Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Heartstopper Season 2.
Netflix’s Heartstopper Season 2 picks up on the heels of the first season. Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) are now officially a couple, with the latter of the pair out to his mother Sarah (Olivia Colman); however, Nick’s coming out journey is far from over. Their friends — Tara (Corinna Brown), Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), Elle (Yasmin Finney), Tao (William Gao), and Isaac (Tobie Donovan) — know the truth and Imogen (Rhea Norwood) joins shortly thereafter, but the prospect of everyone knowing the truth is rather daunting. Meanwhile, Elle and Tao are finally beginning to recognize that their feelings for one another are much deeper than friendship, though they don’t know how to move forward without risking their close relationship. Tara and Darcy are going strong until an unexpected confession of love throws them out of balance, and Isaac is on a journey of self-discovery of his own when classmate James (Bradley Riches) begins to express interest. In the end, the Season 2 finale pushes and molds nearly all of these stories into something entirely new to explore in the already-renewed third season, so let’s break it down.
Things Come to Blows in the Penultimate Episode of ‘Heartstopper’ Season 2
Prom is approaching, but first, it’s time for the “Here and Queer” exhibition at the Lambert School of Art where a recently-accepted Elle will have her work showcased. When she invites her friends, she decides to lie about getting in and acts like there’s no news yet, just as Tao actively makes the choice not to worry about Elle abandoning them for her new school. Later, while shopping for their outfits for the exhibition and prom, Elle tells Tara the truth — that she was accepted — but says she hasn’t decided to go. When they arrive at the exhibition, one of the faculty members reveals to the entire group that Elle was offered a place. After the principal reveals Elle’s beautiful painting of her, Charlie, Tao, and Isaac, Tao and Elle have an honest conversation about why Elle kept her acceptance a secret. Tao tells her not to base her decisions on him, promising he’ll want to be with her no matter where she is. But, Elle also reaffirms to him that she still isn’t sure if she’s going to be attending or not.
Meanwhile, Charlie is being haunted by Ben (Sebastian Croft). He’s actively pressuring Charlie to speak with him. Then, as Charlie and Nick are leaving the exhibition to go to a dinner party with their respective families, Ben ambushes Charlie outside. He pleads with Charlie to hear him out, apologizing for how he treated Charlie and that he wasn’t ready to be out because his family will never accept it. But, he doesn’t have any true understanding of how he treated Charlie, so Charlie goes in on him with the real narrative about how Ben took control over Charlie from the moment of their first kiss and now, after everything Ben put him through, Charlie still hears a voice in his head telling him he’s worthless. Essentially, he tells Ben to shove off and that he never wants to see him again, which is what will likely happen as Ben won’t be returning to Truham when school resumes.
As everyone sits down to eat at the dinner party, Nick’s brother David (Jack Barton) is being a real dick. He’s dropping hints to their father, Stephane (Thibault de Montalembert), about Nick and Charlie’s relationship — despite Charlie’s sister Tori (Jenny Walser) trying to intercede. Finally, Nick reveals the truth, but not just about his romance with Charlie. He also tells off his father for not really being a father and not seeing them more than twice a year. Stephane puts David in his place for not turning into the man he hoped he would be, causing Sarah to blow up about how Stephane has no right to say anything like that after checking out as a father for so long. It’s a mess, but it ends with Sarah’s never-ending support of Nick, Charlie’s mom coming around to liking Nick, and Tori beautifully breaking David’s phone and threatening him. However, as Nick and Sarah clean up, she notes that Charlie hardly touched her food, leading Nick to Google eating disorders as his concern over Charlie’s wellbeing grows.
Additionally, while out at the shops, Isaac splits off from the group to meet with James and confesses that he doesn’t feel the same way James does after their kiss. Later, at the exhibition, Isaac speaks with one of the artists about their work, which represents coming to terms with being aromantic and asexual, and breaking free of society’s pressures to put love and sex above everything else. And, finally, after her friends helped her buy the perfect suit for prom, Darcy is forced to leave the exhibition early following a nasty text message from her mother. That evening, Darcy is trying on her suit again when her mother walks in. They get into a terrible fight, ending with Darcy leaving as the credits roll. So, what more could possibly be left to tell in the Heartstopper Season 2 finale? Quite a lot, actually.
It’s Prom Day in the ‘Heartstopper’ Season 2 Finale
It’s officially prom day, and since Nick and Charlie are planning to attend together, it’s finally time for the big moment: Nick’s public coming out. But, instead of surprising everyone at the dance, he pulls up a picture of himself and Charlie on Instagram and announces it there. So, he’s out, and now the world feels the need to chime in as he and Charlie look through comments later in the morning. Then, Tao and Elle have their own defining moment as Tao finally asks Elle if she’d like to be his girlfriend. Obviously, she agrees, sealing it with a sweet kiss. Tara isn’t doing so well though. She’s struggling with setting up prom and is way behind schedule, but she’s primarily worried because she hasn’t heard from Darcy since the night before. Luckily, she manages to get her friends to help decorate.
So, as the kids set up, Mr. Ajayi (Fisayo Akinade) — with some encouragement from Coach Singh (Chetna Pandya), who seemingly knows all about their Parisian rendezvous — invites Mr. Farouk (Nima Taleghani) to “chaperone” the dance with him. Then, two fellow students come up to Nick and Charlie to question them about their relationship status, invalidating Nick’s bisexuality and clearly leaving Charlie shaken. When Tao and Nick sit down and talk later, Tao asks Nick about how Charlie’s dealing with it. Nick explains that he thinks Charlie’s kind of happy, but the attention is getting to him. Tao isn’t surprised, and the conversation leads to Tao asking Nick if he knows how bad the bullying was for Charlie. Nick responds by saying that Charlie doesn’t really talk about it, and Tao (shockingly) agrees that he knows very little. This only leaves Nick more concerned for Charlie, especially after he noticed Charlie avoiding eating anything once again. As everyone gets ready for the dance, Tara is still fretting over Darcy, who hasn’t responded to any of her texts. We see, though Tara does not, that Darcy is on a swing at the park, still in her suit and looking exhausted. She watches as a mother cares for her child nearby, something that only hurts due to what happened between her and her own mother. Shortly thereafter, she picks up her things and leaves. Meanwhile, Isaac is at home, struggling to get ready, while Tao is being fake interrogated by Elle’s parents before she leaves him speechless when she walks into the room.
The Dance Is Not As Fun As It Should Be
When everyone arrives, the group questions where Darcy is. Tara covers for her, saying she’s running late, though Tara hasn’t heard anything either. Inside, the rugby boys begin to make comments about Nick and Charlie’s relationship. Harry (Cormac Hyde-Corrin) jokes about Nick finding a boyfriend before any of the other boys got a girlfriend, and then while Elle, Tao, Isaac, and Charlie take a photo, Nick’s friends come up to him and apologize if they ever made him feel weird about telling them and are, generally, nothing but supportive. Later, Tara is desperately searching the dance for Darcy, sending her another text. Nick approaches her, clearly noticing something is wrong. Tara asks him how to talk to someone about something they don’t want to talk about, which Nick understands perfectly given the situation with Charlie’s eating and the bullying he never discusses. Nick explains that, maybe, you just have to try. Then, as Tao and Elle dance, she tells him that she wants to go to Lambert. Isaac goes to the library to get a book about asexuality from the Pride selection, while Mr. Farouk joins Mr. Ajayi at the dance and they make plans for a date. Imogen gazes adoringly at Sahar (Leila Kahn) performing on stage, meaning maybe she isn’t the ally she claimed to be.
The Gang Moves the Party to Nick’s House in the ‘Heartstopper’ Season 2 Finale
Clearly overwhelmed, not enjoying the stares, Charlie asks Nick if they can leave. Nick explains that his house is empty, so they plan to take off with their friends. But, when everyone (sans Tara) sits at their table, Darcy shows up after being missing for the entire day. She asks where Tara is, and they explain that Tara went to find her, cutting to Tara going to Darcy’s house with no idea of what has happened. After an awful interaction with Darcy’s homophobic and judgmental mother, Nick calls Tara to tell her Darcy’s alright and asks her to meet them at his house. Once there, Tara and Darcy finally have a real conversation, which begins with Darcy explaining her phone was dead and that she didn’t go to Tara’s because she didn’t want Tara to know about how awful her life at home is. Darcy opens up about her parents and why she’s kept Tara away, which is due to her not being out to her parents. Darcy admits she wanted to help Tara in her coming out journey and being more comfortable with being a lesbian, but it’s not the whole story for her. This is why, earlier in the season, she couldn’t say “I love you” back because she didn’t know if Tara would actually love her if she knew both sides of her. But, Tara makes it clear that she does before the gang has a fun, relaxing party of their own. When it’s time for everyone to go home, Charlie stays behind with Nick.
Taking his own advice, Nick tries to talk with Charlie about what’s going on with him. He asks about the bullying, and Charlie tries to shut him down by saying everything is fine, but Nick isn’t buying it. Charlie finally talks about how the bullying made him hate himself, leading to him cutting himself sometimes — something he doesn’t do anymore. Nick asks Charlie to promise to tell him if it ever gets that bad again, and the two spend a sweet moment together where Nick almost says the l-word, but they’re interrupted by Sarah’s return. So, Charlie heads home before it’s past his curfew. When Nick closes the door behind Charlie, he looks troubled. Meanwhile, as Charlie walks home, he types “i love you” to Nick, but the episode fades to black before he presses send.
Every episode of Heartstopper is now streaming on Netflix.
The Big Picture
- Heartstopper Season 2 explores the challenges of coming out and navigating relationships, showing the complex journey of characters like Nick, Elle, and Tara.
- The season finale of Heartstopper revolves around prom day, with Nick publicly coming out on Instagram and Charlie dealing with the repercussions of their relationship being questioned.
- The episode ends on a cliffhanger, leaving viewers wondering whether Charlie will finally express his love for Nick after a heartfelt conversation about the impact of bullying.
