There was nothing like being in late high school when now-iconic HBO original Euphoria aired on television. The beautiful visuals and cinematography, the ensemble cast of memorable characters, and the “real” approach to teenage life came together to create lightning in a bottle, and public perception of the show erupted. I was a junior in high school when the show came out, and I loved being part of the quickly amassing army of fans for the show. All my friends had seen it, the fashion and makeup were taking over social media, and there was a whole cast of what seemed to be really interesting to choose a favorite from.
My favorite, at least when I had watched season one, was Cassie Howard. My celebrity crush on Sydney Sweeney aside, Cassie was the most relatable of the characters for me. She was sweet, unsure of herself, and had a compelling backstory. Her interactions with men almost always end with mindless sex, but it seems like what she truly desires is a stable relationship and a happy family. In season one, Cassie has a complicated relationship with male attention. Her father has abandoned her and her twin sister Lexi, leaving Cassie with a fear of abandonment and a sense she must do something to ensure the men in her life stay. This leads to her often being used for sex and nude pictures by various boys at her school, and she begins to put up with what she thinks is love. One of the men she’s involved with, Daniel, gets angry and terse with her when she turns down sex with him. He tells her “I’m going to be honest with you because nobody else will. Any guy who says he’s interested in you beyond just fucking you is full of shit.” Obviously, Cassie takes this hard — it’s an awful thing to say, and he’s kind of confirmed some of her worst fears.
Like I said, I was a junior in high school when I first saw this episode. Like a lot of other girls, this was a stage in my life where I was just discovering how complicated relationships could be. I too had turned down a guy, a good friend, and in response he told me that he mostly only liked me for my body anyway.
Because of this, I wanted so badly for Cassie to find herself in season two. I wanted her to take a break from boys, realize what those relationships are doing to her, and focus on herself. One of the best parts of season one was her relationship with Maddy Perez, how they seemed like they were together through everything despite all the drama surrounding them. I wanted to see Cassie look inward for support, and have her grow stronger relationships with the women in her life. To me, watching a character be able to work on herself and not let her relationship with men define her would have meant so much.
But that doesn’t make for good TV, does it?
I’m not saying that Cassie falling back into bad habits is bad writing, but I was genuinely so disappointed when I realized the path she’d be taking in season two. The writer, Sam Levinson, decided that she would hook up with her best friend’s abusive ex-boyfriend Nate Jacobs. Gone was the sweet, sensitive girl who made poor decisions while trying to get someone to stay with her. Cassie had been replaced with a bizarre, hypersexual villain who only got crazier with every episode, culminating in a fight.
Again, I’m not saying that Cassie would never do something like this. We saw in season one that she really struggled with doing the right thing when it came to male attention. But her actions in season two seemed out of character, exploitative, and just like it was the result of bad writing. She would scream and cry about how crazy she is. She gets into a cat fight with former best friend Maddy. This plotline allowed for a drama-filled love triangle, the suspense of when Maddy would discover the affair, and plenty of uncomfortably exposing shots of Sydney Sweeney getting intimate with Jacob Elordi. What it did not allow for was interesting or realistic character development for Cassie. She didn’t seem like a real person anymore. She seemed like a man’s caricature of a desperate, crazy, hypersexual woman.
And maybe it’s because of my personal attachment to the character, but this was honestly a little heartbreaking. Cassie’s actions in season two aren’t excusable, but I don’t think they’re in line with her character in season one. So, this is more of a defense of her original character, and the immense potential she had to have a very powerful and human journey. The characters Rue and Jules had their own individual episodes that were very focused explorations of their characters. Notably, actress Hunter Schafer helped to write that special episode for her character Jules, and many fans agree that this factor elevated the episode that much more. I would have loved to see something like that with Cassie’s character, focused on her inner workings. Instead, what we got was a character so obviously written from a male perspective that she was barely a character anymore.
I’m not sure I’ll be tuning into season three of Euphoria. Cassie isn’t the only victim of this season two character degradation, and it just seems like the show is running out of steam. It’s a shame, because season one truly was lightning in a bottle and had such great potential. I hope the show can turn itself around and get more focused on character development and relationship rather than just drama and naked teenagers, but it awaits to be seen.