‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Don’t Worry, This Is Just the Beginning

In line with this entire season of Euphoria, the Season 2 finale of the show proved that while the show is stellar at delivering breathless moments, it’s just as prone to lob us scenes that warrant the fast-forward button. Yes, we got Suze Howard (Alanna Ubach) and Ethan (Austin Abrams) jumping for joy on stage together — but we also had to sit through a five-hour guitar performance from Elliot (Dominic Fike) in the middle. Adding onto that, the Season 2 finale went to places dark beyond measure, serving up completely unpalatable results. The ending of Season 1 was enticing, alluring us into a follow-up batch of episodes. But the second season’s finale was far too brutal to justify more episodes with these tragic, harrowing, demanding storylines.

For weeks, Euphoria fans have been predicting a potential death in this season. Boy, did they get it. At the beginning of the episode, the death (Custer, whose role has been so muted I had to find his name in the credits) seems quick and easy, akin to Ashtray’s (Javon Walton) killing Mouse at the beginning of the season. But it gets worse. Though it happens later in the episode, let’s just get into it now, since it’s so important: did we really need to see Ashtray’s horrific shooting spree? Talk about nightmare-inducing. One minute of this would’ve served its purpose in the episode, but no — Euphoria had to traumatize us. This scene did not draw me back to Euphoria in any way. In fact, watching it, I felt a drive to turn the episode off. The SWAT team stomping on Fez’s (Angus Cloud) card for Lexi (Maude Apatow) was so melodramatic, it soured the adorably screwy When Harry Met Sally scenes between the duo that played out earlier in the episode.

And this drive to shut it down was only pushed further by other tragic missteps in the episode, including Elliot’s GUITAR SOLO. What in the world is Sam Levinson thinking? Who wants this? There are so many ruthlessly, unapologetically bad scenes in this episode that I’ve started to simply feel bad for the Euphoria fanbase, who have simply been hoping for more Maddy (Alexa Demie), more Kat (Barbie Ferreira), more Jules (Hunter Schafer). Their dedication and endless promotion of the show has only been rewarded with Nate (Jacob Elordi), tragedy, more tragedy, and then more Nate.

We’re forced to watch Nate aimlessly load a gun again, which, expectedly, serves no purpose. He turns his dad into the cops — to cement how terrible Euphoria is becoming, the noise of the cars pulling up isn’t enough here. Not a minute later, red and blue lights spoon-feed us the incoming actions. There is not enough room in this recap for one to wax poetic about how irritating a character Nate has become; rather, let’s move on to the finer parts of the finale.

Going back to the beginning episode: we meet Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) back where we left her at the end of Episode 7, breathing steam onto the theater window. Her re-entrance is brilliant. Barreling down the aisle, Cassie looks like the big bad of a monster movie, like Godzilla approaching an unknowing city or King Kong at the foot of the Empire State Building. The music, an aspect in which Euphoria excels, takes us to another level. When Cassie finally arrives on stage, “Our Life” becomes an emotional explosion bigger than Rue (Zendaya) busting her in Episode 5, or the bathroom Oklahoma! sequence in Episode 3. We knew the Maddy would be furious about Cassie’s behavior, but the brutality between Lexi and her sister is an even stronger war.

The moment Suze Howard set foot on that stage, the performance of a century began. This woman! Really, though: Euphoria has always been better at making us care about side characters than it has for its main cast. It’s why folks like Fez and Lexi became much more pronounced this season; we cared about them more than expected in Season 1, so we got more in Season 2. Here’s hoping Season 3 brings us more from Suze, Ethan, Bobbi, BB, and the rest of the “Our Life” cast that carried the whole damn finale. Speaking of, Euphoria actually follows its own lessons against toxic masculinity here and doesn’t make a whole plot revolve around Nate Jacobs. Nate’s actions nearly call off the whole show, thanks to the domino effect leading to a catfight, and it would’ve been tragic had Lexi have called the whole thing off. But Euphoria improves itself. Rue cheers Lexi back on stage, and the show continues. This leads to a brilliant moment shared between Rue and Lexi — one that could’ve been elongated, actually, if not for Rue’s visit to Elliot’s guitar den.

Reminiscing on Season 2, there were a whole lot of those classic Euphoria thrills (Cassie’s whole arc, Lexi’s play, another masterful season from Zendaya), but this sophomore season just tossed a lot of Season 1’s greatness to the side. As everyone has pointed out, the lack of characters like Kat and Jules is unforgivable. But Euphoria lost a lot of its subtlety too. The show has lost its knack for brilliantly defining its characters. In Season 1, we got the rundown of Nate’s cruel desires, quieter moments of love between Rue and Jules, and defiant moments from Kat, the e-goddess.

As the show approaches Season 3, I beg for one thing. BRING BACK THE COLD OPENS! We only got two this season, and both were fantastic. Noted above, there are a handful of characters that deserved standalone openers this season. Why didn’t we get a scene about Ethan’s love for performance? What about a background on Suze, whose life is surely as colorful as Cal Jacobs’? Perhaps one on Bobbi, the optimistic hype woman? Euphoria has opened a lot of doors for itself with Season 3 around the corner, but after Season 2 abandoned so much of what made Season 1 entertaining, the hope for this show is beginning to drain.

Hot Gossip From East Highland High

Some stray strands of tittle-tattle we’re expecting to hear more about in Season 3.

• Rue and Lexi’s Friendship: Finally, at the end of Season 2, these two are reunited as friends again. It’s a bond that we’ll surely see in Season 3, but it may be at the cost of other side characters like Jules and Kat. Lexi and Rue don’t know about Fez yet, so they’ll likely need each other to recuperate.
• East Highland High’s Theater Program: Which, apparently, is well-funded enough to have real Playbills. How long until A24 starts selling the “Our Life” playbill? Anyways, the theater department and that vice principal who approved Lexi’s play will have some angry, angry parents blasting into their emails. And yet, with Bobbi and Lexi at the helm, the show will go on.
• The Cassie Fall Out: Don’t worry. This is just the beginning.
• Laurie: Rue still owes that creepy drug dealer thousands of dollars. Even though Faye sweetly tried to pin Mouse’s murder on Laurie, the show must circle back to this. If it doesn’t, it would be doing Rue’s Season 2 arc a great injustice.
• Addison Rae: I’m sorry to have to include this, but why did Addison Rae tweet this today? No one was going to forget the episode tonight, so it sounded like a teaser for some sort of appearance. It wasn’t. Nothing in this episode involved Addison Rae. Perhaps some sort of a threat for Season 3?

Where to watch Euphoria