Watever

Yes, it’s true that there’s pretty much no lucaya interaction in the last episode, but given where the story currently stands, I wouldn’t expect anything else. 

There’s a distance between Lucas and Maya in most of the post Ski Lodge episodes (minus some great moments here and there, like the back jump in Bear or the potentially veryyyy interesting subtext of Lucas’ actions in A Christmas Maya. Oh, or a funny little thing he’s rather excited about in Her Monster). That’s a fact and, while the intentionality and meaning behind that is really up for debate until we see the final cut of the episodes, I do think it’s curious and potentially quite the opposite of the death knell that some people think it is. 

The whole idea with Maya and Lucas (from the start, really) is that they can’t be just friends. That point has been hammered home quite a few times and I think it’s very possible that that’s what we’ll see playing out in the back half of season 3. A lot of their interactions that we grew really accustomed to in season 2 would be majorly questionable if they were happening while Lucas was dating Maya’s best friend. Jokes about being able to contain her in Rileytown, the up close and personal hahurrs, the intense staredown in Creativity, the flirtatious “I’ve been waiting for you, Partner” followed by the equally flirtatious seat pat and eyebrow raise in STEM, etc. would be super inappropriate for either of them to really engage in now that Lucas is dating Riley.

But here’s the thing, that was their relationship. That was how they interacted and engaged and it more or less has been from the start. It was less of an issue when Riley and Lucas were floating around in their nebulously undefined thing, but now they are a thing. They are officially a thing and, to Lucas’ credit, he seems very focused on being the consummate Mr. Perfect. He wouldn’t hurt Riley and Maya wouldn’t let him. 

Basically, Riley and Lucas are together and to expect hardcore lucaya interaction at this point is just kind of silly. Plus, there’s the added element of “Lucas and Maya can’t be just friends”. Right now, that’s what they need to be, but they’re not so great at just being that, hence the distance (whose intentionality, I will willfully admit, is totally up for debate). 

But all of that said, the foundation is there. The parallels are there. The feelings are there. There’s a reason Lucas’ feelings for Maya were never shut down. He still liked her up to the very minute she told him to go to Riley if he cared about her. He’s flirtatiously joking about Maya taking her chances by sitting next to him in front of the fire place, in the same episode that he eventually DTRs with Riley. My point is that his feelings for her were never discredited. Feelings don’t just go away and Lucas never denied feeling them for Maya, whatever she may or may not have felt for him.