An Honest Review of Euphoria’s Season 2

by Mya Miller
Lion’s Roar Staff

HBO Max’s hit show Euphoria recently concluded its second season, and the show engaged the interest of an untold number
of teenagers across America.
Euphoria focuses on a group of teenagers as they navigate their way through a storm of addiction, drugs, sex, tramua,
identity, friendship, family, love, and relationships.
The show follows main character Rue (Zendaya), as she struggles with relationships while battling her drug addiction, fueled
by the grief that haunts her due to her father’s death. The main cast includes Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), who is considered to be
promiscuous and self absorbed. Cassie’s best friend is Maddy (Alexa Demie), who has a very distinct, sassy, and leader-like
personality. Jules (Hunter Shafer) is a transgender girl who has a struggling realtionship with Rue. Maddy’s ex-boyfriend Nate
(Jacob Elordi), a sadistic, abusive, manipulator, who is potentially closeted, is homophobic, had a secret online realtionship with
Jules during season one, and has a secret relationship with Cassie during season two. Kat (Barbie Ferreira), last season earned
money from her fan fiction page, and gained notoriety through a sex tape that was illegally uploaded by friends. Lexi (Maude
Apatow) is Cassie’s smart and rule-following sister who writes, acts, and directs a play about the group that changes everything
during season two. Fezco (Angus Cloud) is Rue’s drug dealer who is oddly caring and has some sort of a relationship with Lexi
during season 2.
Some side characters include Ashtray (Javon "Wanna" Walton), Fezco’s younger adopted brother, who is both a killer and a
loyal protector. Elliot (Dominic Fike), new to the show this season, reintroduces Rue back into drugs, and seems to have a crush
on both Rue and Jules. Cal (Eric Dane) is Nate’s manipulative dad who is closeted, and has affairs with women, men, and
underage children, while recording them. Faye (Chloe Cherry) is a new character in season two, who is a drug addict that stays
with Frezco and Ashtray, while her boyfriend, Custer (Tyler Chase), works with the FBI to get Fezco and Ashtray’s confession of
the murder of Mouse (Meeko Gattuso), a drug lord. Ethan (Austin Abrams) is Kat’s ex-boyfriend who stars in Lexi’s play as
Nate and Cassie and Lexi’s crazy mom, Suze (Alanna Ubach). Chris “McKay” (Algee Smith) is Cassie’s ex-boyfriend, who is
mostly in season 1. Gia (Storm Reid), Rue’s younger sister, and her mom, Leslie (Nika King), try to help Rue overcome her
addiction and are mentally abused while she is on drugs. Ali (Colman Domingo) is Rue’s caring sponsor who tries to help Rue
get clean. BB (Sophia Rose Wilson) is a friend of Maddy and Kat’s, and is known as “vape girl.”
For eight weeks straight every Sunday a new episode of Euphoria would come out and soon Sundays started to be referred to
as “Euphoria Sunday.” On Sunday, February 27th 6.6 million viewers watched the season two finale of Euphoria on HBO Max.
The finale ended off with a bang and left fans with a lot of questions.
This is an honest review of Euphoria season two, and includes the great, the terrible, the confusion, along with so much more.
To start off, this season seemed so much slower than the first season. With eight hours of air time, Euphoria season 2 took so
long to address most of the plot that was shown to the audience during season one. Season two continued to add new plots instead
of addressing the original plots. It felt as if so much happened within each episode, yet nothing was ever addressed at the same
time.
I was extremely upset with the little to no storyline for some of the characters. McKay was molested at the end of season one
in front of Cassie. This was a subject that is not shown in most shows or movies, so I would assume they would have addressed
the situation during season two. The situation was never addressed. I was disappointed when I saw him in the first episode for
three minutes and then never saw him again the rest of season two.
Furthermore, the character Kat had basically no storyline in season two. In season one she was running an online pornagraphy
and fan fiction business, but in season two nothing was ever spoken about it again. She seemed as if she was just there to stand
next to Maddy during Maddy’s scenes.
Additionally, Ashtray who was a fan favorite during season one spoke only a few lines in season two. Although in the finale
he played a big role, he said very little throughout the whole season, and was mostly just in the background during Fezco’s
scenes.
Although, I did enjoy how much more airtime some characters got, such as Lexi. The play Lexi put on gave me a whole new
perspective into her character, and the play contributed a lot to the plot in season two.
I also enjoyed how more airtime Ethan got, especially during Lexi’s play. I loved the scene in the play where Ethan is in the
locker room, acting as Nate, clearly making a statementto the audience that Nate is gay. An unexpected scene that I enjoyed from
Ethan was when he stood up to Kat and dumped her.
I also enjoyed the story development of Nate’s father, Cal. One of my favorite childhood stories that was shown was Cal’s.
The scene explored his sexualality while he was in high school, and explained why Cal is the way he is. Another scene I loved of
Cal’s was when he came out to his family and left them. Yet, I am still left wondering who is the unknown child in the family
photo that was the only belonging Cal took from the house when he left?
There were certain relationships that I absolutely detested during season two, and that I thought got way too much air time.
One of these relationships would be the unnecessary love triangle between Rue, Elliot, and Jules. I just felt as if it took up too
much air time, and was a bit boring. The only thing that it pointed out to me was how Elliot could not be trusted, as much as the
audience wanted to, and that Jules took Rue’s friendship and their relationship for granted.
A relationship that should have had more air time would have been Fezco and Lexi’s. All throughout season two I was
shipping the two so badly, yet, there would be multiple episodes in a row where you would not see the pair together, at all.
Another unexpected relationship that I wish got more airtime would be Maddy and Samantha’s (Minka Kelly), the lady
Maddy babysits for. I feel like there may be a bit of an unexpected love interest there.
I also wish that the relationship between Jules and Nate got explored a little bit more during season two. The audience sees
scenes where Nate is dreaming about Jules, but we really only got one scene of the two together in real life.
I loved seeing more scenes of the parents during season two, because it added more detail and perspective into why the kids
are the way they are. Yet, I wish that they continued to put a childhood story into the beginning of each episode. They did it for
the first two episodes of season two and then stopped. This was probably because they ran out of characters to show, but I think
they should have continued, and just given the audience more stories from repeated characters. They could have shown Faye,
Ashtray, Ethan, or Gia’s childhood.
I loved the episode that featured Rue running from the cops while going through withdrawal. It was so good, and I think
Zendaya (Rue) should be considered for another Emmy award for that episode alone.
The season 2 finale was very unfulfilling to say the least. Every fan was waiting for the moment where Maddy would beat up
Cassie for hooking up with her boyfriend behind her back. Yet again there was very little air time for that much awaited scene.
They also should have finished Lexi’s play instead of stopping half way through it. There were two scenes that annoyed me very
much during the finale. One scene was where Elliot sang to Rue for 4 minutes straight. That scene was very much unneeded.
Another scene that annoyed me, because of the constant repeating, would be the flashbacks of Rue’s father’s funeral throughout
Lexi’s play. It would have just been better if Lexi’s play went on without all of the constant interruptions of the flashbacks.
I did enjoy the scene where Cassie went up on the stage during the middle of the play and had a fight with Lexi and her mom.
I did not expect that. Something that was unexpected that I also enjoyed was when Faye betrayed her boyfriend inorder to protect
Ashtray and Fezco.
Although I am very sad about what we think is the death of Ashtray it added a lot to the finale. It left off the audience with a
boom, but also left me with a ton of questions. Such as, is Fezco alive, is Ashtray alive, is Fezco going to jail, did Fezco ever
make it to the end of Lexi’s play?
All in all, for a show that is about teenagers in high school it is honestly nothing like high school. There is a lot more adult
content than there is for teenagers in high school. Euphoria’s audience is mainly high schoolers and the show pictures things that
I would assume would happen in college and not in high school.
Additionally, the characters that are supposed to be younger siblings in middle school are actually the age of highschoolers in
real life. The cast is too mature looking for high schoolers, seeing that in real life the actors are in their 20’s, and even in Alexa
Demie’s (Maddy) case 30 years old. Maybe the show will do a time jump and continue while the cast is in college, since in the
finale they summarize the end of the school year, and it is expected that season 3 won’t be released until 2024.
This all is not to say Euphoria season 2 was bad at all, because it honestly wasn’t. I just believe the audience deserved more
from season 2 of Euphoria, and less at the same time.
Season 2 needed more of a plot that was coordinated with season 1, a plot that actually gets addressed, more of some
character’s storylines, more of some relationship’s storylines, and more of certain scenes.
Season 2 needed less of some relationship’s, less of certain scenes, and less unaddressed plots, while other new plots are being
formed.