In creator Sam Levinson\u2019s mind, every new season of Euphoria<\/em><\/a> 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<\/a>) ended season 2 in 2022 by finding sobriety and stating that \u201cmaybe being a good person is what keeps me trying to be a good person,\u201d 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<\/em>\u2019s roller-coaster ride.<\/p>\n Four years ago, all signs pointed toward Euphoria<\/em>\u2019s stars calling it quits as well. Zendaya (The Drama<\/em><\/a>), Sydney Sweeney (The Housemaid<\/em><\/a>), and Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein<\/em><\/a>) have each reached levels of fame that even the show\u2019s greatest detractors didn\u2019t think was possible. Levinson faced claims that the set of The Idol<\/em><\/a>, his limited series with the Weeknd, was a toxic work environment<\/a>. Then the world lost two of Euphoria<\/em>\u2019s best supporting actors with the deaths of Angus Cloud and Eric Dane<\/a>. (Cloud died in 2023 from an accidental overdose, and Dane succumbed to ALS earlier this year.) If there was ever a time for Euphoria<\/em>\u2019s 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 <\/em>season 3, which premiered on HBO this Sunday, April 12.<\/p>\n The mission? Tell another fucked-up story about the power of forgiveness, faith, addiction, and, most importantly, Rue\u2019s pursuit to \u201ctry to be a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n Can Rue escape the hole that she\u2019s dug for herself?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Season 3, episode 1 opens with one of the most beautifully shot scenes in Euphoria<\/em>\u2019s history. Rue drives a janky car up a ramp and across the U.S.\u2013Mexico border after speeding through the desert blaring Christopher Cross\u2019s \u201cRide Like the Wind.\u201d 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\u2019s a thrilling opening, like catching James Bond in medias res\u2014but I\u2019m sure much will be said about how Euphoria <\/em>always toed the line between showmanship and real character work.<\/p>\n One of the first things we learn about Rue\u2019s post-high-school life is that she just might\u2019ve 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\u2014and that\u2019s Laurie being generous, apparently. So she finds herself swallowing balloons of fentanyl and praying that they don\u2019t pop inside her stomach while she figures out what kind of life she\u2019s even living anymore. It\u2019s a decent place to start\u2014and it\u2019s clear from the onset that Zendaya certainly didn\u2019t come back to the series only to phone it in.<\/p>\n As crazy as Euphoria <\/em>veered in season 2\u2014Nate (Elordi) holding his father (Dane) at gunpoint over sex tapes with his classmates, or Maddy (Alexa Demie) slamming Cassie\u2019s (Sydney) head into a brick wall over a school play\u2014Zendaya proves from the start that we should never forget she won the Emmy twice for Euphoria<\/em>. If anything failed the actress in Dune<\/em>, Challengers, <\/em>or The Drama<\/em>, it was the writing\u2014not her performances. And even when I have no idea where Rue\u2019s plot is going or what we\u2019re even working toward anymore, I\u2019m still bothered any time we leave her story to focus on someone else.<\/p>\n Jacob Elordi returns as Nate, the abusive boyfriend who\u2019s taken over his father\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Speaking of, how are those other characters doing? Well, Nate is struggling to find investors after taking over his father\u2019s 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\u2019s said about Sweeney\u2019s apparent demotion to sex object despite her commanding season 2 performance, the better.)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Maddy is working celebrity public relations into the series (is Levinson making up for The Idol<\/em>?), and it\u2019s 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\u2014despite the actor\u2019s death\u2014though he\u2019s off-screen in jail with a 30-year sentence. Obviously Euphoria\u2019<\/em>s main players no longer need to attend the same school each day. So it\u2019s tough to figure out how anything connects right now, or if it ever will at all.<\/p>\n![\"jacob](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/fcc1b709-d930-4475-b1ad-fd3043df77c6.jpg?crop=0.874xw:0.36xh;0.126xw,0.079xh&resize=980:*\" "\\"jacob")
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