Last year’s Malcolm & Marie taught us a few things. One, Sam Levinson is not artistically equipped to produce a bare-bones, dialogue-driven dramatic feature. Two, it’s questionable whether he’s heard two humans argue before. And three, Zendaya is not particularly suited for performances that involve raising her voice above a mutter.
Unfortunately, these shortcomings find themselves in this week’s Euphoria, which follows Rue experiencing a tumultuous case of withdrawal. At the start of the episode, our strung-out protagonist finally gets caught after Jules informs Rue’s mother Leslie that she’s been using. The fallout from this revelation is something we’ve seen previously in season one. There’s a lot of cursing, screaming, and crying. Rue kicks in a door and physically assaults her mom. Gia is traumatized. There’s mention of Rue’s father to remind us that her issues are partially related to his death and, later on, flashbacks. Yadda yadda yadda.
After weeks of watching Rue slouch around and shrug at other people’s drama, it makes sense that Levinson would eventually give her storyline some kind of crescendo. (Zendaya’s not getting that second Emmy by making funny faces at the camera, after all). However, what should be a jarring moment is overshadowed by the overall lousy construction of the scene, from its dialogue to its pacing to Zendaya’s cringe-y attempts to appear threatening.
Clearly, Levinson has a penchant for capturing lunacy in his work. But he still hasn’t mastered a rhythm or found a movement that feels natural for these long-winded meltdowns. Likewise, he seemingly instructed Zendaya to emulate the Tasmanian Devil for the entirety of this 12-minute scene. This cartoonishly psychotic performance ends up being rather comical and made me question why Gia and her mom couldn’t just pin this very small girl to the ground. When things occasionally quiet down for Rue or Leslie to say something hurtful—like when Rue strangely implies that her mother is to blame for her father’s death from cancer—these jabs are extremely limp.
Beneath all of Rue’s hysterics, there’s the terrifying revelation that Leslie and Jules got rid of Laurie’s suitcase. I think this scene would’ve felt less sloppy if Rue was primarily reacting to this news. It feels unnecessary that Jules and Elliot are also present for her to yell at. Who cares about Rue breaking off her train-wreck relationship with Jules when the possibility of her being sold to sex traffickers is looming in the background?
The rest of the episode is no less sloppy and awkwardly paced. After exhausting all of her energy (for now), Rue agrees to go to the ER to get detoxed, but Leslie actually plans on checking her into rehab. Once Rue realizes this, she pulls a Lady Bird and jumps out of the car, runs through an intersection and disappears into a residential neighborhood. After falling asleep in an alley, she wakes up in more pain from her withdrawal and decides to go to Lexi and Cassie’s house to raid their drug cabinets.
When Rue arrives, she’s greeted by Lexi, who, again, has nothing crucial to say besides observing that Rue looks terrible. Cassie, Maddy and Kat are also there but immediately walk off to another room without even inviting Rue to join them. If there was any question whether Rue is actually a part of the central friend group on this show, the answer seems to be no.
Rue ends up making it to a bathroom where she can’t find the drugs she needs. When she returns downstairs, Leslie is waiting for her in the living room along with everyone else, who look like they’re being forced to interact with Rue against their will. This is another moment when the episode descends into utter chaos. For some reason, Levinson decides to expose Cassie and Nate’s affair in the middle of an intervention for Rue. After Cassie very innocently gives Rue some encouragement, Rue shoots back that she and Nate have “been fucking” based on seeing them kiss in his car a month ago.
You’d think this revelation would get its own theatrical moment, given how much of the season has been dedicated to this love triangle, but is instead shoehorned into a scene mainly about Rue. Additionally, it’s strange that Rue is the one to drop this bomb out of everyone, considering how little contact she has with the three people involved. Maddy isn’t even allowed to fully go off on Cassie, as they’re told to table the issue by the adults in the room.
Amid everyone’s fussing, Rue escapes and heads to Fez’s house to get drugs. Again, we’ve watched Fez and Rue tussle over drugs before. This time, he physically grabs her and throws her out of his home in a way that doesn’t feel in line with his gentle, caring attitude toward her. She goes to another neighborhood and spots a car leaving a garage and slides through the door before it shuts. She encounters a growling dog and has to hide from the homeowners once they return but manages to escape with some money and jewelry.
As if Rue hasn’t gotten enough exercise over the past 24 hours, Levinson inserts a police chase after some officers question her on a street corner. This elaborate sequence feels like obvious filler for an episode that doesn’t really know what it’s about. The fact that she’s able to do this in an excessively weakened state is truly mind-boggling. At one point, she even falls through a glass table and immediately bounces back up like John Wick.
At last, she reaches her final destination for the night at Laurie’s house. This scene provides some respite from the disarray of the rest of the episode, thanks to Martha Kelly’s chilling performance. Rue gives Laurie the jewelry and a couple thousand dollars she stole and explains that she doesn’t have the rest. This is where some plot holes begin to appear. While we heard Rue’s pitch on how she planned to sell the suitcase, it was never clear whether she would actually execute it or how she was going to pay Laurie back. Her reaction to her mother getting rid of the drugs read like she was planning on selling them, but we haven’t seen a single sale. Was she going to use that entire suitcase for herself and steal money from somewhere else? When was the money actually due in this timeline?
Laurie is surprisingly maternal and nurturing toward Rue, sharing her own experience with drugs, giving her a bath, and injecting her with morphine. However, she eerily tells Rue that “being a woman” she can come up with the profit in other ways, reminding us of her initial promise to have her sold to some bad people when they first made the arrangement. When Rue wakes up the next morning, she leaves Laurie’s apartment despite her loud parrot and jumps from a balcony. The last shot we see is of Leslie sitting in her home and the sound of a door opening and shutting.
Overall, this entire hour was a deeply uninspired attempt to give Rue more plot and tie up some loose ends. At this point, it’s well established that Rue’s issues are connected to her father’s death. And I’m not sure we need anymore flashbacks to remind us every time she spirals. Drug addiction is naturally a repetitive cycle. But if Levinson is going to make entertainment out of it, he needs to find more innovative ways to portray this experience.
