What is Derry Girls Season 3 about?

After years of rumors, starts, stops, and delays, Derry Girls season 3 is finally coming to an American audience this Friday, October 7, on Netflix. The hilarious, dysfunctional gang is back together for one final run.

The show centers around a group of friends who attend Our Lady Immaculate College, an all-girls Catholic secondary school in Derry (“or Londonderry depending on your persuasion”) during the turbulent early 1990s. But despite the often dire events of the Troubles constantly intersecting with their daily lives, this band of lovable outcasts shines through with relentless, often jaw-dropping, humor.

Last we saw in season 2, Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Orla (Louisa Harland), and James (Dylan Llewellyn) had alienated an entire school of Protestant boys at an overnight camp for peacebuilding, swapped “funny” scones at a family funeral, and eluded an escaped polar bear on their way to a Take That concert.

What is Derry Girls season 3 about?

The final episode ended with the 1994 IRA ceasefire and a visit from President Bill Clinton (and maybe Chelsea?), a significant step in the buildup to the Good Friday Agreement signed later that decade. James was forced to choose between returning to England with his indifferent mother and remaining with his new “family” in Derry. As the girls wait for hours outside to see the President speak, we see James from a distance declare, “I am a Derry girl!” bringing the entire group back together.

The last season already aired this past Spring on Channel 4 in the UK. It picked up where the previous season ended. The girls continue their shenanigans in Northern Ireland amid the softening political tensions of the period. And now that James, a British outsider in Catholic Derry, is firmly entrenched with this crew, who knows what wild directions these final few episodes will take?

Beyond the main cast, the trailer revealed the return of all our favorite characters—the always deadpan Sister Michael; the ever-credulous Father Peter; the hilariously acerbic Grandpa Joe; and the regularly berated Gerry—and a lot more Cranberries, who supply the natural soundtrack to this comedy. Word on the street is that we even get a surprise cameo from Chelsea Clinton at some point this season.

However it unfolds, followers of this now cult classic are in store for a fun and raucous final ride.