known as Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ son). Despite their misgivings about each other, Whitney and Andrew end up in a lab group together and bicker through their work until the tensions lead to a kiss — and then some. Their chemistry actually lends itself well to a physical relationship, but when Andrew insists that the two start to date, Whitney is left in the position to break up with her classmate—right before a class presentation, too. It’s one thing to hook up with the annoying hot guy from class, but date territory unfortunately blurred a few too many lines between fun and awkward.
8. Leighton breaking up with Tatum in front of her ex-girlfriend (Season 2 Episode 9)
Leighton’s love life journey is one of the most fun to watch as she really comes into herself and her sexuality in Season 2. Not only is she openly queer in the second season, but she begins to act on her values as well, stripping away the parts of herself that were no longer serving her—one of them being her new girlfriend Tatum (Grace Dzienny). Acting as a mirror for Leighton, the two were similar in all of the ways Leighton was trying to move past, from being judgmental to caring about what others think. It may not have been the most considerate to break up with her girlfriend in front of her ex Alicia (Midori Francis), let alone at her ex’s place of work. But, hey, a breakup is a breakup—you never know when one is going to hit.
7. Bela giving six handjobs in one night (Season 1 Episode 1)
Talk about a cold open, or should we say a hot one? Bela, so lovably and chaotically sex-positive (many times to her detriment) opens the series with one goal for college: to get onto the comedy magazine The Catullan. When a sexist member tells her that she’ll never make it into the group by the nature of her being a female writer, Bela becomes determined to do whatever it takes to get voted in. Applying Leighton’s advice about trying to make herself “memorable” at an early recruiting party, Bela reveals later that night that she gave six handjobs to six different members of The Catullan. And guess what? She got in! While we’re not knocking Bela for her sex positivity and her undoubtable drive, she did unknowingly cross the line with a different member of The Catullan—a female one at that—whose boyfriend was one of Bela’s recipients. Awkward.
6. Whitney looking through Canaan's phone (Season 2 Episode 4)
Whitney has some trust issues, and rightfully so! After her trauma of seeing a married man (her soccer coach, no less) in Season 1, it makes perfect sense why she would have trouble trusting men who say all the right things to her. Unfortunately for Whitney, in her boyfriend Canaan’s (Christopher Meyer) case, he meant them. Her new boo makes it clear to her time and time again that she has nothing to worry about, even when his coworker Zoe clearly has feelings for him. Canaan continues to deny this, and heeding the advice of her sorority sisters (possibly mistake number one), she looks through his phone during a party after he hands it to her to hold onto. After finding the texts between him and Zoe, Whitney does find the evidence she was looking for: Zoe had revealed that she had feelings for Canaan. We are not excusing Canaan by any means—he was acting kind of shady, too—but this breach of privacy pushes Canaan away, justifying his reason for a breakup. Honestly, Whitney was messy for that, but she’s also much better off.
5. Kimberly hooking up with Nico in her professor's office (Season 1 Episode 7)
In an episode aptly titled “I Think I’m a Sex Addict,” Kimberly’s grades start to fail in her econ class when all she can do, think about, and plan is having sex with Nico (Gavin Leatherwood), Leighton’s hot older brother, who is also Kimberly’s French tutor. By the laws of appreciation versus addiction, you know something’s a problem when it starts negatively impacting other aspects of your life, and it’s safe to say Kimberly begins to push that line. As her grades continue to drop in class (as well as her reputation at work), Kimberly elects to ask her econ professor for an extra credit opportunity, and he reluctantly obliges. However, when left alone in his office for a few hours to complete her assignment, she receives an insinuating text from Nico. And she just can’t say no. Unfortunately for Kimberl, her professor comes back to his office much earlier than expected. She loses her extra credit opportunity, and she has to sit in a meeting with her professor and Nico post-make out. I honestly don’t know which part of that is worse.
4. Leighton vandalizing a school statue (Season 1 Episode 2)
Leighton, Leighton, Leighton. Her early years were rough. Her messiest moment by far is getting caught by the campus police after throwing a bottle of tequila at the campus statue of the man who ate his family and then died in the snow alone. Honestly, the statue may have deserved her wrath. Her timing, however, is poor because she doesn’t notice the campus police nearby. She had also just come from a minivan hookup with an older woman who was lecturing her on how she should come out as gay. Nothing she did here was wrong. Just messy.
3. Whitney hooking up with her soccer coach after finding out he's married (Season 1 Episode 3)
Possibly the most tragic of the girls’ relationships, Whitney’s relationship with Coach Dalton (James Morosini) is a wild ride from start to finish. If we had to pick a moment (and we did), it would be when she decides not only to continue to see him but to attempt dating him after she finds out he’s married. From being cut short in the locker room by a FaceTime call from his wife to their first “real” date being in a truck in the middle of nowhere, Whitney plays with fire with this one—as well as with her team, with her time, and with her heart.
2. Bela cheating on Eric with a standup comic (Season 2 Episode 6)
We only want the best Bela, but, boy, is she hard to watch. Her most difficult decision to support had to be when she betrays the man she wanted most. After exploring her sexuality thoroughly, she finally gets together with a fellow comedy writer Eric (Mekki Leeper), who had been pining for Bela’s full attention since the two started hooking up. Just when the two finally decide to be exclusive and not see other people, a famous comedian Dan O’Connell (John Reynolds) comes to campus to do a comedy show, and to make herself memorable, Bela hooks up with him the morning she’s there to chaperone him to the airport. Of course, Eric finds out, deletes Bela’s number, and never wants to talk to her again. It doesn’t help that the exclusivity clause of their relationship was Bela’s idea. All we can do for our girl at this point is to pray the writers give her a break from this madness.
1. Kimberly kissing Canaan (Season 2 Episode 10)
This messiest moment is also the most confusing one, arguably, of the entire series. While Kimberly and Canaan have been friends throughout due to being coworkers at Sips, what on earth is going through her head when she kisses the ex of one of her best friends? Maybe we can chalk it up to everyone feeling that end-of-year romantic confusion. Or perhap the writers decided to play with how incestuous collegiate relationships really can be (trust us, we know). All we know is this: Up until this point, no one had broken girl code this hard. And for that, this kiss takes the cake as the messiest moment of Sex Lives (and likely beyond.)
