The Euphoria season 1 finale has landed, and all our favorite characters have made decisions that will alter their future.
This article contains spoilers for Euphoria season 1.
Euphoria has come to a close, and season 1 has proven to be a spectacular freshman outing for the series. I’ve sung Zendaya’s praise as loudly and as often as I could, but the honest truth is that everyone in this show pulls their weight. They’re all fantastic, and the show could not shine as brightly without every single one of them.
The Euphoria season 1 finale did not quite go out with the bang I thought it would, but it was no less impactful to see each character make choices that would undoubtedly affect their future. It wasn’t always for the worse, but this series isn’t afraid to look into the dark corners of its characters’ minds — and, consequently, our own.
Rue has been through a lot over the course of Euphoria season 1. She got out of rehab and immediately went back to abusing drugs. And then she met Jules and eventually decided to go clean. I’m paraphrasing a lot because even though this season was only eight episodes long, it felt like Rue lived a thousand lifetimes within a handful of hours.
When we see Rue in the finale, she’s recovering from her kidney infection. She recognizes that her mental health is both dependent on Jules being a permanent fixture of her life, regardless of whether Jules is around. She goes back on her medicine and the two decide to go to the winter formal together. Rue can’t help but tread lightly around Jules, worried about how she’ll react to her true feelings.
But when Rue finally does take the leap — asking if Jules is in love with her and then kissing her! — everything works out perfectly. Jules’ affections might be easy to capture, but she and Rue have been friends for a while. Their relationship is the most solid aspect in both of their lives right now.
Unfortunately, that particular feeling of euphoria doesn’t last too long. Rue suggests they run away from home together and Jules readily agrees. However, when it comes time to literally get on the train and go, Rue backs out. She starts thinking about what it would do to her mother and her sister, and about the fact that she left her medicine behind.
Jules is far less concerned about the repercussions of leaving. She’s a dreamer and doesn’t really think about how her actions may affect those around her. She lives her life as true to herself as possible, and I don’t think anyone can blame her for that. She’s had a long journey to get to where she is now, and I imagine being anything other than her true self would be tantamount to torture.
But when you couple a free spirit with someone who lives their life balanced precariously on the edge of total destruction, it’s bound to get messy. Jules decides to go through with the plan, leaving Rue standing at the train station by herself. What she’ll do once she gets to where she’s going is anyone’s guess.
We don’t know how long Jules will stay away, and we don’t know what their relationship will be like if and when she comes back. Will they be able to pick up right where they left things? Will they even want to after choosing to go in different directions in the finale?
Plus, there’s that little problem of Rue picking up her bad habits again. She snorts something at the end of the episode, and even though it leads to an incredible music video-esque dance sequence, this definitely won’t be good for her mental or physical health moving forward.
Unfortunately, Rue and Jules aren’t the only couples having trouble in the Euphoria season 1 finale. Maddy and Nate’s relationship is in a downward spiral, and considering everything they’ve already been through, that sure is saying something.
When we see the two of them at the beginning of the episode, Nate is having trouble staying hard while they’re having sex. Any notion of romance (if there was any to begin with) goes out the window, and Maddy leaves while he’s in the shower, taking a CD she found in the process.
We don’t get to see what’s on the CD, but it sure as hell looks like one of the movies Nate’s father made and stored in his drawer. Could it be of his time with Jules? If Maddy has a copy of that, it doesn’t bode well for anyone and there’s bound to be some explosive public reveals come Euphoria season 2.
But that’s not an immediate worry. At the moment, Nate’s anger is getting the best of him. The first time he hurt Maddy, he was apologetic about it. This time, with his hands around her neck, he gives her a little slap in the face before walking away. These bouts of physical violence are becoming more and more common, and it appears that he’s feeling less guilty with each one.
For her part, Maddy is certainly afraid. She acknowledges that he’s abusive, that he makes her feel like shit, that he’s psychopathic, but she keeps going back to him. She’s not innocent in the relationship either, with her cutting words, her manipulations, and her penchant for making a scene. There’s no excuse for either of their behaviors, and it’s clear that this relationship is codependent and incredibly toxic.
By the end of the episode, they’re dancing together, and Kat makes a quip about them getting married, getting divorced three times, and probably living a pretty happy life. It’s a flippant view on an awful relationship, but to be fair to Maddy’s friends, they don’t know the extent to which Nate has been abusive to her.
I’d like to see who Nate and Maddy are without each other. Maddy, despite her popularity and stunning good looks, lacks a lot of confidence and self-respect. Nate, despite having what appears to be a dream life on the outside, is an incredibly angry person. If they stay together, I truly am afraid for Maddy and what he might do to her. If they stay apart, it’s likely that Nate’s barely-controlled rage will spill over, like we see when his dad confronts him, eventually leaving Nate to scream and bash his head against the floor.
Cassie’s not doing too well either, though her problems are quieter than those of her friends. In the last episode, she went to her mother for help with an abortion, and in this one we see the procedure through. Cassie didn’t really want to give up the baby, but McKay’s lack of enthusiasm for her pregnancy didn’t really give her a choice. If he wasn’t going to be a supportive father, she didn’t want to be stuck with a kid on her own.
It felt pointed when the doctor asked Cassie if there was any history of substance abuse in her family. She talked about her mother’s taste for wine and her father’s addiction to heroin. We also see the doctor place a pill in her mouth prior to the procedure. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cassie struggles with depression following this decision, and I have to wonder if she’ll turn to Rue for help with coping.
She told her friends she’s no longer in love with McKay — or anyone, for that matter — so it’ll be interesting to see where her story will pick up next season. Will we get to see her on her own, focusing on school and her next step in life? Or will we see her fall for someone else? There’s an equal chance that this someone could be either better or worse for her than McKay.
Poor Lexi continued to be mostly sidelined during this episode, as she has been most of the season, but I hope season 2 will give her more to work with. At the dance, she asks Cassie how to hook up with someone she likes. Cassie tells her to just do it, and Lexi seems resolved to follow through. But who could this person be?
The only obvious answer is Rue. Lexi has been quietly jealous of Rue and Jules’ relationship from the beginning. She seemed happy that Rue was back from rehab and genuinely hurt when Rue said they were no longer friends. The two of them have since patched everything up, but Rue’s entire focus is still on Jules. Lexi seemed to be drowning her sorrows in Gatorade and Everclear, and my only guess is because it was too hard to watch Rue and Jules together at the dance.
I’m less interested in Lexi creating a love triangle between herself, Rue, and Jules, and more interested in her discovering her own sexuality. We don’t know how Rue or Jules identify, and I’m completely fine with keeping their sexualities open to interpretation. It’s all a spectrum, after all. Jules appears to be mostly straight, but is capable of having feelings for women. Rue hooked up with a guy in the past, but that doesn’t mean she’s straight or even bisexual. We don’t have any other insight into who she may prefer, other than the fact that she currently only has eyes for Jules.
It’s possible that Lexi is a lesbian who hasn’t quite admitted it to herself, let alone anyone else, but it’s equally as likely that she’s bisexual, pansexual, or still questioning. Either way, I’d love to see what Euphoria does with her character next season, regardless of whether or not it’s with Rue.
Someone else whose entire arc is up in the air is Fez’s. In the Euphoria season 1 finale, we see him rob the doctor from which Mouse gets his prescription pills. It goes sideways, so he’s forced to beat up the doctor while his young son looks on. Fez returns home to find Mouse waiting for his money, which he hands over, blood and all.
Fez is definitely getting desperate to stay on top of everything he’s got going on at the moment. He’s trying to keep Mouse happy, Rue safe, and Nate out of his business. It’s a lot to juggle on top of running his business and caring for his grandmother. While it seems everything has been wrapped up at the moment, I have a feeling his run-in with the doctor will have consequences next season.
Despite the fact that he’s a drug dealer, Fez is one of my favorite characters on the show. He’s not a bad person, and he cares for Rue deeply. He wants to see the best for her, and I genuinely believe he’s remorseful for the part he’s taken in her addictive habits. He truly doesn’t want to get anyone hurt, but he may have to come to the conclusion that he’s in the wrong line of business if he wants to keep his hands clean.
Last, but certainly not least, we have Kat. I’ve loved following her storyline this season, and though she didn’t have a huge part in the finale, she’s the only one who got a happy ending by the conclusion of season 1. After a lot of back and forth, and plenty of misunderstandings, Kat apologizes to Ethan and explains why she’s been acting crazy for the last couple weeks.
Ethan, as adorable as ever, accepts her apology and seals it with a kiss. Everyone is happy for her, most of all Lexi. It’s great to see one couple in a good place by the end of Euphoria season 1, and I have a lot of hope for these two moving forward. Ethan accepts Kat as she is, even through her transformation this year. He’s less experienced than she is, but he seems confident that his affection for her will more than make up for it.
I worry about his discovery of Kat’s current hobbies, however. Has she been careful while hooking up with various guys around town? Is she going to tell him about the men who give her money to control their sexual behaviors? Will he accept it, and if not, is she willing to stop it for him? There are a lot of different directions Euphoria could take these two characters, but I hope the show lets them be happy. We don’t have enough of that going around at the moment.
The Euphoria season 1 finale was full of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Many of the characters are poised to go in different directions by the time Euphoria season 2 rolls around, and I can’t help but wonder who will come out on top and who will stay at the bottom. At the very least, I hope Rue is able to pull herself out of the darkness she’s recently fallen into.
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