Ever since its debut on June 19th 2019, Euphoria has become an internationally recognized series that has garnered over millions of viewership per episode and has made it’s cast some of the most influential actors in Hollywood. Variety claims that “according to HBO, “Euphoria” Season 2 episodes average around 16.3 million viewers, which is the best performance for any season of an HBO series over the past 18 years, other than “Game of Thrones,” which pulled in an average of 46 million viewers across its eighth and final season in 2019.” Not to mention, most of the casts’ careers had skyrocketed to superstardom, with Zendaya winning an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 72nd Emmy Awards in 2020. Even though the final episode of season 2 felt like an actual finale to the series, HBO announced that Euphoria will be returning for season 3 in 2024. Hence here is a breakdown of the season 2 finale and what we can expect for season 3. *(Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead)*
S2 FINALE BREAKDOWN:
Near the close of Lexi’s play, she thanks Fez for inspiring her of the play. Even though Lexi was very hesitant to do the play because she was worried about Cassie’s reaction, Fez still supported her and understood her intentions were good. “Sometimes people need to get their feelings hurt.”, Fez told Lexi, not only did we get the Fexi ship to sail, but we as the viewers understood that Lexi’s intentions were good even though the play was excruciating to watch for our main characters.
Even though Cassie was portrayed as overly sensitive, Forbes’s Dani Di Placio claims that to be “on team Cassie in this situation – the girl might have made her share of mistakes, but Lexi has written a montage of Cassie’s most embarrassing moments and broadcasted them to the whole school, on a literal stage, with zero effort made to cover her source of inspiration. The play doesn’t seem like an explosion of repressed creativity, but an underhanded act of revenge from a sidelined sibling.” This situation has become a main discourse in the Euphoria fandom, having some viewers sympathize with Cassie but also understand why this play needed to be done. Not to mention, we got to finally have Maddy confront Cassie for starting a relationship with her ex, Nate Jacobs.
While Twitter went on a frenzy with the Cassie vs. Maddy memes, there was a lot of compelling scenes in the finale. (And yes, I am talking about Ash’s death and Nate confronting his father.) After Lexi’s play, Nate decided to confront his father in his new hangout spot, he seems to be infuriated by the fact that Cal has achieved some form of peace or content with himself. “All Cal wants, it seems, is to have sex until the sun goes down, then have more sex. But Nate does what he so desperately tried to avoid just two episodes previously, and puts his dad in prison, having copied all of Cal’s tapes and sent them to the police (we can assume that Cal had more than one underage encounter).” We the viewers can only think if his father was just honest with himself and did not push so much toxic masculinity onto Nate, we could have seen a more empathetic and loveable Nate Jacobs. Unfortunately we don’t, Nate executed this plan and Cal will be facing the consequences for what he did to Jules. As for Fez and Ashtray, Custer ended up working with the cops to rat out Fez for Mouse’s murder. However, best girl Faye came to the rescue, she does a good job misdirecting the situation so Fez could not be framed for the murder and uses Laurie as a scapegoat. Unfortunately, Fez cannot save Ash from getting killed from the cops due to murdering Custer, and gets killed.
With all the gut-wrenching scenes this episode was giving us, we got to see Rue being genuinely nice to Jules after the play ends and seems to be more content with herself after quitting drugs. Perhaps the weirdest part of the plot was the return of Elliot, who explains why he destroyed Rue’s relationship with Jules and getting Rue addicted to drugs through a song…..which led to multiple memes on Twitter roasting the song for getting so much screen time.
what to expect for S3:
After the soul-crushing finale of season 2, you’ll be happy to know that HBO has Season 3 set for 2024 and the cast will be returning with their respective roles. The biggest speculation of course is “What will happen to Fez?” Fez was arrested during the finale after being accidently shot by Ashtray, fans have made some memes that Fez will mostly likely be in jail or on trail for Mouse’s murder.
While fans are posting memes onto to Twitter, there have been multiple Reddit pages dedicated to predictions on what will happen for the upcoming season. Here are some predictions for Season 3 of Euphoria:
RUE FINALLY BECOMING SOBER:
Rue’s drug addiction has led her to terrible things throughout the series, however it was hinted during Rue’s finale narration that she was able to stay sober throughout the remainder of the semester. Redditor weebwell claims that “I’m pretty sure Sam said eventually Rue is gonna be ok, she’s gone downhill this season but yeah next season she could get sober and that could be the end of euphoria. Tbh I’d be worried about any more than 3 seasons, I love euphoria but don’t want it to become a long running show as I feel like that inevitably leads to lower quality.” With this becoming a more meaningful direction for Rue’s character to go in, we can finally see Rue’s character arch finally coming to an end. Some fans claimed Season 3 will end this way due to Zendaya’s current work schedule since is one of the most high-demand actresses in Hollywood. However, Zendaya was able to manage filming for Euphoria while being on Spiderman 3: No Way Home and Dune. Therefore, we can expect Zendaya to hopefully continue on Euphoria, especially with her busy schedule.
BARBIE MAY NOT RETURN:
One of the things that fans speculated during the Season 2 was the abandonment of Kat’s character and her storyline. Also, there was some tensions between Barbie and Sam Levinson on set which may have been the cause of having less screen time and possibly Kat’s character being written off for Season 3. Some reddit user have been aware of the supposed drama and some may thing that Kat will not be shown in Season 3 all together. Reddit user YoungMenace21 replied to their worry, saying, “Ooo Barbie on thin ice rn.”
rue and jules won’t get back together:
Even though Rue and Jules have a complicated relationship, (especially with Elliot in the picture) it can be predicted that Rue and Jules will not be getting back together. In time, I am sure they will reconcile and this will be one of Rue’s main relationships she will be fixing in regards to her becoming sober. Also, Jules needs to spend time to herself, thinking about her problems and a lot of self-reflection from past trauma. This could help the characters become more self-sufficient without relying on one another for emotional support.
the final chapter:
Some fans have started speculating that Season 3 of Euphoria will be the final season of the show. Having everyone graduate from high school and moving on with their lives, this could possibly be the end of Euphoria. Reddit user rawkfanseth states “I hope it doesn’t go forever. I hate when shows go too long with a young cast. Like at the end of that 70s show they were like 40 and trying to play them off as high schoolers.” No matter how many redemption arcs we get or relationships fixed, the ending will still be bittersweet , we have no idea what will happen to our beloved characters after high school or at least give us hope that their lives will get better.