Euphoria Review: All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name (Season 2 Episode 8)
Euphoria Season 2 Episode 8, “All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name,” is an okay season finale to an otherwise lackluster season.
There’s a lot happening in the season 2 finale of Euphoria, but at the same time, not enough as some plotlines fall right through the cracks. With so much jampacked into an eight-episode season, it’s not a surprise that many storylines fall flat and don’t get the conclusion they deserve. But it doesn’t make it any less dissatisfying.
There’s little to celebrate on “All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name,” but Lexi’s play having a two-episode arc is one of them. Lexi is very much the background friend that worries about everyone around her but rarely has anyone think about her.
It’s nice to see Lexi be appreciated and have her name chanted throughout the crowd, especially after her nasty back-and-forth with Cassie. It’s even more bittersweet that Rue is the one to start the chant for her friend. There are few relatable, or decent, friendships on Euphoria, but Lexi and Rue’s is arguably the best.
Sometimes life can be so overwhelming that people begin to forget about the important things and people in their life. All that matters is getting over the pain. It can be easy to fall out of touch with friends and family without even realizing it when that happens. But if the connection built between the two is strong enough, it never entirely fades away. That’s where Rue and Lexi are at in their relationship.
Lexi and Rue’s friendship is an excellent example of needing to separate for individual growth and then reconnecting to thrive with one another. Even with airing out everyone’s dirty laundry in her play, Rue never gets upset because she can see where Lexi is coming from.
Rue understands that Lexi isn’t attacking her by portraying past events and relaying her feelings. She’s being honest and open about the amount of trauma most of them have endured. Doing so allows Rue to see her situation differently and even love herself a bit more after seeing what she’s been through from an outside perspective.
Being sober plays a major factor in Rue relating with Lexi and understanding her pain as well, rather than flipping her lid and losing it as Cassie does. Trust, if she was still using her reaction to the play would be polar opposite. Her sobriety while experiencing the play allows her to come to the realization that she wants to get where Lexi is in her own personal growth. Bottling up her pain only makes her situation worse, so figuring out a way to transfer it into something productive could help her immensely.
In a season where the side characters are pushed into the spotlight exponentially, Rue still overshadows and proves that she is the star.
Cassie’s character development this season is nonexistent and the character assassination that ensues throughout is despicable. Especially when she and Nate don’t even end up together in the end. As relatable as her storyline might be, it’s not worth the overall destruction of Cassie’s character. It feels like a waste of time to focus so much screen time on them, only for Cassie to end up alone, even if she rightfully deserves it.
It’ll be hard for Cassie to come back from the hole she’s dug herself in next season, assuming she’ll get any sort of redemption.
Maddy giving Cassie the beatdown she rightfully deserves is one of the season’s highlights, hands down. However, it’s incredibly underwhelming for someone who’s been hyped as a fighter and killer since the beginning of the series.
With all of the jumping back and forth and consistent waits, the audience deserves to see Maddy beat Cassie down the way Fezco does Nate. After being teased for most of the season, it deserves more than a 2-minute montage of running around. After all that waiting, all that happens is a measly face slap and a small face slam.
With that being said, Cassie running and crying the moment she sees Maddy get on stage will never not make me cackle. Her killer persona is in full effect until her energy gets matched by Maddy, and then it’s all over.
As for the rest of the episode, it’s an overall catastrophe.
Ashtray’s death will go down as one of the worst and saddest in the series’ history. I know that it’s only a fictional death, but I still have not emotionally recovered. As much as I applaud Faye for warning Fez at the last minute, Ashtray would still be alive had she done so before Custer’s arrival.
Fezco fighting so hard for Ash is heart-breaking. He tries so hard to prevent any harm to Ash, but that doesn’t change the way Ash feels about Fez. Fez saved Ash’s life as a baby and made sure that he was always good, no matter what. Without Fez, he would not have survived, and he knows that. His loyalty to Fez is more substantial than his loyalty to himself. There’s no way he would ever allow Fez to take the fall for him.
As much as I would like not to admit it, Ashtray has always been a little too crazy for his wellbeing. Being raised in that environment, he never takes the time to think about his actions thoroughly. Instead, he attacks first and asks questions later, which is never the best solution.
With Ash’s death, Fez has nobody. The only people that he can call his family are his grandmother, Ash, and Rue. With Ash gone, his grandmother in a vegetable state, and Rue on the outside due to her addiction, he has nobody. The only person left in his corner is Faye, and that’s assuming that they don’t both go to jail after the raid.
Nate being so fed up at Lexi’s play that he leaves in the middle of it to report his father to the police makes absolutely no sense. It’s only thrown in as a way to resolve Cal’s storyline last minute and is incredibly rushed.
The biggest fumble of the finale, by far, is the complete erasure of Laurie from the storyline. Jules and Elliot flushed ten thousand dollars worth of drugs down the toilet, Rue escaped Laurie’s home safely by mere seconds, and that’s that. Nothing else is heard or said about Laurie as if she drops off the face of the earth.
Laurie is one of the most terrifying characters on Euphoria, solely thanks to her ability to have zero emotions. Her drugging Rue on purpose in her bathtub is one of the most stomach-turning moments of the season, and lets it known she stays true to her word. If she doesn’t get her money, she’s not afraid to pimp Rue out and do what she needs to get her profit. Nobody is going to double-cross her.
Even with the small-time jump that will ensue between Season 2 and Season 3, Laurie needs to be brought back and not just a forgotten about storyline.
Euphoria Season 2, as a whole, is beautifully shot, the scoring is impeccable, and the acting is off the charts. The actors brought their A-game and put on performances of a lifetime. However, the writing and storylines did not bring justice to the characters whatsoever.
For Season 3 to be a true masterpiece that exceeds every aspect, not just the camera shots, a writer’s room needs to be introduced. There needs to be more individual creative storylines and less use of characters as stepping stones to further others.
Other Thoughts:
- Jules getting the Kat treatment in the last two episodes and having very minimal dialogue is frustrating and disrespectful.
- I’ll preface this by saying that Dominic Fike has a dreamy voice, and I would love to be serenaded by him. But Elliot singing to Rue is such a waste of time and should not have made it in the final cut.
- Kat’s screentime this season is abysmal, and even we do get to see her, there’s no substance behind anything she does. The most she did all season was scream “no” at Maddy.
- Removing Kat from the season was so dirty, and it needs fixing in Season 3.
- Maddy deserves to also have a valid storyline in Season 3. One that does not revolve around Nate, Cassie, or babysitting.
- Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney deserve awards for their performances this season.
What did you think of this episode of Euphoria? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Euphoria will return with Season 3 in 2024 on HBO.
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