The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Euphoria’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

Joanna and Nora rejoin to recap Rue's destructive journey through the fifth episode of Euphoria. Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Nora Princiotti Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Head into the Ringerverse to stay up to date with all things superheroes and nerd culture entertainment. Hosted by a rotating lineup of super fans at the Ringer, including Mallory Rubin and Van Lathen, shows will provide instant reactions to blockbuster releases, insightful backstories on canon, and mind-bending theories, as well as fresh takes on the latest news and rumors. Check out the Ringerverse on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And welcome back into the Pressage TV podcast feed. I'm Dora Robinson.

And I'm Nora Pryanti. And we're here to talk about Euphoria, Episode 5, Stand Still Like the Hummingbird. This is, you know, our weekly dive into episodes of Euphoria. We spoil everything about the show. So if you haven't watched up through episode 5, you're going to want to go ahead and press pause and catch up. I'm really excited to talk to you about this episode. This is a very, very ambitious episode of Euphoria. Very dark fulfills that promise that they made preseason about the darkness that they wanted to

explore the season. But I want to start by talking about this episode title, Stan Still Like the Hummingbird. Sam Levinson as a TV creator is a big fan of I will go ahead and call them somewhat pretentious episode titles or literary

artistic, if you prefer. This one is taken from a Henry Miller short story, which is in a Henry Miller collection called Stan Still Like the Hummingbird. And this particular short story Henry Miller wrote about, almost about technology, but mostly just about, you know, like all the trappings of human society and all the distractions away from the core miracle of just being a human alive on this

planet, the way in which humans versus every other animal have had to create all these other things to excite or distract us from self-reflection. and there's a line from the story from the preface of the collection says either you take him believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird meaning like beating your wings in the air just to sort of like be still

do you have any thoughts or feelings about this episode title or how it relates to the episode itself? Well the clearest scene that reflects it I think is towards the end I guess I will spoil there is I will partially spoil

and then we can like fully spoil when we get more into it. But Rue shaking and okay, how do you stand still like a hummingbird? Well, hummingbird stays in one place by moving constantly

is the paradox of that that I think is sort of represented in the title. And there's a very obvious reference to it where so a hummingbird's beak is kind of this needle-like entity and

Rue is being told to stand still or stay still and she can't because she's shaking because she's going through withdrawals after this episode that is basically just like rue on the run. And she's shaking so she can't stay still to be sort of poked with this beak needle if we're extending the metaphor. More broadly, there's this idea that she is running to stay in the same place, right? Like this entire episode, she is just running. away from having to face, you know, going to rehab again, accepting help from her loved ones,

trying to get better. She wants to stay the same and it's causing her to constantly be in movement to sort of stay alive in the way that she knows about being alive, which it would actually lead her to death demise horrible ends. So I think there's a lot of symbolism in the title. It is interesting that it just relates to that idea of Rue running because I think that's what makes this episode kind of singular and different for most euphoria episodes that we've seen because it's just very, it's almost like a one-act play in terms of following Rue along, you know, over the course of, I don't know if it's quite 24 hours, but a condensed period of time where There's some other stuff with other characters, but not a lot.

It is basically just like this extended chase. It's a genre of the like Dark Night of the Soul genre, the like one crazy night sort of idea except without any of the whimsy. And it's just, it's a tough watch. And yeah, you get a couple other characters, but only because Rue is dipping into their story and then dipping back out of their story, like dipping into destroy their lives and then back out. But mostly we're just, we're just on Rue this whole episode.

And I think that there's been a lot of discussion about like who is or isn't in the spotlight this season. And I think having right here at the pivot point of the season, the center of the season, having this Rue episode and having this bottoming out, if that's what it is, we don't know, if this is rock bottom, feels rock bottomy. I think that's a really smart sort of fulcrum point to turn the whole season on. And I think also to go back to that Henry Miller idea, that essay has a lot to do with the will to live or the enjoyment of being alive. Lori, we'll get to it later, but Lori gives this whole speech about the ability to feel joy and how you deaden it once you take too many opiates.

And then, you know, Rue has said throughout the season and then throughout the beginning of this episode over and over again, like, I don't want to be alive. I want to die, blah, blah, blah. And then that shifts slightly at the end as she runs for her own survival and escape. Like, that will to live kicks in. It's in her. She's just needed something really huge to acknowledge it, to be able to acknowledge that she actually does want to live. You know, a doctor once told me they did brain studies on people who've done a lot of opiates, and that over time, all the chemicals in your brain that make you happy and feel good start to decrease because your body's getting it artificially. All right, let's start with some feedbacks and some stuff from the DMs. A lot of people have messaged me a lot of rumors about this show, and that is sort of understandable given cast involved and given the audience. involved that there are a lot of rumors flying around. I don't really always feel comfortable or actually I never feel comfortable, you know, reporting out rumors. But I think that if you have questions about why certain people aren't on the screen, I mean, what is true is personal stuff always has an impact on who is and isn't

in a show. So whatever narratives you want to invent or imagine or, you know, believe, I mean, I might personally believe some of it, but like, it's hard, it's hard to talk about it in a concrete way. I don't know. Do you have any thoughts or feelings about that, Nora? I get why there are a lot of rumors, because I do think it's worth acknowledging at this point, because this episode, I agree with you. It does feel like this is the most likely sort of fulcrum of the season because it does feel like Ruiz is hitting rock bottom in this. It's been a strange season. I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed watching this show. I'm entertained by it. it's been a weird watch so far, though, in terms of offering a clear understanding of what story

they're trying to tell and sort of what the point of all of this is. And I don't know that necessarily. I think sometimes the point of television is to entertain us and help us have a good time. And sometimes I think it's totally worthwhile and enough to kind of leave it. there. I think that's tough with a show like Euphoria that's been so popular, that's made a big impact, that's helped make careers, and that also deals with really heavy, sensitive topics. You kind of want it to have a deeper meaning than that. And there have been times this season when it's hard to grasp something substantial from it because they are flitting back and forth between

so many characters and because there have been choices like the humanization of, you know, Cal, a literal pedophile and we've seen characters who people really liked, like Cat, kind of be backburnered. So you can see whatever, like, in the text, if you're responding to a rumor that's on the internet, and we have no idea if it's true or not, you can sort of see whatever you want to see in the text

because it does seem like there must be some sort of outside influence that's leading to a lot of. of these strange choices. I think it's impacted my viewing experience a little bit. I still very much enjoy the show. There are some moments when I'm like, is this supposed to be absurd? Like, this seems absurd. I'm not sure if they're trying to be sort of absurdist in this or not.

But I do wonder if returning to Rue as just kind of the heart of the show and played by someone as eminently likable as Zendaya, even though. the character is pressing up against that. Maybe that's something that gets it on track a little bit. But I think one of the reason the rumors have sort of had legs is just because there is something a little bit weird about all of the ways the plots are moving forward. Yeah, and how the equations are balanced. I agree with that.

And I think that, you know, you and I were and our producer C were having a little, like, off-mic chat about sort of do people like this show or actually like this show? because there are so many people who watch it while critiquing it. I actually think that's a great way to watch anything. But do people actually like this show? What does this show actually have to say is another question? And, you know, I think the answer is yes, plenty of people do like the show. I think there are plenty of people who watch it trying to hold all of its messy parts that don't work along with the stronger parts that do work.

You know what I mean? And I think Sam Levinson himself has spoken to this where he has said something like, you know, a lot of people think this is only a half good show, that there's like half of it's great. And then the other half is sort of a mess. And it depends on the episode, how I feel about that. But I feel like overall, his experiment with this deeply personal project for him, and we've talked in previous episodes about how and why this is deeply personal for him, is to show us a character like Rue, who have been warned earlier in the season, she warns us like,

I know you want to root for me. I'm not that person. I'm not your hero. Yeah, to show her doing the most destructive thing. I mean, she's just a whirlwind of destruction in this episode, literal, like breaking. And cruelty. Like, she's genuinely cruel.

To watch her do all that and still try to get us to a place where we're rooting for her, which I don't know, I don't want to speak for everyone, but which I am. She does all of this, but she's still self-aware enough in her destructive nature, and she's still Ruse and Daya enough, then I do care about her and her survival and her well-being. And that's almost like, that has to be like a therapeutic exercise for Sam Levinson,

where he's like, let me put all the worst things I've ever done into a character that people are still pulling for anyway. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, Rue's storyline to me has always been the most clear and the strongest. Right? Like when things, not necessarily always the most watchable, the most likable, the most, certainly not the most fun. The Rue narrative is the one that I have the least questions about in terms of, is this messiness an aesthetic choice and purposeful or is some of the messiness of this show stuff that maybe could have been done better or have a clearer purpose? I think that is a fair criticism. but I do think that, you know, Rue is the heart and soul of this and it helps that

we do kind of have that understanding of what the purpose of her narrative is to the show as a whole. And it's especially, I mean, like, in season one, it was very clear in terms of, like, she's in love and this is sort of the pull for her as, like, the addiction plot is part of it,

but in terms of, like, a narrative purpose forward, it's, like, her desire to be with jewels. And in this season, it's like surviving, I suppose, through all of this. We got a couple other messages from folks. Someone wrote it in to let me know that they thought, you know, we talked a lot about Sue's Lex and Cassie's mom being at the party last week's episode. And someone thought that the use of parents in this season was a response to the season one criticism of like, where are their parents in all of this?

And I think it's, I think it is interesting that, you know, we see it in this episode with, you know, Rue's mom is an active part of this episode and, you know, Sue's makes another classic appearance, maybe my favorite character on the show. And, and Cal and all of that. So we'll continue, I think, to sort of engage with that, with that question. And then someone else wrote in to point out, we had talked about, you know, the fantasy montage at the beginning of last week's episode where Rue is envisioning herself and Jules in all of these iconic pop. culture pairings. And I pointed out that a lot of those characters that Zendaya was, you know, dressed as were masculine characters. A lot of other people wrote in to point out that all of those characters die as well. You've got like Sam and Ghost and Jack in Titanic and Jack in Brookwark Mountain and like they're all tragic love stories that ended death. So I don't know if that speaks to Rue's state of mind. Yeah, I don't know if that speaks to Rue's state of mind or something the show is trying to tell us. But, you know, if Rue sees their love story, if Rue can hold this idea of I love jewels

and I also want to die, then this is, that's a bucket she could put it in, you know, this tragic love story that ends in someone dying, you know. Euphoria, it's most fun. What a fun time for us. And last but at least, I want to say that, you know, as we mentioned every week, we re-record these in advance, which we don't have the advantage of watching those little HBO making of segments at the end,

but I just want to talk about a couple things that the cast and crew said about last week's episode. Sam Levison said that he wanted to introduce the spirit world into this season. And his idea is that when Rue gets really high, she is capable of sort of being in this other plane, which explains sort of the church space. in last week's episode and Labroth who does the music said that in season one, he was doing something ethereal and magical, and this year he wanted to do something spiritual. So this idea of like religion and spirituality that we've been talking about, those poses that we saw of our

various characters at the end were meant to invoke Mexican murals, a very like Catholic sort of drenched Madonna imagery for Cassie, et cetera, et cetera. So that's sort of that idea, this thing that you and I have been sort of following the breadcrumb trails in terms of spirituality and religion, and now it plays into the season. It's definitely an intentional thing that they're doing. Anything you want to say about that, Nora? I'm interested where it's going to go. Yeah. Because I doubt that this ends in a way where, like, Rue finds God and accepts religion into her life and gets clean. And, you know, it doesn't feel like it's going somewhere as straightforward as that. And so I want to where the how they level up, right? Like we have these sort of quasi-generic influences of spirituality and allusions to it and references. But what is to what end?

Yeah. To what end and what exactly is the higher calling? Maybe it goes back to being jewels or love or something. But I don't know. I've been left a little confused by that. I remember a couple of days before you passed away. You told me that if I ever wanted to be with you, all I would have to do is close my eyes and we'd be together.

Oh, I think she's moving. She's moving. My sister. That's right, your sister, yeah. Hi, Gia. Hi, Gia. So let us follow Rue into the Seven Circles of Hell in this episode. I don't know if it's quite a Dante comp, but, you know, people who are greater Dante scholars than I can let me know if they think it is.

I love the way that this episode starts, which we start on Gio, we start hearing the argument rather than seeing it. And we start in a place, we start, like, mid-argument. And I think that the way all this is done, I mean, it's terrifying all of this for Gia, for us, incredibly strong, scary stuff from Zendaya in all of this. And I think something that's really smart. We talked, we got some feedback about this. We talked about this.

This idea that Lori giving Rue the suitcase is one of the oddest things you've ever seen like in a drug crime show because why would a drug dealer ever do that? We can talk about maybe her long game when we get more of Lori. but what it does for us here very smartly is puts an urgency on this conversation beyond our concern for Rue, which is real. We care about her. We care about her sister and her mom. But we're also scared for her because if the suitcase is gone, that has entirely other stakes on it beyond Rue getting clean. Which if those stakes didn't exist, every single person watching this show just wants Rue's mom to win the argument.

Right. flush the suitcase, get rid of it, send Rue to rehab. Like, easy. Very clear. Like, clear weight of actions and consequences because of Lori and the possibility that, you know, if the drugs are gone, Rue's life is in danger in another way. Like, it plays with what you want.

So smart. I think that's really, really smart to alter the stakes that way. We get that repeat of a phrase that you've been really interested in, Nora, when Rue's mom Leslie tells her you're not a good person. What did you think of that use here? So I felt like there was this there was this idea of

Rue not believing in herself because earlier in the sort of dream sequence Rue says I'm not a good person and so it's these things that Rue believes about her. herself and then she acts destructive and hurts people around her basically until she proves

herself right. And it's this sort of tragic cycle. I don't know quite how that relates to, like, I've just been sort of interested in how much good person dialogue there's been in TV. lately, it seems like this question that a lot of creators are interested in exploring, which I find a little bit fascinating because I think we talked about this before. There was an era of

breaking bad, madmen. There have been sort of pockets of television where it just seems like that's not a part of the equation. It's more like, what do you do when pushed? And there's an element of that here, but it's so much more concerned with how do you keep your core of being a good person, of being good to the people who love you, of loving those people. And it does seem to be at the heart of this show as we search for its center is like,

how do you, it's not about like morality, but there's some, there's some kernel of how do you be good when, there's all of this messed up stuff going on. In Rue's case, though, I think it's posing the question of if she doesn't, before she's found that will to live and the will to be good and constructive, how far will she go to almost prove that she isn't, which is horrifying and sad?

and difficult to watch. It feels often like she's trying to prove to other people that she is not a good person because I think where we live right now in the world of Euphoria 5 episodes in is that Rue is, to the extent that Rue is living, she's doing it for other people. Like, she tells us over and over again

that she does not want to be here, but there's something about, you know, Jules, her mom, Gia. Like, she, she doesn't want to leave her, those people behind. And her ongoing struggle is mostly framed, at least I've taken it this way. It's mostly framed in terms of like, how do I get sober for Jules or how do I do this for someone else? But I think it's kind of posing this idea of at some point she has to want to do it for herself. Yeah, I love that. And will she be able to? Yeah. That's a great.

great point. Because yeah, I mean, it never works to do that for someone else. That's not a firm. And if she's not a good person, like if she can sort of, if she's not a good person, then I think she even says, like, if you didn't like me, like, you'd probably think the world was, would be a better place without me. So it's all external. Yeah. It's all this equation of, well, if I'm not a good person and I'm not going to, you know, improve the world at all. just by existing, then what's the point? Because I certainly don't want to do it for myself. And I think it's setting up the ask of, can Rue want to do it for herself? And I really do think that goes back to the titular essay in this episode, because that really is the core of that essay, which is like, can just your existence alone be enough of a miracle in this world? Like, do you need all these other trappings or all these other distractions? Or can you

just, like, stop and look around you and think, like, the blood, flowing through my veins and me being able to fill my air, my lungs of the air is, is, that's it, that's it, that's it. And I, and again, I think that's where this episode ends, but we'll get there. Again, we hear Jules's voice before we see her incredible moment, an incredible emotion playing across the day of space. It's articulated away I don't think they need to, because, you know, Leslie says, like, what are you ashamed that Jules heard all that? Like, we, we saw, we saw that, shame just cross her face. I actually liked that it was very

on the nose. Why so? Just because it's a different it's such a different set of emotions than the very, very primal fear for life,

physical withdrawal like mania kind of plain that Rue had been operating on when she's screaming and fighting with her mom. And she we know that she's at rock bottom because she is so awful to her mom. Like she just doesn't seem to care about literally anything. She will say the most horrible things to her mother.

She's physically a complete and total mess. And the introduction of when Jules and Elliot are suddenly revealed to be there, just like embarrassment and. and her still wanting to maintain a certain appearance in front of her, you know, teenage friends and love interest. And it's so different. Like, it's just such a different set of emotions that I kind of liked him hitting it on the head. I guess I just felt like Zendaya nailed it with her face. But, but, I think so, too.

I just didn't. Sometimes I don't mind, like subtleties. great, but sometimes something very obvious is... You're like, go ahead and underline that for me. Yeah, and I think that when Zendaya, when Rue gets in Jules's face, and Zendaya contorts her features in a way I've never seen her, like the most likable face in Hollywood, just like, pure venom, like, in her face, as she says, this hateful stuff to Jules, the object of her affection. you know, calls her a vampire, all this sort of stuff, and for Jules to respond with increasingly

difficult I Love Yous, I thought was really, really powerful. And in a way that, like, I don't, I've not always known what to make of the rule and Jules connection, but I think, I thought this felt really real and familiar to me as a as a dynamic, and Elliot sort of ineffectually just existing in the background of it, as an added element, Rue sort of deciding that this is something, which it is, like deciding that Jules and Elliott, you know, cheated on her, which seems like probably happened, but is not at all the point of what's going on here. It feels like to me. What do you think?

Yeah, I think that Jules was so effective. that scene, even when Rue's mom at the end goes, walks past her to deal with Rue, but just really quickly like,

sort of past Jules on the shoulder and says I'm sorry, baby or something. And you're thinking, like, Jules needs a little bit more than that. I mean, can Jules get a hug? Please, something. That was so, so, so horrible. But it's really, and,

And particularly because Jules never responds to Rue other than just to say, I love you, I love you, I love you. And I think it's very effective at keeping Rue the complete center of the action. Because that could have been an opportunity for Rue and Jules to go back and forth, right? Like Jules could have snapped. Jules could have responded. But it pretty effectively maintains Rue is fighting for her life or refute or, trying to get to a place where she will fight for her life in a way that Jules is not. And I think there's a very effectively shown sort of imbalance of stakes where in some ways,

okay, of course Jules, you know, deserves a hug. But if you're Rue's mom, like, you just don't have time for anything other than the one thing that you're trying to accomplish. Well, and I think that, again, the Lori's suitcase introduces different stakes here because like there is a version of the story not not one that I would agree with but where you would say why would Jules go to her mom? Why wouldn't Jules go to Rue first? And you know, I don't necessarily agree with that, but like let's say we ascribe to a sort of like you never snitch sort of mentality. The life or death stakes on Rue, like we understand that

she's been self-destructive since we met her. But the suitcase is a whole, new level of reckless risk that I think has to put us even more on Jules' side than we otherwise would be in terms of when she, when Jules is like thinking you're putting yourself in danger, you're going to kill yourself. We're like, yeah, she's going to kill herself. If it's not with the drugs, it's entangling with this very scary drug dealer and everything that comes with it. So again, that suitcase, I think, is such a smart stake setter for everything. Then we get in the car Rue Gia can't even touch her dad's hoodie

Which I think was a really like powerful Wordless moment As Gia packs for her Great stuff from Storm I mean Storm Reid Really really good and all of this They get in the car Elliot watches them go away And I think that's a good moment for us to

Like you know It's not like Elliot and Jules went off together Like that this isn't something that necessarily Strengthened their bond In fact it might have just broken broken them apart, you know. And we get this really interesting shot. There's not a, something that's interesting about this episode, because, because Rue

isn't tripping or we're not in that euphoric state, we're in this other state, there's very little, like, camera trickery, sound trickery, all the usual trappings of euphoria, barring like one, you know, post-morphine hit moment later in the episode, this is all very, like, cinema very tall. And so the sound coming in and out of the car, I thought was an interesting, but it's a rare little euphoria spin in a very, very straightforward episode. Yeah. One thing that I found interesting about that scene is almost always when Rue's in a car, she's in the backseat. She's always sort of pressed up against the window letting somebody else drive her around. Yeah.

And I'm sure, like, I don't think Rue drives, but. It is an interesting piece of imagery of not necessarily the helplessness, but just a lack of action on her part. On toponomy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great point. Yeah, I just rewatch Mystic River for this, like, Big Pig movie draft. And there's all these shots of people getting into cars and looking out the back window as it's driven away. And that's what I thought of Rue, like looking at the back window as she's driven away to rehab here.

But Rousse says this thing about rehab having a 5% success rate. I looked this up. It's, it really depends what kind of rehab treatment you're talking about, but 5% is a number that is attached to a certain, like a self, uh, driven 12 step rehab has a 5% success rate attached to it versus like it's institutionalizing versus versus other things. Um, but I was, I was curious about that number and it is a, it's a number that's out there. Um, and then we, Ru jumps out of the car into the middle of the road, uh, we're 16 minutes, 30, 39 seconds in. to the episode and we get the title card, which is not like totally bizarre for Euphoria. They do late into the episode, but I think this is the longest we've gone, I think, without the title card.

So that, I guess, is our cold open-ish. It's not a cold open. There's no cold open for this episode. But what do you think about putting the title card there? Like, what does that do splitting that front part from the rest of the episode? It's the moment she decides to run. Yeah.

My instant reaction was that the title card shows up in a moment that is like completely free. of euphoria. Often there's some something where someone is is experiencing some type of bliss or excitement or it's visually very stimulating where then the title card appears over it. It's like, oh yeah, this is this person's version of the name of the show. This does not have that. So I wondered if it was just sort of nailing home that this is a more stark episode in a lot of different ways

than most episodes of Euphoria are. But I also think that it's setting up basically the first 16 minutes before that happens, Rue, things are sort of happening to Rue. Her mom gets rid of the drugs. Jules has told. on her, Jules and alliotta are in the house, like all of these things, she's taken,

put in the car, put in the back seat, they drive away. Like, everything is sort of happening to Rue, and then Rue decides to do something. So I think that's why those two things are segmented. It's this, there's two times this episode and Rue runs into the middle of traffic. And there's a major difference between

the two of them. The second time she does it, she says, please God, don't let me die. The first time she does it, she just runs into traffic. Because I think the first time, and I do think it's worth articulating, it does feel like this episode is in thirds. Because the first, the second third, before she runs into traffic the second time

and says, please, God, don't let me die. Doesn't really seem like Rue is trying not to die. Rue is just acting like instinctually and she doesn't, in some ways it's like she's running kind of because she does want to die. She doesn't want to do the work of going through rehab and try it actually. actually save herself, she's just like, I don't want to do that, so I'm going to run. And then the third, the third third is like, does she actually not? Is there a kernel of, please God, don't let me die. That's actually in this character. Yeah. How long have you been fucking

Nate? I'm not. I'm not. What are you talking about? Oh, I just, I saw her get in this truck and then kiss him and drive off. That was like, what, like a month ago? Are you kidding? Cass, that's like really bad. The middle third then is Rue running into other storylines that we care about, right? So I think she goes to- And universally causing chaos and destruction.

She goes to Fez's first, I believe, and then he's not there, so then she goes to Lexi and Cassie's house. again, Sue's just like prime Su's episode. Chatting away to Rue and then walking past and being like, she doesn't look great. I mean, it's just incredible stuff from her. Cassie and Maddie and Kat are there.

And Rue goes up to the bathroom when she goes back her mom and Giro there. Do we think that Lexi called or do we think Sue's called? I think Sue's called. I think Lexi called. I felt like what Suz is, I mean, either totally works and they also could have kind of done it together. But it just seemed like Suez was presented as the person who kind of, even amid her own personal chaos and her own self-destructive tendencies, she kind of knew what to do. Like she saw right through Rue and I can see her being like, yeah, that's not good. I'm going to call her mom right now.

I hope Sue's called because we love quasi-responsible parenting from Sue's and Lexi again is as been as she said

herself this season is such a passive character she observes but does she act will she act eventually it's a good question and then Rue just drops a chaos bomb into this

scene by exposing Cassie to Maddie I after Cassie gives this totally there are a few so a question that I'm having more and more. Yeah. And I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, although maybe it does contribute to the messiness question. I am decreasingly sure if the show is in on the jokes, but the jokes are funny because Cassie giving this little mini monologue about just take. Make it one day at a time. Like cookie cutter influences her BS.

And she's so proud of herself. She's so self-satisfied with this kernel of wisdom that she's on. Yeah. And then Roos, she's like, hey, Cassie, quick question. Yeah. Why don't I just torture life? Amazing stuff. Amazing moment for Maddie.

A literal nail clack for Maddie in Cassie's face. Just incredible stuff. And cause enough of a distraction for Roe to rent a. out the door. I'm glad that this is in here. I'm glad that this is like we're not dragging this on anymore that Maddie knows. I think that this is a good time for that. And I'm glad that it's just sort of like a dip in and out. Like we'll come back to this, I'm sure. But I thought this was like a great little jewel at the center of this episode. What do you think? Yeah. Well, and again, like this is a very unfunny episode. But there's something almost like, I can't believe I'm going to make this reference.

It's a little three stooges. It's like Rue upsets an apple cart and sprints underneath it and runs away. There's some real theater tricks to it. It's the only, I mean, listen, the girls were going ham, but it was the only moment I didn't really, because I just don't believe that Ruzman would have taken her eye off the prize long enough in all of that. But she just like turns around and then Rue's gone out the door. and she goes back to Fez's and he lets her in

and we've seen sort of Fez, you know, have this interaction with Roe before in season one where he's just sort of like, at a certain point, can't let her in because, you know, because she's in the state she's in. But she crosses a line. She crosses several lines in this episode and this is a big line cross.

I mean, she torched, she torched her friendship with all those girls over at Lexi's, I guess. And then the line she's crossing here is she goes to, goes after some of Fez's grandma's medication, right? Which she was tempted by in season one. And he tosses her out. He's like, that's it for me.

That's a line. And, you know, we love Fez. I think he's right to do what he did. What do you think? Yeah. And he was initially very sweet to her and offered her some peptobismol, which is just like, that's a very funny line for a drug dealer just to be like, don't you like some pepto-bizmal or something?

You're not feeling well? But Fez is very sweet to her, but then has no choice but to toss her out. I mean, I think we're just going through the list of people who have cared about Roo, and she checks off every box of being harmful and hurtful to... Yeah, what other bridge can she burn? She does B&E. How do you feel that this, like, this robbery? I mean, she's terrible at it, first of all, very inept.

Also, we should say, we talked about this last week in terms of. with like Rue's physical capabilities and like in the bike riding scenes with jewels, watching Zendaya like limp hobble around the back alleys of L.A. with like an injured leg and, you know, terrible withdrawal indigestion pains. You know, an incredible physical performance from Zendaya. But I think all of that culminates in like, what does Rue look like to these, you know, We've seen her burn these bridges with people we know. What does Rue look like to strangers, these strangers? We don't care about this couple.

They seem unpleasant, honestly. But, like, what is it like to look under your bed and Rue? This version of Roo is who you find there. And I think they scream in terror. Yeah. And, you know, and it's like, yeah, this wild out-of-control person is in your house. Well, and she was interesting to me was that what precipitated that, she does look to the camera briefly before she sneaks under the garage door to rob the house.

And we've certainly seen Rue break the fourth wall before and communicate verbally. But it was interesting that there was just, at least this is how I took it, still one moment where she does that kind of impish wink wink, I'm just going to go steal some shit. I wondered if it was sort of a litmus test of, okay, where are we on Rue? Are we willing to give her the same benefit of the doubt to be cheeky and charming for just a split second at this point? Because I felt a little bit more like, I don't know. I just don't know that I'm feeling the same way that I was feeling before right now. Like, this is pretty bad.

Oh, very bad. Yeah, that disconnect. Like, comparing it to that episode two shot that we liked so much where, like, Elliot's like, we should go get high and she looks at the camera and she's like, here we go, want to go do some drugs? And we're like, oh, Roo. And here we're like, I wonder if it, I wonder if there's an understanding and the acting choices and directing choices that we would perceive that moment differently or this moment differently from that moment or if it was intended in the same way, because I definitely took it differently. I think, I think it's a good, again, like the two runs into

traffic. It's like, it's a hold them up side by side and how are we? feeling and how and how where where is rue how is she dramatically altered the stakes on her bad life decisions you know like getting high with a friend during school hours is like yons away from a b and ee uh the cops encounter rue she vomits they're like that's odd uh and they give chase uh and then we get this this uh i can only hope that this is an intentional Ferris Bueller, Tom Holland and Homecoming reference, chased through various backyards, and she hops over fences and destroys Kinsigneras

and, like, backyard barbecues, and this nice man with some chickens who's just trying to paint to some opera. He's trying to paint. He just wants to paint with his... I mean, honestly, of all the... Like, that backyard painting sesh looked so lovely and peaceful.

And, yeah, just a very literal, destructive force. And not just through... these lives that we are aware of, but through all these strangers' lives, a kinsena, come on, have some respect before she does a thing where she runs into traffic again. And not only is it the second run into traffic that we already talked about, but this time cars slam into each other. So again, it's just like Rue is just destroying all these lives

and all these days and all these things and what will stop her. How do you feel about the Ferris Bueller? segment of this episode. I mean, I love the genre. Every time Rue falls on, crashes through a table, falls on glass, it just gets harder and harder to watch. A cactus, a bed of cacti.

Yeah, she literally falls into that. Yeah. Okay. You are fucking dead to me. You don't mean that. I fucking mean every fucking word. You're dead to me, Joel. I don't believe you.

You're me? We're fucking done. There's nothing fucking there anymore. Nothing fucking there. So as you say, if we're breaking this into third, this is the final third, is this dramatic sort of overhead shot of her scaling the gate to get into Lori's apartment complex slash compound. I think having Lori, you know, we were wondering about this character of Lori, such a like fun, you know, quote unquote fun, but deeply terrifying.

Breaking Bad-esque, I think, character. But I like how her motherly vibe contrasting with Rue's actual mom, who is actually trying to protect her, versus this insidious shit that Lori is doing here in this sequence. I think that's a really good mirror, this dark mother sort of stuff. And the way in which she lies about having any other drugs to help Rue come down. and she tells her own backstory about her addiction, which is a sort of classic college athlete, dope sick, oxy cotton story, which we can choose to believe or not.

Terrifying. How did you feel? Yeah, there are really scary, potentially hint-dropping lines in these Lory scenes, right? Like, she won't take... the stolen jewelry from Roche. She's like, this is a pawn shop. But when they're talking, she says that, you know,

because she's a woman, even if you don't have money, you have something people want. Which just that it, I don't know how that's going to come back around, but ominous is probably understating it. Yeah, it seems like her intention is, I mean, so I think inspired, by our covering euphoria or maybe for some other reason. I watched the film less than zero, the Robert John Jr., James Bader film about teens getting addicted to drugs. That was sort of like a classic of the genre in the 80s.

And I had never seen it before. I just heard that it was like incredible and Robert John Jr. is incredible in it, which is, it's not a great movie. He is very good in it. But how quickly James Bader, who is the drug dealer slash pimp, like conscripts Robert Johnny Jr. into prostitution, it is like immediate and often. And so this idea of her, the line that she says, which is so scary, even if you don't have money, if something people want, but she also says this, when I first met you, I thought this girl's going to be in my life for a long time.

So this idea that like, yeah, Lori, Lori's like one way or another, I get the payment that I want. And so this idea of constricting ruin to, I don't know if you want to call it sex slavery or prostitution, whatever you want to call it. Trafficking. Trafficking. That's the clear implication of what's happening here. And I'm glad the episode doesn't go there. And I think the threat of it is enough. Even the threat of it I found startling and honestly, I found it confusing just because to take it seriously, like completely seriously, would have.

been overwhelming. There's ominous padlocks on doors. There's a lot of bird and cage image. You know, Lori has like a couple different parrots in cages. There's a lot of bird and cage imagery in this. Not a good sign. Not a good sign. And that shot the whole way that the, when she takes the morphine out and puts it on the table and the way that the cameras just focus on that with Rue and soft focus in the background and the way that she makes it Rue's choice, like makes it so Rue asks for it. I mean, this is some of the toughest television I've ever had to watch. I did not, I will be honest with our listeners. I did not watch that scene.

I didn't like, I heard it. But when during that shot, when the morphine's on the table and Rue is in soft focus, you can tell where it's going. I chose to take a visual breather for a few minutes at that point. I will just say that the needle, the shot of the needle going into her arm. So this idea that like, you know, Lori says you never, you know, Ruhr's, you know, was done all this stuff. And there was a, there was a drug line cross in season one when she tries, is the fentanyl for the first time, right? Right. And so this is another like crossing a barrier. Rue has never done IV drugs. And so the needle going into her. And there was just something so

violent about a needle not jabbed in, but like gently insert. I'm sorry to like dwell on this when you did even watch it. But like, I'll just say this. Like, yeah, it's just, it was a violent, like something is punctured. Like she, yeah. Yeah, really, really tough. So then for the first time in the episode, we get a non-reality moment because Rue is high for the first time in the episode. And we get baby Rue in the bath and Rue's 14-year-old eulogy for her dad, a memory of seeing her baby sister for the first time, her kissing the glass looking at her sister. Her dad saying, as long as I live, you'll be with me forever. That's something she says in the eulogy.

And I just, you know, like Zendaya really driving home to see like 14-year-old Rue like in her braids to see Lexi and Sue's there. So like this is, you know, this has been this bridge that she torched early episode. They've been there with her through all of this makes really underlines the circumstances that she wakes up in. going back to seeing the hoodie again is so poignant. And the line quoting her dad and her eulogy, as long as I, or she's not quoting her dad, but I think she said that he said something like this to her. As long as I live, you'll be with me forever,

which underscores her own fight to live. It's sort of the double stakes of, of keeping that promise or whatever you want to call it between her and her dad when he died is so poignant. And it does, I think, reconstruct a little bit of the, it's not like faith in Rue, but just rooting for her and feeling for her very effectively. She makes out of there, it is, I think I mentioned this at the beginning of the season, this idea that like it feels this plot, all this plot, this Lori stuff feels a lot more breaking bad than anything we've gotten on the episode. This feels very like, please let Jesse Pinkman escape whatever drug lord has him captive this week. So she makes it out. She does this desperate run for the closing gate. And that I think just really does underscore this,

like, this will to live. She's like, you know, you thought you didn't want to live. You woke up, look where you woke up. Is this what you want? You can die right now if you want. Do you want to die right now? No, you want to live. You want to escape. And she runs home. And it never rains in Southern California. It plays over the closing credits. So that's this episode of Euphoria. Hopefully rock bottom, but you never know what rock bottom will actually be for a person. It was a tough watch.

You know, as you said, you had to look away at one point, a really tough watch. But just, I mean, I can't incredible, incredible work from Zendaya. Just really, really, really good. And I am curious, like, for the people who watch, for the soap opera aspect of it all, which is definitely a valid way to watch this show. Like, how will something this tough? This is what, again, this is what they've been sort of promising slash threatening at the beginning of the season, which is like, this is going to be a tough watch.

I think this is the tough. I hope this is the toughest watch of the season. Like, how are people going to react to it? I'll be really interested to know. How are you reacting to it overall? I think I kind of straddle watching it for the team. drama of it all and watching it for maybe everything else that I has to offer. I will say when Rue drops the bomb about Cassie and Nate, I was like, okay, let's go.

I did kind of need that. And I wonder if there could have, I don't know, I think it did enough to at least make me feel like, okay, if I did the work of getting through this very difficult episode, we will be rewarded with some juicy drama. There are bigger questions based on if that's what I want. Am I getting what I want out of the show? But I did like that we got a little nugget of just there's more to come here that's not just about this one storyline. I'm very much enjoying the season. I do have a lot of questions. Well, we will get to more of those, some more of those questions next week. For now, let us wrap this all up. I've decided I've made the executive decision that we're going to skip

the fit check and the who do we actually want to party this with this week, unless you really want to do it. Yeah, no one. I'm not here to talk about any of that. I'm going to, so the needle drop that I'm going to talk about right now is the Doobie brothers are playing when she first shows up at Lori's house, forever loving the soundtrack at Lori's. Lori's house is a hellscape, but it has a good soundtrack. How about what do you? The hellscape with a good soundtrack. Yeah. Well, so you just mentioned it. Um, I wanted to talk briefly about the closing credits to it never rains in Southern California because euphoria has been, I mean, if you look closely at it, you can tell pretty easily that where they are doing this is some nameless place in, in Southern

California. But it's been this pretty placeless show. right? Like they don't articulate ever where they are. And I'm curious if you felt like using that song did that for the first time or if you felt like it was sort of just closing credits, music and not worth reading it into. That's so interesting. Like the back alleys look so much like L.A. to me, you know what I mean? They're constantly like cycling through and stuff like that. That like it always just felt, you know, if they never said it, it felt like in L.A. suburb to me. Yeah, that's really interesting. What do you think it means to put a more specific place on it right now?

I don't know. I guess it just, it heightens the explicit, and I don't mean like sort of explicit content, but, you know, this is semi-autobiographical. Like, the more reality factors into euphoria, I think. think the more we have to pay attention to, you know, where is Sam inserting himself? What about this is really taken from real life? And even just more explicitly lending it a place where all this is happening, I felt does that a little bit. That's so smart. Something that I forgot to mention, to your point, something I forgot to mention when we were talking about this

thing that Lori says about like, that's a great thing about being a woman. Even if you don't have money, of something people want. Again, like, you know, I mentioned less than zero. There's definitely, like, it's not just, you know, women who do drugs and then get drawn into life of sex work necessarily, like this happens to men. But I was wondering if, you know, we've talked about the limitations of a self-insert role for Sam Levinson when it's like a young woman of color versus a young, like,

a middle class woman of color versus Sam Levinson who grew up white male and, extremely privileged. Like, just, those are two different realities to have a drug, a drug problem in. And that was a moment where I was like, this feels like stretching the bounds of, of the self-insert, that line from Lori. I don't know. Exceptful, terrifying, horrifying moment. I think it has to be the needle in the arm of Zendaya.

I don't think there's any other competition there. Who is most in need of a hug? I mean, Zendaya, Rue is the obvious answer, but you mentioned Jules early, and I think you might be, I mean, like, Rue's mom is trying to hug her this whole episode. Who's trying to hug Jules? I don't know, you know, so. Yeah, or Gia. Or Gia. All right. And then favorite flashy camera move shot. Like I said, there wasn't a lot in this episode. I'm going to give it to that. I thought the overhead shot of Rue climbing the wall to get to Louris is really interesting because I think it just underscored later that sort of. like impenetrable idea of that gate and put the stakes on her making that, you know, as it was closing and she's running out of it, like making that run later because like given her physical state, I don't know that she could have gotten herself back over that wall any other way. How about you?

Do you have one? Yeah. I also think that the return but also the juxtaposition of the two times Roos runs into traffic, it was very, I mean, I felt like I was in the middle of traffic. It was very good at capturing just how close cars were coming to her and the potential for death destruction crash here, crash there. Other honorary mention, though, too, when Rue's running, a lot of it's taking place at night.

And I thought there was very effective use of moonlight and shadows, both just for aesthetic effect, but also it helps when Rue's just a silhouette, it helps her do that physical acting of showing how hurt she is and how badly she's moving and functioning when you're just seeing this silhouette hobble down in back alley. She was like Igoring her way through this episode. Yeah, totally.

No, she looks like a, you know. A ghoul. Yeah. Poor Roe. All right. So we did it. An incredible, I think a very good episode of Euphoria. Hopefully next week is a little later, at least, just a little bit.

Until then, Nora, where can folks find you? The Ringer NFL show and the Ringer.com. I'm at Nora Pinciotti on Twitter. I will be in Los Angeles at the Super Bowl next week. We'll have a lot of fun stuff going on. Very excited. Hope folks will check it out. Great.

You find me at Joe wrote this on all social media. And you can find me on the Ringervverse podcast. And a few other places here on the PrestiGovie podcast feed. We'll be around covering everything. And we'll see you in Euphoria Land next week.