The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 7: Only Fangs

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Jo and Rob shadowbox to recap ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 7. (0:00) Intro (2:24) Mailbag check-in (25:23) [Redacted]’s death (31:04) Where is Jules? (59:20) Who survives the finale? 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: Jack Wilson, Justin Sayles, Chris Wohlers and Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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. Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Jordan Robinson. I'm Robbenson. I'm Rob. I'm Rob And we are live here in the studio. Ill-advisedly, here we are.

Yeah, whose idea was this? I don't know. Couldn't tell you. We're here to talk about Euphoria, Episode 7, Rain or Shine. Rob, how are you feeling? Confused, startled, alarmed, not bitten by a snake, though. So that's a win. We love that for you.

If you are watching this live and you're in the chat on the YouTube channel, our stalwart producers are monitoring that chat, and we will sort of, if there are questions that make sense for us to answer, they'll toss it to us. and we might answer them later on. So pop those answers in the chat. Why not? Do you have any bait for the listeners? Like, what would catch Kai or Dev's eye, do you think?

Anything about Maddie? Sure. Sure. A casual Lakers mentioned, perhaps. Oh, okay. Yeah, sure. I just think a little could go a long way. It's not up to us.

It's up to them. How can they email us? If they don't reach us via chat, how can they email us? You can always email us at prestige TV at Spotify.com, Joe. You can especially email us, although this week, we have a lot to talk about in this particular regard. Maddie's number one boy at gmail.com. You know how on the godfather? He's like, look how they massacre my boy.

That's how I feel about you. I feel like they massacred you, Rob Mahoney, Maddie's number one boy, by sort of putting your girl in a tough spot inside of this episode. Especially if I am Maddie's number one boy or really whatever affection I have from Maddie as a character,

Alamo now gets 20% of that affection. So I don't like how this is breaking out for me. It's also, it's tough for me to watch characters I really like and admire be so stupid. There's a lot of that this episode. And there's a lot of that this episode. Also, in general, on the feed, we are covering Widows Bay. We will be covering episode six and seven this week, and then every week thereafter until the end of the season.

So that's something we're doing on the channel. Also coming up later this week, our look back at Friday Night Lights. That's right. Texas Forever. Get another high school show that we decided, you know what? Let's just take the opportunity for a loose euphoria tie in and say, sure, these things are connected. Another show where people die and you're like, huh. And that brings us to this episode of Euphoria.

I'm going to start with some mailbag questions that we got from folks over the past week. So our listener Sam shot their shot and said, I think Nate's going to stumble across Alamo's stolen drug money and get his redemption, but I would enjoy it. Sam, tough week for you in your shot call here. Well, there's a week left. Okay. You think Nate, swollen tongue, shambling, undead Nate is going to find Alamo's money. and have a redemption arc.

Is this a Frankenstein prequel? Ooh. Are we just going to piece Nate back together in the finale? We did get an email about that a couple weeks ago where they were like, by clipping off pieces of his body, are they doing a sort of like a Frankenstein homage in this season of Euphoria? Do you think that's what's going on here? Or is Alordy getting into his like Tom Hardy, Brad Pitt sort of era

where it's like, I'm just not going to show up if you're not going to ugly me up a little bit. Oh, okay. I just don't want to be there in my full power. And so if I'm not overly swollen from a rattlesnake bite, it's just not worth my time. This is 12 monkeys is what you're saying. It really is. Okay.

Clayton wrote in, on behalf of snakes everywhere. To talk about the snake in the club, and this pertains to the speech that Bishop gave about the snake in the club in a previous episode. Snake in the club was like my favorite absolute, like show stopping club hit of the early 2000s. Snake in the club? Inda club, I think it was what it was.

In parentheses, Inda Club. Snake in parentheses, Inde, Club. How do you feel about the fact that we were waiting for that snake to do something, and it was another snake that killed one of the main characters of Euphoria? The old bait and switch. Yeah. The old snake and ladder.

Yeah, absolutely. So Clayton wrote in to say, snake owner of a snake similar to one portrayed, theirs is a Burmese python. Mine is a nine inch reticulated python. Okay, guy. I also have a four-inch boa constrictor. This is really why I run to read this email, named Shauna Shipman, who's a character from Yellow Jackets.

I think naming your bow constrictor shot a ship is one of the coolest things you can do. The sizing you up thing, that's not a thing. Snakes are opportunistic. They don't have the type of brain to plan like that. Know that would ever say that. I know it's TV, but it may be audibly go, ugh.

So, listen, Clayton, I'm curious how you think about the, what you think of the portrayal of rattlesnakes inside of this episode. Here's a question about that. I'm just going to jump ahead to this. Let's do it. you know, there's a great Esquire piece out written by my pal, Anthony Bresnikin, about Nate's death. It went up as soon as the credits rolled.

So Brez talked to Sam Levinson and all the people sort of about why this is how Nate went out on Euphoria. Was it my favorite character death? It was not my favorite character death at all. But my question is, why would you show us the snake bite and that of any kind of tension when the coffin is over? We know that Nate's dead. Because I don't, I'm not a Clayton. I don't know a ton about snakes, but I know if you're in a confined space with a rattlesnake and it bites you during the day. Yeah.

When your wife and high school girlfriend find you at night, you're dead. You're already dead. You're cooked. So like, is it interesting to, for us to already know, that's a dead guy in the ground? The dramatic irony of like, in particular, I would say Maddie is the one who doesn't know. Because she has kind of the most at stake here. She's giving up a lot potentially to engineer this whole scenario and pull Alamo into it and now is kind of like on the hook. But not to like Sunday Night Live quarterback this episode.

Is that not literally what we're doing? But wouldn't it have been interesting for us to watch all of that happen with the tension of like what Maddie's in danger? What is Alamo going to do here? What are the Armenians going to do while thinking and can they still save Nate and do we even want them to save Nate? And then they opened the box and he was already dead. And we were like, wow, all of this for nothing. Is it more interesting to know that during the exchange or after the exchange? I think it's more interesting.

It makes the final exchange more interesting, right? That final standoff, we would be on pins and needles. Just at the idea that the snake was kind of circling the tube in the vicinity. Something could have happened or maybe not. Like you cut before the snake goes down the tube. And then we were like, oh, no, does snake get him or is he still alive down there? But by doing it this way, you do get the scene of the snake crawling up Nate. and it's one of the most excruciating things

I've seen on TV in a long time like we in the room were... I wasn't looking. It was horrible. I've actually never seen you flinched that much watching something. Well, it's a double for me. One, being buried alive, a horrible fear.

Absolutely. We're just piling phobias on top of phobias. We're in enclosed spaces and then we added a snake. And this has reached me at my Texan core. Like a rattlesnake specifically. These are do not. fuck around hours if a rattlesnake is involved. Did you feel threatened as a canonically tall guy about like tall guy in a two small box

underground? I did a little bit. Yeah. I thought that was an unnecessary shot. Pointed at you. So did we get confirmation that they crammed him into a regulation coffin or did they make him a custom on the fly? I think that's a regulation coffin.

Wow. Don't you think so? That's especially uncomfortable. That's my claustrophobia and my being buried alive and the snakes. That's too much. It's too many things. All right. We got a great email from a listener who did not sign their name, but they're,

handle is Death by Ostrich. Great handle. A really, really good email that I think is actually better than the season of television we're watching, but I'm going to pitch it to you. Please. Okay. This email reads, the critique of season three that Sam Levinson collapsed the character arcs of Maddie, Cassie, and Rue into instruments of sexual commodification and shock value is missing the point. This season is about the collapse of the American future. To be clear, the first two seasons were already dark portrayals of American athletes.

adolescence, still the show-framed youth through a kind of intoxicating emotional intensity. There was still love, the forming of identity, rebellion, and even possibility. Season three strips that away. In this season, the future itself disappears. Not only for Cassie, Maddie, Rue, and the rest, but for American youth more broadly. And there's much more, which I might circle back to. But I just wanted to check in what you think about that idea of, like, as we watch these characters. Right.

and their dreams of the future completely evaporate and turn into sort of the worst case scenario for everyone, except perhaps Lexi, but we'll see. What do you think about that as an idea of what might be on Euphoria's mind or is at least could be on viewers' minds? This is where I have a hard time separating, you know, the times that we live in from, is this just an experience that is almost universal among humans?

Right. Right. Like all of our futures are co-opted by some version of the machine. the versions that we encounter now and that I think are being encountered in euphoria are like maybe especially CD or out in the open

in ways that they weren't previously. But hasn't has always been the case? Hasn't the future always been eroding? Hasn't everyone always been like done before they even really got started? Don't you think it's, I mean, how many, I don't know if you're getting served to these commencement speech videos

that I'm getting served constantly where these clueless CEOs are showing up to commencement, commencements to give speeches about how everything you just studied and learn is useless and AI is the future and they're getting booed soundly by the graduating classes.

So I know you won't have a job after this, but listen. Listen to my platitudes. Why are you booing? I'm right. So like, I don't know. It feels, I would handily give it to the current graduating generation and say, you know, at least when we graduated,

they gave us those platitudes without saying, and machines are coming for your jobs, you know? I would say in that way, maybe we're just all being a little more honest than we ever were before, right? It's like every worker has always been exploited and manipulated. And now it's like, guess what? We're not even going to pretend to treat you nicely.

Damn the man. I love that from you, Rob. This made me think of, you know, we're going to get, I'm not done with the mailbag yet, but we are going to get to sort of the OLLI backstory that we get here, which I actually think is not just because I love Coleman Domingo, but I think what is being presented there is one of the most interesting thing that's being presented this season.

but his repeated phrase that he gave to these young people who he was trying to help and wound up in his book of the dead anyway was trust me you hang in there, the future will be bright. Yes. Which could be a commencement speech if you care to think about it that way. Trust me, you hang in there. Tough to have that you hang in there be followed by a hanging. But like you hang in there, the future will be bright.

But like that's not true for all of these young people. who he's trying to reach and doesn't seem true. You know, we're going to talk at the end of this episode about what we, probably throughout this episode about what we think might happen in the finale, but sort of is the future bright for anyone on this show? I love that part of Ali's story and the kind of reiteration of that idea. Because I think the flashback treats it and the episode treats it as both this very hopeful thing and also this very delusional thing at the same time.

It's a reminder of like who has the luxury of taking the long thing? you. And for someone like Ali who has lived through a lot, who certainly burn bridges and hurt people and experienced a lot of things, but he survived at least that part of it and has gotten through to the other side. It is now trying to help other people as best he can. But for so many of these specifically young men that we see, but other people, I mean, he has a book full of dead friends, full of people that he has helped and helped Barry. And so it's like the idea that you're just going to say to them, like there's light on the other side of this. I mean, not for them. You know, maybe for him in his own redemption and his own journey and what he hopes for someone like Rue,

but that is a luxury that many of these people could not afford. It seems, I mean, obviously it is quite ghoulish to speculate about this, but, you know, I think a lot of people are wondering if we see Ollie's book full of names of dead young people who he couldn't help save and their space at the bottom of the page, are we going to see Rue's name there before the show is over? So is Rue's name going in Ali's Book of the Dead here? Or is there an open-ended deliberation, right? There's like the opening and he has to decide like Rue disappeared.

That was my theory. Okay, not to like, again, this is a ghoulish theory, but like, I like the idea that Rue ends on the homestead, like that she's going to make it to Jerusalem. And if she has to do that by pretending to die so that no one can find her, the DEA can't find her, the various drug dealers who she's pissed off can't find her. the various drug dealers who she's pissed off can't find her. And if she pretends to be dead like Jesus and is risen again in Jerusalem, like is that what we're watching here? So he writes down her name of the book of the dead because everyone believes her to be dead. But actually she lives on in hope.

And that might give us the hopeful ending of euphoria. I love that idea. Okay. I got ahead of myself. That's my finale. Well, let's rewind. Where do you want to go to first? Let me just read this last part of this email that I think we're,

was really good. So these characters are no longer simply troubled teenagers. They're economically trapped, spiritually suffocated, and increasingly transactional with one and other. Love becomes economic dependency. Sex and crime become the only labor available. I just thought that was really well observed. On the religion front, our listener Austin wrote in about the poker game that we saw

a while back to note that Rue wins with a full house, which is sevens over sixes. three sevens, two sixes. And Bishop is three sixes over two fives. That's his full house. Six-66, obviously demonic number. Seven-seven-seven is a divine number. So in a season of television where we're lighting Joshua trees on fire, what do we make? And in this episode certainly have, you know, impish demons dancing in hell imagery, you know, but they're Nazis instead. Same deaf. What do you make of this 777-66-66- idea. This is where I wonder how much

is the show actually engaging with the kind of symbology of religion and how much of it is Sam Levinson laughing at us as we attempt to wrestle with the symbology of religion. So much of what's happening with Rue right now is like the problem, I would say, with messages

from any kind of God, which is if you get to interpret them, they can mean whatever you want them to mean. So Rue has decided, this flaming Joshua tree, is God, speaking to her as he did Moses, saying, like, your faith will be rewarded, stay the course, et cetera, et cetera.

I think there's probably a lot of misdirection in this season, too, as far as, like, vaguely religious things that were meant to, like, turn our heads at, but may end up meaning nothing at all. May not have any actual relevance other than we are choosing to assign at relevance. I think that's perfectly valid. I think, you know,

in the preview for next week, we get a line from Malamo saying, like, I think you're right, we were destined to meet to Rue. So Rue believed that finding Alamo was some sort of divine path for her. As is everything right now. The pancakes are divine. But I do not think that any of us watching this could say this is what any, you know,

kindly a deity would want for Ruby Bennett to be in Alamo's orbit. For any of these young women that we care about to be in Alamo's orbit, you know? Well, you say that, but like all religious texts have moments of incredible peril of absolutely horrid things happening to mortal people under the guise of in an Ali-like way over the long enough timeline, divine blessings for everyone. Two more things to mention before we get closer into the episode. Nika King, who plays Rue's mom, we mentioned how odd we thought that scene was, where it's a telephone conversation we only see one half of it. Yes, in episode six.

In episode six. The actress went on social media to hysterically laugh about it and talk about how she told everyone she was going to be on you for it. this week. She definitely filmed the other half of that phone conversation. It seems like in its entirety. And they cut it. And so she was just like, my mom's here making fun of me because I told everyone after so many years away that I was going to be back on euphoria. And yet this is all I got. So Nika King, we celebrate you. On the contract info front, I do not think at this point Cassie's contract is going to come into play. That was a theory that I had that she signed. What's the

finale is all about drill house? Contract law? Yeah. Yeah. Just straight up, how do we get her back into the influence are mine. But you were right. A lot of lawyers wrote it. Many lawyers listened to the show for some reason. Hope you're tuning in live. They wrote in to let us know what you already said, which is you can sign a contract with an X. Yeah. You can put a paw print on that thing if you want. It doesn't matter what you sign it with. It matters when you signed it. And if Drill House can prove that Cassie signed that, but I really don't think the Drill House. I will be astonished if the Drill House contract is anything to do with the finale. And last one at least, in that Esquire, article that I mentioned, written by my palan Anthony Presbynickin, just drops the nugget that

Jason Reitman, a renowned Nepo Baby in his own right, is the second unit director on Euphoria this season. Just like a legit film director has shown up to be the second unit director of Euphoria this season. I mean, why not? If you can, why not? Where are you on Jason Reitman? Up in the air.

Hey. Hey. Come on, Joe. We're live, baby. Specifically, Bres noted that Jason Reitman shot the scene where Cassie is denigrating some guy's dick, right? The Polaroids. The Polaroids. And she says Sammy, and they shot it that way to, like, make fun of Sam Levinson.

That's an Easter egg to make fun of Sam Levinson. And he was going to have Sidney-Sweeney-A-Dart it and change it to Jason. But he ran out of time. And so Sammy just stayed in the state. in the edit, so there it is. All right, episode seven, rain or shine. Natasha Leon has shown up to play hooker.

Yeah. No name. We had a little bit of a betting pool. Yeah. And I had thrown out, what if she plays God? What if she still plays God? I mean, she might, but guess what? She's just another sex worker on the show full of sex workers.

Maybe God is with us in a motel six. It's true. You know, I think the wrist brace on her was like my favorite detail. very bizarre use of Natasha Leone. But here's what I really love. I mean, there's a lot I didn't love necessarily about the Ali flashback, but here's what I loved. Ali is a character we really love.

Yeah. And respect and admire. And he has been honest with Rue about the things he has done. And he even in season two, you know, she provoked him to the point where he almost seemed like he was going to hit her. Yes. You know? And so, like, we know that there is this existence.

inside of Ellie. It is different for us to watch him, like with his two young daughters at the table and then hear him, you know, beat his wife in the next room. So to take this character who has done the work, to walk the path of redemption, to try to do good in this world, and have to confront how dark it actually was for him before that, I think what that sets up, for me at least, is when we ask the question of euphoria, who deserves redemption, I think Ali is a really interesting case for us to think about. Like, does Rue, as Rue discovers a little late Rue inside of this episode, that she is involved in sex trafficking and the disappearance of Angel and all the sort of stuff like that.

And Ali asks her, do you ever think about the people who took the fentanyl that you smuggled and stuff like that? as Rue continues to confront the reality of her self-described evil that she has done, does she still deserve redemption in Jerusalem and the homestead at the end of the story? What do you think about that? I mean, she's kind of fast-forwarded past the reckoning part. And she's just like, this sucks. And I want something that's not this, so maybe I can find a salvation in this life or the next. Right.

But I love that Ali plays that role in her life. Of, like, one of the very few people who is not, he's not really judgmental. Like he's very straightforward with her about what she does and her behavior and what it entails and what the repercussions of it are in a way that's very different from like the way Lexi talks to Rue in this episode. You know, it is very straight and very honest, but ultimately not something that is coming down with a verdict. And I think Rue needs some of that right now because she has not levied any of that introspection that it seems like Ali and that we see in the course of his flashback is like really carried in through his life. Like I'm with you that seeing seeing some of that darkness and us as an audience recognize. with a character that we like to watch on screen and has been an instrument for good within whatever euphoria can be.

Seeing the darkest sides of him, I think, is good for everybody involved, including us. It was interesting because I was doing one of my favorite post-episode activities, which is poking around the subreddit. And a lot of people are like, oh, fuck Ali. I can't believe I ever rooted for him. And I was like, that's kind of the point of partially the point of euphoria is forcing you to confront, you know, I think in the best episode of, you know, I think in the best episode of euphoria, which is

Rue's complete, like, breakdown in season two, confronting the absolute ugliness of addict behavior, but are we still rooting for Rue at the end of the day? We are, and am I still rooting for Ali at the end of the day? I am, and that's what this, that's what a lot of good television does, which is

challenging you to empathize with people who have done things that repulse you. I would say especially Rue, because she is, still a point in her life where so many of the worst things she's done she hasn't really like atoned for or measured up to in any meaningful way. And so many the things she's done were just like lie, cheat,

steal as she's talking about with Lori and her crew in this episode in the name of the next fix. It was just like a period of her life was just on a treadmill of like how do you get to the next hookup from something. And this is like she's now at a point where everything is slowing down. She's maybe even

getting like taking, starting to take some things for granted in terms of like throwing around the DEA and assuming she's in the clear and that she has this like, you know, protection from on high. But at least there is a moment here for her to consider something other than where the next high is going to come from.

And one would hope within that, like a way to fully understand, hey, so you've been moving fentanyl from one place to another for a really long time now. As Ali mentions, don't you think that maybe like literally somebody, at least some people died from this? So for you, Rob,

in the 93-minute finale that we're getting next week. And we should say this was an 80-minute episode. But in the 93-minute finale, and our producer Kai noted very emphatically, it says season finale, not series finale, it does indeed. On the trailer for next week, interesting. But you need to see Rue really reckon with what she's done.

Is that what you're saying? Or no. I don't know if the action-packed nature of where the season is, is going to lend itself to that too much. Then again, this is a show that, like, in the middle of a climactic resolution can go to a church-mind palace. So, like, maybe that is ahead of us in some way. You're never going to get over the musical number, and it was just absolutely great. I'm simply not.

Someday you'll recognize that it was absolutely great. I also wouldn't be surprised if, you know, it seems like Rue dies one way or another, and then we get her on the homestead ending, and it's one of those, like, season-final. finale open endings. If you can decide whether Rue herself physically made it to the homestead or if this is like the afterlife, you know. Do you think we get like a church at the end of the last? A graduate style like totally neutral facial expression that you have to read for

yourself as far as like where she has ended up emotionally? One can only hope. Rob, why is the ambulance bugged? This ambulance that's doing a run down to Mexico. You know it's a great question. Is someone else working for the DEA or are they able to? to bug the ambulance because of the evidence they already got, like, they needed Rue on the phone to get certain evidence, maybe to get a warrant to be able to bug Lori's property, bug Alamo's

property, bug the ambulance. Does that sound right to you? How literally did they do it? Oh, I don't know. That mechanism, I don't, I mean, we certainly don't see Rue like planting a bug at any point, but I'm guessing that's cinematic convenience. Sounds great. Nate's death.

I just want to go here next. Let's just hit it right up top. Jacob Allurey, you're free. You're done. Godspeed. But what all his brand partners think? You know? The luxury, he couldn't be buried with a luxury bag.

Yeah. Made of snake skin, perhaps? Right. Wow, interesting. Listen, all right. Here's what Sam Levinson was trying to achieve with that as told to Esquire. There's this kind of funny thing where I know what the audience wants in terms of justice or karma. and with that in mind, I always think, well, how can I give it to them?

How can I give them what they want but make it so horrific and anxiety-inducing that by the time it happens, the audience isn't so sure that they wanted it? So how do you feel about that based on your choice of voice as you read that quote? I mean, Sam Levinson's whole thing, he doesn't describe himself this way, but it seems to me his whole thing is he wants to provoke. Like he's trying to provoke reactions. He enjoys when people get... like agitated about euphoria. And whether that's positively agitated or negatively agitated,

it is people engaging in the art that he's making. So that is his goal. Well, let me say this. I think that quote, that idea is a great idea. I don't know that it was executed well here. I don't think it was executed well because I haven't felt anything about Nate Jacobs in four calendar years. Like, he's been so functionally irrelevant to the season. Well, that's not true because you just watched season two of euphoria.

Yeah. In theory, if I were, If you had watched Season 2 of Euphoria 1 in air, you would be like, who is this pod person, Nate Jacobs, this season. I really agree. Like, if Nate had been behaving like himself, if he had had a plot that was more in line with what we saw in season two, I'd be like, yeah, get him, Snake. And then, oh, no, maybe not like this. You know, like, maybe I would have gone through that whole thing. But as it was, yes, we had a visceral reaction to this.

Oh, for sure. As soon as the snake went down the pipe, I like, that part is undeniable effective. I, like, turned away from the, but I wasn't like. I was like, oh, no, not like this, only because it felt like kind of dramatically inert to me for Nate to just die in a box via snake, you know? I genuinely had like no emotional reaction to Nate dying, only a physical reaction to the snake. And feeling kind of like, you know, nice for you, Jacob Allorty. You're done. The sweet release of death.

Yeah, there you go. Anything else you want to say about? Did you enjoy seeing his dumb brother one last time? I did, but that was another like, did you really have to have the dumb brother kicking around? around like almost in earshot but not quite in Nate's like kind of unconscious until it's too late. It's like we really didn't need that. I agree. You know what we did need though?

I mean, Nate really needed to train with Pai Mae. Like how do you not do? Does Killville not exist in this universe? Oh, Kilbill definitely exists in this universe. Well, then what's Nate doing? He didn't even attempt it. He should have some bloody knuckles at bare minimum. Were you thinking most of the bride when you were watching this?

I mean, that's where I go first. In terms of a successful escape from a coffin burial, do you have another? touch point? Did not Ryan Reynolds get buried? In barried. I'm going to be honest. Don't know how it ended. I also don't know how that ended.

I'm not just showing up for Ryan Reynolds' movies. I was thinking also about the bride and I think he's Rue had the yellow sweatshirt on inside of this episode, right? So always thinking about the bride and with yellow leisure wear. Lexi's role in this episode is to, listen, I was mostly on Lexi's side in that scene when she's just like, I'm trying to get some writing done. I am on deadline. You and I both were like, we.

You've been there when so you were like, Joanna, this is why we prep in separate rooms now for euphoria. So you won't yammer me about Nepo babies while I'm trying to prepare. So I was, as a writer, empathetic to Lexi. Of course. And then she took it to a tough place, you know. To a couple tough places. Like, here's the deal. Lexi is being very kind to room.

You can crash on my couch anytime room. Sure. Like, no questions ask. You can come and crash and stay here. but also if I'm writing, leave me alone, which I think is deeply fair. Yeah. Are you using again?

I don't know that I would like not say that if someone started talking about a burning Joshua tree and God speaking to them. Every time I've tried to explain the plot of season three to somebody, they have asked me that question. Are you using again? That feels fair. No wonder your mother doesn't speak to you anymore.

That's the one. That's tough. Fucking yikes. But here's the real problem. Yeah. For Lexi and for Maddie. I don't think either of them are so dumb as to just yammer on about the DEA in this game of telephone. I want to draw the line between them.

I think Lexi would accidentally narc a narc. Maddie, I don't. I just don't believe any part of it. If Maddie had sold Rue out to get what she needed from Alamo. If it was a transaction. Right. If she's just like, hey, I heard Rue's talking to the DEA, get me that million dollars because I care about Cassie more than Rue for some reason. Or I don't know.

I could understand. but her just sort of flippantly saying it was deeply bizarre. And she knows this guy. And she has been close enough to him at this point to understand the gravity of some of these. Not entirely. Not until the end of this episode. She doesn't understand the gravity of what she's doing with. Until the gunslinger comes out, sure.

But she at least knows not to mention the DEA around the drug dealer if your friend is working with the DEA. This was, I turn, I don't usually, I try not to speak during these episodes of Euphoria because you and I are frantically taking notes. but I did say they massacred her character in that moment. It really felt like that to me. She's not that dumb. She really isn't. That's like a hallmark of her character is that she's smarter than most people around her, I think. Hashtag not my Maddie.

Tough for you. Jules' role on this episode. A name on the phone. Yeah. So here's my, again, we might have to get the lawyers involved in this one. Would you rather be Jacob Allorty, done, or Hunter Schaefer, still here but not really here? That question to me boils down. to does Hunter Schaefer get paid for this episode

because Jules' name shows up on a phone or would it have to be like the face on the contact profile on the phone in order to get paid? Does any of that count? Interesting. Let's get SAG involved. Okay.

Let's get the many lawyers who emailed us about contract law. That's what I'm saying. I don't understand anything that's happening with Jules. I've seen nothing in this season to date that would justify having her involved in the show and not just being off at art school, across the country, across the world.

She lives in Paris now. Congratulations. Get her in for one phone call with Rue and that's it. Why are we doing this? What do you think of? So Maddie at the beginning of the season when she's talking to Rue about Jules and she's saying like she's a sugar baby essentially, she's a sex worker. And Maddie emphatically says, I'm not a hooker.

Yes. But inside of this episode appears to me to trade sexual favors for a million dollars. Trade something. Well, a million dollars in. playing cards. Right. How does that feel for you? That feels like narrative just desserts in a way that I think is interesting. I'm interested in a lot of the machinations around Maddie in this episode. This idea that Cassie and Nate have reached a point of desperation where Maddie is the only person who can bail them out, like that's good juice for storytelling. Yeah. Maddie having to eat her words and make compromises

that she never thought she was going to make. Like that's good storytelling for this character as far as I'm concerned. What they do within the finale, I don't really know. Hopefully with the jumbo runtime, we get some good Maddie time in addition to everything else. But I'm a little worried that this was her big episode and she's going to get a little lost. Everyone, Cassie to Maddie, Taru, um, Lexi doesn't care, I guess. Jules is unaware. He's invested in Alamo, like, dying before. That's true. The show is over. Yeah. So I'm always hoping, as a perpetual optimist while watching Succession, I'm

I'm always hoping people will work together, and there's a possibility that if these people work together. You have a team up. I do. In the chat, one of our listeners, Haley, suggested that Maddie has become the Yaz, that's an industry reference of season four. Do you agree or disagree? I don't even know how to parse that. Slapping Cassie saying, I'm your boss. You work for me.

All of that. That tracks. Does that feel like we're going down the Yaz's pipeline for Maddie? I mean, I feel like I've gone pretty far out on this limb with Maddie that it's. if she becomes like an overt sex trafficker, basically, that's going to be a tough look for me personally. So I'm going to reject it on principle and selfishness. Okay.

Well, I can't say I don't see the comparison. I mean, it is right there. And at the same time, I will say for me at this point in the story right now, Maddie cracking her knuckles and intimidating Cassie and I guess hitting Cassie, like plays differently than what we've seen from Yaz on industry. Maybe it's just the extent of it. Maybe it's like the manifestation of that behavior. over time.

I don't know. This stuff is weird and messy, and these two characters have a history and complicated relationship. This isn't like finding a random woman and exploiting her. This is two people who have exploited each other back and forth in various ways.

But do you think the point of this episode, when we see Maddie put so much on the line for Cassie and say, not just that she's a money tree, but she's special and she's different, does that feel like the embers of their original friendship being involved here?

That Maddie's like, I'm not just invested in Cassie financially. I'm invested in her emotionally at the end of the day. That's part of what I mean. Yeah, no, I know. I know. This idea that she's a money tree is, yes, the thing you say to Alamo. Right.

Trees are not that fruitful. Like, there's just no way Cassie is going to make enough money. I don't know. 100,000 subscribers overnight. I don't know. Listen, much of the Cassie stuff in this episode is played for laughs. And it is a huge relief. It was getting laughs from us.

The whole Dylan and Cassie. interaction, the seduction. Specifically, the beanbag poof that Dylan is resting on, I just found it to be really funny. Can I do a breakdown for you of what Dylan is wearing in this episode? His hat says violence and movies and sex on TV, which is a family guy, the opening theme of the family guy. He's worn it, I would say, in four episodes. We just never remarked upon it, and I just wanted to say, family guy has entered the chat, okay? he's wearing a denial of death

cult girls t-shirt which is from James Frank James Franco's cursed fashion brand Do you want to guess how much that shirt goes for? I am loath to know This $300 shirt Is it secondary market or can you still buy it from the website?

You can still buy it. Oh wow. So that's just retail MSRP $300. Yeah, yeah. Upper two's on some sites but three is on other sites. So denial of death cult girls t-shirt Yeah, just like a shitty looking $300 t-shirt and a family guy hat, and that's Dylan Reed, the face of Young Hollywood.

How do you feel about it? I think the future's in great hands. You know, this really is the entire future of the planet eroding under our feet. Marcy Playground here, how'd you feel about it? How else could we feel about it? People of our age. I'm happy anytime it's at a soundtrack. An incredible needle drop moment.

Incredible think of cat. Do you think, okay, because we saw Maddie clean the apartment. of all its various accoutrement. I'm just further proof she's the only person who can get anything done here. In order to set it up so that Cassie could bring Dylan back here. Yeah.

Do you think Maddie programmed the playlist and she said Cassie, when you get home, this is the playlist. Hit play. On Marcy's playground. Yeah. If she has to put all the dildos

into the kiddie pool, she's definitely micromanaging the playlist. Dildos in the kiddie pool at gmail.com? There were so many missed opportunities in this episode. Finger in the water at gmail. Dylan drinking the finger water. Yeah.

Tough. I don't like that. Finger water? What would you call it? I mean, it's what it is. I just don't like it. It's kind of like finger tea by the morning because like it's sort of oozed. It's been steeping.

Yeah, it has been steeping. I will say that Cindy Sweetie's delivery of like, oh, who moved? That was really funny. Her like, you know, when he's like, stop coming, I need water. That was really funny. Like, we really liked that in the room. It was really good. being ridden to exhaustion.

Like the world's most loyal horse, Dylan Reed, just could not stop himself, could not stop anything happening. Were you thinking, okay, perhaps it's just because Sharon Stone is here. But when Cassie put the cell phone under the mattress, I was thinking of basic instinct. Is that? I'm sure that has to be in the ether here, right? All right.

Even just some of like... What is an ice pick in modern day, if not a cell phone that you've uploaded a, you know, a damaging photo? And how did we get a frozen finger without a shot of an ice pick anywhere involved? It's a great question. Again, real missed opportunities here by the show. If you were delivered the finger of a beloved of some kind, would you just put it loose in the ice bucket in your freezer?

You know, I would not. I know you wouldn't. I find the behavior of TV characters regarding the freezers to be very confusing. I remember on a previous season of Slow Horses, someone put like an absurdly expensive diamond in like a pint of Ben and Jerry's. It's like, what? Why would you think this is a safe place to put it? Why would you think this is, you just put the loose finger in the freezer?

It was a loose diamond too, right? She just like put the diamond into the ice cream and we were like, absolutely not. It needs to be wrapped in something at the very least. So that's my only solace here is like there was no saving that finger after it was loosely put in your ice dispenser with tap water. Like that's just not going to work. What if the water had been filtered? Maybe it would help a little bit. Here's what Sam Levinson had to say in that Esquire article about the, if Cassie and Only Fans stands for,

for social media and narcissism. Okay. This is the contrast he's trying to get through here. I thought if I've got an audience that's paying attention and sort of captivated by it, I want to tell a story about God and family

and America and the importance of believing in something greater than yourself, which I think is the kind of antidote to the narcissism of social media and technology. Okay. So do we then think of Cassie Maddie OnlyFans, all of the selfies

and all of the videos and all of the things that we've seen, you know, the party that, Cassie goes to, which is just people trying desperately to get in front of a camera, etc., etc., all of that versus the homestead on Jerusalem Road. Like, are these the two the hell and heaven sort of polar opposites? I mean, the homestead didn't seem great. It was quiet.

It was secluded. I wouldn't want to live on that homestead. No. I want to live on like a hippie, crunchy lesbian homestead. I don't want to live on like so many crucifixes on the wall. wall homestead personally. So what else does it need to have? No crucifixes on the wall. Zero crucifixes on the wall. Sure. But plenty of livestock, you know? Okay. This is the problem with the with the dream of the trad wife, back to lander sort of thing. It's just sort of like it comes

with really problematic politics. And I'm like, can we have all of that and vaccines at the same time? That's my idea of heaven. I think you're asking for too much. I think we can get there. This is the future liberals want, I think. Okay. One final quote from this Esquire article, this is Sam Levinson talking about the Wild West imagery in this season. He says, his characters, they're in the real world, and the consequences are real.

There's no safety net. I like this Wild West frontier aspect to it, where you can make something of yourself, but you're going to have to live with the consequences. So consequences as, I think, the main theme of this show, this season, this episode, Maddie and Cassie completely disheveled and shell shock, makeup running,

hair must, looking at each other and just being like, you know, as you like to say, the reaping that comes after all of the sewing. Like,

here we are, here's Maddie in debt to, who like Cassie has inherited debt, this is all Nate's fault. It really is all Nate's fault. He's taking down his entire graduating class with him.

But like... Well, even more than that, like, on a not insignificant risk in all of this. Yes, he stands to benefit from whatever money he siphons off of Maddie and Cassie and everybody else in the same way that he does from all of his dancers and all the people work from him. But him, him killing Nas is not a thing that will come without repercussions for him somewhere

down the line. How do you think of all of Armenia is coming? I'm not saying all of Armenia, but I'm just saying there's often a guy behind the guy, right? And so that's kind of what he's alluding to with Maddie, too, is that like, even though this guy is dead, it's not as if he's not going to have to be looking at. over his shoulder for the foreseeable future for what may come for him. Interesting.

A very sort of like last of us, these are the consequences of your actions. Unfortunately, the chickens do come home to roost. The parrots, the paladins. Do paladins roost? Maddie's number one boy, doymol.com, if you know about roosting habits. Tell us about parrots.

Is that a parrot? I honestly don't know. That's the quote card. Tell us about parrots. If you were curious about the translation of the Armenian that is spoken between Naz and his hench Artur at the end of his life when he's gurgling blood

Kill the horse son is what he was saying in reference to Alamo and Artur says forgive me as in like I can't kill him so like you know I'm gonna get in this

I don't know was that a backhoe I don't know what that was a dirt scoper we're not construction guys so of the people okay that's one thing they could have saved

it's like what if Maddie was driving that thing just hauling some dirt just duster just digging up Nate's corpse. On the Maddie front, in her very on the nose, like Mother Mary mini dress that she wears in this whole thing. What did you make of the shot of her

sort of pinned up against the wall under the taxidermine animals inside of Alamo's house? But he's got her mounted on the wall with the rest of his kills. Again, a little on the nose, but also I love it. So much of the visual language of the show works that way, where it's very clear what they're going for. It's smacking you over the head about as hard and aggressively as it can do it. And yet,

the nature of how often it happens makes me conditioned to expect it and like it. So I'm here for those kind of visuals, just like I'm here for like the, you know, Rue with her head on fire standing in front of the bonfire. She's being like interrogated by the Nazis. All that stuff with the euphoria just kind of works with me. I'm a sucker for it. I like it too. Like her being framed by the fire, the halo of fire that she has.

And again, as I mentioned, like the Nazis in Faye sort of like prancing around the fire looking like demons saying al-Aqbar while they shoot off machine guns is. just a hodgepodge of images and you're like, there's nothing like euphoria on a Sunday night. I mean, when a Nazi is preaching to you

about your lack of character, I wrote this literal thing in my notes. Your life is taking a turn. Also, here's another Nazi rule. Okay. As I like to dish them out. Do not follow a Nazi tram stamp to a second location.

Oh. The minute you see a Nazi trans stamp, I don't care what your relationship is with the owner of said Nazi trams stamp. It's too late. Don't follow them down those stairs. Don't follow them down those creaky stairs. Don't rattle around some keys with them.

Don't do it. You know, just make a break for it. Rules to live by from Joanna Robinson. Is Faye going to make it out of the opening minutes of the finale alive? I mean, she did at least rat Rue out. Yeah, but how did Rue get out? Who's to say? She snuck out.

Don't believe her lies, you know? Maybe there's a... Yeah, the momentum. excuse works every time. You can pull the wool. Yeah. I'm going to say, like, Wayne does not strike me as the smartest guy in the world. No, but nor does with love and respect Faye. How dare you?

So, are you going to defend Faye after the end of the episode she has here? I do think she could out Fox Wayne into thinking that she's a little more helpless in this scenario than she perhaps was. I think Faye is not making it out of the first few minutes of the finale. That's what I think.

And that's really sad, but also don't get a Nazi tram stamp not even once, you know? I also would recommend not getting it once, but how would Faye die but Rue survive? Like, that's the sequence of events I would have a hard time understanding. Running. I don't know. Yeah.

If they get into a lover's spat and Rue takes that opportunity to run. So I saw a lot of people confused as to why all of the driver's license of the various young women, including Angel, were in the safe there. Yes. And my, you know,

I think what we're meant to believe is that when the Nazis in the Obama masks, if you recall, broke into the safe at the club. The one behind the painting. The one behind the painting. Yeah. This is part of what they took was the stack of driver's licenses of the girls who have been trafficked, organ traffic, sex trafficked.

I don't know. Disappeared in whatever way. Here's my question. Yeah. I'm not an organ or sex trafficker. Okay. Yet. What's the advantage of keeping...

the incriminating evidence of the girls you have disappeared in one way or another. You know, I couldn't tell you, and I've been going around the country, assembling organ and sex traffickers and preaching to him about this very idea. Put it in the shredder. You just can't do it. No.

Why would you keep this sort of documentation laying around? I don't care if it's in a safe, I don't care of where you think you have it hidden. Put it in the shredder. Just destroy it. Yeah, absolutely. It does no good for you. How dumb does Rue look when Lori's like,

hey, should we do these nasty things to her? And Rue's like, is that one? what Alamo does? And then she's like, golly, gee, why is Angel's driver's license in this stack of driver's licenses? Yeah.

Like, I know that Rue, we know that when Rue dropped Angel off, she was freaked out, but not, or choosing not to be fully aware of what circumstance she was leaving her in. But can she, at this point,

after everything she's seen, after what she saw a happen to Kitty, et cetera, et cetera, can she be as naive as we find her here in the penultimate episode? It seems impossible. Look, some of the naivety, I believe, right? The naivety where when she's talking to Lexi,

she talks very openly about the DEA, something you should never do if you're working with the DEA or undercover in any capacity. Like we mentioned earlier, I kind of believe that because she might, a character like Drew might think she's out of the woods, right? Like the worst part of that is over. She even says, like, my life was so, so bad

from the moment I believed in God, and now it's like finally starting to take a turn. So maybe she thinks she's safe enough that she can talk about. It's great. All this happening now is I'm bashing my face open on dashboards. Just normal road trip stuff. It's really fun stuff.

Yeah. But this part, I really have a hard time grasping why Rue. This character we've seen at least be perceptive enough about the world around her to not. Somewhat wily. Yes. Street smart. Yeah. If nothing else.

Like she has to know. She's seen too much to think like, oh my God. I'm totally taken aback. Heaven's to Betsy. Yeah. Like the guy I've been running drugs and guns and girls for might be a murderer. Yeah. Come on.

I did Google why you Botoxet tongue just in case you want to know. Do you want to share it with the audience? It makes oral sex easier to practice. I also Googled puppies and the SS. Was that real? That is true. So I'm going to burn this laptop after this podcast. It's over.

So snakes sizing up their owners to eat them, not true. debunked. Yes. SS officers in training, raising, and then murdering puppies turned into dogs. True. What's interesting to me is that bunked, is that it was, I read about, I read an article that was, you know, it was written by or part of a study about why, how mass murdering happens. And so the psychology of mass murdering, essentially.

But I'm just sort of like, is Wayne reading, like, where do you think Wayne picked up this little kernel of information, you know? Nazi forums, you know? Sure. Just Reddit.com? The dark one. Our listener Miranda asked, let's just take a light break from what we were just discussing. Miranda asked, would you rather drink from the finger water or let Alamo touch your toes in the huntum?

Rob, which would you rather? See, you said that maybe there was an exchange of services involved with Maddie and Alamo. You think it was just footstuff? Maybe it was just, you know, this little piggy. I don't think. Rob. No, no, no. I don't know.

How? Look, clearly there was an exchange of something going on there. I don't know everything that Alamo was into. I don't know how deep in Maddie got. And clearly she also was just like on the hook financially. Yeah. I think, wait, wait, so the either or was Fingerwater or Alamo messes with your feet? Yeah.

I guess I'm giving up the feet. You're doing this. But you have to answer this too. What are you choosing? I'm Fingerwater. You're drinking the finger water? Yes, yes. Absolutely.

I'm drinking the finger water over letting Alamo touch my feet. There's some flesh-eating bacteria in there or something. I don't want any part of that finger water. Earlier time, we've filmed a promo. Yeah. And your feet wound up on the first take and you're like, we need to retake that so my feet aren't on the camera. That wasn't so I'm not showing feet. I just wasn't aware of the framing. And so I'm like moving my feet like a madman, you know? I know for a factor your anti-foot stuff. I'm not, but you're more anti-finger water. That feels like a bad idea. That feels like life-altering consequences drinking finger water. Don't drink finger water. And don't get a Nazi tramp stamp.

The more you know. One of our listeners, blonde Fisquuana, right? The Jerusalem address is 613. John 316 is one of the most iconic biblical passages about belief in God. Do you think, numerologically speaking, that is something that Sam Levinson is playing with? Of course. Why not? Of course.

All right. Anything else you want to talk about that we have not gotten to yet? I mean, do we want to talk any more about the Ali and Rue stuff? Is there anything else from their follow-up conversation worth hitting? I mean, it's desperately sad because it was desperately sad in his flashback to watch him talk to, like, Emmanuel and these other young men and tried to put them on the straight and narrow and try to get them to hang on and them not hanging on. And Rue, thinking about Rue is just another young person that Alamo could not reach, her forgive me post it. But, you know, it has all the hallmarks of, like, one last job. She almost literally says one last job inside of this episode.

And he's like, don't go. I'm begging you, don't go. We'll go get your mom. Don't go. The we'll go get your mom is really the smoking gun of, like, there's just no chance they're making it to morning to go get her mom. Yeah. Because we're not giving Nika King more lines in euphoria.

Well, I mean, it did seem, am I mistaken in that the preview for the finale? Did we see some shots of ruin her childhood home? home? Am I, was I... I thought we got it in this... I mistook Lexi's kitchen for her childhood kitchen in last week's preview, so I'm done with guessing where Rue is based on shadowy kitchen. They all look the same to us, apparently.

She's in a kitchen or hallway or living room in a potentially suburban or apartment home. Okay, great. Whose is it? Couldn't say. Tune into find out. Tune into the finale. Anything you want to say about the Rue conversation that we haven't gotten to? I think mostly just, like, I...

I do like the ways in which he is seeing through even the religious parts, like something that he brought to Rue's life or tried to help her along. When she is saying like, hey, God spoke directly to me and it was crystal clear. And also it's literally what he said to Moses. Yeah. Like the way he reacts to her is very different than Lexi's again. But it's not like he believes it even for a second. And yet he still is just like, how do I help her?

Like how do I get her to stay here and not do the thing that even she knows is ridiculous? And yet she's still going to do anyway. I know. it's upsetting to Colman Domingo's so good He's really great In this If anything I think maybe we didn't say

Enough about his performance In the Cold Open Which Straight of just like Coleman Domingo getting high In slow motion Is cinema Like I will just

I could watch those Him like shadow boxing To a drum roll On a jazz beat It's just like fucking phenomenal stuff And so like these I found the cold open

To be Or the backstory for Ali to be Just like really really moving and really difficult and exactly kind of what I wanted Ali's story to be to the extent we were ever going to see it. It's kind of a can't miss thing because of that character, I feel a little bit, but I thought it really delivered.

I do think it's worth noting, and our listener, Lindsay 17, in the chat, and we noted this in the room as well. The hooker telling Ali she doesn't, quote, do blacks because she doesn't want to die hit really awkward knowing there's no writer's room, and Sam Levinson was responsible for every word in that scene. just a great opening note, I think, for this episode, for sure.

Entirely fair. Counterpoint, the gag about rubing in the gray area. Yeah. I did think was very funny. Yeah, pretty good. Anything else you... Okay, so we got a question that we don't know the answer to, which is, what does Maddie step on in the scene that she shares with Rosalia?

Rosalia shows up, no neck brace. So, welcome to the neck brace-free lifestyle, Rosalia. I guess the lawsuit's over. Magic is the character's name. but she's hanging on the bed Maddie steps on something Rob and I I don't know how many times

you rewatched it I rewatched it like five different times I couldn't get to the bottom of it trying to figure out what it was an earring so like another girl was just there maybe or it's Rosalia's earring

Magic's earring is it connected to Tish the girl who died in the first episode I thought it was a bit of mirror the only reason I thought that it was because of like the bad luck associated

with stepping on like breaking a mirror I said it on a mirror, but it seems to be an earring, and I don't really know who's earring it's supposed to be. It seemed like it almost like fell out of the swimsuit. And so I took it to mean like Maddie is kind of stepping into somebody else's clothes, right? Like this idea of she's now just part of this machine. He picked it out for you, some other girl wore it before you. Exactly.

Sure. And I think we see moments like, like this is such a reality check episode for Maddie, right? She's getting in deeper and deeper. She's increasingly in Alamo's dead. And everything we see with Big Eddie in particular is such a cautionary. for her. It's like... Do you think that's

what the Colossomy bag is there? But that's kind of it. It's like, this guy will squeeze you for everything you are worth even if it is literally shit into a,

like a claustomy bag. And so she doesn't know the extent of that yet. But like Big Eddie is, he has like a walker. His stitches are getting like prodded and poked by Alamo. And it's like,

hey, go out there and write the thing you wrong. And all he did was like be there when he got shot. And try to be loyal. Yeah. Yeah. This is why when Maddie

in the first place confidently really felt like she knew what she was doing walking into the silver slipper with Alamo and all it felt like was Doom. Yeah. And I don't know how she gets out of the bind that she's found herself in. Other than Alamo died,

like if Alamo dies, do a lot of problems get solved? It sounds like you're angling for... Or does Armenia come? Yes. All of Armenia come to create new problems. Maybe Armenia is our only hope. Do you think Nate got the ending he got because he disrespected the flower?

Maybe so. Yeah. But, and does, so does the henchman live? Do we see if he lives or not? Yes. Seems like it. Because he, I did note that he did stop to smell the roses at one point. Oh.

And I was like, you know what? He respected the flowers. He respected it. He gets to live. Okay. But maybe this is a thing. Like, I mean, I know a lot of people out there thinking, Nate and Cassie, I mean, those kids just have the perfect relationship, right?

They have love. They have support. They have all of these expensive floral arrangements. Yeah. But in the end, they can't save you. If you're just going to stomp on the flower, and call them dirty names. Ali, who directly said out of his mouth,

four or five things that I heard Sam Levinson himself say at the luncheon that I went to a couple weeks ago about fentanyl being a uniquely American problem, about finding something bigger than yourself outside of yourself, so using Ali as his voice in the show. So Ali's, Ali preaching about like the lack of, material goods, right? And so, like, is the larger critique?

I mean, definitely is, but the larger critique, the pursuit of wealth, the ways in which you will debase yourself in the pursuit of wealth, and how the answer is this sort of like aesthetic living, but helping people around you. It's just a very strange way for euphoria to wind up. Sure is. Like, the idea that all we have is other people in the story that involves these characters and the places that they've been together and the things they've done to each other,

I can't say I see that thread going all the way through, but I can see that thread as far as like, how do you pick up the pieces from two seasons of euphoria and jump forward in time and tell something that feels distinct, but also of the world and also of the characters. And also here's just the thing I have to say about the state of everything.

I mean, I think here's what I feel like I might understand about that. If you're Sam Levinson and you've burned some bridges, you did, you made the idol and the idol did not get renewed for a second season and people didn't like it. and you have the opportunity to make the final season, or perhaps not the final season, of a show that a ton of people are watching with some of the biggest stars in the world,

would you not then use that to say the biggest things you feel like you possibly could say about the state of our world? If you're like, maybe this is my last chance to have this big of an audience about something I'm thinking about. Like maybe the real euphoria is the friends we made along the way?

Speaking of the friends we made along the way, let's do a finale survival chances round up, shall we? Yes, please. Lexi. 100%. Does she keep her job? She's feeling like she's getting promoted. Does her story make it to air?

Do we see any of L.A. Knights, but it's the story of the characters of Euphoria in the finale. My first inclination is no, but also what would you show of Lexi, if not that? That's been her whole season arc is getting some time on L.A. nights. Jules. I mean, we do know that she appears in the finale. She paints in the finale. She does paint.

She will be on, Hunter Schaefer will be on screen in the finale. Correct. 100% survival rate because otherwise what are we doing here? Okay. Maddie. That's tough. Significantly lower proximity to danger makes sense. But now you're talking me into like the team up angle in which just-

Charlie's Angels moment. I'm thinking more like death-proof, faster pussycat kill-kill, kill. You know, it gets real violent. It gets really grisly, but the girls all team up. I mean, hope beyond hope, it's not what's going to happen. But we would love to see that. I do think Maddie is more likely to... Please.

She's still more likely to survive than not 70%. Cassie. Cassie has to survive for Rob's theory of Cindy Suini being the star of Euphoria season four to maintain. Season finale, Joe.

Yeah. Not series finale. 100% Cassie's survival rate. Okay, so the Cassie Howard show is season four of Euphoria. I think, I mean, it's already that show. We've been watching it. A little bit.

Rue. I don't know, given what you shared earlier, about this season ending on something resembling a hopeful note. But not for everyone. Not for everyone, but it can't be rude, right? I think it might be rude.

I really think there's no way we don't get the final shot being Rue on the homestead whether or not she's actually dead or not. She's actually there or not is the question. I think overall... I don't think we get...

Because I noted that we got the address of the homestead in last week's episode. I don't think we get double this is the address of the homestead drops. in the season. We're going back to the homestead. For sure. Cows need to be mills. Crops need to be tended to.

Do you think Dominic Fike will be there? Genuinely, is he going to show up this season? I don't know. Was that a rumor? What a misdirect. If so. Lori, is she going to live? No. I think Lori and Alamo will probably die. In each other's arms, one can only help. It's a true love story.

Bishop, who is not in this episode, sadly. He's not in this episode. I think he, I could see him squirreling away, you know? Just like being the one guy who makes it out of it. of like the huge gunfight or whatever? Here's my pitch. Season 4, Bishop's season. I'm down for that.

Bishop Spinoff? Euphoria colon Bishop season. On this podcast, it's always Bishop season. All right. I think we've done about an hour. And let me just check if there are any other YouTube chat questions that feel worthy. They're all worthy, but do we have time to talk about them? I don't know.

You seem like you really turned your nose at our listeners. Nope. I love all of our listeners. Christopher. Dominic DiMato. says the scenes of Rue walking towards Cassie apartment. Oh yeah, we haven't talked about this. The scenes of Rue walking towards Cassie apartment

are the same angles of flashbacks Rie Ali's dying mentees, literally the same shots. So maybe like of Ali walking towards the garage. One of Ali's sponzi's, he's in like the hall outside of a very similar apartment building. I wonder if that's what is being alluded to. When we see a body going to.

Multiple corner moments. Okay. In body bags on stretchers. Or on rolling carts, whatever those are called. Gurneys, that's the one. I just want to... We cover the pit. Yeah, we're doctors.

I just want to flag that I thought it was pretty sloppy storytelling to have Rue walk up to Cassie's house, to Cassie's apartment, have the gun at the eyehole, and then be like, let's take you back in time to Cassie's story. Yes. But then we continue to tell. Rue's story in peril. So by the time we circle back to that moment, Rue's story is already,

she smashed her head on the, you know, like the dashboard. So, like, we're already past that in the story. I thought that was really odd, temporal storytelling. I don't have any problem at all with the jump to Cassie's story. Let's catch you up to how she got to this moment and then follow through with the rest of it.

But you're right, the interim cutting back to Rue just doesn't really make sense. Yeah. I think we did it. I think we made a podcast. I think we did. Live on camera. on YouTube. Thank you all for

hanging out with us. There were a few of you here. Thanks for joining us. And thank you to the team that's here tonight. Kai Grady is here. Dick M. Cornette is here. Indeed. Jack Wilson helped us out. DeFernaldo is here, of course. I don't know. Who else did we see? Chris Wallers is

banging around. It takes a village. Yeah. All kinds of people are here tonight. Anything else you want to say about Euphoria before we say goodbye. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for doing this. Thank you, Romani. And thanks to Jules. You know, we just missed her call, but We'll get her next time. We'll connect with her next week.

See you soon. Bye.