Zendaya as Rue Eddy Chen/HBO On Sunday night, the wild, sometimes nonsensical but endlessly meme-able ride that was Euphoria finally came to an end with its third and final season. Viewers didn’t realize that they were watching the show’s finale, since creator Sam Levinson and HBO didn’t confirm the news until after the episode had aired. But it wasn’t surprising, considering the events of the episode. Still, it’s shocking to think that a show that captured audiences and kept them waiting for years between seasons went out the way it did, leaving a lot on the table and not many answers. Here, we’ve gathered some of the questions we’re still sitting with, even after that ending. (Spoilers ahead.)
Why Does the Reaction to Rue’s Death Feel So Minimal?
Euphoria ended with the death of Ruby Bennett (Zendaya). The details of her death left a fair amount of questions: Did she actually take more than one fentanyl-laced Percocet, causing her to overdose, since the bottle is still very full when Ali finds her, or was it that single pill that Alamo gave her that did her in? But what was even more mind-boggling is the way the rest of the characters reacted to her death. This is the main character we’re talking about and no one but Ali sheds more than a couple of tears. Rue doesn’t even get a proper funeral; instead, all we see is Lexi talking to Cassie, who writes the main character off as a “drug addict” with a “nice smile.” The enormity of Rue’s death isn’t felt, and that’s probably because we aren’t shown how her family or Jules take the loss.
Why weren’t Jules and Nate developed as characters this season?
One of the most confounding elements of this season was the character arcs, or lack thereof, for both Jules and Nate, respectively. To start, Jules barely has any runtime in Season Three and when she is onscreen, she barely ever leaves her sugar daddy’s apartment. This latest version of Jules doesn’t quite line up with her younger self from earlier seasons, a dreamer hungry for new experiences. Instead, this Jules doesn’t do much more than paint oil on canvas, delivering as few lines as possible.
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Similarly, Nate acts like an entirely different person. Gone is the hothead with intense daddy issues who questions his sexuality. That Nate is replaced with a dude that just lets shit happen to him, from getting married to Cassie (and yelled at by her at their wedding) to getting caught up in an unbelievably bad business deal. Adult Nate can’t seem to catch a break: He loses a limb every episode and never puts up a fight against the Armenian gang member after him. It’s very unlike Nate, who used to curl his fist at the slightest inconvenience — and the whole thing makes his death seem very inconsequential.
What Happened to Dominic Fike’s Scene?
Last year, Variety reported that Dominic Fike would return to Euphoria to revive his messy, but lovable character Elliot. Would that mean another acoustic performance from the musician-actor? According to reports, Elliot was supposed to make a cameo — and Fike even taped scenes. But each week, as those same fans held their breath, Fike didn’t appear, and his character wasn’t even mentioned by anyone again.
Fike hasn’t said anything about why he didn’t appear on the show, but an interview he did back with Zane Lowe in 2023 and shared he almost got kicked off the show because of substance abuse issues. “I was a drug addict and coming on to a show that’s, you know, mainly about drugs, is very difficult,” Fike told Zane Lowe. “Sam [Levinson], the director and writer, got me a sober coach, somebody to be there all the time. It did not work.”
What was going on with the music this season?
Before the season started, it seemed like Oscar-winning Hans Zimmer was being brought in to collaborate with Labrinth. But in March, Labrinth launched a bunch of cryptic Instagram posts, alluding to some kind of issues with the show creators and his label. “I’m done with this industry. Fuck Columbia. Double fuck Euphoria. I’m out. Thank you and goodnight,” he wrote. Later, he went into more detail, adding, “People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people. So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in it. I spoke to HBO, as far as I know, we are cool. I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me, but I don’t let people treat me like shit.”
