The Essex College Food Workers Strike

**The Essex College Food Workers Strike** is the seventh episode of the second season and the seventeenth overall episode of *The Sex Lives of College Girls*.

## Short Summary

Leighton grapples with "dating up" for the first time. Kimberly appeals to an unlikely source for help with the food workers' strike. Whitney sets out to crush her final lab. Bela faces blowback from a misstep.

## Full Summary

Whitney wakes to the sounds of Kimberly and Jackson having sex in Jackson's room. She goes out to the common room, where Leighton and Bela are similarly horrified. They all rush to get out of the room before they finish.

Kimberly comes into Sips and apologizes for being late, which she blames on traffic. Canaan refuses to interpret that as a sex thing and accepts her reasoning. Lila's not there because she's at a meeting. She's adapted well to being the manager. She actually made herself employee of the month, complete with wall plaque. Jodi comes in and asks to talk to them. She is their union rep and explains that the Essex College food workers are going on strike. Essex hasn't given them a raise since 1988 and they're paid less than the food workers on any other campus. Canaan is in favor of more money. The dining hall workers are walking out at noon. The administration won't be happy with them.

Kimberly explains that during the strike, none of them can eat at the dining hall or Sips. Whitney wonders what they're supposed to eat. Kimberly says she bought eggs and has them cooking in the egg cooker. Bela interrupts the conversation to tell them she slept with Dan O'Connell. Leighton is shocked because he's famous. Bela isn't planning to tell Eric, but Kimberly thinks she should. Leighton and Bela disagree.

Leighton wants to know how much time she has to spend at the protest in order not to be a bad friend. Whitney says she hopes zero time because she can't go at all. She has a date to study for biochem. Willow tells Whitney she's become a dork. Whitney says she loves science and it's the final lab of the semester. Willow sees Tatum approaching and alerts Leighton. Tatum is coming from pilates class. Tatum invites her to get dinner, but Leighton says she has plans with Whitney already, but she might be able to meet up for coffee between classes. Once they've walked way from Tatum, Whitney and Willow ask Leighton about that and she says that was her winning by making herself seem cooler. It's working because Tatum just texted her.

Kimberly leads a chant among the striking workers. She's happy to be part of the change, but Canaan doesn't think they're changing anything judging by the people walking right past them into the dining hall. Kimberly wonders why people aren't listening. Canaan says rich students don't care about poor people. Plus it's cheesesteak day. Jodi and Canaan both love cheesesteak, but Kimberly only needs her eggs. Jackson comes up to Kimberly and thinks what she's doing is cool. Despite that, he walks into the dining hall.

Carla is impressed with herself for coming up with 40 pitches. Bela asks her to pick her favorite two. Eric comes in and confronts Bela for sleeping with Dan. He found out from a friend who is an intern on Dan's show. She apologizes. Evangeline says Bela's allowed to hook up with anyone she wants, but Eric informs her that they were supposed to be exclusive, by Bela's choice. Bela tries to explain, but Eric says he's done and leaves. Bela tries to get the other writers on her side, but fails.

Kimberly psychs herself up to call Evette Chase with Canaan. She's awkward on the call, but explains the strike to Evette with Canaan's helps. They need her to speak at the rally to get people's attention. Evette agrees to do it. She owes Whitney a visit anyway.

Leighton joins Tatum for coffee. She explains that she's really busy because she just got into Kappa. Tatum isn't into the Greek scene. Leighton says she has more than just that. She lies and says she's going partying with her party friends. Tatum says she's free and asks to go along. Leighton says she'd love that.

Leighton tells Whitney she lied to Tatum about having a party to go do and now she's stuck. Kimberly wants Leighton to come to her rally, but Leighton doesn't want to. Lila comes to the door looking to yell at Kimberly.

In the hallway, Lila says she can't go on strike because she's management now. Kimberly says she could if she wanted. She should join them, but she runs the risk of being fired. Lila's not sure what she should do because she's in a bad spot. Kimberly tries to bring Jocelyn into it, but Jocelyn wants no part in the argument.

Andrew and Whitney are bickering in the lab when Evette comes in. Evette likes the lab. Andrew thanks Evette for believing in climate change. Evette is proud with Whitney for sticking to biochem. As a surprise, she lined up an NIH internship for Whitney for the summer. Whitney says she was looking forward to finding her own internship. Evette getting involved changes how people see Whitney. Evette says she'll tell them Whitney's not interested. Andrew jumps up to take a picture with Evette before she leaves.

President Lacey explains that the administration cares deeply for the students. For example, they've installed a mental health bubble where students can go to de-stress. Evette explains that that isn't a fix for the mental health crisis in the country. It's just more proof of how out of touch they are. Canaan says with the money they put into the bubble, they could afford to pay workers more. Lacey says it wasn't that expensive and the board won't budge on the rally. Kimberly says the rally will continue as planned.

Leighton goes to Jocelyn and asks if she can get Leighton into a really exclusive party somewhere. She needs to impress someone and doesn't know who else to ask. Jocelyn tells her about a party in the art gallery. Leighton asks if Jocelyn can get her in and Jocelyn agrees to see what she can do.

Bela knocks on Eric's door. She knows he's upset, but she won't leave until he talks to her. Eric's dads answer the door. Bela tries to plead her case to them, but they don't want to hear it. She hurt their son. She says it was one stupid mistake. They tell her Eric is better off without her and she needs to leave him alone. They close the door on her.

Kimberly prepares to record Evette to promote the rally. Chelsea is standing by. Kimberly has prepared a speech for Evette, but it's too wordy, so she pulls out a single quote to use. Evette says Kimberly reminds her of herself, which pleases Kimberly. When Jackson comes by, Kimberly introduces him to Evette. When she sees that he's carrying a container from the dining hall, she explains that they're striking and that by eating at the dining hall, he's crossing the picket line. He didn't realize he expected her to participate in that, but agrees to dump the food.

Leighton and Tatum enter the party. Tatum is impressed. Leighton lies and says her friend is an intern there and is throwing the party. Laird spots Tatum and comes over. He explains that he's throwing the party, revealing that Leighton doesn't actually know the person throwing it. She awkwardly excuses herself.

Whitney is impressed with the turnout, which Kimberly says is all thanks to Evette. Canaan comes up to them and he and Whitney agree it's good to see each other. Kimberly excuses herself and Whitney and Canaan talk briefly.

Kimberly is pleased to see Lila there. Lila says she doesn't want to be the man. She puts on a disguise as they get ready to go and grabs a bunch of water.

Kimberly welcomes everyone to the rally. She introduces Evette Chase. Before Evette can go on, Chelsea tells her the quote Kimberly gave her came from a slave owner. People are coming at her online. Evette is shocked and upset with Kimberly.

Bela confronts Eric as he leaves his building. She begs him for forgiveness, but he tells her to leave him alone. He says she spends a lot of time getting people to like her and then once they do, she moves on to the next person. He pulls out his phone to delete her number and tells her goodbye.

Chelsea tries to rush Evette out of there. Kimberly says they need her. It's better to address things head on instead of letting the news get hold of it first.

Evette gives a speech and admits to what she did. She says she should have looked him up, but they shouldn't let that distract from why they're there. The Essex food workers deserve what they're asking for. Once that's done, she'll get the slave-owner's plaque removed as well.

Tatum finds Leighton and asks if she lied about knowing who planned the party. Leighton admits that she did. She was trying to seem cooler than she was because she thinks Tatum is cooler than her. She's never dated up before. Tatum says she's not calculating if Leighton is worth her time. She already likes her, even after this night. Tatum says she's hot and kisses her.

President Lacey shakes Evette's hand. After he goes into his office, Evette tells Whitney that Lacey is terrified. They're going to agree to the union's demands. Whitney apologizes for her reaction earlier, but Evette gets it. She wanted to help, but she respects Whitney wanting to do it on her own. She knows she can do it. Whitney believes in it herself. Evette says if it stops working, she can get Whitney a job like that.

Kimberly looks through pictures from the rally. She goes to see Jackson and apologizes for being sharp with him. He says he deserved it. So he ordered food from off-campus. They start kissing, but she stops him and says she needs to eat first because she's starving.

Bela sits in the mental health bubble.

Whitney tells Andrew her brain is fried. She killed the lab though. Andrew says it was cool to meet her mom and he took the internship Whitney turned down. He leans in and kisses Whitney.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Pauline Chalamet as Kimberly Finkle
* Amrit Kaur as Bela Malhotra
* Reneé Rapp as Leighton Murray
* Alyah Chanelle Scott as Whitney Chase
* Christopher Meyer as Canaan Greene
* Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Lila Flores
* Renika Williams as Willow
* Lauren "Lolo" Spencer as Jocelyn
* Mekki Leeper as Eric Miller
* Mitchell Slaggert as Jackson

### Guest Stars

* Gracie Dzienny as Tatum
* Charlie Hall as Andrew Fuller
* Matt Malloy as President Tim Lacey
* Leo Reilly as Laird
* Adam J. Harrington as Eric's Dad
* Tuc Watkins as Eric's Dad
* Sierra Katow as Evangeline Hashima
* Isabella Roland as Carla
* Cheyenne Perez as Jo
* Sherri Shepherd as Senator Evette Chase

### Co-Starring

* Nina Gosiengfiao as Chelsea
* Siena East as Jodi