Euphoria
S.02, E.03 - “Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys” (2022)
On the surface, this is one of the messiest episodes of Euphoria to date. It is apparent in the structure, which breaks the fourth wall a few times to unveil some truths about the characters. The first and most notable is Rue turning to give a lecture on how to be a successful drug addict. She opens by saying that she’s a beloved character on a TV series as Labrinth’s score plays in the background. She smirks, saying that she had no intention of staying sober. Upon all of the lessons around gaslighting and misdirection, there is some truth in this artifice, breaking free of the show’s reality in order to find a greater narrative about Rue. The hope and optimism of her getting well over season one is all but gone now. In its place is the covert operation to sell as many drugs as she possibly could.
These elements were always at play yet feel most prevalent here. From the first scene where she dances to “Call Me Irresponsible,” there is this push to comment on her self-awareness but also the fact that she’s a slave to her addiction, in desperate need of having them while plowing down anyone who stands in her way. Given that the song originated in Papa’s Delicate Condition (1963) where Jackie Gleason forms alcoholism, it’s a great subtext on top of a very literal translation. Given that it includes a peppy dance number that finds her romantically galloping around the house with a pillow, there is the sense of her high overtaking her soul. The decision to see her sister at the peak of the song’s elation is another great note, finding her needing to con her way out of this mess.
How does one manipulate the system so that they can get what they want? For Rue, it’s to sell drugs. Fezco has already admitted that he refuses to go along with the operations. While he has done many reckless things already this season, there is a sense of protection and ethics in his coda. Even when he has Ashtray assault Cal for driving to their house, there are morals over how badly they want to beat him. Also, Cal’s desperation for that disc of him having sex with Jules reflects further divide. Fezco doesn’t care about it. He’s not out for petty revenge. It’s Nate once again orchestrating everyone to fall to his whim. As the mastermind, he has everyone on edge, especially Cassie who cannot seem to please him no matter how she dresses and how long she takes to look pristine.
But it becomes clear why Cal might have another layer of frustration with his son. In his flashback, Euphoria goes back the furthest that it has in the show’s history, showing him having a relationship with a man. They dance to INXS and it’s beautiful. Of course, them being jocks means that they have to play straightness to a T, even having girlfriends who seem to be more trophies than deep romantic interests (itself a decent subtext for the eventual marriage). When Cal discovers that she’s pregnant, the relationship with the man is seemingly over, and thus starts a new era. It should be one of triumph, but it’s as much a chance to see him stuck in a loveless marriage, but also to raise a son who clearly never got to have the splendors that Cal did. It’s clear that Nate has some of those tendencies, but his unwillingness to act on them is itself a tragedy, causing him to act out.
Again, Nate is worse than Cal solely because Cal had a chance to grow up in a normal and seemingly healthy environment. Nate seems to have been neglected or resented, maybe just for being painfully similar to his father. Now they are fighting at odds with each other with Nate doing everything to take him down. With one fantasy involving Cal committing suicide, there’s a clarity that Cal is in his own purgatory, needing to escape the trap his son has set for him. He needs to escape this performative act and find some sense of happiness.
It’s just like Rue, who starts the story hanging out with Elliot but slowly seems to venture away, using other activities as an excuse. Even as she rolls out a suitcase full of drugs, there’s her mother on the phone saying that Rue is doing great. She is that great of a conman. She has a way of fooling the most vulnerable among her. When she finds that Ali refuses to go along, he snaps. Rue has attacked Ali for being an imperfect father, and it goes against their trust. It goes against the bonds that they expressed in the Rue special from 2020. Hearing Ali’s tone change reminds the audience how much can be lost if he loses faith in her. Ali was always the moral center of Euphoria, showing positivity at the end of a long, torturous journey. To have Rue collapse that tunnel is heartbreaking.
Then again, she’s fooling everyone. It’s why the fourth wall break doesn’t feel all that annoying. She loves existing in a state of intoxication, believing that it will protect her from any lows. At another point in the episode, Rue visits Jules and proceeds to make out. Recalling the Jules special from 2021, a piece of The Double Life of Veronique (1991) score plays. It’s a song we’ve heard from Jules’ P.O.V. before, reflective of her desire for Rue to fully embrace her. If viewed this way, it’s a beautiful moment full of this deep desire. Jules doesn’t know about Rue’s greater life at this point. It’s the tragedy that so far this season Rue hasn’t been able to express her feelings for Jules while sober. This moment that should mean the world may come back to be heartbreaking and tragic, manipulative and desperate.
Which makes the fact that Jules befriending Elliot is more the center of their arcs. It’s easy to forget that they’re teenagers, daring each other to do stupid things for their own amusement. They put each other in harm’s way, but only in a controllable form. Nobody is going to stay mad at Jules for urinating in the street or Elliot insulting a group of strangers. While it could escalate into something more compromising, for now, it’s a cutesy way to make friends, letting their guards down so that they can respect each other as people. It’s a perfect contrast to Rue, who is taking dares that are more likely to get her killed. Given that she has admitted that she is mostly wanting to “get high on her own supply,” this is probably going to end badly.
Even then, Elliot and Jules talking about Rue has this endearing quality to it. They both appreciate her as a friend, though they don’t see her as a sexual person. She’s either gay or asexual as Elliot puts it. While this isn’t confirmation of anything, it does suggest that Sam Levinson is still curious to explore this topic. I personally don’t think Rue is asexual, but just a drug addict whose libido and overall imbalance plays against those type of desires. What I hope the show does do is help explore the split attraction model in clearer terms (i.e. the difference between romantic and sexual attraction). For now, it’s an interesting point, but feels more like Elliot planting ideas for his own toxic masculinity. It’s the idea that any woman who doesn’t want to sleep with him is either gay or asexual. It’s a negative way of looking at it, but maybe Elliot is being honest. Maybe he’s twisting language in the hope of appealing to Jules and manipulating her. It’s hard to tell.
The other big way that this week’s Euphoria breaks the fourth wall is a bit more minor but nonetheless enjoyable. Serving as a perfect counterbalance to the other subplots’ darkness, Lexi finally gets her own arc formed. Following last week when Cal confronted Fezco, she has realized that she is an observer in her own life and wants to change that. As a result, she turns to art by creating a stage play that she hopes to explore these issues. She is worried about being just an observer in her life, never believing that her family was her own. In a scene that feels straight out of HBO’s recent Scenes From a Marriage, the reality breaks and we’re thrown into the kitschiest behind the scenes videos of Lexi’s life where she serves as writer and director.
It's obviously more fictitious on manners than Rue’s segment, but it feels more like an understanding of Lexi’s potential to cope through creative means. Credit to Maude Apatow especially for finding ways to make the sequence feel just as hokey as any VH1 special down to the awkward smiles and glances that usually come with overenthusiastic hosts dragging the viewer into the production rooms. Even then, the choice to have her project be done almost in protest to the drama department’s version of Oklahoma! is another fun way to show Lexi at odds with East Highland and especially Cassie. It’s unclear how successful she will actually be, but the effort to find her own voice feels like a nice touch.
Not every character ends this week in a compromised position or looking for some way to mask their pain. With that said, it’s the overbearing truth for the central cast. Nate continues to be the show’s sharpest written character even when all he does is walk down a hallway. As Cassie dresses in increasingly eccentric and sexual outfits, he ignores her, trying to make her want him more. Even at the end there is that sad revelation that Nate is ignoring her in favor of Maddie. He thinks that he has everything under control. Even his father has to bend to his will when they have loud sex in the house. The question is how far his ego will go, especially now that he’s abused so much power and turned pretty much everyone in his life against him.
I stand by the belief that Levinson is wanting to turn this into a giant Greek tragedy where families turn on each other and friends betray for selfish gains. I do not fully see where things are going, but given how these first few episodes have gone, it does feel like there’s some pushing and pulling against what’s expected. Even the way that Levinson has explored the use of family in the flashbacks inform some sense that a big ominous twist is about to come. Given that this week focused on Cal becoming a father and losing the love of his life, who knows what will happen next. Will there be an unexpected pregnancy or death that rattles the framework? If nothing else, the development of Fezco likely having a falling out with Rue (and Rue with Ali) feels inevitable at this point. The question is how close to the edge will everything go before things become too much?
Following last week’s searingly dark episode, this one only feels mildly more optimistic. Sure it returns with plenty of dark humor, but it’s rooted in so much psychological pain, where Cassie is losing her mind like a Tennessee Williams protagonist and Cal is growing desperate to please his son just to avoid a bigger public shaming. It’s all so brutal and one has to wonder how things could’ve played out differently for Cal if Nate was never born. In some respect, it might’ve made Euphoria not exist at all – or at least be not as interesting. It’s the tragedy that continues to make the show an engrossing experience. What will come now that we’re rapidly approaching the midsection? Given that “Shook Ones – Part II” was a high point of the series at that point, one can hope that Levinson begins to reveal his cards in ways that make the crescendo land with more force. It’s an unrelenting show, but nevertheless it feels more balanced and accomplished this time around, able to find integrity even when it’s doing everything in its power to hide it.
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