Warning: this article contains spoilers for season 2 of Euphoria
Since dropping in June of 2019, the hit drama series Euphoria, has kept fans eagerly waiting for the second season to air. After a long hiatus, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the show’s season 2 premiere broke HBO Max’s record ratings. The highly popular show focuses on the lives of several teenagers as they navigate heavy topics including drug addiction, family issues, abusive relationships, teen pregnancy, and many more. It seems the characters of the show can never get a break. With the new episode airing this Sunday, I’ve written a little recap for everyone to catch up or to read it and decide whether they want to watch this show.
Episode 1: Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door
The first episode held nothing back for the viewers, as the show starts with a woman (played by Kathrine Narducci who was a cast member of HBO hit The Sopranos) walking into a seedy strip club during the day. Dressed in a light blue suit and carrying a gun she walks to the backroom where a man is getting pleasured and shoots him multiple times before leaving. As this is happening, Rue the main character is narrating and the viewers realize this is Fez’s grandma and the man she shot was Fez’s father. His grandma goes back to the car, where a young Fez with a black eye looks at her, and she says that he is “going to live with grandma now.” Shortly the clips cut to Fez being raised by his grandmother, a tough woman who doesn’t take anything from anyone. She teaches Fez everything that he needs to know about the business and family. The viewers also learn how Fez became a brother. One of his grandma’s clients left his brother, Ashtray, at their house as a baby and never came back for him. The trio was unconventional but clearly loved each other. After Fez’s grandma ends up in a comatose state, either by drugs or a medical issue, it shows how Fez and Ashtray end up taking over the business.
Cut to the present day, Rue, already on drugs, is in the backseat of Fez and Ashtray’s car as they drive to a drug deal on New Year’s Eve. They arrive at a motel, where Custer and his girlfriend Faye are. Custer goes with Fez and Ashtray, while Faye sits in the back with Rue. While in the car, Faye shoots up heroin much to Rue’s discomfort. The deal ends up putting everyone in a perilous situation as one of the men forces everyone to strip down in case they’re wearing a wire. After the commotion settles down, the drug dealer a former schoolteacher named Laurie apologizes to Fez and asks if he’s ready for business.
While Fez, Rue, and Ashtray all head back from the drug deal, the scene cuts to a large house party filled with students. Maddy, Jules, and Kat are all arriving to the party. Rue is at the top floor of the party and sees Jules walking inside the party. Maddy is running to find the bathroom when she runs into Lexi who is frantically trying to find Cassie after they got into a huge fight on the way to the party.
The scene flashes to Cassie at a gas station as she drunkenly orders a pack of doughnuts. Nate arrives at that same gas station, using a fake ID to order a case of beers, and spots Cassie sitting outside. He hands her a bottle and offers to drive her to the party. In the car, Nate speeds up the car faster causing Cassie to spill beer everywhere. The two make eye contact, as she takes off her underwear and sticks her body out of the window.
Back to the current situation, Maddy tells Lexi that Cassie is fine and would never miss a party before she bangs on the bathroom door. On the other side of the bathroom door, Cassie and Nate are having sex when they hear Maddy’s voice. Almost catching the two in the bathroom, Cassie hides in the bathroom while Maddy pushes past Nate who tries to talk to her. In the living room, Lexi is still trying to find Cassie and gives up. She sits next to Fez, who strikes up a conversation with her. Rue walks back into the party after taking some leftover drugs that Faye left in Fez’s car. She accidentally walks in on Elliot, a new character this season, doing a line of coke. The two do lines together, but Rue is hit much harder by the effects. Going into cardiac arrest, Rue asks Elliot to crush up the Adderall she has hidden in her sock. After her heartbeat comes back, Elliot admits he isn’t sure if it’s a good idea they met, which Rue dismisses calling him her new favorite person.
Jules is walking through the party and looking for Rue and finds Kat outside, as Kat admits she thought that Jules and she would be better friends, insinuating about Jules and Rue’s relationship. Fez and Lexi dive into topics of religion and morals, enjoying each other’s company. McKay, Cassie’s ex-boyfriend, arrives at the party and notices Maddy going to dance with another guy. Nate admits that he messed up and wants to make it right with Maddy. Lexi, having finally found Cassie, runs into Maddy and McKay. Maddy instantly hugs her, having no idea that she had sex with Nate before McKay asks Cassie if they can talk. Guilt-ridden, Cassie tells McKay that she doesn’t think she’s a good person, and he just nods and walks away. Nate finds McKay and increasingly asks McKay a series of erratic and inappropriate questions, freaking McKay out.
Rue and Jules lock eyes by the bonfire, seeing each other for the first time since season 1’s finale. Jules asks Rue when did she relapse and if she’s on any drugs. After some avoiding the question, Rue admits she relapsed the night Jules left. As Jules and Rue are talking, inside Fez takes his cue to leave and asks Lexi for her phone number. Rue gets up when Ashtray grabs her, bidding Jules goodbye.
The scene cuts and every character is shown with huge flashes of light in slow motion. Rue and Jules make their way back to each other, tearfully saying they’ve missed each other as they kiss. Fez makes his way to the bar, where Nate stands, and wishes him a happy new year. Nate asks Fez about the threat he made, threatening to kill Nate. Fez shrugs it off, pouring two glasses of vodka, and tells Nate it’s a new year before smashing the bottle on Nate’s head and beating him up. The episode ends with Nate all bloody and beat up from Fez, while Rue and Jules stare with wide eyes.
Episode 2: Out of Touch
The second episode immediately follows the events of the previous one. Nate is rushed to the hospital by Maddy and Cassie. All bloody and bruised, he refuses to name his attacker to his dad, Cal. Nate in the hospital is cut with scenes of him fantasizing a future with Cassie, who he is now in love with. He forgoes that fantasy with Cassie however because Maddy still has the tapes of his dad performing sexual acts with Jules and a number of other people.
On the first day of school for the new year, Rue and Jules are walking together before running into Elliot. Rue’s strange behavior about knowing Elliot causes Jules to get upset, as she gets tearful and walks off. Headed towards the bathroom, Jules says hi to Cassie who is suffering from her own problems. Rue narrates that Cassie has been in a low-grade depression since formal, mostly linked to her abortion from last season but also due to her need to be loved. She is also struggling with her guilt of sleeping with Nate because Maddy is her best friend, convincing herself she would never have said yes to Nate if Maddy and Nate were still dating. Maddy herself is also struggling with her feelings for Nate despite his abuse during their relationship.
Kat’s relationship with Ethan is discussed in the girl’s bathroom with Maddy and their friend BB. Both girls complain about why they can’t have a healthy and sweet relationship like Kat has with Ethan. It cuts to a fantasy scene of Kat and Ethan making out on her bed before he is murdered by a Dothraki-like warrior(Game of Thrones anyone?) and then Kat and said warrior end up having sex. The scene heavily implies that because she has consumed and written so much graphic fanfic she cannot cope with a healthy relationship.
Nate is discharged from the hospital, and Cal won’t leave the situation alone, wanting to know who beat his son up like that. Nate refuses to tell him. Cassie calls him later that night having a breakdown over what they did at the New Year’s Eve party. Nate promises Cassie that they can speak in person next weekend, but warns that Maddy will spend her life trying to kill him, but she’ll actually kill her. Cassie sees Maddy and instantly runs to the bathroom where Jules was headed in the first part of the episode.
The scene changes from Cassie and follows Jules who goes to a stall and cries. Jules and Rue argue walking out of school, where Jules claims that Rue has a crush on Elliot. She accuses Rue that she does because she acted weird when he said they met on New Year. Jules leaves to go home, and Elliot sees Rue in the hallway. He says that they should do drugs and Rue gladly agrees.
Cassie comes home and sees Cal in her dining room. He wants to know who was the one who beat Nate up at the party. After threatening to go to the police, and look through everyone’s phones, Cassie admits it was Fez because of her messages with Nate. Lexi and Cassie end up in an argument over it, where Cassie tearfully slams the bathroom door. Lexi thinks about herself and decides that she no longer wants to be a passive person. She rides her bike to Fez’s convenience store to warn him about Cal. As she bikes to his store, Cal is sitting in his truck watching them and pulls a gun to load it.
Rue and Elliot are doing drugs before she has to go to her Narcotics Anonymous meeting. They talk about Jules, and how Rue is scared to lose her. Elliot brings up again his concern if they should be friends because they don’t bring out the best in each other. Rue believes she’s ok with that. Rue heads to her Narcotics Anonymous meeting and sees Ali her sponsor at the top of the stairs. He notices that she is still on drugs, but doesn’t tell her mother for her sake.
Rue, while riding her bike to her meeting, saw Cassie running into Nate’s truck. Cassie and Nate drive off, and she looks at him with excitement. He drives them to a secluded housing development, where he admits that he likes her, but tells her that they can’t be together. Telling her it’s his fault, she tells him that it was her fault too. He just apologizes to her and says they can’t see each other or speak about it. She runs away tearfully in the development while Nate runs after her. Nate finds her and they start to kiss. He tells her that she has power over him, and then follows it up by asking her how she’ll ever look Maddy in the eye again.
Kat is getting ready to go bowling with Ethan, but can’t figure out why she doesn’t love him. Suddenly a series of social media influencers all shout out inspirational and self-love messages to her while she screams at them. Breaking down she cries in the mirror because she hates herself. The scene switches to Maddy and Jules being invited to bowl with Ethan and Kat. Kat has a great time with Maddy and Jules, while Ethan sits somberly on the side. He kisses Kat a few times, and Maddy doesn’t believe she’ll ever find a sweet love. As Kat and Ethan rush to the car quickly, Maddy admits she’s considering getting back together with Nate. Jules immediately tells her to not do it, and says that she wishes Maddy saw herself the way the rest of the world does before putting her arm around her as the sit together.
Fez lights up when he sees Lexi but her confidence breaks when she sees Faye, from the previous episode, sitting on the counter. Faye has been staying with Fez, which royally angered Ashtray, because she threw the motel manager over the balcony. Her boyfriend made Fez take care of her while he deals with the problem. Cal walks in as soon as Lexi does, looking around the store and asking questions. There is heavy tension in the air until he leaves, and tells Fez that he’s “just a concerned father.” That night Fez locks his doors and loads his gun. He wakes up in the middle of the night to noises but finds Faye with a needle stuck inside her on the bathroom floor. He puts her to bed and closes the drapes.
Nate walks home and Cal asks him why some “punk drug dealer” beat him up. Nate casually asks Cal if he remembers sleeping with Jules and says that she told Rue, Rue told Fez, who are now threatening to go to the police because she is underage. Cal tries to apologize and claims he didn’t know her age, but Nate tells him that she didn’t know she was being filmed. Cal asks if he has the film and Nate stares at him as the episode ends.
Both episodes held absolutely nothing back and got right to the drama. This will be a weekly recap, so be on the lookout for my next recap of Euphoria!
Euphoria airs on HBO Max at 9 p.m. on Sundays.