The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 6: Mama’s Got a Brand New Mule

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Jo and Rob improvise their lines to recap ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 6. (0:00) Intro (1:22) Expectations for the finale (4:12) Is Rue already dead? (16:19) The Bible (19:33) The Alamo cold open (23:56) Maddy at the club (25:09) Cassie’s role on 'L.A. Nights' (and Lexi’s disapproval) (31:46) Faye and Wayne (36:02) Rue and her mom (42:24) Laurie vs. Alamo Email us! [e-mail] or [e-mail] Follow us on IG and TikTok! Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producers: Kai Grady and Devon Renaldo Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles and Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets? Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify Advertising. You're among fans. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if?

Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.com, every style, every home. Hello, welcome back for Presti's TV podcast feed. I'm Joyner Robinson. I am Rob Mahoney. It's another Euphoria Sunday here at Sycamore Studios. Rob, how are you feeling? Loopier than ever. I guess loopier is regular, as is now our custom on Sundays. We only have two more of these to go. And one of them is the finale, a supersized finale.

Kind of bizarre to think about. I would say especially given where some of the characters are right now, but with the supersized finale, there's probably a lot of ground we can cover. I was thinking about that a lot because I just, as you know, I was at a stars event for the Outlander finale on Friday, and then the boys finale is hitting this upcoming week. And so there's just like a lot of conversation right now about finales of long running, huge fandom, contentious fandom shows, stuff like that. How's it going on the boys?

It's hotly contested, I would say. That seems generous based on what I've seen. I'm interested to see how it all wraps up. Outlander has the sort of burden of expectation of like books hanging around it, but I actually think a lot of the fandom was pretty happy without Outlander wrapped up. But just I was thinking about that and I was thinking about Euphoria and I'm like, I don't think Euphoria is sort of like blissfully free of some of those expectations, right? Because I don't think there's, I don't know, when I've been covering a show for a long time

and we're coming up on the finale, I get really sort of tense and agitated, thinking about not just how am I going to enjoy it, but like what is the fandom backlash going to be? Sure. Because there's usually this era of sort of like morning, of like I've been with this show for so many years. I've been invested in these characters.

It's never going to end in a way that I'm going to be satisfied with. But I feel like the Euphoria fandom is free from that because there's been so many stretches of years without Euphoria. And even though the show has been on for, I don't know, six or seven years or whatever, it's not like people have been tuning in every year and spending time with these characters.

And then also there is just the fact that season three is just another animal, another python altogether than the previous seasons and the specials. And so I'm not getting that sense of there's no winning here at the end of Euphoria as there is often the case with some of these other shows. I mean, there's just not as much guessing at like how does it all end, period. Right.

I think because it's such a lucomorphous thing, especially in this season, as you mentioned. I mean, fans of this show do feel very strongly about it. Absolutely. I do think that we have filtered to a point where if you're down for this, you're still here. And if you're not, you've already ejected like many episodes, if not seasons ago. So, you know, let's all just walk into the burning Joshua Tree together. Though I do know a couple people and not just our colleague Andy Greenwald who are like tuning in this season who had not watched it previously just because the conversation is so loud around it.

It's sort of like Survivor 50. You can't avoid it. Rob has to hear us talk about it a lot at the office. Yeah. I avoided in every other respect of my life. But you know the name of some players. I got to say I don't. I think you do.

I zone out or maybe just like tap into my Cassie-style PTSD during those moments and just check out. You expect me to recall the names of basketball players sometimes, but you're not going to remember the name of Surrey, Survivor Legend, Surrey. Joe, I never put those expectations on you. That is you putting those expectations on yourself. Anyway, here's the point. You can reach us at PrestigeTV at Spotify.com. Always. Maddie's number one boy at gmail.com.

As you should. A few handful of emails in the interim between when the episode ended and when we started this recording. A lot of the emails we're getting recently are, Dear God, Where's Your Next Widows Bay episode? We got great news for you. We already recorded it. It's coming out next week, this week. In several days. In a few days.

Covering two episodes, episodes four and five. We did an episode of Skins UK coverage last week. And in two weeks, we're doing a Friday Night Lights episode as well. Retrospective. Retrospective. Yes. So that's what's going on. There's a lot going on.

That's a, you know, a wide swath of content for the people. It really is. But Widows Bay will be coming back from us. I promise you, you do not have to worry. You do not have to hex anyone. It is happening. Don't worry. Should they still hex somebody?

Probably. Mailbag. Let's do it. Catherine emailed us right after the episode ended with a theory that I'm already seeing catching fire across the internet. Okay. Is Rue already dead. I mean, to be fair, hasn't this theory already caught fire for every show since the dawn of time?

But let's engage. So when is it purported that Rue died? Car crash. Oh, here. Yeah. Oh, so not previously. Car crash, Burning Bush. Not Polo Mallet, not any of her previous potential overdoses. No. This was her, this was when she died. Did she die, swerving off the road, and is the burning Joshua tree a sort of signal of her death? We do see her, obviously, in the trailer for next week's episode, but, like, is she dead? I'm going to say... Would that be interesting? I think it could be interesting. Okay.

It depends on what you do with it, right? And how you choose to manifest all of the plot lines that would result. I think that's where you get into trouble with something like Rue dying, because you would still have to show us all the other characters, either in her head or after-life fugue state or not. And so what are you going to do with those sequences and how true to the actual events of life would those be? I don't think she's dead, but I was just trying to figure out if. I thought it was interesting if she would be dead.

And certainly inside of this episode, when you get Lexi and Gideon Adlin, who probably has a character name, but... Gilly. Gilly, there you go. Lexi and Gilly. Sitting down with some like... Two old pals. Budget Sangria in the courtyard there.

And talking about killing off characters. You have to kill out characters versus just talking, talking, talking, right? So that's sort of hanging over everything. And then there's just like... I never felt more certain that... Rue was not going to make it out of the season alive, then talking about wanting to have kids in the church scene, talking about wanting to come home,

even though it does appear. Spoilers for the episode 7 trailer, if you care, that she is home in next week's episode. But is she home or is she dead? I don't know. These are just questions I'm asking of a Sunday evening. But the question I was asking myself, as I was thinking, like, are they really going to kill Rue?

Are they going to kill Rue? Is that what's going to happen? They can't do it too early because, As much as this has kind of become like the Sydney, sweetie, Cassie show to a certain degree, can you have two more episodes of Euphoria without Rue's story? It's one of the most repulsive things happening this season. So. You know, safe robberies and all.

Like, it's just setting up a lot of narrative juice where I think it'd be hard to separate from that, even if you want to explore it in a post-death state. But, I mean, how would you feel about these last two episodes culminating in all of these perhaps disparate characters, following their own narrative arcs to fulfillment at like a mystical church-like location and congregating together in a controversial finale. Is Michael Giacchino available? We'll see. To make me cry with some piano. It's a good question.

Lost a finale. I defend you always. Daniela wrote in before this episode air, but I was actually thinking about this a lot during the Rue and Jewel scene. Danielle wrote in to say about this question we posed last week about objective versus a series. objective seasons of the show. And Daniela wrote, yes, there are dream sequences this season, but those sorts of abstract moments, and those sort of abstract moments, but a way in which you can see the objective versus subjective side of the season three is Rue's relationship with Jules.

In season one or two, we would have seen a romanticized version via Rue. There were a lot of drug-induced romanticizations of the relationships from Rue, but now she can't even get up and kiss her. So follow up on that. I was thinking about that exactly. actually before I even read Daniela's email in the Rue and Jules scene

when Jules like, are you kidding? Yeah. Like are you being serious right now? And I was like, yeah, if, I think we were meant to read between the lines of Rue's romanticism in the previous seasons and we certainly got some scenes like alone with Jules. Like, especially with Dominic Fike's character in season two

where she was like raising some questions about this relationship. But I don't think we would have gotten such. a stark version of this reality check if we were still so much inside of Rue's fantasy. The Redditors seem pretty down on Jules slapping Roo, but I was sort of like, I don't know.

I hate what's happening with Jules' season. Yeah. I don't like that, and we can talk about that. But in terms of, like, Rue getting in Jules' face and telling her entire life is horrible, after everything that Rue has put Jules through with her life decisions,

I was like, yeah, slap her. Like, why not? I care about Rue, but in that moment, I didn't think Jules slapping her was like so out of pocket. I had no problem with it. My problems are more with, I would say the whiplash, not just from that sort of subjective narrativeization of earlier seasons, which I agree with you kind of tracks here in the way both these characters are acting. But coming off of last week, where Jules was imploring Rue to want something, to go after something, and specifically her, and then Rue kind of does it, and maybe in a way Jules doesn't want, And that's not the right answer.

You know what's so weird, and I wonder if something was cut, is from the context of their conversation here, it almost sounded like they did have some sort of, like, intensive sexual interaction. Oh, they did. That's why Rue's boxers were in the room, you know? Oh, I guess so. Yeah.

I just thought she was just, like, changing her. Why don't we get to see it? Why don't we get to see it, you know? I mean, they did play with it in the cut you're talking about where it's Ellis there instead of you're expecting Rue to be there. So she's challenging Rue to, like, do something about it. Yeah.

Does something about it. We don't get to see it. Fine. We get to see plenty of other things, but not ruin Jules having sex. Okay, fine. And then Jules is like, that didn't,

you did the thing that I asked you to and it doesn't really mean much to me. You did that thing that I asked you to and also all of this is in your head. Like our whole relationship, this imaginary version of it is in your head, which it kind of has been. But also last week,

we were all there when she was literally saying these things and then they literally fucked afterwards. Yeah. So I don't know what to make of all that. Presumably. Allegedly. Show don't tell. You're for you.

I think that Rue talking about wanting to have kids, like needing something outside of herself and wanting to have kids, I'm just like, this is not the way. There are many different reasons for people not to have reasons you should not have. As a father of children yourself. I am a father. Famously and recently. I would say Rue and have it's like maybe 50 different reasons not to have kids. So it is incredibly rich. I get Jules' frustration with all that.

It's just the rest of it is just so odd. The one thing I want to say, and I think the Jules plot in this season has been frustrating for us just because we really like Jules a lot and we love Hunter Schaefer. Very much so. I am finding, I am enjoying the painting sequences, because these are live painting sequences. We're watching Hunter Schaefer, the artist. And this is something that Sam Levinson talked about where he's like, I love Hunter as an artist, Hunter doesn't really practice her art.

And so I kind of made her do it by doing these like live painting scenes. And we've seen several of them now. And I think her art is really interesting and cool. Evocative and gorgeous. Not just the, you know, Dick Leiden, Saraw, like. But also that. But also that. But, you know, it all has a distinctive style to it.

And it's really fun to watch her process. And so I just, I enjoy that aspect while being frustrated by a lot of the absence of jewels. And the only person served less by this episode. Well, Maddie, an underwolding Maddie episode, especially given the promise of the trailer for this episode was like a big Maddie Alamo showdown, except they showed the entirety of it in the trailer. So we had already seen whatever their conversation was. Plus she's the thumbnail photo of this episode. So I was like, oh, we're going to get a real Maddie episode and we did not. And then Nate, which is just sort of like, I would almost rather not cut to Nate at all in an episode than just sort of like run this tape back again and again.

you know. I mean, all he has done this season is embarrass himself in front of the zoning council and lose a finger in a toe. Yeah. Get his ass beat. I mean, I would say in terms of the flowers themselves, just, I mean, we are reaching little shop of horrors level of like getting fucking, like, dominated by a plant. Are you trying to placate me by making a musicals reference right now?

No. After you ticked me off on Friday with a musicals argument? I mean, if you want to revisit Why West Side Story, the remake, The Spielberg remake is in fact quite good. I'm happy to do it here on Mike. But also, if you want to defer, that's fine too. Rob just wants to defend Ansela L. Gort his favorite actor. Not the case.

I think that's Nate is a real miss for me. Though I will say I have enjoyed the conversation where a lot of people point out like, hey, man, Nate was free and easy with a gun in season two. Why doesn't he have a gun? Why isn't he defending himself? And I like the pushback that I've seen on the internet that, yes, Of course, Nate would use a gun to intimidate a teenage girl, but just sort of crumple in the face of real criminals. I don't find that contradictory at all.

Completely adds up. Yeah, it's just he's not adding anything to the story. These scenes aren't interesting visually. Like, they're just not contributing anything to the flow of the season. Granted, we are clearly laying gunpowder so that when he now collides back with Cassie's part of the story, something goes up and smoke. I just don't really know how that's all going to pay off in a way that makes this feel worse. Look at you gunpowder and smoke, just weaving your narrative here. Our listener Tom wrote in with a well actually for Maddie's Jesus quote from last week's episode.

Okay. First of all, how dare they? Maddie says, Mattie said, Jesus says, be in the world, not of the world. And Tom, who is a religious professor, wrote to say that's actually a notion from the Muslim esoteric mystic sect known as Sufis. I haven't watched any further before writing this, so someone corrects her pleased disregard. But no one did. So Tom's here to correct Matt. I trust Maddie.

Oh, God. We're a professor. You know. All right. On the contract watch front, which we raised last week, and your hope was that Cassie just never turned in her drill house contract. A lot of our listeners pointed out that Cassie signed each contract with a different name, that she signed Cassie Howard, her maiden name to the hype house or the drill house contract.

Right. And Cassie Jacobs, her married name to Maddie's contract. So in terms of like if there is in the last two episodes of the show, some sort of legal battle. In which Cassie represents herself in court. Oh, I legally blonde style. The pink suit? Does it come down to whether or not one could get a perm wet at some point? I think the drill house contract because it takes a while to change your name legally.

It's a pain in the ass. It is a pain in the ass. And it takes a while. It doesn't happen just when you get married. So you're saying the drill house contract to you would be the more authentically binding document. It's her legal name right now, Cassie Howard. That is true. I don't know how any of this works.

I'm going to be honest with you. Are you not allowed to put your maiden name on a document and still have it be binding even after your name is changed? I'm sure you can. But if the question comes down to between two. Betwixt. Betwixt. And never the twain shall meet. Betwixt the two.

And we maybe cannot carbon date when exactly she signed the two, though we, the viewers at home, know she signed the drill house one first. We do. Would it come down to which one has her current legal name on it? This is where I have to defer to Cassie Howard slash Jacobs attorney at law and what her interpretation is of the truth. Please email us. Maddie's number one boy at email.com. If you're a legal expert. If you're a lawyer, I mean, Rob might just disregard you the way that he did.

Just regarded a professor of religion. Or a religious scholar? That's all the emails I have. Anything else you want to say on a sort of mailbag front? Let's get into it. I don't even know where to begin with this episode. I do, the Bible. Okay.

Episode 6 is called Stand Still and See, which is from the Bible. The episode starts in the Alamo flashback, which we will get to in a second. When they attend church, Go Down Moses is the, you know, is a song that they are singing in church, right? So Moses gets sort of into the mix long before the Joshua tree lights on fire. Right. But twixt the Joshua tree fire. Yeah. And the church scene, a lot happens.

This line, Stand Still and See, comes from Exodus, which is Moses' book, if you must know. I mean, that's the big thing before the tree. You know, they got to exodus before they can see it, before they start getting divine messages. I was expecting Stand Still and See to be in reference to the burning bush, but it is not. Here's the quote. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians who you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And so it is right before the parting of the Red Sea. So this is not burning bush time. This is parting the Red Sea time. The part from the Bible that Rue is listening to, narrated by Michael York in the car, is from Genesis. And God saw the wickedness of the man was great in the earth. And then every imagination of thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This happens right before sending the flood.

So these are two water-based Bible moments, floods and parting of the Red Sea. Quick pause, before we go deeper. You're telling me Rue's still on Genesis? Yeah. She hasn't made it out of Genesis yet? No. There's a lot of book left. There's a lot of game to be played.

She's gotten to Noah. Well, clearly, we knew that she wasn't to Jesus. You know, there's a lot to go between now and then. I wonder who's voicing Noah in this all-star cast recording of the Bible. If there's a wipe-it-all-out scenario coming for Euphoria, who's the Noah? Who gets to survive? Oh, man.

Sydney Sweeney. Team Lexi. Of the Howard girls? I'm not saying who should. I'm saying if there were... Who's the cockroach? If there was a flood event and Euphoria, it gets rebooted around one character,

I don't see it based on everything we've seen this season, how it wouldn't be Cassie. I think it should be Maddie. How dare you not nominate your girl? I'm not saying what I want. I'm saying what I believe to be true. This is my stance. don't see moment.

You know, like, I'm, I am believing in the vision of the show that has been laid before me. And that is, unfortunately, for me, not a Maddie Forward show all the time. But in terms of, like, who's likely to come back for a euphoria season four? Is it Sidney or is it Alexademi? I don't know why Alexa Demi isn't in everything. So clearly there is a mystical power in the universe I don't comprehend. Stand still in Cirob. But Sydney Sweeney does feel like she's so game for this show.

She feels like more involved and more invested in. the greater Euphoria project than basically any other performer on screen. So I think she probably would if it were to continue on. She is one of the few actors giving interviews after the credits roll on the episodes. That's true. Okay. If you have a different nominee for the NOAA of the mass flood event that might come for Euphoria, Prestage TV at Spotify.com.

Alamo Cold Open. Danielle Deadweiler. I have some notes. This is not what I want Danielle DeWiler doing. And, like, I don't mind the idea of this cold open because, you know, we enjoyed the sort of flashback to people's characters' childhoods that we got in previous seasons. We really, really liked that. Yes. Cassie one was really good.

The Nate one was really good. Like, they're all, all of them are really good. Cal. I love the Cal one. Yeah. The Cow one really got to me. And so two starts, oh, season two starts with, like, this Fez's grandma flashback sequence. So in terms of like Sam Levinson wanting to make like a sort of 70s exploitation style sequence, he's already done that in season two.

And I actually really quite liked that, you know, the introduction of ashtray and all that sort of stuff like that. This I don't feel like taught me anything about Alamo other than to quote someone on Reddit. His mom was a bitch who played him and he made sure he never got played by a bitch again. That's like... I don't think that's quoting right. That's literally quoting the episode. Right. So like, well, that's the second part.

So like, so did you feel like this deepened the character? How did you feel about it? Not exactly. Because I would say the only thing it really deepened about Alamo is this idea of all the times we've seen him within the season, within this episode, just go from zero to 100 at the idea of getting played by somebody. I would just argue that most drug dealers are probably that way to begin with or arms dealers or people work in any kind of criminal underground. They don't need an edible sort of moment for that. Yeah, like you don't want to be made the fool of. does he need a like mommy issues complex

that then leads him to put an imitation of his mom's own leg on top of his strip club to resolve something I'm sure he doesn't need to work it out I'm sure it's fine I don't know that we entirely needed that That sounds therapeutic, it sounds like a nice arts and crafts project Right? You just like really process your issue

through like mass paper machet I was about to say I think he had sculpted it Yeah yeah yeah But I'm with you on Daniel Deadweiler too Like she is I love her so much immense respect for her as a performer. And I would say specifically the like tempestuous characters that she could play where they just

have all of this like internal something and you're trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Is that a station 11 reference? I mean, we do remember damage on this show. You know? This is. This is who we are. Yeah. But like I would have loved to see more of that kind of internality from her character.

And instead she's like, look, it's an interesting framing of a story, right, of this idea of the long con that she's playing. but the way it manifests is she's just kind of like a one-note tempteress who's here to like a la carte her life. Like I want the money from this guy and I want to live with this guy and I will live in that city and to hell with my son and what he wants. Something that we've noted that Sam Levinson does and sometimes to great effect and sometimes, you know, Lesser or whatever, is he's a great borrower of other texts. And what is true about this story, Alamo's backstory, is pretty closely airlifted from. the book Pimp by Iceberg Slim, which is like an autobiography of a pimp. And then this is like the story of his childhood that his mom like was with a godfaring man who treated her well and stuff like that. And then she and then the only time in his life when Iceberg Slim was happy. And then

she like ripped him away into an abusive relationship and stuff like that. So that is seemingly the inspo. And I think, I believe Sam Levinson mentions at least Iceberg Slim in the post credit sort of discussion. So there is that nod to where he lifted it from. I really wanted to like this more. I just think Danielle Deadweiler is so talented and this is just not, you know, what I would use her for personally. It's like fine enough.

But again, did not transform the story or the characters in the way that some of the other flashbacks did. And frankly, I'm not sure I ever quite recovered from the fact that his given name is actually Alamo. Even as a Texas guy? Do you have you never met an Alamo? Never met a single Alamo. Okay.

It's not, doesn't strike me as a thing you would do. Name a child Alamo? I guess somebody did. It's memorable. at least. Clearly. And we talked earlier this season about like did he concoct it just so he could do remember the Alamo style gags like he literally did in the season.

But I guess it was just in the stars for him the whole time. Right. But he was always loved cowboys and there's a lot of like there's a... Yeah. Well, that's nominatively deterministic for sure. If you name your kid Alamo, like he's going to wear like a raccoon hat on his head at some point. That's just a given. I guess so.

Maddie in the club. What do you want to say about it? This is one where I would have almost preferred us having a conversation about this scene, not having access to the post-game interview clips from the cast. Because the way Alexa Demi talks about this scene as like women coming together in their power, that was news to me. Sure. Was that apparent to you in the execution of what this scene was?

I thought we were just doing a cool like Workers Unite moment for Maddie. Sure. She's like workers' rights, they deserve time off. What are the, you know, the labor laws inside of Strip Clause? I guess that is women coming together. You know, she's standing up. Sure. But the rest of it is...

A fun girly link-up is how Alexa Demi described. I guess it's some of that. It's like, you know, this is a club that's in need of art direction as it relates to turn and get into an Instagram mobile presence. Maddie has a vision. It is saloon doors and I guess like a coyote ugly kind of aesthetic. I could see it playing online. I just don't know that this was like the girl power moment that was suggested in the commentary.

Do you wish they had gotten Piper Parabo a star of Coyote Ugly to be in season three of Euphoria. Do you think she's available? I think she's quite available. Well, then why not? They did get Sharon Stone. Sharon Stone is here.

Cassie on the set of L.A. Knights and Lexi's issue with that, despite the fact that she memorized all of her lines very closely, was quite triggered by this honeymoon phrase, even though presumably it was in her size. It's in the script. Yeah. But she gets triggered.

She doesn't know what's real and what's not, and she starts, you know, disassociating to a certain degree. and improvising. Dylan Reed, shout out Homer Garrett. Like, him improvising with her was genuinely, I thought, one of the funniest moments of the whole episode. No woman deserves to get hit.

How profound, a brave. What a brave moment. I actually did find Dylan to be quite a generous scene partner. That's true. He really rolled with the punches. He really invested in Cassie's story. And I want to give Cassie due credit. You know, like tapping into something

deep and dark and unresolved, is that not just great acting? Is that not the stuff that great performance is made of. Okay, so it's art when Cassie does it. When Alamo crafts a giant paper mache replica of his mom's legs. That's also art. Okay, just making sure.

I just think they both need therapy, but it can also be art. Everyone on you before you needs therapy. Shout out to Oceana, the George Sororah of the L.A. so we love to see her here. Lexi, I do not blame her for calling Cassie out in front of Sharon Stone. What has Cassie ever done for Lexi in her entire life? Nothing. So why should Lexi support Cassie in any kind of way? I just thought this was the kind of pod where women support women.

I thought we just established that. Is that not what we're doing here? I support Lexi. I did think, look, the bar has been quite low for Lexi this season. I thought this was among the better Lexi stuff that we've gotten. Both in terms of having actual things to do and also just like the pure disappointment on Maudeau's face when Cassie. when Cassie does strike the deal to become irregular. Yeah.

There's just some great physical acting. I think overall, the idea of Lexi fighting for something this hard and maybe not quite understanding the opportunity that is in front of her to leverage Cassie as much as Cassie leverages her is like a little blind to circumstance in a way that I wouldn't expect of Lexi, but here we are. That is an email that we got from front of the pod, Matt Medevitch, who was like, why isn't Lexi using Cassie here to boost her career? I mean, like, she will be.

in the writer's room, I did not freeze frame Mahoney my way through all of the posted notes that were up on the breakup board. But behind Lexi in the writer's room scene, there is a quote from Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi. Who I did know was a sports guy. And the quote is this. There is no room for second place. There's only one place in my game and that's first place. So a profound Lombardism is on the wall of this writer's room. Of L.A. Knights.

Yeah. What is the first place they're striving for? In the ratings? I guess. First place in provocative entertainment. Well, that's already settled. Euphoria's got it, baby. First place in George Sorot mentions in an L.A. soap.

Also tough competition. What do you hope happens for this? Do you hope that Lexi writes a great episode of L.A. nights that in which Cassie dies? I kind of do. Yeah, me too. I would love to see that. I would love for Cassie to get a huge elaborate death scene that then she has to act out like

you know, Babylon style in repetition over and over and over to increasing insanity. That is something I'd be interested in seeing. How much trouble is Cassie in? She has deleted the only fans account, which probably void some, like, agreement in the contract with Maddie. I would think. For sure. Or a minimum, just the income stream that Maddie relies on. And that's the other thing is, like, you know, the finger in the box, like, what's in the box?

We know it was a finger. It's a finger. Yeah. Like, she's not going to make the kind of money she needs to make on L.A. Knights. Sorry, I hate to break it to all you want to be Starless out there, but she's not going to be making OnlyFans money as a, you know, bit player on L.A. Knights. So she's not going to be bringing in the money she needs to be bringing in. She's screwed over Maddie in some way.

That historically has gone very well for her. You know, how's it going to pan out, Rob? Any predictions? I mean, I don't think it's an accident that in the big coyote ugly photo shoot, it is Cassie with the snake posing, getting wrapped up, it sizing her up in its way. And her as a character in particular who would be oblivious to basically everyone's actual motivations. Would not shock me whatsoever if all of this was just like Maddie playing with Cassie in the first place. And as soon as she is angered becomes a whole different beast as a result.

Well, because Maddie, unlike Lexi, is like, I know what I can use this woman for. Interesting. And Cassie has welcomed Maddie into her symbolic bed. I don't know. How far can we twist this thing? It's a great question. The snake question is something that's interesting to me because I know I told you that I talked to some of the department heads and I was asking about the snake. And I believe it was the production designer was telling me sort of it was someone's idea.

Like the way the snake wound up on set was not sort of a big plot based reason. It was like somebody's idea. Okay. And so we've been calling it sort of checkoff snake expecting that it's going to strangle or eat somebody. Yes. And then we get seemingly. And that's not to say that it wasn't placed on set. And then Sam Levinson's like, I know.

We'll have it strangle or eat somebody. And certainly he and Sam Levinson told me this speech that Bishop gives in this episode was sort of written at the last moment, the speech about the dancer and the snake. Yes. And as we discussed before we started recording, that is a very famous, like, urban legend story, the story of a python who refuses to eat. And then the vet's, like, it's sizing you up to eat you, young lady, or whatever the case may be. So that is, that's just an urban legend that was turned into, I thought, like, a pretty, I don't know, anything Bishop does, I have a good time with. So, like, whatever. But I don't know if this snake is going to be a plot payoff or just this metaphorical payoff that you're talking about. Right. I think it's more of the idea. And clearly there are characters all throughout the story who are working with weird motivations. I don't know if Rue is the rat or the snake

or kind of both. Again, we've been circling around that all season. I have no idea which one at this point. The rat is dangled in front of her face. Or is she dead. She might be dead. Yeah. I simply don't believe it.

But, you know, maybe it is a Jacobs latter scenario. Maybe that's something we have to investigate over the back part of the season. We love a bardo. We're a big man. Historically, we do. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

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This is a fascinating thing. I will say, I think, the second biggest laugh in the room when we were watching was when he plunked that... The SS hat. That hat on her looking at. I think some people fall in love harder than others, Joe, but there's, like, wear an SS hat, get a swastika tramp stamp. Like, that is a level of down horrendous. that I don't think many people have ever experienced in their lives or will. Are you regretting that it's not swastika draft stamp at Gmail.

It was right there for the taking. It really was. Actually, that one's probably taken. Tough. Really fucking tough. All right. We were looking closely at the various bedside reading material that Wayne has. He's got Helter Skelter, the book about Charles Manson.

And then he has a book that we're not going to say. the full title of. Nor should we. Gun blank manifesto edited by Hollister Cop. You can ruin your own search history if you want to look that up. Subtitle, entertainment

for the armed sociopath. I'm going to read this description, even though we debated whether or not we should. Gun blank manifesto was lovingly and sincerely devoted to guns, gun play, gun culture, gun counterculture, gun rights, gun art, gun porn, and ammo.

It was also one of the most psychotically inspired literary creatures to emerge from the Black Lagoon of Zendom, training its sights on an open range of politically correct targets and combining irresponsibly over-the-top polemics with unapologetically incisive Gonzo reportage for an effect that was as smart as it was funny as it was irreverent. Does Wayne strike you as smart as it was funny as it was irreverent kind of guy, or do you think he just saw a gun and the slur that's below it on the book and he was like, that's for me? I think it was probably that simple or maybe like a white elephant gift or something.

But I also just want to say, if you're responsible with the publication of this book, we here at the Prestige TV podcast give you full permission to use Joanna's full read of that blurb in all of your promotional materials. And frankly, I'd love to see it out in the world. And Rob would like to attend a Nazi white elephant party. Not what I said. All right, what do you want to say about Fay and Wade that we have not already? I just like, okay, first of all. You're rooting for these crazy kids.

I'm not rooting for these crazy kids. First, I had a question. Sure. Did Rue not already tell everyone about Faye when she saw Faye's lips on the surveillance footage? I guess she hadn't because that's when Alamo was like, shouldn't you recognize the voices? I could be going crazy, but I thought I remembered a line at the end of that episode of like announcing her recognition of this person. Maybe not naming Faye, but like if you say, hey, I know who that is. Well, maybe she's like, I know where she works for Lori.

Yes. And then to later say she's Faye, I've got her number. Yeah. I can emotionally blackmail her by mentioning our friend who's in print. in and get her to do this for me despite her enchanting love story with a Nazi. Maybe it is enchanting, you know?

They did watch Pretty Woman together. They have had some nice moments. He's quite a Nazi. Is anything going to come to the fact that these are fake drugs that they've stolen and caused Faye extreme gastrointestinal distress? She was just chugging the plecto on the coffee table. Is that going to come to fruition somehow?

I think, look, Faye clearly tried to and obviously it has to come to fruition. And frankly, I would watch a whole like spin-off episode or standalone Faye episode in which she goes out in the world and is constantly trying to tell people the truth about things, but people don't take her seriously and leading

into a bunch of like Mr. Bean-style theatrics as a result. I was, okay, so maybe Faye is your spinoff candidate. I was hoping you were asking for a like Nazi in gastrointestinal distress episode. Well, as we learned, Fay is only

kind of a Nazi. Right. Just sort of. I guess that's the thing you can be. Rob, I feel like once you've got the swastika's tram stamp. You're in. It's really a binary situation. You're really all in.

There's no half swastikas. Joanna speaks from experience. Okay. Great. What a great episode of podcast this is. Rue. Zendaya, guess what? Great actress.

Also, guess what? She's alive. Maybe. I guess. Maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe. She was not killed by Polo Mallet, presumably. She was not killed by Polo Malit.

Malad, though I did laugh when he, like, nudged her head at one point with the polo mallet. That was pretty great. Okay, listen. The elevator scene. The church scene, both the phone call with her mom and then just sort of the reflection afterwards. The comedy of her buried up to her neck on the phone would say, very good. On speaker phone.

Most importantly, sliding down in her seat during the Lord. in Alamo confrontation with a real like, ooh, like face, all very good. Funny, emotional, all sorts of stuff like that. I was a little surprised by the fact that, like, when we were shown so much of that conversation Rue was having with her mom and just Rue's side of it, I was like, okay, they couldn't get Nika King back, I guess.

She's not going to be at the season, but then she was there. So I was curious why they didn't show that. In the, after the episode, she said, I didn't know what Rue's side of the conversation was that I was supposed to be reacting to. I mean, clearly. And this is what a lot of the actors have said about the season of Euphoria is they were only given their scenes. Yes. Or their sides from their scenes or whatever.

So they were kept in the dark about the larger shape of the season. So I don't know. It struck me as very odd to watch this, to watch Rue for almost all of this conversation and then to switch to Leslie on the other side of the phone. Well, let's let me start with the conversation part first. because I want to give it due credit. I think, first of all, Rue kind of like crying and smiling, leaning on the pew, will be one of the visuals that I remember from this season. It's going to be one of the things that really jump out in my memory, in my grasp of what the season was and was about.

I also think the conversation from Rue's side of it is shot beautifully, I think, immaculately well-acted, as far as in day as part of it. I think especially the part where the camera is sort of like coming up behind her, like, as if someone was like, there's just this mess. to the camera coming up behind her as if someone was going to like walk in and just sort of like shoot her in the head in that church or something like that.

And then it just like pulls around in front of her. So there's no one walking up behind her, but there is just this sense of like menace and doom looming over rue here at the end of the season. And especially like as she goes through this speech, which I do think hits quite hard about her need for redemption and salvation and kind of like they're grasping at just the idea that a future could be ahead of her.

All of that stuff I think works really, really well. And then we get the pant to Leslie, who I was like, again, inexplicable why that's there. Because if you're going to show the one-sided part of the conversation, Fez style, just do it. Right. Showing Leslie at the end to say one line and disappear, it felt almost as if the only reason she's there is so that later when Bishop threatens her mom, it's like, oh, we just saw her mom. Right. Remember her? Interesting.

What's interesting to me about that Bishop interaction is Alamo had already sort of dropped that threat. in the previous episode when he was sort of describing Rue's home. Right. You know, in the diner scene with Maddie, he was just sort of like, I didn't grow up in a nice place like Rue grew up on a cul-de-sac. Like, being very specific of like, I know where your family lives. Yes. So it's very, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by Rue's, like, inability to hold on to a thing. But, like, for Rue to be so sort of, like, shocked and appalled and dismayed that Bishop talked to her mom.

I was like, Alamo already intimated that this was happening, that your family was being threatened. like that. Do you think in talking to Leslie, Bishop asked at any point, have you been calling your daughter a ton? Because she's been taking calls from mom on her phone nonstop? Like, do you think he's been like, hey, when's the last

time you talked to Rue? She's doing really well. Like, is it, you know, how much does Bishop know, I guess is the question we are always asking ourselves? I presume that that character knows a lot all the time. Yeah. And it's kind of several moves ahead. Maybe not of the poker game, but of a lot of other things. And so, I mean, we

we kicked around the idea of like, could Bishop also be an informant, right? And it's like, certainly I think when he brings up her mom, you're meant to wonder that? Like, is he alluding to the calls to her fake mom? I guess. But since he like sawed someone up and fed them to pigs in last week's episode, I'm kind of out on a, he's secretly a DEA agent. How far did he, Donnie Brasco his way into this? I don't know. But maybe there's a third way where he is like plotting his way out with a big bag of money or whatever and playing to flip Alamo at the opportunistic time and knows kind of what Rue is up to more than he lets on. I'm glad you brought up the D.A.

I'm always glad when you bring up the DEA, but I'm glad you brought up the DEA because that was another sort of like doom moment looming over the episode when the DIA says we're almost there, stay sharp. I'm like, I don't think this is going... Just way too many of those lines. To go back to the church.

Yeah, which is what you wanted to talk about. I did think this was another interesting character beat for Rue where she talks so much in this moment about starting over and the want for a new life. And that's kind of the theme of her conversation with Jules too. but I think it's interesting that her imagination can kind of like only go so far as to want to start over by grabbing onto this person

she grew up with in Jules. It's like her vision of a future is like let me try to hold on to this one good thing. I think what she needs more than anything is like move the fuck away from all of these people and all of these places and start somewhere completely fresh. And I don't know that she's ever going to get to that point. One of the things she was looking at in the church

was the like portable 10 commandments that the family in Texas gave to her, and their address was scrawled on the bottom of the St. Commandments. So is there a possibility that rather than dying, or she's already dead, Rue goes and joins the sort of like Amish farm and, like, milks cows at the end of the season? It did have a certain appeal.

Switches places with the eldest daughter who wants to leave, and Drew is just like, I'm going to be milking cows now. Well, first of all, we can't just, like, will that poor daughter into a life she couldn't begin to understand. Not, not. What, you want to be a drug mule? You're already in Brownsville. Just crossed the border, you know?

Is there anything more romantic than getting an SS hat dropped on top of your head and being told that you shouldn't be a mule anymore? It wants to take her away from this crazy life. What else do you want to say about Rue in this episode? Can we circle back to the larger Alamo-Lory standoff in which Rue is slinking into the couch and slowly evaporating? I had a bunch of different kind of sensations during, like, in watching this. For one, like, I love the setup. I love the, like, loading, the dramatic loading of the. guns, the kind of like mounting of their respective horses, there's a shot of Faye in the doorway

as the Nazi, et cetera, all go off. It's like very the searchers. Like this like silhouetted doorway shot that's, is clearly evocative in that way. Then they get there and it's like everyone's like, you know, it's classic standoff kind of format. Rue is in the middle. Everyone's holding their holsters. And I just could not escape the feeling that I do not understand what Lorry as a character is doing within this season. Other than you need this narrative counter position, I was just was so much more interested in Lori when she was the queen of her own little hill

versus like a feuding warlord opposite Alamo. I mean, how have you felt about their dynamic? Well, don't you think you notorious, like, bird lover, Rob Mahoney, just really miss that bird? I am pro-bird and anti-snake, I want to say for the record. I'm really pro-snake. You're pro-snake. Yeah.

Would you sleep in the bed with the python? No. Then put your money where your mouth is. Would you sleep in bed with a bird? Well, I don't trust the birds either. We've all been Hitchcocked too much. We simply can't. We had snakes as like our classroom pets growing up.

I really like like a garter snake. Corn snakes and stuff like that. Nothing Python level. No. But you know. Nothing that could suffocate you, sure. Lori. What is Lori up to?

Well, I was wondering if when they raised a whole question about the ambulance operation, if that would cause a light bulb to go off over Rue's head about Angel and what happened with Angel. Yep. You know, and Alamos pretending that this is for like plastic surgery when we think it's for transporting organs. You're saying it's like it's the shepherd for BBLs. You know, it's like this is not how this works. But like Ruse remains clueless at the end of the day about what happened with, and that wasn't your question. Your question is what's going on.

No, we can talk about Rue too. I want to talk about all of it. Um, it questions what's going on with Lori. And I don't know because she does not seem to have the upper hand at any moment inside of this confrontation. Um, you know, she robbed him, but they know she robbed him. And so, you know, um, I don't know. I don't this whole feuding drug lord thing. It reminded me a lot when you and I were talking about Daredevil when you came on House of R and you were talking about the use of Jessica Jones in a certain scene and you were like frustrated that Jessica Jones, the character.

was being used as like dull exposition machine and Matthew Lillard, we love him, but was like getting to do all the quipping. And that's how I felt about watching Zendaya in that scene as a passenger in that scene between Lori and Alamo. Like was her slinking down the couch with her like, expression? Very funny, yes.

But I was like, there's a lot of Rue in this episode and there's a lot of great character, chewy character stuff. The church stuff is really good. The Jule stuff is good. But I'm wildly uninterested in watching her be. the passenger of somebody else's, someone else is driving the action

inside of the Alamo and Laurie feud. And Rue is just sort of caught up in the middle of it again and again and again. And that is not what I want for Rue as a character. I think there's also the acknowledgement too that all of that stuff can be true. And yet narratively, you understand why Rue kind of benefits from being in the background.

Like she is taping this conversation. She's like trying to be invisible. Totally. But is it interesting to watch one of the most interesting character one of like the best and most well-rounded characters on the show, subsumed by these other two people who just don't hold the screen as well. And there have been other times where Rue as a character, as the sort of like observer narrator type of character,

has watched like Cassie and Maddie or whatever the case movie. But that was like, we were all just sort of riveted to what was going on there. And the Alamo and Lory stuff has not been nearly as successful for me. I don't think so. I think really the show still relies on having one of a couple characters. as a crucial counterpoint in every scene that really like grabs you. And Rue is one of them. And Maddie is one of them.

And I think maybe even at times Cassie can be one of them. But having like really the heavyweight moment of this feel like it's Lori and Alamo. I just don't think Alamo has been built up as a character to warrant that even with the flashback in this episode. And I don't think Lori ever was that or that was ever her best purpose within this story. Right. We haven't really given our sort of like Broadstroke's thoughts on this episode. I think this is maybe my least favorite episode of the season so far.

It's just so unwieldy. Yeah. And it is all over the place. And to the extent that it hits for me at all, I think it's mostly Zendaya-oriented stuff. And those things are so good, I'm compelled to kind of hold them tightly. Yeah. But the rest of it is sprawling, not necessarily in a great way. Right.

Like even like the Cassie stuff in last week's episode was audaciously fun in a way. Like even if it wasn't my favorite thing that I'd seen, I was just sort of like, they really went for something. They really did something. And here, I don't even have that sort of juice to enjoy. But Zendaya, the Rousseff in the church, I'm hoping, you know, next week we get more stuff with her mom. All of that stuff is really good. And this is one area where the need to have kind of these backburner storylines, I think, works against the show a little bit, right? We already talked about how we kind of would prefer that you don't even get the Nate check-in within this episode.

It doesn't really offer anything to the structure of the story other than remind us that he's still out there being threatened by henchmen. But if you take him out, then you kind of lose sight of him for a moment in the story. You don't need to because his finger is there. I mean, that is true. The finger shows up in a box and you're like, oh yeah, Nate, he's in literal physical danger.

I think you could say that about four or five scenes in this episode, where it's just if you just kind of streamlined it and focused it even more on what's working, I think it wouldn't feel quite this way. Yeah. Anything else you want to say about this episode? I guess I do want to talk about what the plans are here because I'm a little confused at what's being established

between these various gangs on what they're trying to accomplish. We have Lori's pitch, right, which is that she wants Alamo and company, really Rue is kind of the one who's deputized. She wants deputized to do it to drive the ambulance for like one last big run with all these drugs, right? Like that's the plan that is pitched. Alamo feels compelled to do it

because he wants to get all his stuff back. Lori, who gave Rue, a suitcase full of drugs And that went very poorly is like, I know let's give her an ambulance full of drugs. And that'll be fine. Well, the only reason I'm a little more lenient on that perspective is that we get this illusion by the Nazi dude to Fay, that they're like about to pull over one big thing on Alamo and he doesn't see it coming. Do we have any inclination as far as like what that is within this plan? To take the truck full of drugs and not share it with him in any way? But aren't they not intending to share it with them?

I don't think they are intending to share it with him. There has to be some sort of split. Otherwise, why would he? I thought the split was you get your stuff that we already stole from you back. Right. You get your money and your drugs. So you get your stuff back. We get all these new drugs hustled across the border. In theory, everyone wins because we're basically holding you hostage for your own drugs, which, as we said, are not drugs.

Our laxatives, among other things. You know, this is a great question, Rob, and thank you so much for asking it. I don't know the inner workings of the minds of a Nazi, unfortunately, so I can't answer it. I appreciate that about you most of all. And I guess Rue's plan and the DEA's plan within all of this is for Lori and Alamo to get pinched in the process of executing this plan that may or may not benefit or not benefit both of them. Yeah, pinched is definitely the modern terminology that we're using here. We like to keep our finger on the pulse. I just like that we're on top of everything that's going on in the show.

We definitely have a very good handle on a plot level of everything going on. All right, anything else you want to say? I do have one final shout at. I think it's very important. I don't want to skirt over it. Alexander, the locksmith. I just thought it did impeccable work in this episode. Okay, the 3D printing locksmith.

And just like looking real exasperated as he does it. Just like, just the huffing and puffing, like, I'm going to need an hour. We need an excuse to get root to the church for an hour. And I'm glad that Alexander was here to do it. I thought he looked resplendent to his like very bizarre looking shirt. But you know what? It fit the character. I feel like this is so.

The place that I just moved into here in L.A. has a I guess a hundred-year-old door and it's got like a very... I've got a lot of questions about the framing of that, but continue. Well, it's like, it's a craftsman and like the house itself has

been updated, but they kept the original door. And it's like very old and very cool and kind of like warped and stuff like that but like really beautiful. And it's got this like very finicky, like latch thing that kind of falls out sometimes. And so my landlord's like, we have a door guy.

And he was like, He's eccentric. Let me stop you. Are any door guys not eccentric? That's my question about the locksmith. I'm like, they have a very specific set of skills. He's a very, like, he knows how to fix the 100-year-old doors that are on various craftsmen in Los Angeles. So he can be as eccentric as he wants to be.

We're on a group chat right now and we're trying to figure out a time for him to come over and, like, fix the lash on the door. I love that that it's getting fixed for you. I also just believe firmly in my heart that if you are one of these doors specialists, If you're a specialist in ingress and egress, you get to be as eccentric as you want. You get to follow your heart, whatever weird paths it goes down. And I feel like this locksmith has taken that prompt to heart, you know? They do seem like a strange sword. What are we going to get a locksmith-oriented show?

They have a lot of power. Don't give away free ideas, Rob. Dexter, but a locksmith. You know, like there's a lot of things we could do here. Are we murdering people? Early addition, but a locksmith. Murdering people with the locks? Well, you got to break into their place, Nate Jacobs style, and wait for them.

Okay. You know, presumably. Great. I've never done it. Coming to you on MGM Plus. To be. From Rob and Joanna in 2028. A locksmith that makes it make it dexter.

Great. Okay. Anything else you want to say? Let's get out of here. I think we really did it. That's enough. Happy Sunday. Next Sunday we will be back with another euphoria check-in, and then it'll be the finale.

One of them were threatening to broadcast live. Rob is not agreed to it yet, but we're getting close. We're getting close. Could be the finale. The pitch needs to be made. We got some compensation. I don't know. You don't want to wade through the waters of black exploitation and Nazis and gun blank slur manifestos and all these other things.

Live streamed out to YouTube without any cuts. Look, the people out there don't know how many of your slurs we have to edit out of this podcast. And how many times I dumped tea on myself? Thank you. Jacob Cornett. Stavonaldo. Kai Grady, Rob Mahoney. Thank you, Joe.

Also, thanks to all the men out there who do need instruction on how to jerk off. I thought it was a great source of comedy in this episode. I appreciate it. Thanks to all the men out there who say, like, no woman deserves to get hit. A bold stance. So brave. All right. We'll see you soon.

Bye.