Sex Education's Mimi Keene Was 'Super Sad' About That 'Harsh' Season 3 Breakup, Too

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sex Education Season 3. Read at your own risk!]

The beginning of Netflix's Sex Education Season 3 finds Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) in the casual sex arrangement of his alleged dreams with Ruby Matthews (Mimi Keene). By the end of the season, they enter into a full-fledged relationship, Ruby falls in love, they break up in a spectacularly messy fashion, and face an uncertain future with Moordale Prep closing after a schoolwide protest for the students' sexual rights. It's a rollercoaster, to say the least, but the short-lived relationship was a pivotal turning point for both Otis and Ruby as they head into the next phase of their lives. 

"It's interesting to see how they really change through their relationship and how they change each other," Butterfield told TV Guide while promoting the new season. "They kind of rub off on each other. Otis kind of comes out of his shell. He gets a real spring in his step. He gets quite sassy thanks to Ruby's effect on him and conversely Ruby kind of really opens up to Otis, and we see a softer side of her, which we haven't really [gotten] to see beneath the shell she puts up." 

Keene agreed that not only did Otis and Ruby bring out new sides of each other, but the relationship pushed both of the teenagers to grow up in necessary ways, especially Ruby. 

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"I think both the characters mature through their relationship, and even all the way to the end [with] it not really going the way that Ruby had hoped," Keene explained. "Once they go on the school trip, she is not as defensive about the situation and is sort of willing to accept it and wanting to still be friends with Otis after that. So I think that yeah they definitely mature as characters, as well as opening up different sides to each other and rubbing off on each other a bit." 

While Otis and Ruby made a strong pair, it wasn't built to last. Ruby indeed got more vulnerable with Otis than she has with anyone else on the show, but when she confessed that she loved him, Otis wasn't able to return the sentiment, in no small part due to kind of still being hung up on Maeve (Emma Mackey). When Ruby realized she was falling alone, she dumped Otis to save herself any further heartbreak, but Keene says even that painful experience ended up being a good thing for her character. 

"That was super sad. I was definitely sad during the reading of the scene. I was like, 'That is harsh!,' but you can't say things you don't mean, so that is how it is," she said. "Everyone has got to go through a little heartbreak when you're younger. It builds character. It gets you prepared for the world. Ruby is a trooper. She'll get through anything and she's keen to dust herself off and walk with her head high. She always does." 

As for Otis, he and Maeve finally got on the same page and decided to give a relationship a real shot, until Maeve got accepted to a gifted and talented program in America. So they'll be spending at least the first few months of their relationship apart. While Butterfield believes in the couple's chemistry, he also understands that this is a tough hurdle for 17-year olds to overcome. 

"They really connect. They really understand each other, I think more than most people in the show, and they have a real chemistry," he relayed. "But they are ... still at the kind of beginning of their adult lives. I think they both have some maturing to do." 

While Maeve is in America, both Otis and Ruby will have their hands full figuring out to do with the last semester of their senior year with Moordale closing its doors immediately. Their educational futures hang in the balance with the rest of their classmates, and the actors are just as anxious to find out what lays ahead as we are. 

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"I was trying to figure this out. I don't know how they're going to do it. Are they going to go to another school or will they somehow do it online? Or will they skip all that and just try to get a job and move into the adult world?" Butterfield questioned. 

"I don't think I can predict what's going to happen. Laurie [Nunn, showrunner] has done such an amazing job and she'll have something great if we do go ahead with a Season 4. I'm just excited to see what it would be," Keene added. 

We can only guess that it will be as funny and dramatic as the rest of the series. 

Sex Education Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.