‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’: Our Burning Questions for Season 3
In the critically acclaimed series Sex Lives of College Girls, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, four college freshmen — Kimberly Finkle (Pauline Chalamet), Bela Malhotra (Amrit Kaur), Whitney Chase (Alyah Chanelle Scott) and Leighton Murray (Reneé Rapp) — navigate the complexities of being a girl in the 2020s, not shying away from any topic or experience.
Season 3, which was announced before the Season 2 finale aired in 2022, has officially begun filming. However, with so much time in between the seasons (and Season 2 ending with the future of every character in the air), viewers are left with many burning questions. Here we’ll break down the biggest question marks we have ahead of the new season.
Sex Lives of College Girls, Max
Will Kimberly and Whitney make up?
After Kimberly was explicitly told by Lila Flores (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) to keep her feelings for Canaan Greene (Christopher Meyer) to herself — because it is not okay to date your roommate’s ex — Kimberly found out that the feelings she has for him might be mutual.
Canaan had invited Kimberly to go with him to his award banquet, claiming that he had asked their coworker Zoe (Aketra Sevillian) but she was busy. However, Kimberly soon found out Canaan never asked Zoe, and she was his first choice to bring to the banquet the entire time.
Keeping that in mind, when the four roommates all went out to the last party of the year, Canaan invited Kimberly to an after party with his friends. At first Kimberly declined the invite, until suddenly she was running after Canaan. It was perfect timing for Whitney to leave the party as she stumbled upon her ex-boyfriend and roommate kissing.
Will this create irreversible damage to their friendship, or will Whitney be able to forgive her?
Is there a future for Canaan and Kimberly?
With Whitney and Kimberly’s friendship up in the air, where do Kimberly and Canaan stand? Well, Kimberly didn’t know that Whitney was there the night the two kissed, so will Kimberly end things on her own or will Whitney bring it up to her before she finds the courage to be honest?
Having a thing for devastatingly attractive men, is Canaan just another one of her endeavors like Nico Murray (Gavin Leatherwood), Leighton’s brother, or Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert), the climate refugee?
Is Whitney really moving into the Kappa house?
Before witnessing her best friend kiss her ex-boyfriend, Kimberly and Whitney had only just committed to rooming together the following semester after finding out that their other two roommates had alternative living plans. (Bela would live with the girls from the Foxy while Leighton went to the Kappa house.)
However, in the Season 2 finale, the Foxy girls rescinded Bela’s invitation to live with them, and Leighton quit Kappa. It was the morning after the kiss that Kimberly brought up the fact that all four girls could yet again live together. Whitney was quick to ask Kimberly if she had done anything interesting that night, allowing her a chance to confess. When Kimberly said nothing happened, thoughWhitney decided to head to the Kappa house and take Leighton’s position as social chair — which comes with a room in the sorority house. Is Whitney really moving to Kappa?
Is Bela really going to transfer?
By the Season 2 finale, Bela was very, very down on her lu. She’d completely alienated herself from her friends, had a 1.8 GPA, and completely ruined things with her now-ex-boyfriend Eric Miller (Mekki Leeper) after cheating on him.
The last few minutes of Season 2 ended with Bela speaking with an administrator from Essex to transfer schools. Will Bela transfer and leave the girls, or will she choose to stay?
Will we be seeing Tatum again?
As Willow (Renika Williams) called it, Leighton was in her “twincest phase” of coming out, quickly becoming infatuated with Tatum (Gracie Dzienny), a junior on the tennis team who looks exactly like her.
After some trial and error, the two finally coupled up and they were adorable. When Leighton’s dad (Rob Huebel) invited Tatum and her father to dinner after running into his old college friend, Tatum reassured Leighton that it was okay that she wasn’t out to her father yet and she would happily play along, which was something Leighton’s ex-girlfriend Alicia (Midori Francis) made her feel guilty for in Season 1.
The two happily went about their relationship until Leighton brought Tatum to a fundraiser at the Women’s Center, and Leighton was appalled by Tatum’s reaction to being there, breaking up with her at the event.
Is this the end for Tatum? After watching Leighton lust so hard after the girl, it’s surprising that after one argument the relationship is over for good. Maybe the two will find their way back to one another… Or, at least, will Tatum will try and apologize?
Where do Leighton and Alicia stand?
In terms of her love life, Leighton was pretty busy in Season 2. After adding a photo of her face to her dating profile for the first time, she courted many, many girls (until she ended up getting chlamydia).
Then, she got together with Tatum and became official before going back to the first girl she loved and who broke her heart?
Now that Leighton is out and realizing that maybe she belongs more at the women’s center than at Kappa, it makes sense for the ex-lovers to attempt to rekindle what they had in Season 1.
What is a little concerning is the fact that Alicia only kissed Leighton after handing over a $30,000 check that she stopped her mom from donating to Kappa. But in the Season 2 finale, Leighton announced to the girls that she and Alicia were back together, and she seemed very happy about it.
What does Season 3 look like for the love birds considering Leighton will only be in a few episodes?
What's going to happen to Leighton?
The biggest question of all is: What’s going to happen to Leighton? With Reneé Rapp announcing her departure from the show to pursue her music career, Deadline reported that Rapp will only be in a “handful of episodes” this season and permanently leave the show afterward.
One option might be to recast the character with Gracie Dzienny, Leighton’s lookalike ex-girlfriend Tatum, and pretend like nothing happened like they do in soap operas.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscars Party, though, Reneé Rapp shared that she would want her character to be killed off — a big dramatic send-off.
There are options for the future of Leighton, but one thing we know for sure is her character will be greatly missed.
