The Radical Power of Queer Intimacy in Season Two of "Heartstopper"

The second season of the beloved Netflix series shows just how transformative, and life-affirming, queer expressions of intimacy can be.

When I watched the first season of Heartstopper last year, I was quite simply blown away. As I wrote at the time, I was particularly entranced by the way that the series dealt so deftly with the issue of intimacy, and how a great deal of the pleasure in the series stems from watching Nick and Charlie learning how to open up to one another, how to let the other into their hearts. If anything, the emotional intimacy and honesty of Heartstopper is on even greater display with the second season than it was in the first, as both Nick and Charlie and their coterie of friends and acquaintances have to navigate the fraught world of adolescent desire and relationships. 

Now that Charlie and Nick are finally boyfriends, each of them has new struggles with which they have to contend. For Nick, the pressure is on to come out, particularly since he knows that doing so would allow them to display their feelings openly to their peers. At the same time, he also notices some troubling things about Charlie, particularly the fact that he doesn’t seem to eat nearly enough. Charlie, on the other hand, still feels the shadow of his past, particularly the bullying he endured at the hands of his classmates and the legacy of his failed relationship with Ben. Despite all of these trials, however, the emotional and physical bond between the two young men only grows more intense, and their deep intimacy ensures that each is a rock upon which the other knows they can depend.

Most notably, their newfound intimacy is expressed through hugs, and I don’t think there’s a single episode of the season in which they don’t embrace at least once (and often several times). Each time that they do so, it’s a reminder to one another that when the chips are down, when the world seems like it is slipping beyond their control, they always can count on one another. They also express their physical intimacy through repeated bouts of kissing and, while there is the suggestion that things might go further–Nick accidentally gives Charlie a hickey while they’re in Paris–they stop short. For the two of them their kissing and hugging is an expression not just of their obvious physical desire but also, and just as importantly, of their feeling of comfort with one another. There is a powerful vulnerability inherent in the act of touch, and Heartstopper never lets us forget it.

The intimacy on display in Heartstopper isn’t just about hugs and kissing, as important as those are. It’s there too in the way that Charlie and Nick gaze at one another, their longing written plain on their faces. Each time they look at one another, their mutual adoration is palpable, so much so that you can’t help but feel yourself swept up in this expression of the unparalleled joy of first love. Just as those “hi”s did in the first season, these looks serve to remind us of how much these two have already started to fall in love. Even though they never come right out and say it to each other, you can feel it in the air, floating like those little pastel-colored hearts that periodically make an appearance. 

There is, however, a darker strain to these intimate looks, however, and this is particularly true where Nick is concerned. As he grows more alarmed and concerned about Charlie’s obvious eating disorder, we feel his angst as he gazes with troubled eyes at his boyfriend’s barely-touched plate. We feel with him as he tries to find a way to get through the wounded and struggling Charlie despite the latter’s devoted attempts to make it appear as if everything is fine, that no one, least of all Nick, has to look after him or feel as if he’s a burden. This all comes to a head in one of the final scenes of the season, in which the two of them sit on the floor and Charlie finally shares some of the deeper, darker secrets that he’s hidden, even from Nick. He forthrightly confesses to a great deal of pain and hurt and humiliation he experienced as a result of the bullying; he even admits to cutting himself. It’s raw and painful and heartbreaking, but it is also liberating, as both Nick and Charlie feel that they can show one another the rawest of their emotional and psychic wounds, without fear that the other will feel alienated or distanced. This is what true love looks like, and Heartstopper nails it.

Explorations of intimacy are not just limited to the central couple, however, for while the first season of Heartstopper was very much Nick and Charlie’s story, its sophomore outing sees it expanding the frame to bring its other characters more into the spotlight. As a result, we get to see more of Tao and Elle, whose own romance has its own rocky beginnings, as they each have to find ways of opening up to one another rather than assuming that the other knows how they feel. There’s such remarkable tenderness between William Gao and Yasmin Finney, and it’s a genuine pleasure to see them finally start on their own romantic journey. Likewise, both Darcy and Tara have to navigate lots of fraught emotional territory,  as each has to deal with their own emotional issues (particularly the use of the “l” word), and we’re also invited into Isaac’s world as he comes to the realization he’s ace.

Just as importantly, the intimacy of Heartstopper extends to its entire universe. This is the type of show that invites us into its decidedly queer world, one in which even adults get their own joyous encounters. There’s a particularly poignant moment in Paris in which teachers Youssef Farouk and Nathan Ajayi witness Charlie and Nick engaging in a little late-night encounter.  "When you don't figure out you're gay until your late 20s, you tend to miss out on those beautiful gay teenage experiences," Youssef remarks ruefully as our protagonists go back to their room. "It's probably a bit late for me to have any youthful moments of discovery." As it turns out, he does get to have a very formative gay experience, when the two men share a tender, poignant kiss (and, it’s hinted, very much more). In the world that Heartstopper has given us, it’s never too late to experience that profound sense of intimacy, and it can be as exciting (and terrifying) when one is in adulthood as it is in adolescence. 

So often as queer people we’re asked to keep a part of ourselves hidden, to lock our identities and our feelings and our rage and happiness and our joy and our sadness behind strong walls, so that the world will never see us as weak or vulnerable. Like Charlie, so many of us are so desperate to make our worlds perfect, to not be a burden to those that we love, that we deny these parts of ourselves, creating barricades between us and those we love the most. Heartstopper reminds us that there is a power to a specifically queer form of intimacy. Like Elle, who reveals in a painting that she feels safest and happiest when she is with her group of friends, Heartstopper invites us to feel the same way about the world that it has created. We’re allowed to just exist in this utopian little world where it seems everyone–except for possibly Imogen–falls somewhere on the queer spectrum. Even though, as Charlie points out, homophobia is still alive and well in our world, in the space of Heartstopper it can at least be dealt with and vanquished through the power of queer joy, queer intimacy, and queer love. Given how difficult life can be for queer folks (particularly queer youngsters) in the real world of today, utopian spaces like this one are more important than ever.

Whether it’s in the tender moments when Nick and Charlie hold hands or when Charlie playfully calls Nick a “great rugby idiot,” Heartstopper shows us again and again the transformative power of queer intimacy in all of its forms. The chemistry between each of the respective couples–but especially between Kit Connor and Joe Locke–is truly off the charts, and this allows us to believe in their love as much as they do. We want Nick and Charlie to work out as a couple because they are a reminder that there is so much queer love in the world that just needs a chance to flower and grow and mature. For those of us who grew up with few such role models, they represent a future that we couldn’t have even imagined when we were growing up. 

I’m sure that there are even more intimate moments coming in the third (and hopefully fourth!) seasons but, in the meantime, I’ll just be thankful that we got a second season of a beloved series that managed to be even better and more resonant than the first.