As far as season finales go, Euphoria’s is one of the most beautifully disappointing of the year.
Last week’s episode set this week up perfectly by ending with Nate (Jacob Eldori) calling the cops on Fez (Angus Cloud), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) deciding to get an abortion and Jules (Hunter Schafer) cheating on Rue (Zendaya).
The finale doesn’t take advantage of the set up, only resolving a few issues and leaving the audience with a lot of questions.
The episode opens with a narrated speech from Rue’s mom at her rehab facility, while showing everyone getting ready for the winter formal dance. It’s obviously a skip in the timeline and requires a lot of explanation to fill in the gap.
Rue is treated for her kidney infection, and after she leaves the hospital, Jules tells her she cheated on her. Rue takes it surprisingly well, almost like it wasn’t even considered cheating, and the two get ready for the dance together. While getting ready, Jules makes a comment about Rue’s outfit choices and dresses her up in a less “Seth Rogen” way.
Jules and Rue go to the dance, and Rue tells off Nate, promising him that she’ll ruin his life if he ever tries to mess with Jules or Fez again, and the threat works well because Rue has nothing to lose against Nate.
Rue asks Jules to run away with her, to get on a train, go into the city and escape from everyone in the town. They go to the train station, but Rue starts to have second thoughts, and expresses this to Jules, but she doesn’t seem to care.
“Jules I don’t think this is a good idea,” Rue said.
“Rue, it was your idea,” Jules said.
“I know it was my idea, but I just, I don’t think it’s a good idea anymore; that’s what I’m tryna tell you,” Rue said.
Jules gets on the train and leaves, and Rue is left alone at the station. Rue goes home and relapses by doing a line of cocaine, and her storyline ends with a music video and a series of flashbacks, from her relationship with her dad to her substance abuse and her falling out with her mom. It’s also revealed that the reason Rue wears “boyish” clothes is because they’re all her dad’s.
Meanwhile, Cassie gets her abortion. It’s juxtaposed with her figure skating routine, and the entire scene is really honest and heartbreaking, and the audience can feel Cassie’s emotions while going through this difficult experience. This issue is one of the only things that gets resolved in the finale, but it also opens up the question: where is McKay (Algee Smith)? He isn’t anywhere to be found in the finale, and Cassie actually says this is the first dance she’s been to where she isn’t in love with someone.
On a happier note, Kat (Barbie Ferreira) finally confronts Ethan (Austin Abrams) about her feelings, and the two get together with a kiss. It’s a really sweet moment and really showcases Kat’s character development, and the audience is happy because Kat certainly deserves happiness.
Instead of the absolute worst character on the show getting the consequences he deserves, Nate simply gets into a huge fight with his dad, has a huge meltdown, gropes another girl and brings her to the winter formal, and ends up dancing and verbally abusing Maddy (Alexa Demie) some more. The most toxic couple on the show decide they have to break up, but it’s not a very finalizing breakup and a disappointing way to leave his storyline until the next season.
The most-anticipated part of the finale is Fez’s storyline because after getting completely raided by the police last week, it seemed Fez was pretty much in deep trouble. The raid cost Fez all of his drugs, and he is forced to rob someone in the finale. After stealing the money he needed to pay back his supplier, Fez gives it to him and then they both see the blood on the money from when he beat up the man he robbed. Fez’s storyline is left on a cliffhanger, with the supplier showing a gun and Fez stuck in the situation.
The episode is great in the sense of acting, cinematography and lighting design. It’s also great because of the music video at the end, which is a kind of meta experience, with Zendaya singing lead on a song that’s been used in the background throughout the season. The episode, however, lacks by not even presenting cliffhangers but simply leaving the audience confused. It isn’t a completely disappointing finale but isn’t one of the best episodes, either.
