How ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Sets Up Leighton’s Exit in Season 3

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Sex Lives of College Girls, Season 3, Episode 1.]

The Sex Lives of College Girls is back and the long-awaited answer to Leighton’s (Reneé Rapp) impending departure is finally answered in the Season 3 premiere.

While Rapp’s exit is forthcoming, the episode teased the potential reason behind her absence from the series moving forward, presenting an interesting storyline surrounding her education. It turns out that Leighton’s mathematical prowess is just too advanced for Essex as her latest course didn’t have any other student sign-ups besides her.

The only solution? Leighton would have to take the course at a neighboring school, but the lengthy bus ride, featuring guest star Fortune Feimster, was just a little too much for her to deal with. When Leighton brings her complaint to Essex’s maths professor, he suggests that she might be better suited for a transfer to a school that will fit her academic level, offering to put a word in for her at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

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But that wouldn’t be the only thing to send Leighton packing for Boston as it was teased prior to her class woes that girlfriend Alicia (Midori Francis) would be withdrawing from Essex to pursue a job with the Mayor of Boston. They agreed initially to continue their relationship long distance since Leighton had no plans to leave Essex, but with this MIT possibility on her plate, it appears that this is the avenue she’s about to take.

In terms of coming up with the idea, co-creator Justin Noble tells TV Insider, “When we were coming back from the tail end of the writers’ strike, Mindy [Kaling]  and I started talking [about taking] Leighton’s character in a direction. ‘What do we think that looks like?’ And this is Leighton Murray, like Leighton Murray has only won things. She would never concede anything. So she wouldn’t stop fighting unless it was a win.”

In other words, Noble and Kaling had to come up with an idea that made sense for Leighton to leave in a way that benefits her character, but also makes logical sense. “The only way that she would leave is if it was for her best self moving forward,” Noble says. “And the thing that felt interesting to me is Leighton starts our show knowing herself the least of our core group. She comes in pretending to be something she’s not, and over 22 episodes, we’ve watched her not only figure out who she is as a person but own it so confidently.”

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Leighton’s onscreen journey has been a satisfying one so far, and as Noble notes, she’s had quite an evolution since introductions in Season 1. “She’s already made good on the challenge of what college is,” he says. “If college is where you figure out who you’re gonna be and what you’re gonna do, I think Leighton just got there one year and one month in.”

The only problem is having to leave her friends. Will Leighton make the choice to leave, and if so, how will her suite mates take the news? Viewers will have to tune in to find out. For now, there’s nothing but harmony between the roommates after Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) mended their frayed friendship.

As fans will recall, Whitney saw Kimberly kissing her situationship love Canan (Christopher Meyer) at the end of Season 2, and Season 3’s opener began with a metaphorical line drawn in the sand. “We were not interested in having girl-on-girl warfare, it’s so firmly the opposite of the DNA of the show,” Noble notes of the quick resolution. But it was important to depict the conflict between the duo at the start of the season.

“The way they stay friends is that they learn how to handle that,” Noble adds. Part of pushing Whitney back towards an apologetic Kimberly was having her experience the pitfalls of Greek life. “Showing that Whitney was really suffering comedically at the sorority helped us narratively get her to want to come back with our girls,” Noble shares.

Bela (Amrit Kaur) and Leighton were also key in pushing Kimberly and Whitney towards a resolution at a Y2K party in the episode. As the girls continue to evolve, stay tuned to see how they deal with Leighton’s impending departure, and let us know what you think of the storyline revealed in the comments section.

The Sex Lives of College Girls, Season 3, Thursdays, 9/8c Max