How do you write an obituary for a character like Rue Bennett?
It’s been seven years since the gritty but glittery teen drama “Euphoria” premiered on HBO Max, starring former child star Zendaya as a tough girl desperately and unsuccessfully trying to fight her way out of drug addiction. From the moment Rue’s red eyes and dark circles appeared onscreen, viewers watched as her struggle with drugs devastatingly impacted everyone from her overwhelmed mother, Leslie (Nika King), and sister, Gia (Storm Reid), to her classmates, who had been waiting for her to return to their crowded hallways.
There was the girl next door Jules (Hunter Schafer), the violent and latently homophobic jock Nate (Jacob Elordi), the spineless bimbo cheerleader Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), the intrepid It girl Maddie (Alexa Demie), the storyteller Lexi (Maude Apatow), the failed dominatrix Kat (Barbie Ferreira) and the drug dealer with the gold Hearts, Fezco (Angus Cloud). Friendship is too simple a word for its interlocking chaos. Over the course of the three seasons, the group’s activities escalated from stylized teenage drama to real crime – drug smuggling, human trafficking, sexual violence against women and vigilante justice.
Despite all its absurdities, “Euphoria” dominated the cultural discourse and made stars out of its main actors. Amidst all the unevenness, there were moments of artistic brilliance, and the characters were people you rooted for – well, maybe with the exception of poor Cassie. Then Sunday night’s series finale brought everything to an abrupt, pieced-together, and brutally indifferent end. For viewers, it was unsatisfying – and yet it was the conclusion that “Euphoria” had worked for: a finale as convoluted as the entire running time and as the legacy that the series leaves behind.
Western instead of glitter
Season three of “Euphoria” left behind the show’s typical tear-jerking glitter and adopted a Western-Gothic tone. Gone are the days of embarrassing public orgasms at fairgrounds and noisy exposé school performances – instead, Rue repeatedly crosses the US-Mexico border and becomes entangled in a drug smuggling conflict between dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly), mob boss Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and the drug enforcement agency DEA. And despite the five-year jump between seasons two and three, the central characters of “Euphoria” are still stuck in the same problems and self-destructive impulses that poisoned their school years.
In the finale, Rue dies from a fentanyl-laced pill given to her by Alamo. She spends her final moments in hallucinations – on a daring escape from the police to find Fezco and in a tearful reunion with her estranged mother. The next morning she is found on the sofa of her sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo), lifeless and gray, still in her distinctive burgundy hoodie. Ali then leaves addiction treatment, puts on military clothing and has a deadly duel with Alamo in a strip club.
After the finale, series creator Sam Levinson defended his decision to end the series with Rue’s relapse into addiction. He explained that he changed the originally planned ending after trying to process Cloud’s real-life overdose death in 2023. “People relapse. They blow it. They’re not ready to get clean, and they didn’t die in the past like they did today, with the rush of fentanyl into this country,” Levinson told Deadline about the finale. Reflecting on his own addiction story, he added: “I can say with absolute certainty that if I went through what I went through then, I wouldn’t be here today. There’s no need to sugarcoat it. I wanted to tell the story for Angus and for people who don’t get a second chance.”
No second chances
But hardly any of the beloved characters from “Euphoria” get a second chance. Since Nate died from a rattlesnake bite in the penultimate episode, Cassie is left with a newly freed Maddie in an empty mansion – with vague plans to turn it into an OnlyFans hype house. Lexi drifts in the unforgiving world of Hollywood. A tearful Jules is beautiful fixtures in her sugar daddy’s apartment, painting a Rue in motion while her own life stands still. Stripper Magick (Rosalía) is not mentioned in a single syllable, friends like Kat or the late Ashtray (Javon Walton) remain uncommented, as does the missing Elliot (Dominic Fike).
It’s a frustrating ending for characters that viewers have cared about for seven years – but it’s fitting for a series that has always thrived on volatility, both on screen and behind the scenes. Over the course of its run, the series saw the sudden departure of several key creative collaborators, including photographer Petra Collins, whose aesthetic defined the first season, and Labrinth, whose music encapsulated the series’ emotional threads for two seasons.
“Euphoria” wasn’t a well-thought-out series. Sometimes it wasn’t even particularly worth seeing. And yet there were many moments when the series worked despite its writing, storylines and direction. Their confusion allowed brilliant moments of pure talent to shine through the ensemble. There was something unique about Sweeney’s wide-eyed weirdness or Cloud’s aura of goodness. Schafer’s stripped-back solo episode “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob” captured a real slice of the inner life of a trans woman struggling with her place in the world. Eric Dane’s final appearance on screen was raw heartbreak.
What remains of the chaos?
Once fans get over the initial shock of the finale, they’ll be left to mourn a series so torn apart that a reunion may leave them even more perplexed. It’s these standout moments that will be remembered – as thrilling as the series as a whole has never been. It will be easier and more satisfying to view compilations on YouTube than watching the series in its entirety. And what could be more fitting for a show made for and about the clip generation than a series made up of a handful of viral clips and memorable one-liners?
One of the most frustrating elements of the Euphoria series finale is the lack of a funeral for Rue. Ali disappears offscreen to tell Rue’s mother about her death. She is only mentioned in a casual conversation between Lexi and Cassie. A farmer’s daughter who Rue knew for less than 24 hours is one of the few characters whose grief the audience even sees. A surprising decision – especially in view of the lyrics of Labrinth’s “All For Us”, which is heard in the season finale of season one and during Rue’s relapse and echoes as a leitmotif through the second season: “When it all comes down to it / I hope one of you come back to remind me of who I was,” sing Labrinth and Zendaya. “When I go disappearing / Into that good night.”
Rue cared about how people remembered her. So here is my best attempt:
This is Rue Bennett. She was not a good sister, not a good daughter, not a good friend. But she tried. And in “Euphoria,” with all its splintered, scarred attempts to say anything, perhaps the best goodbye is no goodbye at all.