‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: What Happened?

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Euphoria season 2 episode 3.

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EuphoriaCal Jacobs’ third episode focuses on storytelling with a nearly 15-minute opening sequence showcasing his tumultuous senior year in high school. Cal is the weekly focus after episode 2, during which he discovered Nate’s knowledge of his sex tape with Jules, and that the video may not be in Nate’s possession. Episode 3 confirms this last detail, as Cal sets out on a quest for the grail of the sex tape. (Maddy has the tape, by the way, but Cal doesn’t know that yet.)

Episode 3 also (finally!) gives us more Lexi, whose school play will add another dash of metafiction to an already confusing world of storytellers and fantasies.

Meanwhile, Jules and Rue begin to drift apart as the siren song of drugs calls Rue to its euphoric shores. While Rue’s relapse remains hidden from her friends and family, she now has a suitcase. And in that suitcase is enough drama to fill the rest of this season.

Before we get into the episode, we have a quick side note about drug use so far this season (which, along with sex, isn’t representative of the generational cohort the series describes), i.e. it seems to be on the rise. . cooler?

It’s best to remember that the series takes us through cycles of abuse. So far this season, we’re at a high with Rue, a high, so far, with no clear consequences. But the consequences are coming. The final image of the episode belies Rue’s opening dance montage. While using Rue temporarily counteracts her depression, it also isolates her and the episode ends with her alone in the dark. He has alienated his sister, Jules and Ali, who represent his support system.

As glossy, technicolor, and musically over-the-top as the accompanying drug cinematography can be, and there may be an argument that these features tend to glorify drug use, the series is ultimately a cautionary tale.

Episode 3 laid the groundwork for what will be another arc of Rue’s downfall.

This is how it happened.

Cal’s INXS summer

The episode begins with Cal Jacobs, a high school student. Rue narrates the extended sequence and says that Cal spent every day with his best friend, Derick. The two drive around listening to INXS, attend wrestling practices together, meet girls, date girls, and then graduate. Meanwhile, the two share intimate and increasingly tense moments, culminating in a gay kiss in a bar on a rainy summer night before college.

And then the summer of love is broken by a phone call. Cal learns that his girlfriend is pregnant, presumably by Nate. He cries.

Roll title credits.

Rue is tall, like… so tall

Rue dances around her house to a song playing in her head. Her sister sees her and asks if she’s on drugs. Rue then pauses to explain to the audience in an extended fourth-wall-breaking sequence that she is, in fact, on drugs; however, she has a cover. Realizing that there is no way to completely hide her drug use, she decided to plant the idea that she uses marijuana in the minds of her friends and family. Both Jules and her sister believe in Rue’s ruse and attribute her fluctuating emotions to marijuana use.

With this knowledge, Jules forgives Rue for hiding her relationship with Elliot. Still, Jules thinks Elliot just wants to sleep with Rue and questions Elliot to find out. The two trade accusations of sexual promiscuity but seem to hit it off. Jules discovers that Elliot does not rigidly classify his sexuality, having relationships with both genders. The three seem to become friends and start dating.

Sexuality often comes up in their conversations. When Rue is away, Jules and Elliot talk about sexual desire. Elliot discovers that Rue and Jules are not sexually active. He tells Jules that he first assumed Rue might be asexual and asks how Rue’s sex drive has impacted their relationship, given that Jules previously admitted that she is a more sexual person than Rue. Elliot then says that he is attracted to Jules and proceeds to validate her. (It is hinted that Rue has not told Jules these things.) The camera stops, suggesting that the two are having a moment. We’ll see how this plays out in future episodes.

Lexi! Oklahoma!

Lexi has been writing a play since the tense confrontation at the convenience store between Fez and Cal. Lexi realized that her lack of intervention is due to her being mostly an observer. He begins to write about his observations, particularly his relationship with his sister Cassie and his dysfunctional family. The play will be presented by the school, which will lead to a simulated behind-the-scenes sequence of Lexi explaining to the audience (us) her idea of ​​casting the supporting character as the main character. The sequence features mock BTS interviews with Rue, who plays a supporting character. It’s all very meta and seems to echo an earlier point made by Rue in her own fourth wall breaking when she said that people seek solace in entertainment/TV (referencing the same show she’s on, Euphoriaand HBO).

If ever there was a scene that cried out for film students to analyze, this would be it.

Look at me, Nate!

Meanwhile, Cassie has been waking up at 4am to spend more time with herself. However, her grooming routine is also designed for Nate to see in the hallways. He does not. Cassie convinces herself that Nate is actually a handsomely thoughtful man, and the sequence ends with Cassie and Maddy walking together in the same outfit. Cassie then runs off when she realizes that Maddy notices.

Later in the episode, Cassie begins to quietly break down and almost tells Maddy that she has a crush on Nate. She later tells Maddy that she (Maddy) deserves someone who really cares about her (Maddy), even though she (Cassie) is the one who believes that she (Cassie) deserves someone who really cares about her. her (Cassy). Then we go into scenes of Nate definitely not caring about her (Cassie). The compassionate sex fantasies are interrupted by Nate being a nasty fuck and hooking up with Cassie while her parents listen downstairs.

What the hell is this show?

At the end of the episode, Nate shows up at Maddy’s babysitting house with a bouquet of flowers.

rue is broken

Realizing that she cannot financially support her drug addiction, Rue proposes to Fez (who refuses) and then to Fez’s plug (the laconic woman from that scary apartment) that they use her to sell drugs. (Instead of just, you know, getting a legal job to make money.) She says she can avoid a harsher sentence because she’s underage and suggests that because her friends are worried about college admission, they won’t do drugs.

The woman, who knows Rue is an addict, inexplicably gives her an injection, supplying her with $10,000 worth of drugs in a completely Discreet black suitcase. On their way out, the woman tells Rue that if Rue loses her money, she will kidnap her and sell her to “some really sick people.”

Later, Rue takes the totally discreet suitcase to NA, where Ali confronts her outside. Rue (after learning of Alli’s past during that restaurant episode) calls Ali a bad father, causing her to give Rue an ultimatum: if she disrespects him again, he’s done with her. Rue disrespects him again, mentioning his previous domestic violence. Ali leaves. Rue sits alone in her room and begins to get high with her own supply. Here we go again.

back to lime

After learning that Nate doesn’t have the tape, Cal goes to see Fez. Ashtray repeatedly hits Cal with a shotgun while Fez interrogates him. Cal, assuming that Fez has the tape and has been blackmailing Nate (an accusation, we are led to believe, came from Nate), asks Fez to return it. Fez, having just found out that Cal had sex with Jules underage, and realizing that Nate has pissed off his father, drops the bombshell: Nate has a crush on Jules.

Cal is completely stumped. Fez is completely stumped. Fez allows a completely bewildered Cal to leave.

The tables have turned against Nate.

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