Note: This story contains spoilers from “Euphoria” Season 3, Episode 8.
“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson said killing off the show’s main character was about telling an honest story about addiction.
“It felt like an honest ending,” Levinson said in a post-episode look inside the Season 3 finale that played after the episode. “The honest ending is people like Rue don’t make it.”
“I wanted to tell the story for Angus (Cloud) and for people who weren’t granted a second chance,” he said, referencing the late actor who appeared in Seasons 1-2.
Watch the video with comments from Levinson, cast and crew below:
The episode, titled “In God We Trust” followed the direct aftermath of Faye (Chloe Cherry) betraying Rue (Zendaya) and the chaotic end to Laurie (Martha Kelly) and Alamo’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) deal at the hands of the DEA.
Rue managed to escape the farm after a high-stakes chase, and getting seriously injured after almost getting caught. After Alamo tended to her wounds, he gave her some painkillers that set her up to relapse.
After Laurie’s farm was seized by the DEA and she killed herself to avoid prison time, it was revealed that Alamo swapped the ambulances delivering the drugs from Mexico so he could keep the smuggled drugs from the deal to himself while getting the scent off him.
The episode then took a turn when a news report revealed Fez (Angus Cloud) managed to run away from prison doing parkour, plunging Rue into a spontaneous mission to go pick him up. The drive led her to a neighborhood, where she ran from the cops and ran into past versions of herself, Jules (Hunter Schafer) and her sister. Then she ran into her mother, which led to the realization Rue had been hallucinating — while in real life she was dying from taking the painkillers, which had been laced with fentanyl. Ali (Colman Domingo) found her on his couch.
“I knew that I wanted to experience Rue’s death through [Ali],” Levinson said. “There’s a sort of helplessness. Letting Colman articulate that for us as an audience is really important.”
A few months later, Ali reflected on the broken political system that helped set up the fentanyl and drug epidemic in the US — and how the disease of addiction fuels the business at its center. A few months had passed and Ali reflected on relapsing from Rue’s death, realizing his efforts to help the world are for naught. He announced that would be his last NA meeting, as he searched for a new way to help people.
Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Lexi (Maude Apatow) processed their grief over Rue while also reflecting on religion, and the solace it provides given life’s uncertainty. Meanwhile, Maddy (Alexa Demie) headed to fulfill her end of her bargain with Alamo in saving Cassie from Nate’s (Jacob Elordi) creditors. It was revealed that Cassie kept Nate’s death a secret from Lexi, forcing her to mourn that loss in silence.
At the strip club, Maddy met with Alamo in a back room to settle her debt, and he admitted to dreaming of settling down and having kids with her. But things turn deadly when Ali arrives in military uniform and locks the door of the establishment behind him. To avenge Rue’s death, he started a shootout as he searched for Alamo.
This led to an old-fashioned Western standoff between Ali and Alamo, after he proposed a duel between the two of them to end things without anyone else getting hurt. The tense altercation ends in a twist when Alamo’s gun turns out to be empty — after Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson) gave him an unloaded gun — leaving the opportunity for Ali to shoot and kill him in a bloody climax.
Bishop then took Maddy home, leaving her and the rest of Alamo’s cronies free.
The end of the episode returns to the remote Texas home where Rue sought refuge in the Season 3 premiere. Ali let them know of her passing, and he’s welcomed in for coffee and food. He thanked Rue and blessed her memory, saying goodbye to the character seemingly forever.
“I really had a great time with this season,” Domingo said in the video. “Life is poetry, and you got to believe in that and give yourself over to that. At least that’s what I think it is.”
“Euphoria” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on HBO Max.
