Clare Gets a Wee Lesbian Love Story in Derry Girls’ Final Season

This piece was originally published when Derry Girls’ third season aired in the UK, it was republished today in honor of the show’s Netflix release. 

Derry Girls has consistently been one of the best surprises on TV. It was a revelation, in the beginning, just how legitimately laugh-out-loud funny it was. Like tears streaming down your face, couldn’t hear the follow-up joke over the sound of your own guffawing funny. It was an amazing shock when Clare came out as a wee lesbian in the first season, in the middle of the ’90s in the middle of such a religious town and school. It was an epiphany how, every season, the show managed to balance howling humor with poignant moments of adolescent learning and loss. And, in season three — which aired in the UK last year and landed on Netflix in the US today — it was a jolt of joy when Clare got a love interest. The show has always focused more on the Derry Girls’ friendships than on their love lives, but seeing Clare stumble and bumble her way toward her first kiss was, well, perfect.

Laurie caresses Clare's face at the Fatboy Slim Halloween ball

Clare wasn’t on Derry Girls as much in season three because filming kept getting pushed by Covid, and by the time it was safe for the cast to return to Derry, Nicola Coughlan had a first call with Bridgerton, so that’s where she spent most of her time. The show handled it by having Clare switch schools, which is hilarious in its own way, Clare in a bright pink rainbow sweater flipping out to the gang on her burger phone landline about how confusing girls are. But she’s there as the gang plans to attend a Fatboy Slim Halloween ball.

When they show up at the record store to get their tickets, Clare spots another queer and introduces herself in all caps like HI I’M A LESBIAN! The record store girl says, “Congratulations!” and then asks how many of them there are. Clare says, “Just me. Just the one lesbian. The rest of them are straight.” But really the record store girl just wants to know how many tickets they need. The record girl store is named Laurie, and she tells Clare she’ll be dressed as a clown at the concert, to look out for her.

Of course, when they get there, there’s about a million clowns. When Clare finally tracks Laurie down, they kiss right on their wee lesbian lips, and it’s everything Clare could have hoped for when she accidentally came out back in season one.

Michelle, Orla, Erin, and James are dressed as angels in the hospital

It’s Derry Girls, though, so Clare’s euphoria can’t last forever. What follows her kiss is the news that her dad has had an aneurysm, and all the Girls follow her — dressed as angels — to the hospital to say goodbye to her dad. Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee told Hello!, “The reason why I wanted to do this story is because it happened to my group of friends. My friend’s dad died when we were around that age suddenly and it was a shock. The thing that really struck me was that we did grow up in this place where there was a lot of unpredictable stuff happening — you worried about a lot of violence — and this was a thing that could happen to anybody at any point — a natural cause.”

The Girls engulf Clare with their love in her grief just as much as they do in her joy. Because, while it’s great to see her get an on-screen love interest and for real gay smooch, the heart of this series has always been the main characters’ devotion to each other.

I won’t spoil the final ending of the series for you. It’s worth the wait. And also, it’s not really the end. Not for me anyway. I’ll be watching this show over and over forever. I hope you will too. It’s tough being an individual on your own.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

9 Comments

  1. This episode and the Agreement had me in tears! And I don’t cry with tv shows. My ONLY problem with the final season is we never found out WHY Michelle’s mother told Mary she could keep the big bowl!

  2. I know quality over quantity is great and all but I really do wish shows like ‘Peep Show’ and ‘Derry Girls’ had more episodes, even ten a season would have been so great.

    I recently discovered a sketch show, ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie’ which stars Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry and it’s delightful but I binged it in a weekend.

    Meanwhile my dad has 700 episodes of ‘NCIS’, ‘NCIS Los Angeles’, ‘NCIS New Orleans, NCIS Hawaii’,

  3. Gah – when Clare came out to Erin, Erin was so shitty about it in exactly the way a self-centered, Catholic 16yo would be in the 90s. It was so real, it was about my favorite scene in season 1.

Contribute to the conversation...

Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation and thanks for stopping by!