‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Finale Ends With a Major Death as Other Core Characters Get Limited Screen Time

• Share on Facebook
• Share on X
• Google Preferred
• Share to Flipboard
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Send an Email
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the season three finale of Euphoria.]

Over the last seven years, audiences have followed the lives of those in the fictional world of Euphoria and watched many of its young stars ascend into household names. Following last week’s episode, the series’ first major death — the killing of Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs — shocked audiences. And Sunday night’s finale continued the surprises.

The episode begins with Rue (Zendaya) escaping Wayne (Toby Wallace) after Faye turns on her and screams to wake him up while Rue attempts to rob the drug cartel. Audiences also see Maddy and Cassie grieving after discovering Nate’s dead body.

Related Stories

THR Digital Cover

Alexa Demie, Euphoria's Most Elusive 'It' Girl, Is Finally Ready to Talk

'House of the Dragon' Piles Up the Bodies in Final Season 3 Trailer

After the traumatic night, Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) gives Rue money and time off but intentionally leaves a bottle of pills out, knowing Rue will take them. As Rue heads to Ali’s home, Laurie’s drug cartel is raided and Laurie takes her own life after saying, “I can’t go to prison.”

While at Ali’s home, Rue sees on the news that Fezco (Angus Cloud) has escaped prison and goes to find him. A clip of Fezco and Rue in a field is then shown, making for an emotional moment for fans of the series, as Cloud died in real life of acute intoxication following an accidental overdose in 2023, one year after season two aired.

However, the sequence is revealed to be a dream Rue is having, along with a reunion with her mother, Leslie, as Ali wakes up to find Rue dead. After testing her Percocet pills, he discovers they were laced with fentanyl and that Rue was poisoned after Alamo learned she was a rat. Given that Rue has struggled with addiction throughout the series, it makes her death especially heartbreaking. Following her death, Ali (Colman Domingo) sets out to avenge her, even showing up at Alamo’s strip club to confront him and kills him.

As for Maddy and Cassie, they plan to rent out bedrooms in Cassie and Nate’s house to other OnlyFans models in an effort to pay off their debt, and turn it into their own hype house.

As for Euphoria’s other original main cast members, including Lexi and Jules, they feel like an afterthought in the finale. Jules appears in only one scene and has no dialogue, though she is shown crying, making it unclear whether it’s because she knows Rue is dead. Lexi, meanwhile, is helping Cassie and Maddy while grappling with guilt over Rue’s death. Cassie also doesn’t tell Lexi the truth about what happened to Nate, instead claiming that he disappeared.

Ahead of the season’s premiere, Levinson said season three was about choices and consequences. By killing off Rue, the finale leaves many questions about how the show could continue, if it does.

More to come.

***

Euphoria season three is streaming on HBO. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage here.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

• Live Feed

  ‘Euphoria’ Star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the Shocking Finale Episode (Exclusive)