Recap and opinions from the fourth episode of the show’s second season.
Where We Left Off
Last week’s episode was a rollercoaster. To start we dove into the background of one of the least likeable characters on a show full of unlikeable people, Cal. I find myself getting angry at show writers all the time. If they aren’t killing a character I like or blowing up character development that has taken multiple seasons to achieve, they are making me feel something that I don’t want to feel. Last week it was sympathy for Cal. The scene of him dancing to an ethereal INXS song with his childhood best friend was beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. You knew it didn’t end well. You knew who he turned into. So when they finally kissed, lips meeting and passion held in for far too long being released, it was hard not to feel bad.
Leave it to Euphoria to remind us that everyone has their own story and most villains are born out of tragedy.
Some other highlights included:
- Cassie’s long awaited scream-ologue in the bathroom, which turned out to be imagined rather than real. Her characters journey this season has been pity-inducing to say the least. Especially as she wakes up each morning in a manic state to prepare herself for Nate’s viewing pleasure. It’s hard not to feel bad for her when you know the all consuming feeling of having a crush, but it’s also Nate we are talking about.
- A powerful moment between Ali and Rue outside of their NA meeting. Count it as the first moment this season to make me audibly gasp. The acting chemistry between the two of them is off the charts making the moment just as powerful as it should have been.
- Rue’s new venture that has me leaking with anxiety.
- A compelling and hard to read conversation between Jules and Elliot about Rue. Elliot’s ambiguity, both directly and indirectly addressed in the show, is one of the more captivating parts of this new season. This conversation truly highlighted the fact that I don’t fully understand his motivations or what his next move will be.
We dove into this week with a cliff hanger on multiple plot lines: Rue taking some of the new drugs she promised to sell (risking being SOLD, mind you) and Nate blowing off Cassie to see Maddy with flowers in hand.
Season 2, Episode 4 Deep Dive
Thankfully, it seems like the first episode of this season was a better illustration of how this season would unfold as opposed to the second episode. The first being smooth, cutting from an introduction to a few storylines occurring in unison throughout the episode. The second was trying to do too much, catching us up on all the characters and their storylines in a jumbled and messy manner.
Last night we observed three main narratives unfolding all at once: Maddy’s birthday party, Cal’s night of delinquency, and hanging out at Elliot’s.
Each time I watch a TV show I have a favorite character and a character who I care the most about. These titles are rarely, if ever, shared by the same character. My favorite is someone who brings me the most joy or who I relate to. The other is more often someone who no matter how problematic or annoying they are, I find myself wanting what’s best for them. Some classic examples from my archives are Jamie Lannister and Miranda Hobbes.
I think it’s safe to say that Cassie Howard has claimed this designation for me in Euphoria.
At Maddy’s birthday party, she officially hit the “drinking to numb the pain” stage of her odyssey with Nate. It was a cringe-worthy progression throughout the evening from crying as she embraced Maddy to making the premature outfit change into her bathing suit to ultimately and hysterically puking in the pool.
While I’ve been impressed with Sydney Sweeney throughout the entirety of her tenure on the show, this episode was a huge step up for her. She managed to make her throw up meltdown funny at first before devolving into a pity-filled exit.
Yes, it’s true that I am a sucker for an out-of-nowhere vomit moment on TV – see Andy Dwyer’s hangover and the amazing post-date puke fest from And Just Like That… – but this was more than that. She managed to capture not only the real-life shock of vomit, but the emotional vomit that typically follows. When you have reached the stage of drunkenness where your insides force themselves out, your emotions typically find a way to do so too. So as her mother drags her out of the pool, her cries of apology to Maddy soften the sound of laugher and leave you feeling a bit empty for Cassie.
While the party was progressing to it’s hot tub finale, the show tapped into a trope that I have seen more on more on TV recently – most notably and effectively, in Ted Lasso – and I am not mad about it. For the second time this episode the show strung two scenes together, bouncing them back and forth at once as if they were occurring simultaneously. The first was a stellar scene where Lexi and Cassie fight in their bedroom, interwoven with the auditions for Lexi’s play where the actors use the same dialogue. By weaving the moments together you understand the impact that this arguement, which might be simple if seen alone, had on Lexi.
The second scene to utilize this technique saw Cassie, in her drunken descension, dancing around to a Sinead O’Connor song while Cal, also numbing his pain with booze, danced with a stranger at the same bar where he and Derek first kissed. It was the kind of surreal and beautiful moment that keeps me coming back to this show. While as a whole the show is injected with enough male nudity and frank, everyday violence to make you wince, it also cuts past the bullshit and shows you the pain that comes along with all of that. Sam Levinson manages to make the real stuff in life, the pain and suffering, look beautiful and ugly all at the same time.
Not to mention he sets it all to a sinfully good soundtrack.
After the meltdown and the vomit, Nate returned home for the night. Little did he know that the drama of his evening was far from over. As Cal returns home from his nostalgic journey and near-death car ride, he awakens his family by making his mark in the foyer. It’s a bit hard to focus at first on what he is saying while his flaccid penis hangs in the wind, but once you move past that it is one of the high points of the season thus far.
I’m a big fan of Eric Dane from his days on Grey’s Anatomy. With Mark Sloane, he managed to take a toxically masculine playboy of a character and turn him into a human being, and a layered one at that. He artistically brought the audience in and convinced them to care about someone who they had no business caring for. After last night, I am a bit worried he is doing the same thing with Cal Jacobs – though Cal is far more problematic than Mark ever was.
This scene was breathtaking to watch from start to finish. From Dane’s acting to the reactions of his wife and sons, it was so perfectly executed that it felt like you were spying on a real-life family. He brought forth confessions out of the fear that they would find out from someone else, jumping in front of it to take control of the situation. With these revelations of his own, he dug up and presented dirt on the rest of his family too as if to not go down alone. Once an insecure asshole, always an insecure asshole.
The only one he didn’t have dirt on was Nate. Claiming he had raised him, but knew nothing about him. It felt as if he spoke the words out of the mouths of the audience. Who is Nate? Is he ever genuine? Who does he love? Is it Cassie? Or Maddy? Or Jules? We hear about him loving all three and yet when you watch him behave it only seems to point in the direction of him having no feelings. For anyone.
What you are left with is a family who has spent their entire lives hiding from each other. Living together, eating together, sleeping under the same roof, but remaining hidden from those closest to them. A family that had grown comfortable in their closed off way of life being forced to face the reality. All the cards they had been hiding, laid out in front of them. All the things they suspected, but opted to ignore, shoved in their faces. The facades they have crafted for the world to see, the ones they hid behind, ripped down without choice. What you are left with is a battle where words were used instead of weapons and where silence remains instead of bloodshed.
Cruising by Cal earlier as he sped down the road with liquor in his hand were Jules, Rue, and everyone’s favorite little homewrecker Elliot. This is the storyline that I am least interested in so far this season due to frustration and protection of my own feelings.
We have spent the whole show watching Rue. Wanting to wrap her in bubble wrap, sing her a lullaby, and protect her from the world. We had to watch her struggle with addiction, find the shining light that was Jules, lose her, and fall back into using. Finally, with their declaration of love and commitment to one another in the first episode, there was a sense of relief that this rollercoaster may be coming to an end.
But that would have been too easy.
Now we are knee deep in new drama, flying up and down and flipping around on a never-ending rollercoaster of caring for Rue. She is hiding her using from Jules, whose lack of awareness of her girlfriend being perpetually high is concerning to say the least. She has a literal suitcase filled with drugs in her possession that she has to sell or she will be sold. Instead of selling these drugs she is taking them. She isolated her biggest ally, Ali, with one swooping jab at his past. She is faking orgasms with her girlfriend because she can’t feel anything. And now she is blissfully unaware that her new buddy Elliot is moving in on her girl.
As I watched last night, I can’t even tell you how many times I wanted to scream at the TV. How badly I want the three of them to channel Shameless and just become a throuple. How much easier it would be on my heart to watch that happen. But instead, we got to see Rue isolate herself and Elliot tattle on her. Oh yeah and as a reward for his noble truth-telling efforts, he fools around with Jules.
In a show where every moment is shocking and sends a ripple effect into another shocking moment, this is different. Elliot betrayed Rue’s trust and threw a grenade on her personal life. This moment is less shocking and more destructively shaking.
I want so badly to be angry at the show. To be upset with the writers for getting us to this point only to ruin all the progression and all the work that has gotten us here. I want to blame them for writing those words into Elliot’s mouth and pushing them out into the air. Unfortunately, there is a voice in the back of my head that reminds me just how often this happens in life. It’s unpredictable, no matter how hard you plan or how much work you put into something. There are always new factors or new variables that you didn’t consider. New variables like Elliot and his master manipulation of Jules and Rue. His ability to weasel he way into their relationship and plant seeds of doubt.
Maybe that is an extreme way to view his character, but it’s just one girl’s opinion.
In the end we see Rue experiencing a vision not unlike the musical montage she experienced at the end of season one. While at first being struck by it’s beauty and the appearance of the show’s crooner Labrinth, I was soon holding my breath. Married with the preview full of emotion and uncertainly I am left worried that Rue is in trouble.
More trouble than she is usually in, that is.
Just One Girl's Opinion 
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