Sex Education: Who is the father of Jean Milburn’s daughter Joy?

In today’s article about Sex Education finale, we’ve to talk about Jean Milburn and her baby, Joy. 

Jean gives birth to Joy at the end of season 3, shortly after realizing that Jakob is not the father of her baby. Jean and Jakob had been in a relationship since season 1. However, he leaves Jean when he finds out that the child is not his. 

Sex Education season 4 reveals that Dan is Joy’s father. Jean slept with Dan while dating Jakob and ended up conceiving Joy. 

Although she is unable to talk about it with anyone and does not inform Dan about it, the finale hints that she finally conjures up the courage to tell him in the end. 

1. Who is Dan in Sex Education?

Dan is a bank employee in Moordale and one of Jean’s previous sexual partners in Sex Education. He is the father of Jean’s daughter, Joy. 

He is introduced in season 1 of the show as a lover of motorcycles who has frequent casual sex with Jean Milburn. In the very first episode, he mistakes Otis’s room for the washroom and enters without permission when Otis is pretending to masturbate. 

He is a recurring character in season 1 because of his relationship with Jean. We also realize that he is much younger than her, as Otis keeps teasing him about having an Oedipus complex.

In season 3, Jean cheats on Jakob with Dan. The two have sex, leading to Jean’s pregnancy. Since she was already dating Jakob, she naturally assumed that Jakob was the father of her child. However, on Jakob’s insistence, she gets a DNA test done, which reveals that Jakob is not Joy’s father. 

In season 4, we meet Dan again as an employee at the Smithdale bank. Unaware that Joanna is Jean’s sister, he asks her out on a date and later ends up sleeping with her. In the course of this season, Jean admits to Joanna that Dan is Joy’s father. But she does not inform Dan about this until the finale. 

2. Does Jean tell Dan about Joy?

Yes. In the Sex Education finale, it is hinted that Jean finally tells Dan that he is Joy’s father. However, since their relationship was strictly casual, Jean will probably continue to be a single mother to Joy. 

In the finale, Jean invites Dan over to her house. Earlier this season, Dan suffers due to a motorbike accident and has a fling with Jean’s sister, Joanna. 

We do not actually see the conversation between Jean and Dan where she tells him about Joy. But it is strongly hinted that she called him over to tell him that he is Joy’s father. Since the series will not be renewed, I guess we will never know how Dan reacted to the news. 

3. About Sex Education

Sex Education is a British comedy-drama streaming television series created by Laurie Nunn for Netflix. It premiered on January 11, 2019 and has an ongoing manga adaptation that began serialization on July 15, 2022.

It follows the story of Otis Milburn, an awkward teenager who is trying to navigate his life through high school. He is trying to find his own sexuality while helping others in his school with their pressing sexual problems in his makeshift sex clinic. His source of advice? His mother, Dr. Jean Milburn, a real sex therapist and his biggest source of embarrassment.