Euphoria is beloved and loathed alike for being such a head rush of a show, that it comes as a surprise that the finale is so … muted. At the beginning of this season, I wondered whether Sam Levinson could reconcile the restraint of the special episodes with “regularâ€Â Euphoria, and I think “All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name†strikes that perfect balance. But if the finale resonates emotionally, it’s also lacking in resolution. Some threads are tied up with a shrug, while others are completely forgotten. (Is that it for Maddy and Samantha? Are we ignoring the fact that Rue still owes Laurie money?) Rue is the heart of Euphoria, but the show has also lost sight of its ensemble nature.
But first: Poor, poor Fez. He’s just a kid with dreams of running away with Lexi to do some “Little House on the Prairie shit†on a farm and have three kids born exactly a year and a half apart. While Custer attempts to get Fez and Ashtray to confess to Mouse’s murder, a wide-eyed Faye valiantly throws him off course by pretending Laurie was the murderer. But the cops are already on their way by the time Ash stabs Custer in the neck. Fez tries to take the fall, but Ash ducks into the bathroom with a militia for a shoot-off that leaves Fez wounded and Ash dead.
If the series decides to forgo throwing Fez in prison, I’m intrigued to see what the next season has in store for him. Since childhood Fez has taken on the role of caregiver and protector, stopping at nothing to take care of Ash when no one else would. But he failed at the most crucial moment, and I think there’s some potential in there to see him wrestle with that.
There’s a whole different kind of standoff happening at the East Highland auditorium. Still pissed from getting dumped by Nate, Cassie walks onto the stage to confront Lexi for mining her life for theater. For what it’s worth, Lexi has her right to freedom of expression or whatever, but depicting Cassie’s orgasm on the carousel — the single most traumatizing scene I’ve ever had the misfortune of witnessing — maybe crossed a line. Suze does her best to stop Cassie from committing murder, while giving props to Ethan (finally, someone respects him!), and Maddy does one better by slapping Cassie offstage. Their fight ends with an exhausted Maddy, Cassie, and Kat “No Lines†Hernandez in the bathroom. “Do you know what’s funny?†Cassie says. “Nate broke up with me before I even went up on that stage.†Maddy can only empathize. “Don’t worry; this is just the beginning.†Strangely, it’s as if Maddy has given her blessing. But if this is their reconciliation, will Maddy even try to prevent her best friend from enduring the same abuse she did?
Speaking of, Nate loads up his gun for some reason again (Chekhov who?) and drives to Cal’s shop, where his dad is living his best life. If Ethan’s homoerotic dance from the last episode was some wake-up call in golden spandex, it told him to set fire to everything — even his family’s reputation. “You don’t get to ruin our lives and just move on and be happier,†Nate tells him, and reveals the nightmares he has been having of Cal since discovering the videos at 11. He takes out a USB stick with all the evidence while the police roll up outside. (How big is the police force in this town, by the way?) Just a few episodes ago, Nate went to drastic lengths to protect Cal for the sake of his own future. But now that he has done a complete 180 and gone on a self-destructive warpath, season three might just see the true downfall of Nate Jacobs.
Which brings us finally to Rue, who ventures out to make amends in her recovery. She visits Elliot, apologizes, and watches him sing a song for [checks watch] four whole minutes. (It’s a lovely song courtesy of Zendaya and Labrinth, but also a long one.) There’s also a beautiful moment of reconciliation between Rue and Lexi, although I’m still not sure if it actually happened or if it was Lexi fictionalizing what she wanted to happen. The show cuts back again to Rue’s speech at her dad’s funeral, a scene we have watched from virtually every possible angle, but also to Lexi’s dad in the hospital. At their lowest moments, Rue and Lexi failed to find solace in each other and instead retreated into themselves, but through their cathartic conversation in Lexi’s bedroom, the two slowly become friends again. Rue sees in Lexi’s play a way of working through her grief in a way she never imagined before: “I don’t want to hold onto this forever.â€
It’s unfortunate that Jules isn’t afforded that same graciousness. I understand that Rue still holds complicated feelings from episode five, but surely there was more to be said than just an “I love you and miss you†on Jules’s part. Like Kat, Jules has had so frustratingly little to do this season, despite the special episode revealing so much promise. By the end, Jules is just a remnant referred to in the past tense. “Jules was my first love,†Rue says. “I’d like to remember it that way.†For Rue, the most important thing now is simply working on becoming a good person. She reveals that she managed to stay clean for the remainder of the school year as we see her walk out into the open, happy for the first time. It’s a tidy ending for Rue, if somewhat unfulfilling with everything else still hanging in the air. But Euphoria is Euphoria — nothing is ever easy.
Another Round
• I imagine that having Cassie, a fellow classmate who you probably see in the hallway every day, upstaging your play to call you a “knockoff†is a really humbling experience.
• Rue’s discomfort at watching Cassie go red like a Looney Tunes cartoon at the door is just so funny to me.
• Another highlight: Suze yelling out, “She’s a writer!†while Cassie sobs uncontrollably on stage.
• On a personal note, I’ve had the best eight weeks recapping and analyzing this show, which thrills and frustrates me to no end. Lexi’s stage manager puts it best: “It could be worse. It could be boring.â€
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