Sex Education is back on Netflix with an astonishing new season and, unceremoniously, we binged it in one night. Filled with heartwarming and heartbreaking moments, a great story, and masterfully developed characters, Sex Education remains one of the best shows in the Golden Age of Television. Something stood out, shining even further from all else, and that was the character of Adam Groff. Let’s break it down.

(This essay contain spoilers from seasons 1&2 of Sex Education.)

A logical place to begin would be — well — the very beginning.

Adam is a severely insecure and confused man. He is in a constant search to find himself, a constant search to understand himself, and always denying and afraid of any answers he may or may not find. Adam’s deep-rooted fear of understanding and being himself comes from no one else, but his father.

Mr. Groff, the stern headmaster, Adam’s dad, and truthfully the villain of Sex Education, is the reason for Adam’s complexity. Since a young age, and especially throughout high-school, Mr. Groff has demanded everything from his son. He has enforced, or tried to enforce, full control over Adam’s reality and character.

And one thing leads to another. Adam doesn’t want to do something, but he’s forced by his father. So he hides himself, acts out. Probably began with little things, but Mr. Groff started noticing and tried to put even more control over Adam – which, in turn, motivated Adam to act out even more and try to be his own person. So Mr. Groff enforces even more. And Adam acts out again. It’s a vicious cycle; one that probably began only with little things, but with time escalated to Mr. Groff demanding complete control over his son’s character, and Adam desperately complying, although desperately not wanting to.

To Adam, military school is a better reality than being around his father. There, at least, he does something he knows is necessary; maybe, probably, he doesn’t actually want to do it, but it’s not a part of him. It’s a part of his day; his day, he allows to be taken away, but his character? That he constantly fights for.

All of the hate Adam gets from his peers is not helpful either.

He is the bully of the school; the mean one; the one that tries to control everyone and make them feel weak. Adam uses people as a release – he’s constantly stepped on by his father, so the only conclusion, the only way to get some control, at least in his mind, is to step on others.

Which leads others to dislike him. Logically. And that deepens his insecurities even further, makes him doubt himself even more, makes him lose track of himself even more, and pushes him in a black loop-hole of self-hatred and impossible self-discovery.

And on top of all of that, Adam has to face the gruesome (in his mind) reality that he’s bisexual.

Something he doesn’t want to be, something that his father definitely doesn’t want him to be, a part of his identity that he needs to kill because it just can’t be him.

And ironically, that part exactly is the key to self-understanding and self-acceptance. Because Adam, for the first time in his life, cannot comply with his father’s wishes; because this, unlike many things so far, is such big a part of his identity that he just cannot push it down. So through accepting that, he can accept much more about himself. Start to like himself. Stand up to his father and take back control of his reality and character.

Adam feels most free and true with Eric.

Because Eric doesn’t judge; he doesn’t want to change Adam; quite the opposite, actually. Eric is the only one who wants Adam not to change. He doesn’t expect anything of him – he just want him to be himself and wants him for that. And this acceptance, this love, is exactly what finally makes Adam grow. Finally makes him like himself, accept himself, stand up to his father, and take back control.

Eric helps Adam accept he’s bi. And with that, so much more. He can finally face his past, finally choose a future, finally be free and finally be happy with someone who doesn’t expect anything, but the truth. Adam has much more to learn; but, for now at least, he’s done more than enough.

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(This was originally supposed to be an analysis of Maeve, but we decided to go with Adam instead. Is a character essay on Maeve something you’d be interested in? Let us know.)

Watch Sex Education here.

More character analysis essays here.

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