SPOILERS: This article contains potential spoilers for “Euphoria” Season 3
With countless memes, a lot of face glitter and 30-year-old teenagers, I believe the end of “Euphoria” marks the end of an era.
While the first two seasons were iconic for younger audiences and had widespread internet relevance, the third season took an entirely different approach. A couple fan-favorite characters didn’t return, the story was less localized and Hans Zimmer’s score was significantly weaker than the music of Labrinth for the first two seasons.
Many people didn’t like this new direction; I mean, just look at the 38 % audience’s score on Rotten Tomatoes. I don’t entirely disagree that the show has changed significantly, but I saw the vision.
“Euphoria” Season 3’s first episode was released April 12, with the remaining seven episodes released weekly until the finale May 31. All-in-all, I think this season felt like a spinoff of the show. It takes place five years after the previous season. Some characters went to college and some started careers while our main character Rue (Zendaya) has been working for the drug dealer, Laurie (Martha Kelly).
Instead of focusing on high-school drama and neighborhood shenanigans like the first two seasons, Season 3 delves into much darker scenarios. Nate (Jacob Elordi) is indebted to a group of Armenian gangsters for his failing retirement home construction, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) starts her career as an OnlyFans creator to pay for her wedding floral arrangements, Jules (Hunter Schafer) is dating a boyfriend much older than her and Rue is smuggling drugs across the border. So while the previous seasons were still intense, I think Season 3 raises the stakes quite a bit.
I really enjoyed most of Rue’s story this season. Zendaya is terrific at playing the recovering addict with an addictive personality, and I’ve always found Rue to be her most compelling on-screen performance. Her interactions with Laurie’s crew, and eventually Alamo’s, were realistic and charismatic. I was always rooting for her to outsmart them and gain her freedom via her deal with the Drug Enforcement Agency after she got arrested for dealing.
Nate was a shell of his former self this season. He’s normally intimidating and more than capable of defending himself in tough scenarios. But in this season, he was a pushover to the gangsters that he owed money, losing a toe and a finger as a form of “encouragement” to pay them back before being buried alive. I was pretty happy that his character died a horrible death as he caused everyone around him immense trauma during the first two seasons, like abusing Maddy (Alexa Demie) while they were dating and blackmailing Jules.
I still have mixed feelings about Cassie’s storyline this season. While the subject matter of being an OnlyFans creator is touchy, I don’t mind the concept, especially since Maddy played a huge part in her storyline by being her manager.
Maddy is still one of the most iconic characters in this series, especially because she is the character used in the most famous Euphoria memes such as, “You better be joking” and “Is this play about us?” I really enjoyed Maddie as Cassie’s tough manager, especially when she teamed up with Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to expand the talent she could work with.
Jules returned this season, if only for a short amount of time. I always thought she was such a fascinating character in the first two seasons. She was figuring out her relationship with Rue while navigating several controversies with the Jacobs family, becoming a bright spot within the show’s darkness for her ability to take care of herself. But I think Sam Levinson didn’t do her character justice this season. Like, he made the only trans character a sex worker? Why do we have to feed into the negative stereotypes associated with trans people, Sam?
Another weird part of this season is the religious undertones present throughout that weren’t really present in previous seasons. Rue starts reading the Bible and believing in God after staying with a secluded religious family in Texas while traveling out of Mexico. I felt Rue believing in God was played off more as comedy with several characters scoffing at her sudden conversion, but it grew to be somewhat of a big deal near the end of the series. She reconnects with her mother over the phone while she’s at church and later has a heated discussion with Lexi (Maude Apatow) about the Bible.
I think this religious subtheme was used to make us feel better for Rue’s eventual death. While she was dying from an overdose due to Alamo spiking her pain meds with fentanyl, we see a montage of her reconnecting with her mother and father, alluding to her being in some sort of afterlife. But I don’t really think it was necessary, since Rue dying meant peace for her either way, and this montage could have played out if she believed in God or not.
Honestly, the best part of the show was the 10 minutes of Alamo’s backstory we got. His mother scammed a guy, who got rich from an accident, by “falling in love” with him and then robbing him blind. To be fair, I don’t think this backstory was enough to convince me that Alamo would never trust a woman again, but I guess Levinson thinks it’s a good enough reason, because of course he does.
Overall, I think Season 3 was an acceptable ending to the show. I would have loved to see more of Jules after Rue’s death; all we got from her was a mediocre painting of what looked like Rue in hell. I’m sure “Euphoria” will live on in some spinoff about Cassie and Maddie, which I guess I would be obligated to watch.
