The final episode of Euphoria left viewers in shock on Sunday, delivering a jaw-dropping conclusion to the award-winning hit drama.
The show ended after seven years and merely three seasons, having first premiered on HBO in the summer of 2019.
Creator Sam Levinson has faced fierce criticism over the controversial storylines in the third season, which saw Sydney Sweeney’s character Cassie Howard engage in fetish work for her OnlyFans page, and Zendaya’s Rue Bennett acting as a drug mule and swallowing bags of fentanyl.
The series came to an end with an action-packed finale titled In God We Trust, which saw Zendaya’s character die from a drug overdose.
Rue was poisoned with fentanyl-laced pills by her drug dealer boss for working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Meanwhile, Cassie unravelled after her husband Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) was killed off in a gruesome sequence amid a botched attempt to collect a debt he owed in the previous episode.
The final episode of Euphoria left viewers in shock on Sunday, as the show killed of Zendaya’s s Rue Bennett character
Meanwhile, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) unravelled after her husband Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) was killed off in a gruesome sequence in the previous episode
The finale kicked off with a chaotic heist, as Rue broke out of a compound belonging to her former drug boss Laurie (Martha Kelly).
In the previous episode she was sent there to retrieve things that were stolen from her current boss’s safe.
She escaped while Laurie’s associate and relative, white supremacist drug dealer Wayne (Toby Wallace) and his girlfriend – and Rue’s former friend – Faye Valentine (Chloe Cherry) were supposed to be watching her.
After slicing Wayne’s leg and punching Faye in the face, Rue bolted with the bag previously stolen from her boss, narrowly escaping as a pursuing Wayne opened fire.
The getaway took a bizarre turn when one of Wayne’s henchmen temporarily snatched Rue by lassoing and dragging her behind a horse, only for him to be taken out by a sniper bullet from one of Rue’s friends, allowing her to escape.
Rue – who has been working for the DEA – brought the bag to her boss, strip club magnate Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who told her: ‘You was right all along. You and me, we was meant to be.’
The bag contained no money, only IDs, implying that Alamo is a sex trafficker.
He then told her she is his ’employee of the year’ and to take a break from work and ‘heal up.’
Alamo gives her Percocet for her injuries.
Later in the episode, the DEA descended on Laurie’s compound, ambushing her in the middle of a massive drug deal just as a border-crossing ambulance packed with fentanyl arrived.
Rue was poisoned with fentanyl-laced pills by her drug dealer boss for working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
The series came to an end on Sunday with an action-packed finale titled In God We Trust. It kicked off with a chaotic heist, as Rue broke out of a compound belonging to her former drug boss Laurie (Martha Kelly)
In the previous episode she was sent there to retrieve things that were stolen from her current boss’s safe. She escaped while Laurie’s associate, white supremacist Wayne (Toby Wallace) and his girlfriend Faye Valentine (Chloe Cherry) were supposed to be watching her
After slicing Wayne’s leg and punching Faye in the face Rue bolted, narrowly escaping as a pursuing Wayne opened fire. She was then chased by one of his cowboy associates
Wayne’s henchmen temporarily snatched Rue by lassoing and dragging her behind a horse, only for him to be taken out by a sniper bullet from one of Rue’s friends, allowing her to escape
Rue brought the bag to her boss, strip club magnate Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who told her: ‘You was right all along. You and me, we was meant to be’
He told her she was his ’employee of the year’ and to take a break from work and ‘heal up.’ Alamo also gave her Percocet for her injuries
Having realized ahead of time that they were being set up, Faye and Wayne managed to make a quick escape.
A panicked Laurie was heard saying ‘I can’t go to prison’, before taking her own life by hanging herself as she jumped from the roof.
However, Alamo’s henchmen Bishop and Big Eddy switched ambulances, so the DEA only found a dead rat under the floor of the vehicle.
Rue goes to her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor and mentor Ali Muhammad’s (Colman Domingo) apartment to recover.
She takes more Percocet and starts listening to the bible on her phone.
In a dream like sequence Rue is pictured driving past herself as a kid, alongside her mother and sister.
She later runs into a police blockade, before breaking into her childhood home. There, she encounters her mother Leslie (Nika King), who is seen reaching for her hand.
The viewers are then shown that in reality, Rue is on the floor after taking too many Percocet, and reaching out her hand into the air.
Ali finds her dead on his couch in the morning.
He later took a sample of the Percocet to test it, and found out it was laced with fentanyl.
It turns out Alamo killed Rue as revenge for her working with the DEA.
Later, at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Ali talked about the disease of addiction, and how he thought ‘that if you can empathize with an addict, you can empathize with a dealer.’
However, he admitted he no longer believes that, and said the ‘real disease is people no longer know the difference between right and wrong.’
Later in the episode, the DEA descended on Laurie’s compound, ambushing her in the middle of a massive drug deal just as a border-crossing ambulance packed with fentanyl arrived
A panicked Laurie was heard saying ‘I can’t go to prison’, before taking her own life by hanging herself as she jumped from the roof
Meanwhile, Rue went to her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor and mentor Ali Muhammad’s (Colman Domingo) apartment to recover.
She took more Percocet and started listening to the bible on her phone
In a dream like sequence Rue was then pictured driving past herself as a kid, alongside her mother and sister
She later ran into a police blockade, before breaking into her childhood home
There, she encountered her mother Leslie (Nika King), who wasseen reaching for her hand
The viewers were then shown that in reality, Rue was on the floor after taking too many pills
Ali found her dead on his couch. He later took a sample of the Percocet to test it, and found out it was laced with fentanyl, as it was revealed Alamo killed Rue as revenge for her working with the DEA
Meanwhile, Cassie is left alone following her husband’s death.
Nate had been in heavy debt to gangster Naz (Jack Topalian), who put him in the coffin with a breathing apparatus as a pipe.
The plan was to keep Nate in the coffin for a three-day period while his spouse Cassie would try to raise the funds, but a rattlesnake made its way down the pipe and fatally bit him.
After finding Nate’s body, a disheveled Cassie was seen with tear-streaked makeup and still wearing the same dress while having breakfast with her manager, and former best friend, Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), who was also reduced to tears.
‘What do I do?’ Maddy asked her.
Cassie then sat next to her and put her head on Maddy’s shoulder.
‘We’ll figure it out together,’ she said, as Maddy gave her a tender kiss on the head.
Cassie later told her sister Lexi (Maude Apatow) that she and Maddy would be turning her home into an influencer/OnlyFans house.
Lexi asked Cassie if Nate is ever coming back, revealing that she doesn’t know he died.
Meanwhile, Maddy goes to meet Alamo at the strip club, where he tells her he wants the American dream and for them to have ‘four beautiful coca-colored babies’ together.
At the same time Ali, wearing his military uniform, enters Alamo’s Silver Slipper strip club with a shotgun.
Following a lengthy standoff, Ali fatally shot the strip club owner after a cowardly Alamo attempted to use Maddy as a human shield.
At the end of the episode Ali visits a religious homestead that Rue stopped at back in episode one.
He tells one of the girls living there that Rue was his daughter, and explains that she is now in a ‘better place.’
Meanwhile, Cassie was left a widow. After finding Nate’s body, a disheveled Cassie was seen with tear-streaked makeup and still wearing the same dress while having breakfast with her manager, and former best friend, Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), who was also reduced to tears
‘What do I do?’ Maddy asked her. Cassie then sat next to her and put her head on Maddy’s shoulder. ‘We’ll figure it out together,’ she said, as Maddy gave her a tender kiss on the head
Cassie later told her sister Lexi (Maude Apatow) that she and Maddy would be turning her home into an influencer/OnlyFans house. Lexi asked Cassie if Nate is ever coming back, revealing that she doesn’t know he died
In the end, Cassie was left looking sad and alone while preparing to shoot more content
Meanwhile, Maddy went to meet Alamo at the strip club, where he told her he wanted the American dream and for them to have ‘four beautiful coca-colored babies’ together
At the same time Ali, wearing his military uniform, entered Alamo’s Silver Slipper strip club with a shotgun
Following a lengthy standoff, Ali fatally shot the strip club owner after a cowardly Alamo attempted to use Maddy as a human shield
Levinson has been under scrutiny thanks to Sweeney’s ‘degrading’ OnlyFans storyline which has been described as a ‘humiliation ritual.’
Earlier this month he was also called out for the ‘unnecessary use’ of Nazi symbols in the show.
Viewers have been most appalled by how far Sydney’s character, Cassie, has been willing to go, with her most X-rated scenes yet.
While shooting content for her OnlyFans, Cassie has dressed as an ‘adult baby’ as well as going fully nude for scenes.
Fans were also disturbed by Cassie’s ‘puppy play’ exploits when she dressed up as a lingerie-clad dog, which led to Levinson having to defend the scenes.
Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it.’
‘What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion – the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.’
Meanwhile, Sweeney told Entertainment Tonight: ‘I mean, Cassie’s a crazy character. She will do anything and at all costs to be famous this season, and she makes a lot of very wild and interesting choices.’
She also told The Independent in 2022 that she never felt pushed into doing naked scenes, and said Levinson welcomed feedback.
Yet viewers claimed that Levinson’s ‘disturbing’ and ‘misogynistic’ storylines for the new season ‘lost the plot’.
Levinson previously defended the explicit nature of his work, noting during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival: ‘We live in a very sexualized world. The influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people.’
At the end of the episode Ali visits a religious homestead that Rue stopped at back in episode one
He tells one of the girls living there that Rue was his daughter, and explains that she is now in a ‘better place’
Euphoria season three currently holds a 40 per cent ‘rotten’ rating on reviews aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, in comparison to season one and two’s 80 and 78 per cent ‘fresh’ scores.
Season one of Euphoria initially premiered back in 2019, with the second season following three years later.
After a further four-year hiatus, the highly anticipated third season dropped as an eight-episode run, airing weekly until its conclusion on May 31.
The show has also garnered accolades over the years including a Golden Globe for Best Actress for Zendaya.
The new season premiered under the cloud of the tragic untimely deaths of two major players in the cast, Eric Dane and Angus Cloud.
Dane filmed his scenes for Euphoria season three before he died in February at age 53 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Cloud starred on the teen drama as the drug dealer Fezco aka ‘Fez.
The actor was just 25 years old when he died in July 2023 of a combined overdose of fentanyl, meth, cocaine and benzodiazepines.
Despite his passing, his beloved character remained part of the storyline, with the show explaining his on-screen absence by revealing he was serving a 30-year prison sentence.
Euphoria’s current season has been touted as its last, but speculation has grown that the hit HBO series could continue with further installments.
Following the third season’s incredible ratings and nonstop press coverage, fans have been wondering if the show will be back for a fourth season.
The rumor mill was further fueled after HBO listed episode 8 as the ‘season’ finale instead of the ‘series’ finale.
Despite the growing speculation, an HBO insider tells Daily Mail that, ‘the third season was planned as the final and that has not changed.’
However, another source has shared that Euphoria creator Levinson is open to doing more with Euphoria in the future.
‘Sam has had conversations with HBO about the possibility of a fourth season,’ they shared.
‘Nothing has been officially greenlit, but both sides came to the conclusion that there’s really no reason the series couldn’t continue.’
While it’s unclear if the show’s current cast of A-listers like Sweeney and Zendaya will return, there’s a possibility that Euphoria could move forward at some point with new cast members, similar to Degrassi or Gossip Girl, or even as a spin-off.
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