Euphoria has ridden off into the sunset with a prayer.
Fair warning: Major spoilers ahead. Tread with caution.
Indeed, with Sunday’s movie-length episode “In God We Trust,” written and directed by series creator Sam Levinson, HBO is closing the book on the Zendaya-led series. While recent promo had posited the episode as merely a finale for the show’s long-awaited third season, with Levinson and others playing rather coy as to whether fans could expect more from the story largely centered on a group of high school friends, it has now been outright confirmed that this is the end.
In the finale, Zendaya’s Rue at first appears to have broken free from the clutches of both deceptively measured drug dealer Laurie (played by Martha Kelly) and ruthless strip club owner Alamo (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). She seeks temporary shelter at the house of Ali (played by Colman Domingo), where, unbeknownst to him, she ingests Percocet pills given to her by Alamo. As it turns out, and as had been a crucial element to the overarching story of Euphoria’s third and final season, the pills had been laced with fentanyl.
At first, we, as viewers, are not aware that Rue is in the middle of her final breaths, though the pivotal sequence—featuring a touching tribute to the late Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, plus an especially heartbreaking appearance by Rue’s mother Leslie, played by Nika King—eventually makes this clear by giving fans what will arguably go down as the show’s most emotionally stirring moment.
After the episode’s debut, Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli shared a new episode of their Popcast podcast featuring an in-depth interview with Levinson, who ultimately confirmed that, yes, the curtains have dropped on Euphoria.
“In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me,” Levinson said. “It was such a fulfilling journey in terms of this cast, the crew, what we were able to accomplish. I mean, there are thousands of things that have to go right in order to make something like this. I’m just immensely proud of the work we did, the story we told. It’s a tragic one in the end, but it’s also the truth. If you are experimenting or taking drugs today, it’s very possible it’ll kill you. I think it was a way of honoring Angus and saying a prayer for the future.”
Asked outright whether this was the end of the story, Levinson affirmed that it was.
“Yeah, I mean, what else is there to say?” he offered.
An HBO rep also confirmed to Complex that Euphoria has concluded with the release of “In God We Trust,” which is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Thanks for the memories, Sam.
