‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Creator Breaks Down Season 2’s Biggest Cliffhangers, Teases Season 3

When The Sex Lives of College Girls returned for Season 2, our girls were a little worse for wear; but they were ultimately, happy, empowered, and ready to throw down for their sophomore season. The same can’t be said about this show’s finale. After a season packed full of hookups, ego trips, and attempted relationships, the girls have grown up — and so have their mistakes. Only this time around the drama is starting to come from inside the house.

It’s all part of the learning curve baked into this show that intimately understands the joys and horrors of young adulthood. From Leighton’s (Reneé Rap) new/old relationship to Bela’s (Amrit Kaur) big decision, series co-creator Justin Noble broke down some of Season 2’s biggest cliffhangers. Long story short? Our girls are going to be fine, but they have some growing to do. Spoilers ahead for Season 2’s finale.

Decider: I wanted to break down the finale because, oh my god, there are so many loose ends. First off, Leighton (Reneé Rap), my queen. At the end of the season, Leighton quits Kappa. Is she going to regret this major choice? Can you talk a little bit about her emotional arc there?

Justin Noble: I think she could regret it. We didn’t see much of Kappa on our show. We introduced it in a way that the intent was to show this is what Leighton has always wanted to be — high school Leighton and, specifically, I would say, closeted Leighton. Leighton grew up in a very specific part of New York where she was coached into thinking, “This is the path. This is who I become.” She started following that path, and then she came out.

I think there’s always some remnants of who we were and what our ambitions were that are a little harder to let go of, even after we’ve announced who we are as people. Kappa kind of fit into that barrel for her. It was one last thing of old Leighton that had to go. It didn’t necessarily bump with who she was as a person. We still think that she is a Kappa girl, if we look at her personality and her social media presence and everything else and the way she dresses. But there are some elements of the Greek scene that are maybe not in great alignment with some of the lessons she’s learning from people like Alicia (Midori Francis) and Ginger (Amanda Ripley) and Tova (Vico Ortiz).

There’s some nasty gender stuff that’s happening in a lot of sororities. And they’re incredibly slow to make any change on that. I really wanted to tell a story that shined a light on that, and Leighton felt like the right character to do it for our show. That became a line in the sand for her and a diving board for her to jump off and pursue something else. Also, I cannot tell you the degree to which Mindy [Kaling] and I love writing scenes in the Women’s Center. We find all of those characters and performers so funny. So honestly, I think a little bit of it is selfish.

Speaking to that, Season 2 ends with Alicia and Leighton getting back together, but Midori Francis is now a regular on Grey’s Anatomy. Have you talked about scheduling and how much you’re going to incorporate Alicia? 

I was planning on having to talk about it, and I didn’t even have to because Midori Francis, who I think the absolute world of, told me before she even agreed to do Grey’s Anatomy. She was like, “I’m making sure that I can keep coming back and doing the show.” She’s such a fan of the show. She’s so dedicated to Alicia’s story and Leighton story by way of Alicia. The way she talks about it is beautiful. She is such an incredible team player… To the extent that which we are contractually available, we’re gonna we’re gonna make it happen, and we’re gonna see some more of Alicia on the show.

Switching from adorable couples to just pure chaos, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet). She has a thing for hot men. Season 2 ended with Kimberly kissing Canaan (Christopher Meyer) as Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) watched them. How is this kiss going to impact Kimberly and Whitney’s relationship? 

That’s the question to throw forward, right? We start the finale with Kimberly and Whitney more determined than any of the other pairings on our show to room together. That’s the one thing we know for sure. We don’t know where Leighton’s at exactly; we don’t know where Bela’s (Amrit Kaur) at exactly. Then with one swift move, we watched that immediately crumble as well.

Because, you’re right, Kimberly loves a hot boy. I think Kimberly grew up as such a little nerd where she came from. She wasn’t seeing boys like this. And then she has a little bit of an “Ooh, la la” vibe whenever a muscled boy is, for some reason, shirtless near her. And God love her, she keeps getting them, so good for her.

But I think Whitney and Kimberly have never really had drama on our show. Even in light, episodic ways, they’ve always gotten along. I do pride our show on having a thesis where the girls aren’t at each other’s throats. We don’t need female-on-female warfare. And I don’t see [the kiss] becoming that on our show. But we all know that friend who does a slightly uncool thing. Then it’s like, “Are we good?” And sometimes the answer is, “We’re not good yet.” So we’re going to have to see the way it plays out moving forward.

After Whitney saw the kiss, she decides to move into Kappa for next year. Will that actually happen? And are we going to see more of Kappa next season?

I think we could. Whitney is in knee-jerk-reaction mode at the end of the finale. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, but she can’t stomach the idea of of handing in that piece of paper saying she’s living with Kimberly Finkle again. So she takes to the one thing that she knows, which is that there’s this room that just opened up at Kappa, an organization she’s in, and she grabs it.

Personally, I think Alyah plays Whitney so funny in the Kappa world. I love how much they’re like, “Wow, she’s cool,” and Alyah is like, “Oh god, these girls.” So I do think it feels like a fun comedy setup to have her there, and we could see some more of it. But Whitney is in kind of a Through the Looking Glass version of where she was at the beginning of Season 2. She found this thing through [Season] 2 that really informed her interests. She’s thriving in the STEM environment, and I don’t see her dropping that. But now her personal life — the one thing that wasn’t in turmoil at the start — is now up-ended.

It is really cool to watch, specifically, Leighton and Whitney start to find themselves in new and different ways. It feels very in line with my college experience. It’s like, “Oh, I guess I’m this person.”

Same, totally. I think that’s the backbone of the show. It’s about people finding themselves and the ways in which they try to do that. Sometimes it’s just by throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. Sometimes it’s by the deep influence of the people around us.

Like I remember, my best friend was dating a guy who loved The National. And then, out of nowhere, she was like, “I love The National. You want to go see The National?” I was like, “You love like Hillary Duff. Like what are you doing?” I think we are all, in this stage of life, constantly evolving in both real ways and totally falsified ways.

Speaking of someone who is evolving, there’s Bela. In Season 2, she burns things with Eric (Mekki Leeper) and is kicked out of her own comedy magazine. In the finale, she tries to transfer Essex. Do you see this transfer actually happening? 

I can’t answer that. But I do think it feels true to me. Bela is this incredibly ambitious person who knows exactly what she wants… She’ll do whatever it takes to get there because she knows that the comedy world is cutthroat and that’s the only way she’ll rise to the top as a woman of color or as anyone. But then we can’t help but watch her step in it over and over and over again along the way.

The thing that I wanted to tell through Season 2 was to show that trajectory for her, and then halfway through, make her aware of the fact that she’s doing this and give her the opportunity to then say, “I see it, and I won’t do it again.” And then she just can’t help but do it one more time for something as small as helping a person who’s asking for advice on a piece. It’s just who she is chemically. She’s wired, through habit, to be so ambitious that she can’t turn it off.

Another thing that feels real to me is an element of perfectionism that comes in for those personality types. Now, after she’s been kicked out of this group that she founded, there’s no way to label that other than being a hard loss. Bela cannot spin this in any way. Looking at that hard loss, the only thing that she can wrap her head around doing is cutting and running and starting fresh somewhere else. There’s too many uphill battles here. But we love Bela, and our show is about four girls, so we’re gonna have to figure that one out.

Do you see any path forward for reconciliation when it comes to Bela? Could she mend things with The Foxy or Eric?

Oh, absolutely. I believe in the power of forgiveness between people. It’s becoming less common than it used to be, perhaps. But I would love to watch Bela earn her way back. Bela has a really good heart, and she is well intentioned most of the time.

She has some work to do to get her back to some people, specifically Eric, I would say. But we love Eric and Mekki. And we love the chemistry between Amrit and Mekki and Bela and Eric. So I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them in some iteration.

HBO Max is currently in the middle of a few shake ups. Have you gotten any notes or directions about where HBO wants to take its young adult programming or anything of that nature?

I actually haven’t. HBO Max and Warner Bros., too, but you’re asking about HBO Max. They’ve just always been such wonderful champions of the show. It’s been honestly a real dream partnership where they feel like smart fans who have good thoughts. They give us really interesting notes at times, and they’re usually dead on. But most of the time, they like what we’re doing. And I don’t think we’re looking to shake up anything from a creative standpoint.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.