After a tortuous, week-long intermission, Euphoria delivered its final act (for now). A lot of drugs, memes, tears and penises have led to this episode. The most tweeted show of the decade ends on a more muted note resembling those of the special episodes. Overall this season has cut back on the glitz and glamor from the first and relies on its ensemble cast. (Spoilers ahead, obviously.)
#Rexi & “Our Life”
At last, Rue and Lexi have reunited. Only time will tell if it’s for good or not, but after several tough episodes, it felt almost peaceful seeing them together, healthy and calm. Their emotional conversation about their trauma and Lexi’s play was raw and honest and a turning point for Rue’s character.
Speaking of Lexi’s play, what a triumph. A beautiful reflection of the way things used to be that was briefly delayed due to the Internet’s most anticipated fight between Cassie and Maddy. The necessary smackdown fell a little flat. Personally I think Maddy didn’t hit Cassie enough times but I rejoiced in seeing Maddy end up without a single scratch. She might not be healed from Nate, but she’s moving on, evident in her warning to Cassie, “Don’t worry, this is just the beginning.” Also, makes me wonder: where the hell is security in this school?
#Rules & Elliot’s Tiny Room Concert
Rules have run their course. With a kiss on Jules’s forehead, Rue chooses herself. However, Jules in this episode receives the Kat treatment with little to no screen time and two or three lines of dialogue. Even after the complicated and hurtful exchange from episode five, Jules deserves a few more lines than that.
Rue, who is making amends amidst her recovery, apologizes to Elliot and he proceeds to sing for four minutes. The scene was one of the most talked about on Twitter, causing even Dominic Fike to react. Elliot’s song to Rue was written by Zendaya and Labrinth, so slander is not tolerated. Did it go on for too long? Sure, but Fike’s voice is smoother than the cream cheese on my bagel, so who cares? Even my best friend sitting next to me said, “There weren’t a lot of ways to win me over, but he managed to find one of them.”
#Fexi & Ashtray’s Death
Justice for Fexi. The beloved pair didn’t get any more time together, just two sorta socially distanced couch scenes and several phone calls. Lexi dedicating her play to Fez not only tugs at our heartstrings but reassures us how they feel about each other. The slow-burn couple almost came out of nowhere early on but fans loved it, so the fate of their relationship will be incredibly anticipated.
Season two started with the story of how Ashtray ended up in Fezco’s life, and the season closed with Ashtray leaving it. The hotheaded little brother stabbed Custer, but the cops were already on their way to Fez’s and Faye proved her loyalty by trying to throw Laurie under the bus. There’s potential for future episodes in Fez grappling with his brother’s passing and fans are already eager to find out what happens after his arrest. If anything, the death scene proved Angus Cloud has some real acting chops.
Daddy Issues, Loose Ends & Sam Levinson Controversy
Nate, who suspiciously seems to be getting a redemption arc, crashes Cal’s party and surprises him (and me — it wasn’t long ago he was going through great lengths to protect his dad) by calling the cops on him. It needed to happen but there’s something off putting in Nate doing the right thing especially when he’s constantly manipulating and abusing the women he gets close to.
There is a whole laundry list of plot points left up in the air. For starters, Rue still owes the incredibly scary Laurie a lot of money, Jules and Elliot’s situationship, and they also leave us to assume Rue’s mom ended up getting her into rehab. This has been one of the main criticisms from fans last night. Though if you’ve been around the Internet every Sunday night for the past few weeks, then you know this show is the subject of heavy discourse and has a bulky track record of controversies, most of them belonging to creator/writer/director Sam Levinson. The biggest critique being that he showcases excessive nudity, fails to bring resolution to many storylines, and struggles at writing numerous characters at the same time, on top of allegedly cutting back on Kat’s scenes and lines due to an argument on set with Barbie Ferreira. It might be worth keeping an eye on how HBO handles these concerns because they could always just ignore it, though I doubt it will go away. Despite the criticism, Euphoria seems to have secured a loyal fanbase.
Lexi’s scene stealer stage manager, Bobbi, describes it best: “It could be worse. It could be boring.”
Good news & bad news
Luckily for us, Euphoria has already been renewed for season 3 so we will be seeing our favorite characters again. (I personally would like to see them do a time jump to summer break after their first year of college, but that’s just me.) Zendaya is booked and busy with a hefty schedule that includes Dune: Part Two (filming to begin July 2022, to be released in October 2023), where she’ll reprise the role of Chani, and The Challengers (set to begin filming in the spring), where she’ll play the leading role of tennis player turned coach. It is also rumored she’ll star in Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded passion project, Megalopolis.
Now the bad news: this means we won’t get any Euphoria content until 2024. And Zendaya liked a few tweets about this so she’s definitely as sad as we are.
That is unless the creative team plans to make special episodes like they did in December 2020 and January 2021 due to filming delays because of the pandemic. These specials were critically acclaimed and stand out in the show’s history. (Their tagline was: “This is not Season 2” so the hypothetical special episodes’ tagline can totally be “This is not Season 3.” Sam Levinson, I am basically doing your job for you.)