Euphoria Season 1 - Episode 3 š„ ā
What starts as a jokeāwearing a corset and a cat mask for an audience of strangersābecomes something darker. Kat realizes that men will pay to be humiliated by her. She discovers that her weight, the source of her high school insecurity, is a fetish to others. She leans into it with a cold, calculating fury.
When Euphoria premiered on HBO in June 2019, it arrived with the force of a gut punch. The Sam Levinson-created drama, dripping in neon and nihilism, immediately divided critics and audiences with its graphic depiction of teenage life. The pilot introduced us to Rue Bennett (Zendaya), a freshly sober drug addict adrift in a world of sex, social media, and trauma. The second episode expanded the ensemble, giving heartbreaking depth to Jules (Hunter Schafer) and the volatile Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). Euphoria Season 1 - Episode 3
The episode ends with Rue finding a hidden stash of pills in her house. She stares at them. The episode cuts to black. The audience knowsāand worse, Rue knowsāthat she is going to take them. The love of Jules is not enough. It was never going to be enough. While āMade You Lookā softens the edges of Rue and Jules, it hardens Nate Jacobs into something genuinely terrifying. After beating Tyler (an innocent college student) to a pulp at the end of Episode 2 and framing him for assaulting Maddy, Nate spends this episode managing the fallout. What starts as a jokeāwearing a corset and
But the shadow of Rueās addiction looms. She confesses to her NA sponsor that she feels ānothingā when sheās sober. She is going through the motions. Later, when Jules goes to meet a guy from a dating app (a subplot involving āAna,ā an older woman), Rue waits in the car, and the camera lingers on her trembling hands. The urge to use is physical, visceral. Zendaya, in this episode, does more with a single twitch of her jaw than most actors do with a monologue. She leans into it with a cold, calculating fury
Rue narrates: āIāve never been in love before. I thought it was something you made up in movies. But itās not. Itās this thing that grabs you by the throat and doesnāt let go.ā The irony is suffocating. Rue has swapped one form of escapism for another.