After a repetitive slow burner, Euphoria bounces back putting out their strongest episode thus far.
Shortly after HBO Max and other stars of the hit show Euphoria announced that they were approved for a third season, fans were left wondering how the season would now play out, knowing that only four episodes remained. Rue Bennett, played by the Primetime Emmy Award winning actress, Zendaya, has sent viewers in a whirlwind of emotions all season. Sadly, until this week, some were growing tired of the repetitive acts halfway through the season.
Entering week five was not necessarily make or break for the show with all the success it’s garnished right away, but the show needed to provide a breathe of fresh air to remind people why they tune in every week. The cast didn’t just achieve that goal, they smashed through in a drama filled episode sprinkled in with a healthy dosage of crime and thriller.
Right from the get go, Rue wastes no time showing so much range, emotions and panic by barging into Gia’s room and blaming her for telling their mom that she’s back on drugs, or in Rue’s mind, “smoking a little bit of weed”. It’s a parents worse nightmare with the high school setting, but Zendaya does such a good job as Rue, that you forget you’re watching a performance and it really can hit on a personal level, if you’ve known somebody that’s struggled with addiction.
Rue continues her rampage damaging the house not holding anything back towards her mom. Leslie slaps her when Rue tries to go after her and throws her out the room for Rue to kick through the door and enter back in. It’s not just the addiction here, Rue is panicking because she find out quickly that her suitcase full of drugs was flushed down the toilet, all thanks to Jules. This just adds more pressure on Rue, and now she’s backed into a corner in the house with not only Jules there, but her latest lover, Elliott.
It was another heavy Rue episode here, and fans have been clamoring for more of Lexie and Fezco, or waiting to see how the toxic love triangle would unfold between Nate, Maddy and Cassie, but that didn’t matter here. Rue insults both Jules and Elliott and eventually agrees that she would go to the hospital. Rue wasted no time causing mayhem once her mom let it slip out that she was taking her to rehab instead of the hospital, causing Rue makes a run for it once they hit a red light. Rue does her best impression of “Frogger” by dodging traffic in the busy street, and the sprinting begins!
It was a needed change of pace, and after a day of hiding out in alleyways, Rue finds herself at Cassie’s house. This was a good setup for the love triangle storyline and it was the only time that we got to see Kat, Maddy, Cassie and Lexie. Cassie’s mom starts questioning Rue and immediately knows that she isn’t doing well. Rue goes to the bathroom and starts looking through the medicine cabinet to see what she can take. Not finding what she needs, she steals some earrings and makes her way downstairs to see the whole cast and her mom back in the picture.
The supporting cast didn’t have much screen time this week, but boy did they shine in the time that they were presented. In a world where people may not truly know who their real friends are, Rue strikes hard when she asks Cassie, “how long has she been fucking Nate Jacobs?”. The whole situation escalated quickly and now the attention has shifted towards Cassie as she begins to weep, and both Lexie and Cassie’s mom are doing their best to calm the ladies down, but no dice. Cassie heads up the stairs with everybody following behind Maddy, and Rue makes another run for it.
Back to the alleyway, Rue is not doing very well and sadly, needs something to help her from the withdrawals. Next up is Fezco. Rue let’s Fezco know that she needs something and Fezco shoots it down letting her know that he can’t help, she uses his bathroom and goes for his grandmas medications. Fezco tells her to leave, and after aggressively shoving Fezco out the way, Fezco retaliates by picking her up and throwing her out the place. Desperate for anything at this point, Rue breaks into a couples house and runs into their dog. He starts growling at her and she tenses up. Turns out the dog can care less what she does, and she goes on to search for pills while stealing money and jewelry. The couple isn’t gone very long and immediately they find Rue, as she makes yet another run through the streets.
After a run in with the cops and now doing parkour to avoid being arrested, Rue find herself at one last location for the night, her drug dealer Laurie’s apartment. Here, anything can happen as we’ve seen in past episodes. So on a more serious tone, fans had no idea if Rue was going to get knocked unconscious and trafficked or sold to the black market when she told Laurie that she didn’t have her money. The withdrawals are in full effect and instead or hurting Rue, Laurie kindly helps her into the bath and injects Rue with morphine ending the night.
With no where else to run or hide, Rue wakes up the next morning and quietly tries to escape. Everything is pad locked from the windows to the doors, and the birds in the rooms will squawk at anything, adding even more pressure to her escape. I think we all know or assume that Laurie could’ve stopped her if she wanted to, but she knows Rue will come back. Rue eventually escapes and makes one last stroll down the alleyway and goes back to the person that she started the episode with, her mom.
This weeks episode was a major bounce back and probably the strongest episode that season two has put out to date. What were your favorite parts and what stories are you excited to explore in episode six and beyond? Let us know, and feel free to follow me @itslandoyo on Twitter.