Jon Blistein
Contact Jon Blistein by Email View all posts by Jon Blistein June 1, 2026
Zendaya as Rue in the series finale of 'Euphoria.' Eddy Chen/HBO Euphoria ended its blockbuster three-season run last night with a finale that has left many fans devastated and shattered, and some a little more lukewarm. (Spoilers ahead, duh.)
The final episode, “In God We Trust,” ran about an hour and a half, but the biggest moment happened about halfway through when Rue — the show’s main protagonist, played by Zendaya — overdosed and died. In many ways, Rue’s fate had long been sealed, thanks to both her own personal demons and her tense spot between DEA agents and the crime boss Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
Not that that made the character’s demise any easier to swallow. “Yeah, this ending absolutely broke me,” wrote one fan, referring to the way Rue hallucinated a reunion with her mother in the moments before her death.
“Say what you want about this show but Zendaya just had the best tv death of all time,” said another fan.
During that same dream sequence, Rue also pointedly reunited with her friend Fez. Fez, of course, was played by Angus Cloud, who died of an accidental overdose himself in 2023. (Rather than killing off Fez in the show, the character has been in prison.)
“The fez and rue flashback made me sob,” wrote one fan. “The Rue and Fez scene I wanna cry so bad,” said another. “That’s actually heartbreaking,” a third stated.
But while Rue’s final scene had plenty of emotional potency, some fans couldn’t help but notice what it was missing: “Rue bennet dying scene has me sobbing and the fact we didnt get a Labrinth music in that scene is CRAZY,” read one tweet. (Labrinth, who composed the music for the first two seasons of Euphoria, was not involved in Season Three. Labrinth hasn’t stated exactly what happened, but wrote on social media in April, “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.”)
Similarly, others were frustrated by the fact that Rue’s death seemed to happen in a vacuum, while other character storylines were similarly shortchanged (especially Hunter Schafer’s Jules). As one person put it: “killing off rue was bad enough but why did we barely get any of the long time characters reaction to it??? why was it basically all ali? jules had one scene with zero dialogue? leslie was in the episode but in a death dream sequence? man whatever… never had a character death of a character i loved so much feel so hollow.”
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Those less satisfied with the ending directed many of their criticisms at Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson. “No funeral for your lead character. Ali and the Amish girl being the only ones who cared that she died. no resolution w Leslie or Gia,” one person said, referring to the variety of loose threads left. “There’s not enough words in any language to describe how awful that man is.”
“The color palette change.. the raw milk.. Rue saying she wants to be a tradwife, christian propaganda, random nazis, slurs everywhere, women objectified, nazis trying to LYNCH RUE WITH THE HORSE, THE ENDING SCENE… SAM LEVINSON YOU WILL BURN,” exclaimed another frustrated fan.
