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Like every other Euphoria fan, I’ve been gripped by the chaotic love triangle that is Cassie, Maddy and Nate. From the moment Nate gave Cassie a lift to that New Year’s party, I knew things were getting messy for season two.
In case you aren’t fully across what’s going on right now, Cassie and Nate hooked up in the bathroom at a party – while Maddy stood at the door waiting to get in, oblivious to the fact that her best friend had just committed the ultimate girl code crime. Maddy was kept in the dark for months before Rue, in a drug-induced rage, revealed the big secret. Maddy and Nate are over, and it seems that he’s going to now pick up where he left off with Cassie… although neither of them seem completely convinced it’s going to work out.
It’s been dramatic and complicated and juicy, but it’s also two textbook toxic relationships playing out exactly how they always do. Both Maddy/Nate and Cassie/Nate are their own brand of screwed-up. Maddy and Nate spend most of their time fighting and making up, while Cassie survives on breadcrumbs Nate throws at her when he feels like it. It’s like we’re not rooting for either relationship to work out, and we sort of love/hate everyone – that’s pretty unique for a teen-focused series.
Anyone who has been in love with someone who barely gave them the time of day can relate to Cassie’s trauma of an affair with Nate. When she went full Dolly Parton then full Single White Female just to get one public reaction out of him. Dealing with his possible reunion with Maddy by getting wasted, then humiliating herself and throwing up in the spa (haven’t we all been there). All the waiting by her phone and double texting. I know it way, way too well – it’s so perfectly executed by Euphoria that I cringe through whole episodes.
Then there’s Maddy. Everyone has had that partner who wasn’t good for them, but they found themselves crawling back to them anyway. I’ve particularly loved how Maddy’s interest in Nate this season is the result of loneliness and self-doubt, not some twisted love story the writers are selling us. This is real stuff – it reminds me of a relationship I was in years ago, where I’d just return and return because I was too scared to let go and see what life looked like without this person, even though they treated me like shit.
Most of all, I’ve loved the way Euphoria isn’t really picking sides here. There is no “good” and “bad” relationship in the mix. Or, really, good or bad people. Just two really toxic love stories for really different reasons, and three people deeply affected by other stuff going on in their lives. Most teen shows dealing with love triangles will introduce a new love interest, which either forms the fresh relationship or challenges the existing one. Either way, there is the couple you cheer for and the couple you don’t. Think Anna/Seth/Summer in The O.C. Blair/Nate/Chuck in Gossip Girl.
In Euphoria we literally don’t want either of these girls to end up with Nate. I don’t even know what we want, actually. Do we want them to become friends again? Not really, because their friendship didn’t even seem super healthy. Did we just want to see Maddy lose it at Cassie? Kind of, if I’m honest. But that’s already happened and I’m still invested.
I think what I am invested in is seeing these types of relationships I’ve had play out on screen. To see my own experiences validated in film, I guess. There is something comforting about identifying with fictional characters – it’s why I loved Girls in a different way to how I loved Sex and the City. SATC was pure escapism, but Girls was real. They stumbled and screwed up alongside my own stumbling and screwing up as a 20-something figuring my shit out.
Euphoria is a weird one because it’s partly escapism – these kids party way harder than I ever did or ever will, so sometimes it’s like watching a really outrageous music video for an hour – but it’s also got this gritty realism, and not just because everyone is a bit f*cked up (or a lot), but because the writers are doing a damn good job of nailing what it’s like to feel like an adult and a kid at the same time, making these big, life-altering decisions with literally no caution, then just figuring it all out as you go.
Or sometimes, not figuring it out at all – which is even more realistic. Life isn’t actually about learning a lesson for every wrong step you take. Sometimes you just do the dumb thing and suffer the consequences, sometimes you don’t even get consequences. Or you do the dumb thing again and again, like I did with my toxic ex and like Cassie is doing with Nate right now.
That’s what I’ve loved about this season, and what I think we all love about Euphoria. Because that feeling of stumbling around in the dark and figuring life out as you go never really goes away.
Melissa is a freelance writer. You can find her on Instagram.
