One thing Euphoria is not short on is drama and shock value. Season 1 caught our attention and reeled us into the slippery game of addiction, consent, friendship, and lies. Season 2 kept us hostage and made us watch as all the battles and loves unraveled, fell apart, and self-destructed.
This is certainly not a season for the faint of heart. From gun violence to faltered attempts at happiness through lies and addiction, this is one tough season. We cannot wait to see what unfolds in Season 3. What will happen to Fezco now? Will Rue be able to stay clean? What about Nate and the Maddie/Cassie love/hate triangle of violence and toxicity?
Here's every episode of Euphoria Season 2, ranked.
8 Out of Touch
In the second episode, we see Nate in the hospital in very bad shape and daydreaming about his love issues: Maddie and Cassie. On one hand, he knows that he and Maddie are bad for each other, but they have been together for a long time. He sees Cassie as the one who could put an end to the love curse the men in his family have by being the perfect wife and mother of his children. He fantasizes about their life together.
Once he is home from the hospital, he confronts his father and tells him exactly why Fezco beat him up; because of the nasty video he has of Jules and his father. His father demands to know if he has it, but Nate is silent. Maddie has the tape.
7 Stand Still Like the Hummingbird
This episode starts with a punch right to the gut. We see Rue frantically trying to find the briefcase of pills while her mother and sister confront her about her addiction. Rue becomes deranged and out of control once her mother tells her that it was Jules that alerted her to Rue's issues. Her mother informs her that the pills have been flushed down the toilet, and Rue's anger turns to despair as she realizes the gravity of the situation. Everything becomes worse when Rue realizes that Jules and Elliot are listening to everything in the living room. Rue attacks Jules telling her that every moment with her was a mistake. Rue ends up admitting to how badly she misses her dad and agrees to once again go to rehab.
On the way there, she jumps out of the car and takes off. She ends up at Lexi's house and begs to use their bathroom. She raids the bathroom looking for pills, then tries stealing jewelry. Getting busted and realizing her mom was waiting downstairs, she takes a swing at Cassie and asks if anyone knows how long she's been screwing Nate. Maddie attacks her.
Rue goes to Fezco, but he throws her out when she is caught trying to find his stash. She ends up with Laurie, the woman who gave her the briefcase. Laura lets her take a bath and gives her an injection of morphine to help her withdrawal symptoms. Laurie locks her in the house, and Rue escapes.
6 Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys
In this episode, we see a young Cal (Nate's father) with his best friend Derek. They are inseparable and realize how much more than friends they really are one night in a bar as they end up dancing together. They both have girlfriends, and everything comes to a screeching halt as we see Cal's girlfriend, Marsha, tell Cal over the phone that she's pregnant. Cal hangs up and starts crying because he knows that the one he really loves will never be center stage in his life. This is a bit of an explanation of the behavior we see in him when he secretly meets Jules and prostitutes. He is miserable in his life.
Rue plays it off that she is no longer using hard drugs but is using weed to help with her anxiety. It is foolish of them to believe her because the energy of her "high" is not of someone who is stoned but of someone who is taking pills again. Jules believes Rue is interested in a boy at their school, Elliot, and confronts him. He states that he wants to be friends with both of them. Of course, this will not lead anywhere good since he and Rue are doing drugs together and have been in secret since the New Year's Eve party.
On a side note, Rue has decided she wants to sell drugs on a huge scale for a large-scale supplier. The woman promises to kidnap and kill Rue if she does not have her money in a timely fashion.
5 You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can
A lot happens in this midway through the season episode. Rue continues to spiral further and further into pills and just about any drug she can get her hands on while continuing to hide it from Jules. She starts stealing pills from the briefcase filled with pills that she is supposed to be selling. It's a really sad situation that we all know will end very badly. Poor Rue misses her father so badly and takes the pills in order to be able to talk to him again and to numb the pain of his death. The entire reason she began taking pills was to cope with her father slowly dying from cancer. It was his painkillers that she was taking.
Jules ends up kissing Elliot right before Rue gets to his house to hang out with them and then again when Rue is doing lines in the bathroom. Clearly, Jules is not finished with men and is now cheating on Rue, which she initially feared Rue was doing to her.
Cassie is also in a bad position and threatens Nate, saying that she is crazier than Maddie and that he doesn't want to toy with her emotions. We see Cassie falling apart while dancing at Maddie's birthday party in a bikini. She is drinking copious amounts of alcohol and trying to block Maddie and Nate out. It doesn't work and as Maddie and Nate fight in the hot tub, Cassie throws up in it, forcing everyone to evacuate.
Poor Kat finally talks to Maddie about how miserable she is in her "perfect" relationship with Ethan, her best friend. She says she hates him because he is so kind, boring, and dependable. She wants something dangerous and doesn't feel good about being treated so well. She believes there is nothing really there.
Cal revisits the bar where he and Derek danced and kissed many years earlier. He has a bandaged head from getting roughed up by Ashtray when he was found snooping outside. Poor Cal plays the same sad song over and over and tries to engage some random guys in some drunken wrestling. He gets thrown out of the bar and is very depressed and alone. He returns home, where he urinates on his own marble floor, steals a family portrait, tells his whole family how fake it is to him and how he just wants to leave, then he does so, leaving a horribly wounded family behind.
Elliot tells Jules that Rue has been lying to her this entire time and doing any drug she can get her hands on.
4 The Theater and Its Double
The episode opens with the stage presentation of Lexi's play. She has worked on it throughout the season with Fezco's support. Lexi is afraid of what the play will do to her sister Cassie and her friends. The play represents Lexi's life in the shadows of her sister. We all know exactly how it's going to hit.
The opening scene shows Lexi at Rue's father's wake. She walks in on Rue crushing up painkillers and snorting them in her room. That was a low blow. The play's homoerotic locker room scene depicting the football players who might just all be a little gay sends Nate over the edge, and he runs out of the auditorium. Cassie follows, but he blames her for her sister's play and says it's gay bashing.
The scenes cut in and out of reality, and it goes on to show Fezco and Lexi growing closer as they talk every day. It then shows Fezco pause before leaving his home and going to Lexi's play where she has a ticket waiting for him. He is dressed sharply and asks his friends if he looks okay. He is nervous and really cares about Lexi. As he is about to walk out the door, his associate Custer comes in acting strange.
3 Thousand Little Trees of Blood
This is by far one of the best episodes of Season 2 and also one of the most emotional. It really strikes a place in anyone's heart to watch a child struggle so hard with addiction and watch their mother, who is in enormous pain, not know how to help their child. We also see a new dangerous level to Nate's insanity and realize that nothing can be fixed.
Rue is back home and in need of help in a serious way. Her mom, Leslie, tries desperately to get her a room at rehab, but nothing is available for the next week meaning Rue must detox at home with the help of her family.
Cassie is busy feeling sorry for herself when her mom intervenes and says she is the one to blame and should have been a better friend. Cassie is ridiculous and holds a corkscrew to her head and says she wants to die. She knows she screwed up badly and has lost her best friend and the man she thinks she loves.
Nate is beginning to question why he hasn't heard anything from Maddie but makes the call to hide in her room, but it's not to apologize. He has stolen Cal's gun and is determined to get the video back from Maddie, no matter what it takes. The scene is one of the most gripping and realistic of the show and especially of Nate.
He holds a gun to Maddie's head as she sobs and begs him to stop. He demands the video, and when she doesn't go along with it, he turns the gun on himself and swears he will pull the trigger while pinning her to her bed. Poor Maddie just seems to never fully be able to get away from this extremely toxic kid. She gives in and gives him the tape. Nate actually does something almost noble; he takes the tape to Jules and gives it to her to do as she sees fit, though he warns her.
As the episode wraps up, we see Rue and Gia's mother, Leslie, sobbing into the phone as she finds out the hospital will not be offering Rue a room after all and that she is on her own. She begs them to reconsider and says that Rue is suicidal. She just wants to see her child well, and it is killing her.
2 Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door
In this gripping Season 2 premiere, we are introduced to Fezco and his disturbing upbringing. Fezco is a tough guy who sells drugs and is good friends with Rue, who he frequently needs to stand up for or reprimand when she makes terrible choices.
In the opening of this season premiere, we meet a young Fezco's grandma, who also deals drugs and runs an extremely tight ship when it comes to money owed. We see her literally shoot the penis off of a strip club owner while little Fezco waits in the car. This is how she acquired Ashtray, Fezco's "adopted" troublesome brother. Ashtray is the child of the nasty strip club owner, and after Grandma shoots him, she picks up little Ashtray and takes him with her as "payment."
Later, we see Fezco sitting at a New Year's Eve party with Ashtray, Rue, and her friends. Fezco knows the terrible things that Nate is doing to blackmail her and her friend Jules and has sworn to kill him. After a sweet moment where Fezco meets Lexi, and they give off warm and fuzzy vibes, he says goodbye to her and hopes they can talk soon. After that, he absolutely annihilates Nate, beating him to a literal pulp and sending him to the hospital with the promise that next time he will kill him. However, Fezco is a good guy with sound morals and respect for his friends. He knows right from wrong and knows Nate needs to be stopped.
1 All of My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name
Custer starts asking questions about Mouse's body, and Ashtray immediately knows he has been compromised and jumps on Custer, stabbing him in the neck and killing him. They try to stifle the sounds Custer is making, but it's too late.
Cassie storms the stage and calls out Lexi for always living in her shadow and embraces her. Right after, Maddie also comes to the stage screaming at Cassie about how she's a cheater and a terrible friend. The girls all scramble backstage, with the audience clueless about whether that was part of the show. Kat follows after them trying to defuse the situation. Lexi's play is a massive hit and the crowd chants her name.
Fezco tells Ashtray to leave and that he will take the punishment for Custer's death instead of his little brother. Ashtray refuses to leave Fezco, grabs a gun, and sits on the bathroom floor, waiting for the cops to enter. The cops bust in and Ashtray starts unleashing rounds into the long hallway between the cops and the bathroom. He accidentally hits Fezco and watches as he falls, quickly bleeding out. Ashtray plays dead and waits for a cop to get close, then he shoots him. Another cop puts a bullet in Ashtray's head, and Fezco watches in complete despair.
In the meantime, Nate finds his father, Cal, partying with a bunch of teenagers and calls him out for being a fraud. He shows the USB drive he has in his hand and holds a gun to his father as the police rush in and arrest him. Nate has clearly decided to turn his father in.
The closing scene is of Rue kissing Jules on the forehead and walking away after Jules comes to where she is sitting during the play, telling her she misses and loves her. Rue has remained clean for the rest of the school year but is hesitant about putting herself around the same old friends that she had while she was using.