Spoiler alert: Spoilers for Euphoria Season 3 follow. After the first episode of the highly anticipated Season 3 of Euphoria, it seems the show is experimenting with a whole new aesthetic — but one tactic that stays tried and true is creator Sam Levinson’s knack for over-the-top scenes. The high school drama (turned Western crime thriller?) now follows Rue (Zendaya) and her sidekick Faye (Chloe Cherry) navigating the dark and twisted world of being drug mules. And let me tell you, things get gross.
The drug-addict besties take a quick trip to Mexico where they are featured in a dim-lit room using lube to shove dozens of cling-wrapped balloons of fentanyl down their throats. Bellies full, the gassy pair returns over the border back to California to deliver the goods to their soft-spoken-yet-no-nonsense boss, Laurie. The delivery method? Pooping into a strainer (the same strainer used to serve spaghetti later that evening) before washing them off and preparing them for delivery.
Of course, making this scene revolting was precisely Levinson’s intention. In fact, Cherry told DECIDER that Levinson needed these scenes to be as gross as possible. “He was like, ‘I really, really, really need to see in the scene that it is absolutely disgusting to swallow these fentanyl balloons. Like, I need it to be just awful. I need people to just see that it is so disgusting and hard and horrible to do this,’” Cherry said. “And I’m hoping that people could see that.”
The audience definitely did, and they have taken to the internet to express their reactions.
Levinson lightens up the intolerable scene with infallible fart humor. Faye can’t contain herself as they make their way through customs, and even Cherry finds the contrast amusing. “At first I was just like, ‘Oh my god, people aren’t going to want to watch this. Like, this is too gross,’” Cherry said. “Then once I watched it back and I was like, ‘Farts are kind of funny, I guess.’”
Not only is this method disgusting, it’s also dangerous: if a single balloon bursts, the drug mule will immediately die — another unsavory scene viewers had to endure. Unfortunately, this life — or $43 million dollars — is the price Rue has to pay for the infamous suitcase full of flushed drugs all those years ago.
Speaking of that time jump, the third season of Euphoria picks up several years after high school. Minding her own business working at a smoke shack, Rue was tracked down by a very unhappy Laurie demanding money for all of the drugs she lost. She certainly didn’t have $100,000 — which is the negotiated price Laurie landed on — so Rue found herself stuck being Laurie’s lackey. Naturally, she didn’t want to do this alone, so she roped Faye into accompanying her.
This grotesque scene is one of many memorable moments from the first episode that sets the expectation for more absurdity to come throughout the rest of the season. Hopefully, for viewers and the actors, it’s not as gross as being a drug mule.