TV Show Review: Euphoria S3 Finale

Spoilers ahead*

Euphoria finally returned to our screens this year with its third and final season. And it is safe to say, reviews are mixed. Several factors come into this audience response, such as the time jump, the absence of, and controversy surrounding Labrinth’s musical score, the emission of characters like Kat and the tragic passing of Angus Cloud (Fez).

The final series of Euphoria has felt like a Tarantino-directed fever dream. The series has always been known for its risqué approach to the discussion of sex, identity, violence, addiction and more- but something about the third season did this differently.

As a fan since the first season, much of the magic the series has produced in the past felt missing this time. Storylines felt incomplete, characters once interesting and nuanced fell flat due to poor writing, relationships were left unexplored, and don’t even get me started on the entirely unnecessary 10-minute sequence of Cassie as a sexualised Godzilla breaking windows of buildings with her breasts, I haven’t the time to even try to comprehend the reasoning behind that God-awful scene.

That being said, I did enjoy the finale. Not in its entirety, as I say, many characters felt flat and monotonous, but the death of Rue, and the depiction of it, was a tragically beautiful ending to her character.

Euphoria is a story that of course centres addiction, how it impacts not just the life of the addict but the lives of those around them. Incredibly impactful conversations have been at the heart of the series for some time, namely by Rue’s narcotics anonymous sponsor Ali (Coleman Domingo), a former addict who now dedicates his life to helping those still struggling with addiction, highlighting that while addiction is a disease, addicts should be held accountable for the ways in which they hurt others.

The series finale explored this complex relationship between Rue and Ali wonderfully. After Rue’s involvement with Laurie (Martha Kelly), smuggling fentanyl into the US in her stomach, her time with Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), working with drugs in a strip club involved in human trafficking, and her cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration, she turns to Ali, and religion, in hope of finally reaching a safe place in life.

Her death results from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Once Alamo understands Rue as working with police, he provides her painkillers laced with the powerful drug, under the assumption that, given Rue’s history with addiction, an overdose would be a death absolutely nobody would look twice at.

We see Rue take one painkiller and fall asleep listening to Bible verses. She awakes to see her friend Fez (Angus Cloud) on television escaping from prison, which sparks a sequence with her chasing him. We see the pair standing, laughing together in a field, a shot presumably shot in series one production, with Zendaya and the late Angus Cloud, in a simple but beautiful tribute to the actor. Rue is then seen in her childhood home, reaching toward her mother. It is at this moment, her overdose is made clear. As she reaches out to Leslie, it cuts back to Rue laying on Ali’s sofa, reaching her hand upwards, struggling to breathe. In Rue’s last moments, she greets

her deceased father with a hug.

Ali finds her and instantly tests the pill she took to see if it contained traces of fentanyl, a scene incredibly important for audiences to witness to ensure drug safety and education. Rue’s death shook Ali to his very core, to the point where he no longer wished to dedicate his life to religion, or speaking with young addicts, was a heart breaking watch acted brilliantly by Coleman Domingo.

Ali’s vengeance for Rue's death was fantastic, and rather unexpected, as he shoots Alamo Brown after discovering his responsibility in Rue’s overdose. Alamo’s death avenges Rue, and sets Maddy free of her millions of dollars in debt to him- much of this was in thanks to Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson), the quiet, stoic associate of Alamo  who in the end betrayed him for the greater good.

This sequence was shocking, epic, and extremely emotional. The decision for Rue to die not from her own addiction, but from associating with dangerous people like Alamo, was in my opinion, an excellent choice.

The same cannot be said for Nate Jacobs’ (Jacob Elordi) death. A once fascinating character struggling to understand and accept his identity spent pretty much the entirety of series three as just a stressed-out man struggling to pay off debt. The complexities of Nate’s relationships with Jules, Maddy and Cassie, were barely written into the story. Instead, it felt Nate’s debt provided a simple explanation for Sam Levinson to include as many pornographic Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard) scenes as humanly possible with very little substance. The ‘buried alive with a snake creeping into the coffin’ death was nail-biting to watch, but still somehow felt flat. I found myself saying, “oh okay so he’s dead then” about ten seconds afterwards.

Overall, series three is not one I’ll be rewatching again. But the tragic story of Rue Bennett (Zendaya) was acted and written beautifully, and I may or may not have bawled my eyes out at her passing.

Written by, Rosie Brennan