[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of Euphoria, “In God We Trust.”]
The presumptive series finale of Euphoria isn’t going to make the list of the worst series finales of all time. However, “In God We Trust” was a miserable slog punctuated by the tragic death of protagonist Rue (Zendaya) — midway through the finale, followed by some time jumps that said farewell to most of the show’s remaining characters, followed by a drawn-out quest for revenge that put the spotlight on Ali (Colman Domingo).
Ali’s reason for vengeance is simple: Banged up from the events of the past few episodes, Rue was given a bottle of alleged Percocet by her boss Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) — pills which turned out to be fentanyl, leading to her quiet death on Ali’s couch. Well, in real life, it was quiet. The viewer, though, followed Rue on one last wild journey, as what’s eventually revealed to be a fantasy sequence tracks her rushing out of Ali’s house to help Fezco, after she sees a news report that he’s successfully broken out of prison.
She sees flashes of memory, including the old convenience store, Jules (Hunter Schafer) on her bicycle, and her younger self, driving by. There’s also footage of her with the late Angus Cloud (which creator Sam Levinson told Esquire was shot nearly seven years ago as test footage). Once Rue arrives in her old neighborhood, she can’t find Fez, but she does find her mother (Nika King), sitting at the kitchen table and reading the Bible. She’s embraced by her mother, a beatific salvation… and then oblivion.
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The fact that Fezco is a part of Rue’s final moments, and that her cause of death is the same thing that killed the actor who played Fezco, does not feel accidental. Levinson explained to Esquire that he really wanted to focus on fentanyl this season, “and how it’s taking away young people’s opportunity for a second chance… When I was growing up and doing drugs, sure, you could O.D. on something, but it wasn’t like it is today where you make one wrong move and you’re dead.”
That point is certainly made by the fact that Alamo’s bottle of pills is still mostly full when Ali discovers it — this wasn’t an overdose, this was an accident. Still, those who knew her are left with the incredibly complicated feelings that come with a loss like this — something that “In God We Trust” explores in brief. “She was a drug addict,” Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) says bluntly. “It doesn’t matter how you leave things. It still sucks.”
In the aftermath of Rue’s death, months later, we get some sparing details about the lives of the remaining characters: Jules remains content with her life as an artist/sugar baby, expressing her grief for Rue in a vibrant, striking portrait — Schafer’s face, transforming from sadness to a smile as she works, sells her character’s journey silently. (Which is good, because she doesn’t really get any dialogue otherwise.)
Meanwhile, Lexi (Maude Apatow) has the opportunity to be a “storyteller” for Cassie and Maddy (Alexa Demie)’s new entrepreneurial venture: Repurposing the garish McMansion as a “hype house”-type set-up for OnlyFans models. It’s a situation Cassie seems to have embraced, though the “disappearance” of Nate (Jacob Elordi) still haunts her months later. After all, there are no clear rules on how to grieve your husband after he was buried alive in the desert and killed by a rattlesnake.
It all culminates in Ali giving up his previous life’s purpose as a sponsor for wayward addicts and instead finding “another way to be of better service.” This ends up being a violent showdown with Alamo and his men at the strip club, during which G (Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch) takes a shotgun blast to a delicate area and Ali and Alamo face off in a literal Old West-style shootout. Except when Alamo moves to cheat and draw early, he discovers that his gun is missing its bullets, thanks to Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson) — who seems happy to walk away from this life with his dog.
Once Ali’s gotten his revenge on Alamo, he heads out to the compound in Texas that took Rue in during the season premiere, introducing himself to this large Christian family as Martin McQueen. He says grace at dinner, remembering Rue with the Jewish touchstone “let her memory be a blessing,” and has one last vision of her smiling.
It’s without question an emotional conclusion for the series, largely anchored by Colman Domingo’s incredible work; between his appearances here as well as in Netflix’s The Four Seasons, his Emmys chances this year feel pretty good. However, the problem with Euphoria has never been its acting, but its histrionics — its massive swings that sometimes connected, but more often than not fell short of real transcendence. (The finale couldn’t resist some gratuitous booty shots, too — the spirit of exploitation lives on here.)
Now, hovering over this show’s legacy forever is this bleak reminder that happy endings are hard to come by in this world. At the end of the day, Rue was a messy character, but even in her most strung-out moments, Zendaya made sure she was captivating and relatable. Losing her like this might be a harsh reminder of some real-world truths, but it also puts a damper on any desire to watch a Season 4.
HBO has confirmed that this will be the final season of Euphoria. But in that same Esquire piece, Levinson wouldn’t fully commit to Season 3 being the end, saying instead that “I’ve approached every season like it’s the last season.” It’s a relief to know HBO’s made that decision for him, because it’s hard to know what more episodes in this universe would even look like. Even for the surviving characters, nothing about their futures seems particularly euphoric.
Euphoria is streaming now on HBO Max.