Last week, the fifth episode of HBO Euphoria’s second season premiered and left a majority of us thinking…What did we just watch?!?! Even though we couldn’t get a moment of peace throughout the entire episode, this was honestly one of the best episodes of the season so far. Seeing as this episode had a lot going on, let’s get over what happened.
This episode begins with Rue, played by our girl Zendaya, being confronted by her mom who knows she’s using drugs. Rue gets defensive and thinks that her younger sister Gia was the one to rat her out. Shortly after, Rue realizes that her suitcase full of drugs (that she scammed Laurie for) is suddenly missing. Rue goes nuts and demands to know what happened to the drugs and while this is one of the best performances Zendaya has given this season so far, it’s the most heartbreaking for Rue.
In the midst of her hassling her family to find out where the drugs are, we hear a voice out of frame saying they flushed the drugs. The voice is none other than Jules, who we learn was the one to tell Rue’s mom about her using again. If there is something to know about the status of ‘Rules’ lately it is that their relationship is not doing good. Rue has been lying to Jules about how much she has relapsed all season, they got in an argument last episode where Rue said she can’t stand her, and the elephant in the room…Jules and Elliot have been sneaking around. Upon learning that Jules had something to do with the drugs going missing, Rue goes off on Jules and Elliot who are basically trying to do an intervention with her. I mean, Rue told Jules that she was dead to her. I can only imagine that their relationship is about good as dead at this point, which I don’t mind. I believe that both girls have a lot to resolve with themselves and should not be in a relationship.
While flushing the drugs appears to be a good idea, I don’t like how Elliot, who kind of knew the basis of where Rue got the drugs, did not intervene and say where Rue got them from. This leads me to believe the theories about Elliot working with the scary drug lady Laurie and is trying to set Rue up. He just seems very suspicious to me.
Leslie, Rue’s mom, is trying to take Rue back to rehab when Rue jumps out of the car in the middle of traffic to escape. After wandering the streets, Rue ends up at the Howard house where both Lexie and Cassie live, but Kat and Maddy are over as well. The girls come and greet Rue, we eventually learn the reason they are all together is Rue and Lexi’s mom are staging an intervention with people that have known Rue for years. The intervention fails but the one good thing to come out of it is that Cassie stupidly talks her way into getting her relationship with Nate exposed by Rue in front of everyone, including Maddie. Most of us have been anticipating Maddie finding out her best friends and abusive ex-boyfriend have been hooking up and her reaction did not disappoint. Maddie’s reaction has become one of Twitter’s popular meme-like videos since the night the episode aired.
In the midst of Maddie literally chasing Cassie off the screen, Rue manages to dodge out of there and wounds up at Fez’s house. Just when you think she couldn’t get lower, she is caught by Fez trying to steal his grandma’s prescriptions and he has to throw her out of the house. Knowing how strong their relationship is, I know this hurt Fez to have to do but I also know that he mostly felt betrayed. This hurt more than Jules because Fez has been there for her through it all and this may affect their relationship. Rue is just burning too many bridges with the people in her life in this episode and it hurts to see.
As if she couldn’t raise our blood pressure any higher, she goes on the sneak somebody’s house and STEALS from them!!! And because it’s Rue, she gets caught in the process. Throughout the entire episode, she has been holding her side like something is wrong so all this running she’s doing is not good for her, and should probably be in a hospital. Nonetheless, Rue ends up on a full-blown police chase that had everyone freaking out. Our girl is a full-blown criminal now and it hurts to see.
Rue’s next adventure leads her to the scary drug lady, Laurie’s house, where she tries to get Laurie to take the stolen goods from people’s houses, and Laurie does not accept it. Eventually, she ends up shooting Rue up with Morphine which knocks her out. Thank goodness Rue manages to escape by the next morning and we think she returns home but who knows.
This episode brought me to new levels of anxiety that I have ever experienced while watching a show. The good thing is that none of the Jacobs were present to bother anybody which is always a good thing. We can only hope for what the rest of the season has in store with Rue and her peers (and Nate Jacobs sadly).