Why Eric Dane’s ‘Euphoria’ Return as Cal Jacobs Is So Powerful

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

Latest

• Sydney Sweeney’s Work in ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Is Complicated and Compelling 1 week ago
• ‘Erupcja’ Director Pete Ohs and Writer Jeremy O. Harris on Working With Charli xcx, Resisting AI and the ‘Digital Detox’ of Japanese Jail 1 week ago
• ‘The Testaments’ Creator on Continuing ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Story, Bringing Back Elisabeth Moss as June and Casting Chase Infiniti and Stephen Colbert 3 weeks ago

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “The Ballad of Paladin,” Season 3, Episode 3 of “Euphoria,” now streaming on HBO Max.

One of the defining loose threads of “Euphoria” has been settled — in moving and compelling fashion.

The action of the first season of “Euphoria” back in 2019 kicks off with a crime. Jules Vaughn, the new girl in her high school, solicits sex from older men; Cal Jacobs, a seemingly upstanding member of the community, commits an act of statutory rape. The act is captured on a tape that haunted the show through its first two seasons — as evidence of Cal’s unfaithfulness and of a queer identity he can barely admit to himself, and as a potential catalyst for his fall from grace.

Related Stories

Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim Lead Indonesia Joint Venture's Slate as Asia Media Alliance Group and Nation Pictures Partner Up (EXCLUSIVE)