Essex Academy returns to university with the naked girls living in the dorms and attending various events. Justin Noble and Mindy Kaling’s show returns to HBO Max for a second season, picking up where the first season left off. Thanksgiving is over, and while Leighton and Kimberly may not disclose all of the important conversations they want to have with friends and family, Bela and Whitney have their own problems to deal with.
One of the big revelations in this episode is that the naughty friend girls were kicked out of the group after escaping Theta’s circle of scams. If you don’t recall from season one, Kimberly was caught cheating by using a series of tests and class notes set up by her supposed friend Nico. To avoid getting expelled, Kimberly made Nico her roommate, but unfortunately, he is now known as a campus pariah. First, the Theta boys inform the naked girls that their privileges have been revoked, and they won’t be taking naked girls into their homes anymore. He also publicizes it several times during the episode. Then, at the end of the episode, the girls try to join Omega, but Sita is kicked out of the house by the boys. Now they are blacklisted from all female students.
For the most part, the naughty friend girls go their separate ways in the first episode and meet up occasionally in conflicts. But it all leads to the Snow Run, a chilly campus race where students wear nothing but running shorts. The college girl lifestyle is reminiscent of Gossip Girl, with most episodes ending on a cliffhanger. But just as the Upper East Siders dress up, so do the men and women of Essex. In fact, every party or event at this school seems over-the-top.
Before we get into each girl’s story, we must talk about Jackson, the climate refugee from Kansas. What does Channing Tatum think of the new guy in the gym? He’s pretty good looking for a dorm mate (actually played by model Mitchell Sluggert), but on the other side of the wall is what Kimberly refers to as “a high-pitched rendition of sexual noise.”
Kimberly had to find a way to pay for college after getting caught cheating on her scholarship and being too scared to admit it to her parents. She first applied for a loan, but then found out that her parents needed to co-sign. She eventually had to come clean, but her parents blamed the show’s finances for ruining her life. At least their reluctance and willingness to help with tuition is understandable. What can a girl do to sell a pin chart? Was she hit by a bus? No, she’s going to do a livestream and record a Love Island-style show called Sex Paradise: Australia with Subtitles. It’s a good plan, but it’s hard for an American like Kimberly to understand the Australian slang, and recording requires quiet… not easy in a dorm room.
Whitney realizes that she’s a bit lost without football. Everyone else has a purpose. Her friends had plans for the next year to run the student union and complete their graduation profile, while she wasn’t really interested in extracurricular activities or sports and didn’t have any clear future plans. She tries to solve this problem by joining the water polo team, but… surprise! You have to be good at water polo, and she only watches YouTube videos about the sport. To make matters worse, she overhears her girlfriend at a party talking about her “hobby,” which is football. What Canaan said wasn’t terrible, but it certainly stung.
Bela has no influence in the latest women’s magazine nominations. Well, it’s not exactly a magazine… more like “Instagram presence, fake Twitter accounts, and websites where [they] don’t even buy domains.” However,