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Season 2 of ‘Euphoria’ aired on Jan. 9, 2021 on HBO MAX. (Photo provided via @ephuniah on Twitter)

TV Review: The premiere of 'Euphoria' season 2 was worth the wait

After tirelessly waiting for over two years, fans are finally fed with the Euphoria season two premiere — which promises excitement, drama and everything in between this season.

Last season ended with Rue’s (Zendaya) relapse after Jules (Hunter Schafer) left her at the train station. Fezco (Angus Cloud) had also threatened Nate (Jacob Elordi), telling him not to mess with Rue or his friends ever again or he’d kill him. 

This season picks up right after the two bonus episodes on New Year’s Eve. However, it wouldn’t be an episode of Euphoria without a great background story of a character and, this time, it was Fezco’s turn. 

It starts with talking about how Fez came to live with his grandma and learn the drug business from her, and during one of their deals someone left a baby, whom they adopted and named Ashtray (Javon “Wanna” Walton). When his grandma became sick, Fez took care of all the drug business things and raised Ashtray on his own. 

His grandma taught them both to take care of each other and fight or kill to protect the other, and that’s exactly what Ashtray did when he saw a drug deal going in the wrong direction for Fez. Ashtray killed one guy and brutally crushed the face of another, resulting in Fez getting the dead man’s drug business. 

This brings the audience to New Year’s Eve, when Fez, Ashtray and Rue are going on a drug deal. It starts to get dicey, with one of the random guy’s girlfriends doing heroin around Rue while the other guys ask them all to prove they’re not wearing wires by taking off all their clothes. However, everyone ends up OK.

Everyone else is headed to a New Year’s Eve party, but Lexi (Maude Apatow) can’t find Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). However, Lexi is quickly kept company by Fezco, with whom she really hits it off once he, Rue and Ashtray arrive. As it turns out, Cassie is at the gas station, drunk, where she runs into Nate. He offers her a ride to the party and because they had just broken up with their significant others — McKay (Algee Smith) and Maddy (Alexa Demie), respectively — they get to the party and immediately have sex. 

However, right as they’re about to be caught by Maddy, Cassie hides in the shower and Nate leaves, so Maddy never catches them. Instead, Maddy flirts with Travis (Demetrius Flemory Jr.), a new character with whom she has obvious chemistry. 

Cassie eventually talks to McKay, who she ends things with because she feels like she shouldn’t be anybody’s girlfriend at the moment. McKay, distraught by this, leaves the room and has an awkward encounter with Nate, who asks him really invasive questions that make him upset. 

Meanwhile, Kat (Barbie Ferreira) and Ethan (Austin Abrams) are happily together (yay!), which is more than can be said for Rue and Jules, who see each other at the party for the first time since Jules left. 

Rue sees Jules before Jules sees her, so she makes a break for it. Already being high, Rue hides in Fezco’s car, where she sees the heroin from earlier in the night. She decides to shoot up with the heroin and then goes inside to find Elliot (Dominic Fike), another new character who is snorting something. After Rue snorts with him, she thinks she’s going into cardiac arrest, so she snorts adderall to wake herself up. She and Elliot then clearly form a bond together and go to smoke weed by the fire. 

That’s where Jules finds her. She goes over to talk to Rue, who is clearly stressed to see Jules, and Rue tells her she relapsed the night she left. After the two of them talk, Rue feels bad about how she left things and decides to tell her the truth: she wants to be with Jules. The two kiss in a beautifully lit and shot moment.

But it all goes downhill when Fez tells Ashtray to get the car ready to go. 

In a quick moment, Fez goes over to talk to Nate, whom he had previously threatened. After talking for a few seconds, Fez starts beating the living daylights out of him, including smashing a glass bottle over his head. Maddy, Cassie and McKay take Nate to get him cleaned up, and Fez leaves the party in a hurry, leaving Rue and Jules utterly shocked. 

This week’s episode only proves Fez is the ultimate man, protecting the ones he loves without hesitation. Additionally, the budding relationship between Lexi and Fez could be one of the most interesting points of the season. I think we should all be skeptical of Rue and Jules for now after the rocky road they’ve been on so far, but we’ll just have to see what other wild rides this show has in store for us.

Here’s how people reacted on Twitter: 










Feeling behind or just need a refresher on the show? Check out a full recap of season one, below.

Episode one and two: https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/06/euphoria-review-hbo-rue-drug-problems 

Episode three:

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/07/euphoria-review-rue-gets-help 

Episode four: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/07/euphoria-review-hbo-nate-jules-blackmail 

Episode five: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/07/euphoria-review-hbo-rue-jules-relationship 

Episode six: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/07/euphoria-halloween-mckay-attacked 

Episode seven: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/07/euphoria-hbo-fez-nate-cassie-pregnant 

Episode eight: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2019/08/euphoria-season-finale-review-rue-relapses 

Rue Bonus Episode: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2020/12/euphoria-special-episode-review-part-one-rue-hbo-max 

Jules Bonus Episode: 

https://www.thepostathens.com/article/2021/01/euphoria-special-episode-jules-rue-hbo-max 

Euphoria airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO MAX. 

@rileyr44

rr855317@ohio.edu

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