In creator Sam Levinson’s mind, every new season of Euphoria is the final one. He sends his lost and reckless teens on a crash course of sex, drugs, and trap music, then he hopes that he can write a semi-believable way for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So when Rue (Zendaya) ended season 2 in 2022 by finding sobriety and stating that “maybe being a good person is what keeps me trying to be a good person,” it was as good a place as any to release the safety bar and disembark from the manic highs and too-often exploitative lows of Euphoria’s roller-coaster ride.
Four years ago, all signs pointed toward Euphoria’s stars calling it quits as well. Zendaya (The Drama), Sydney Sweeney (The Housemaid), and Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) have each reached levels of fame that even the show’s greatest detractors didn’t think was possible. Levinson faced claims that the set of The Idol, his limited series with the Weeknd, was a toxic work environment. Then the world lost two of Euphoria’s best supporting actors with the deaths of Angus Cloud and Eric Dane. (Cloud died in 2023 from an accidental overdose, and Dane succumbed to ALS earlier this year.) If there was ever a time for Euphoria’s A-listers to thank the series for jump-starting their careers and move on, it was now. Instead, nearly everyone from the main cast returned to film Euphoria season 3, which premiered on HBO this Sunday, April 12.
The mission? Tell another fucked-up story about the power of forgiveness, faith, addiction, and, most importantly, Rue’s pursuit to “try to be a good person.”
Season 3, episode 1 opens with one of the most beautifully shot scenes in Euphoria’s history. Rue drives a janky car up a ramp and across the U.S.–Mexico border after speeding through the desert blaring Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind.” The camera follows Rue as she precariously stops the car at the top of the wall and pulls off a high-wire act to make it safely across. It’s a thrilling opening, like catching James Bond in medias res—but I’m sure much will be said about how Euphoria always toed the line between showmanship and real character work.
One of the first things we learn about Rue’s post-high-school life is that she just might’ve dug a hole so deep that it becomes her grave. When we pick up with the character five years later in the season 3 premiere, Rue is a drug mule for season 2 antagonist Laurie (Martha Kelly), who traps her into a life of slavery after she returns to collect her debt. Rue still owes her $100,000—and that’s Laurie being generous, apparently. So she finds herself swallowing balloons of fentanyl and praying that they don’t pop inside her stomach while she figures out what kind of life she’s even living anymore. It’s a decent place to start—and it’s clear from the onset that Zendaya certainly didn’t come back to the series only to phone it in.
As crazy as Euphoria veered in season 2—Nate (Elordi) holding his father (Dane) at gunpoint over sex tapes with his classmates, or Maddy (Alexa Demie) slamming Cassie’s (Sydney) head into a brick wall over a school play—Zendaya proves from the start that we should never forget she won the Emmy twice for Euphoria. If anything failed the actress in Dune, Challengers, or The Drama, it was the writing—not her performances. And even when I have no idea where Rue’s plot is going or what we’re even working toward anymore, I’m still bothered any time we leave her story to focus on someone else.
Jacob Elordi returns as Nate, the abusive boyfriend who’s taken over his father’s business.
Speaking of, how are those other characters doing? Well, Nate is struggling to find investors after taking over his father’s real estate business. His bored housewife, Cassie, is so desperate for a lavish wedding that she posts videos on OnlyFans and literally barks for the camera in a sexy puppy costume. (The less that’s said about Sweeney’s apparent demotion to sex object despite her commanding season 2 performance, the better.)
Meanwhile, Maddy is working celebrity public relations into the series (is Levinson making up for The Idol?), and it’s only mentioned in passing that Jules (Hunter Schaefer) is now living as a sugar baby. Lexi (Maude Apatow) is a Hollywood assistant on the Warner Bros. lot to a producer played by Sharon Stone. Plus, Fezco (Cloud) is alive—despite the actor’s death—though he’s off-screen in jail with a 30-year sentence. Obviously Euphoria’s main players no longer need to attend the same school each day. So it’s tough to figure out how anything connects right now, or if it ever will at all.
According to Levinson, much of the new season is inspired by westerns. “You know, the themes of good and evil, freedom, its consequences,” he told The New York Times. “Also this feeling that at any second, you can die.” Still, there’s no fight for justice in a lawless town (like in High Noon) or any mission for revenge (Once Upon a Time in the West). Much more as with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, there’s just a feeling that everyone is vying for a twisted, modern version of manifest destiny that’s right outside their reach. Levinson’s America remains a gold mine of opportunity as long as you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, and many of his characters are perfectly happy to play within those margins.
Rue does receive support to get her life back on track from both her childhood friend Lexi and her sponsor, Ali Muhammed (Colman Domingo). But their advice isn’t too actionable for what she’s cooked up. The clueless Lexi tells Rue to set a five-year plan, while Ali tells her to give reading the Bible a try. Then, when Rue attempts to escape Laurie’s grasp by meeting another powerful pusher named Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), it feels like she’s only trading one hell for another. If you find yourself asking, What are we doing here? I can comfortably assure you that you’re not alone.
Sweeney was amazing in Euphoria season 2. But in the season 3 premiere? It’s tough to watch.
In a press release ahead of the premiere, Levinson shared a bit about why he wanted to return for another season. According to the TV creator, season 3 was born out of how much Angus Cloud’s death deeply affected him. “With addiction, you’re supposed to be prepared for the loss of someone struggling, but his death stirred an anger—not only for him but for the many young lives in America cut short by fentanyl,” he wrote. “This season became my way to honor Angus and all the kids who weren’t offered a second chance.”
If Euphoria season 3 is that second chance, then I can only hope Levinson makes the most of it. The world he’s concocted for these characters is a hollow purgatory where humanity’s horrid impulses reign. Season 2 played out as if every character constantly looked at a decision tree and picked the worst possible option. Rue is clearly taking the second-chance idea to heart the most so far. But for most of Levinson’s other characters, second chances can’t come, because they haven’t learned anything from their first.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is an immediate standout as Alamo.
Based on early reviews of the season so far, it appears I’m a little more optimistic about this road ahead than my peers are. Episode 1 reminds viewers why we were so drawn to the series in the first place—from the campy relationship drama to the barely watchable gross-out trauma of the drug trade. I’m down for the ride. Hell, to even hate-watch Euphoria is a better hour than anything else on TV that we tune in to just to see how it plays out.
My only guess is that Levinson plans to borrow a page from spaghetti westerns like A Few Dollars More and have Rue provoke both sides until they kill each other. Hopefully she finds freedom out of it in a way that doesn’t just show her packing up and moving on to the next town like Clint Eastwood. Euphoria needs to end its journey by mining some real depth from the hearts of its characters, lest the series close the curtains by proving that it’s just as vapid as everyone says it is. But Rue won’t go out without taking a swing, and neither will Euphoria.
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