Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for “Euphoria.”
Returning from its two-year hiatus, HBO’s three-time Emmy winner drama “Euphoria” is finally back with yet another tumultuous season. Excitement for the new season is high, with viewership up nearly 100% from its first season. Following the past season’s stunning visuals, talented cast, spellbound music score and aesthetic make-up, “Euphoria” continues to candidly portray the dark underbelly of its suburban Gen Z high schoolers as they navigate through their inner demons in a world dominated by drugs, sex and addiction. The long-awaited new season premiered on HBO Max on Jan. 9 with a new episode released every Sunday.
Season one last saw its drug addicted protagonist Rue (Zendaya) abandoned by her best friend and love interest Jules (Hunter Schafer) at a train station after backing out on their plan of running away together. Consumed by guilt and despair, Rue once again resorts to the comfort of drugs and relapses as the season’s grand finale comes to an end. Due to the pandemic, filming was postponed and season two was rescheduled for release this year instead. To appease fans in their content drought, two hour-long specials were released in December 2020 that focused on Rue and Jules individually after their last encounter — the first showing a post-relapse conversation between Rue and her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, Ali (Colman Domingo), and the second centering around Jules’ first therapy session after she ran away without Rue. While these specials do not necessarily provide any resolution from the drama that left viewers hanging in season one, they explore the aftermath of a friendship gone awry due to betrayal and heartbreak.
Following season one’s somber cliffhanger, season two reunites the audience with the characters of “Euphoria,” who continue to make sense of themselves and the messy world around them. After her relapse, Rue still does drugs behind her family’s back and soon conspires to help dangerous drug dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly) sell drugs in order to earn money and buy more drugs for her own use. She and Jules rekindle their love once again, with Jules oblivious to Rue’s relapse, instead fixating more on newcomer Elliot (Dominic Fike) who wedges himself between her and Rue. Kat (Barbie Ferreira) enters a loving relationship with Ethan (Austin Abrams), but struggles with sexual satisfaciton and continues to battle with her body dysmorphia. After Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) gets an abortion and breaks up with her boyfriend McKay (Algee Smith), she finds herself single for the first time and yearns to be loved. In an attempt to receive external validation, she begins secretly sleeping with Nate (Jacob Elordi), who is her best friend Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) toxic ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Maddy is still in possession of a sex tape filmed by Nate’s father Cal (Eric Dane) when he had sex with Jules, who had casual sex with him and other older men for money prior to meeting Rue.
This season shines a spotlight on the underdeveloped backstories of its supporting characters like Cal, who was revealed to be in love with his male best friend back in high school. Despite the two sharing a passionate kiss in a gay bar, Cal’s girlfriend Martha calls him the next morning telling him that she is pregnant, which causes Cal to sob silently in bed. This leaves viewers to assume that he was forced to stay with Martha and hide his repressed sexuality. Drug dealer Fezco (Angus Cloud) and his younger brother Ashtray (Javon “Wanna” Walton) become more fleshed out this season as we learn that they were forcefully thrown into the drug business after being left to fend for themselves following the death of their grandmother, who originally ran the business. We also learn more about goody-two-shoes girl Lexi (Maude Apatow) and her disassociation from family and friends’ drama. This inspires her to write a school play about side characters claiming recognition and making themselves known as the actual main characters, perfectly reflecting Lexi’s rise onscreen and into the hearts of viewers.
Perhaps what delights the audience most this season is the unexpected and new relationships that have formed such as Lexi and Fezco who shared a pleasant and adorable conversation on a couch during a New Year’s Eve house party. The audience is also introduced to the season’s new addition Elliot at this party after Rue bumps into him doing drugs in the laundry room. While he becomes Rue’s drug buddy and the two secretly get high, he also slips into a love triangle with Rue and Jules that is sure to set the audience’s tongues wagging.
Despite finding comfort in being able to be herself and do drugs around Elliot, Rue quickly spirals and struggles to hide her relapse from Jules, Ali, her mother Leslie (Nika King) and her sister Gia (Storm Reid). Episode 5, titled “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird,” solely focuses on Rue hitting rock bottom and destroying every relationship she has with those who love her. It is this episode that once again truly demonstrates why Zendaya won an Emmy for her incredible portrayal of Rue, as she successfully masters her character’s erratic shifts from elation to anger. Rue goes from knocking down Gia’s bedroom door locked by her mother to hysterically running through traffic, robbing someone’s house for jewelry and exposing Cassie’s relationship with Nate. She eventually ends up at Laurie’s house to give her the stolen jewelry as amends for losing $10,000 worth of her drugs that had been flushed down the toilet by Leslie and Jules. As Rue lies unconscious in Laurie’s bathtub, the scene cuts to her memory of reciting the eulogy she gave at her dad’s funeral, further emphasizing on how drugs are her only way of coping with his death.
Like any other show, “Euphoria” is also subject to much criticism, especially towards its unrealistic depiction of high school students and its glorification of sex and drugs, which critics claim “Euphoria” encourages its teenage audience to pursue. The overly gratuitous nudity and full frontal scenes ranging between pornography and nonsensical chaos also cause the show to lose some of its meaning over time. Despite these controversies, “Euphoria” could still serve as a cautionary tale that promotes drug prevention rather than an invitation to the world of sex and drugs. The show has successfully made its massive global fanbase fall in love with its complex and flawed characters, in turn evoking much sympathy and understanding for them. Especially following season 2, episode 5, the show has received much appraisal for its depiction of the harrowing, intimate moments during drug addiction.
“I think that if people can go with [Rue] through that, and get to the end, and still have hope for her future, and watch her make the changes and steps to heal and humanize her through her sobriety journey and addiction, then maybe they can extend that to people in real life,” Zendaya wrote in a lengthy message shared on her Instagram. “If you can love [Rue], then you can love someone that is struggling with the same thing, and maybe have a greater understanding of the pain they’re facing, that is often out of their control.”
Whether or not the audience themselves identify with or know of people in their lives who also experience the same internal struggles as these characters, there is always something that the audience can take away from watching “Euphoria,” bittersweet or eye-opening.
Annabella Johan is an Entertainment Staff Writer. She can be reached at ajohan@uci.edu.