Summary
Euphoria Season 3 ends as definitively as possible, with multiple massive narrative swings and daring choices, not all of which will be popular.
You have to hand it to Sam Levinson, Euphoria’s Season 3 finale was not what I expected it to be, in several ways. In hindsight, the writing was already on the wall, with Ali’s backstory and Nate’s unexpected, unceremonious death suggesting a couple of things, among them that nobody was as safe as we thought, and Rue, most of all, was staring down the barrel of her own mortality. But still, nobody quite expected this Red Wedding-style ending, with multiple deaths, a lot of spiritual longing, and no real loose ends to keep things going.
In other words, Euphoria is over. And as far as I can tell, it’s definitively over, with no comebacks, short of a generational renewal like Skins or maybe Elite over on Netflix (and let’s be frank, we know how that turned out). But you have to give credit where it’s due, since “In God We Trust” is the kind of finale we don’t really get anymore, one that plays all its cards and fully commits to every decision instead of panhandling for a sequel. On the back of a really wonky season, it’s the best we could have hoped for.
Rue Is Dead
It should have been obvious that Rue’s efforts to play two criminal syndicates against the DEA were going to backfire, but you never really suspect a protagonist is vulnerable. Rue’s death is doubtlessly the key takeaway from this finale, and it’s surprising how emotionally it’s handled given the arch predicaments that bring it about.
With Faye rumbling Rue’s heist in the previous episode, she only manages to make it out of Laurie’s compound by the skin of her teeth, and with an assist from G. But her celebrations with Alamo are undercut by the fact that he knows she has been working with the DEA. The painkillers he gives her for the injuries she sustained doing his bidding aren’t a kind gesture; they’re a death sentence.
It makes sense to frame Rue’s death as a battle with her sobriety, which is the same battle she has been fighting since long before this season. After getting stitched up, she goes to see Ali, retreats into the Bible, and debates descending into the pill bottle once again. But she wakes up the next morning and is distracted by a news broadcast revealing that Fezco’s plan to parkour his way out of prison worked. She leaves to find him, visits his old store, and has a string of tender recollections involving Fez, her mother, Leslie, and sister, Gia, and even Jules.
It becomes obvious during this sequence, when Rue is chased by the police as she breaks past a cordon and then randomly stumbles across her mother, who’s reading the Bible and weeping, that it’s all a dream. Rue is high. She never left Ali’s couch. The next morning, he finds her dead, having overdosed on the fentanyl that Alamo laced the painkillers with. Emotional, Ali implores God to give her peace, informs Leslie of her passing, and writes her name in his book of addicts he has lost. Later, after attending his final sobriety meeting, he saws the barrel off a shotgun.
Laurie Meets Her Maker
If nothing else, Rue’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, since the DEA descended on Laurie’s compound, seized the van of drugs – or so they think – and arrested Laurie’s entire crew. Unable to face the idea of being caught, Laurie climbs to the roof and takes her own life.
Wayne and Faye survive, fleeing on horseback and later stealing a car on the highway. Their Bonnie and Clyde story is only beginning, but it’s unlikely anyone will be interested in it. The DEA’s operation isn’t a total success, though, since, thanks to Bishop, the drugs make their way back to Alamo anyway on the back of a good old switcheroo.
Cassie Gets Her Dream Life
It wouldn’t be fair to say that Cassie is totally over Nate’s death, and “In God We Trust” makes a point that it’s something she’s going to continue to struggle with. But I think in the grand scheme of things, she’ll be fine. She’s just about the only person who gets through the ending of Euphoria Season 3 relatively unscathed. Sure, her husband is dead, but she has turned their former marital home into a boarding house for female influencers, and they’ll no doubt be raking in the cash if the bills already in Cassie’s safe are anything to go by.
Lexi turns down Cassie’s offer of being a “storyteller” in the project, as well she might, but her discovery of Rue’s Bible has led her down a path of “beautiful, a little confusing, and fascinating” faith, which has allowed her some kind of understanding that all the guilt and resentment she carries around isn’t worth it, nor is it really her fault. This allows her to build bridges with her sister, finally, even if they’re still on radically divergent paths.
Jules Remains in A Prison of Her Own Making
Jules is barely in Euphoria Season 3, Episode 8, but her climactic scene is powerful enough for it not to matter. She’s painting, as ever. But this time her angry splatters form a clear picture – of Rue. The portrait is Jules’s way of honouring her through her art, finally putting those talents to use.
But Jules remains trapped as the plaything of Ellis, just as Rue warned her she would. They never got to reconcile after their final interaction, and Jules never really found a subplot of her own this season. A shame, really.
Ali Gets His Revenge
Having decided that sobriety meetings and pouring his heart and soul into addicts who ultimately end up dying anyway isn’t quite enough, Ali goes right to the source, taking the newly sawed-off shotgun to the Silver Slipper, where he kills G and challenges Alamo to a Western-style duel.
The end of Maddy’s arc is bundled up in this, too. Having essentially given herself over to Alamo as his personal pet, sacrificing her pride on the altar of profit, Alamo’s first action is to use her as a human shield, which is pretty much their new business arrangement in microcosm. But Alamo’s fondness for Old West theatrics means she’s sitting safely behind the bar when Ali guns Alamo down. He never got the chance to shoot back, since the gun Bishop had given him wasn’t loaded.
Bishop remains enigmatic, and his motivations are unclear, but this was clearly his chance to usurp his boss. He drops the stolen bullets on the floor with a closing “May God have mercy,” and offers Maddy a ride home with Kitty and that little poodle.
Ali Finds Salvation
While it seemed very likely that Ali would sacrifice himself to avenge Rue, he didn’t. Instead, he visits the little border ranch that Rue visited way back in the premiere, with the God-fearing farming family that gave Rue so much peace and introduced her to the Bible. He’s invited inside to eat and say grace with the family. As he does so, he sees Rue smiling at the end of the table.
The final shot of Euphoria, of the Stars and Stripes outside the homestead, matches Rue’s closing narration, asking God to bless us all. It’s an idealised view of America and a presumptuous one of religion, one arguably ill-fitting for a show that based an entire episode around Sydney Sweeney’s breasts. But somehow, it works just fine.
