Euphoria Season 3: I’m Glad It’s Finally Over

I watched Euphoria season three, so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

Euphoria season three… where do I even start? (Sidebar: this brings back déjà vu of how I started my season two review.)

I’ll start by saying Euphoria should have ended after season two. And in a way, it kinda did, because this was a completely different show. The storyline was terrible, and the characters were a shadow of their former selves. And in some cases (Nate Jacobs) felt like they’d undergone a full lobotomy. It probably didn’t help that half the cast had mentally checked out of their roles long before the cameras rolled. 

Season three was a disjointed, jarring piece of television with questionable writing choices, gratuitous scenes, and director Sam Levinson visibly trying to turn Euphoria into a neo-western. This was not the Euphoria that caught our attention back in 2019. It didn’t even have the iconic Labrinth score to save it this time. 

And yet, with all its many, many faults, it still managed to keep me watching. In the way a trainwreck keeps you staring. Thank God it wasn’t renewed for another season.

A Quick Backstory

For the uninitiated, Euphoria was a show about teenagers navigating things like drugs, sex, identity, and the dark side of addiction. If you haven’t seen the show, check out my recap of the first two seasons here. 

The show is narrated by Rue (Zendaya’s character). She’s the protagonist and knows intimate details about every character’s life. Rue is a drug addict, no thanks to the many mental health issues plaguing her, making her an unreliable narrator half the time. 

When Euphoria first launched in 2019, it was praised for its gritty, dark take on addiction, drugs, and teenagers facing a range of issues. Yes, it was controversial, but season one managed to toe the line while still delivering captivating, visually stunning television. 

That was largely due to the full creative team working alongside Levinson. The Labrinth soundtrack was also a huge part of what made the show feel like nothing else on TV. 

When it first aired, the only widely recognizable name in the cast was Zendaya (fresh off Disney and Spider-Man), and maybe Jacob Elordi, coming off The Kissing Booth. But as the show exploded, other actors like Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Angus Cloud, Maude Apatow, and Barbie Ferreira shot into the limelight.

Season one was a hit. Season two was solid, too. Zendaya walked away with two Emmys and a Golden Globe, even if the cracks in Levinson’s creative control were already starting to show.

Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, died of an accidental overdose in 2023 after season two. Rather than writing off his character, the show kept him alive in prison, and the finale’s tribute was a nice touch. Eric Dane, who played Cal Jacobs, was diagnosed with ALS in April 2025, returned to the set, completed all his scenes, and passed away in February 2026.

Season Three’s Plot

(Spoilers ahead. Feel free to skip to the next section if you prefer mystery.)  

Five years have passed. Everyone is out of high school (finally), and life has moved on. 

Laurie (the drug dealer who looks like an innocent school teacher) nabs Rue and makes her a drug mule to pay off her debt after the events of season two. To settle her debt, Rue starts working for Alamo, a pimp/human trafficker who’s even worse than Laurie. 

She narrowly escapes death practically every episode, gets nabbed by the DEA, and is turned into an informant. Rue just can’t seem to catch a break this season.  

Back home, Cassie and Nate are engaged, living in the suburbs, and Cassie is making money through an OnlyFans-style content business from their home. Jules is in art school, avoiding responsibility, and apparently became a sugar baby somewhere along the way. Maddie is working as an assistant at a talent agency in Hollywood. Lexi is a production assistant and is insufferably judgmental about everything. And everyone is somehow worse than you remember them.

Now that we’re all caught up on the plot, let’s move on to this season’s issues. 

Season Three’s Many Problems

So, it took HBO four years to drop season three after season two aired in 2022. That’s a very long time for people to wait for a show. Too much time had passed, and people had moved on from the Euphoria hype. 

That already wasn’t a good sign. 

But still, fans who were still interested decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and see what it had to offer. Even though the trailer looked like a completely different show, some people have described this season as a mix of Narcos and Breaking Bad, written for an entirely different audience. 

The behind-the-scenes drama during production also didn’t help. Labrinth departed the show, citing creative differences, handing the score over to Hans Zimmer — a perfectly competent choice who nonetheless could not replicate what Labrinth brought to the show’s identity.

Then there’s the long-running controversy around photographer Petra Collins, who claims she moved to Los Angeles after Levinson told her he’d written the show based on her visual work and wanted her to direct it. She spent months helping build the show’s world, did the casting, developed the aesthetic, then HBO told her she was too young to direct and let her go. 

Season one’s iconic look, that hazy, neon-soaked, glitter-drenched visual identity? Collins says that was hers. Levinson has never fully addressed it. And watching season three, with its harsh cinematic wide shots and Breaking Bad color palette, it’s clear whatever originally made Euphoria beautiful is long gone.

The rumored feud between Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and other cast members during production didn’t exactly suggest a harmonious set either. Suffice to say, we expected season three to be terrible. While it wasn’t entirely a disaster,  it still sucked.  

The Characters

Outside of Rue, Cassie, Maddie, and maybe Nate, the rest of the original cast could have been cut entirely, and nothing significant would have changed.

Nate Jacobs

Nate seemed to have undergone a lobotomy in the past five years, because this was not the toxic/psycho Nate of previous seasons. All he did was make stupid decisions and lose body parts until he eventually died. 

RIP, Nate Jacobs. You were utterly useless this season. 

Jules

Jules was somehow even worse. It seemed like Levinson had no idea what to do with her, so she got the Kat treatment from season two — sidelined, reduced to a plot device. She painted bad art, became a sugar baby, and was consistently awful to Rue and everyone around her. In the finale episode, she didn’t even have any lines.

Lexi, Maddie, and Cassie

Lexi spent the whole season judging everyone and being a terrible friend to Rue, right up until the end, where she indirectly contributed to Rue’s death.

Maddie essentially became a pimp, pulled into Alamo’s world while trying to manage the fallout from Nate’s decisions. I felt bad for her, but at least it turned out great for her in the end. 

And Cassie — well. It was obvious this season centered on her more than anyone else. Her scenes ranged from what-is-wrong-with-this-woman to full Lord-have-mercy territory, between the cringe, the nudity, and the desperation.

The Absence of Rue’s Family

Rue’s family, her actual anchor across the first two seasons, was barely present. Her sister, Gia, wasn’t present this season because the actress didn’t return to the show. Leslie, her mom, was reduced to a phone cameo. 

Ali was the only solid person in her corner this season, and we barely saw him until the last two episodes. 

Thoughts on Rue’s Ending

Most of us could see Rue’s death coming. The foreshadowing across earlier seasons was always pointing there, and the original Israeli show it’s based on ends similarly. My issue isn’t that she died. It’s the way it happened, and the way almost everyone around her reacted to it.

Despite all the odds, Rue was finally sober. And if she’d backslid and overdosed, that would have been a different case. She took “what she thought was pain meds” and died. And that pissed me off, especially when I saw Sam Levison’s take on Rue’s ending. 

After surviving everything Alamo and Laurie put her through, Rue crashes at Ali’s place to recover. She takes the pain meds Alamo gave her, which was a dumb move (but then again, Rue was never the brightest tool in the shed), and dies in her sleep. 

Ali finds her dead in the morning, tests the pills, and confirms they were laced with fentanyl. Rue was poisoned by that fucker Alamo. She did not overdose. I need to say that clearly because the number of people who watched that finale and said “she finally overdosed” made my blood boil.

Anyone, former drug addict or not, will die after taking pills laced with fentanyl. 

Alamo’s death, at least, was satisfying. Ali tracking him down and ending it was the one moment of the finale that actually delivered (and I rewatched that scene just to relish it). Everything else felt rushed or unresolved.

The Finale

I won’t say it was entirely disappointing, but it still annoyed me. 

What I really wanted was a funeral scene with Rue’s friends and family together in a room, saying something real about her. What we got instead was a three-month time jump, shots of Jules painting and looking vaguely sad, and Cassie saying she had a nice smile. Sam Levinson resolved one of the most emotionally complex character arcs on modern television with a montage. 

Maybe Rue finally found the peace she’d been searching for all season. That’s what I’m choosing to take from it. 

RIP Rue. No one can hurt you again. 

Season three felt like it was designed to provoke people, and not much more. I’m glad it’s finally over. And I’m glad they had the sense not to make a fourth one.