{"id":19459,"date":"2022-03-01T10:33:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T23:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=210203"},"modified":"2022-03-01T10:38:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T23:38:46","slug":"euphoria-season-2-finale","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/euphoria-season-2-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Is \u2018Euphoria\u2019 Just Convincing Us It\u2019s Good With Great Eye Makeup?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all knew season two of <\/span>Euphoria<\/span><\/i> was going to be a tough watch. But what I was expecting, thanks to <\/span>Zendaya\u2019s comments<\/span><\/a> about her character Rue, was a lot of difficult content – not a mess of unfinished plot lines and anti-climaxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

This season of <\/span>Euphoria <\/span><\/i>consistently under-delivered. Sure, the shock factor was present and accounted for – we finally got a realistic depiction of drug addiction, the violence and sex was, as always, teetering on the edge of problematic and refreshingly confronting. The <\/span>fashion levelled up<\/span><\/a>, we\u2019re all back to painting extreme glitter flicks on our eyelids and asking for the longest french tips at the nail salon. But peel away the stylish veneer and really, what we have is a show that seems to have a lobotomy after every episode.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was the point of that incredible, melodramatic montage at the end of <\/span>episode four<\/span><\/a>? Fan theories swarmed the internet – was Rue dead? Would Elliot die? Instead it was just\u2026 artistic licence? There were hints all season that Maddy would fall pregnant, but that amounted to nothing, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Maddy\"
Maddy’s arc was fine, but why hint at a pregnancy at all?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spent an entire episode learning more about Nate\u2019s dad and his sexual awakening (easily the best episode of the season, in my opinion, and the reason I now have a dedicated INXS playlist on repeat), but instead of the series doing anything of note with this new information, Cal just sort of disappears into the ether mid-way through season two – returning for the finale in the most tepid way possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even more of a mess was the Rue\/Laurie plot. There is no world in which Laurie, the most fearsome drug lord in town, would not have immediately come for Rue after she lost all those drugs. We all thought Rue\u2019s escape from her den at the <\/span>end of episode five <\/span><\/a>was just the beginning of the teen\u2019s problems, but Laurie, like Cal, just vanished from the <\/span>Euphoria<\/span><\/i> world. We got one mention of her, briefly, in the finale – but in a completely different context, when Faye tries to deflect the blame for Mouse\u2019s death onto Custer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all well and good to present your show as high stakes and high drama, but there has to be follow through. All these open-ended plots ended up just being vehicles for some seriously creative, but ultimately unsatisfying episodes. It\u2019s like <\/span>Euphoria<\/span><\/i> is stuck between being an episodic series and a serialised one. We get episodes like Cal\u2019s past and Rue\u2019s drug spiral, but instead of the events within them serving as springboards for future activity in the rest of the season, things just peter out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cassie\"
Cassie’s monologue was chaotic, sure, but it also didn’t land.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s talk about Lexi\u2019s play. Skipping over the fact that no school in the history of Earth would have the kind of budget to stage such an elaborate performance complete with pyrotechnics, this was another plot that fell flat. The play was meant to push everyone over the edge as they were publicly humiliated with their toxic, chaotic lives depicted in front of the entire school. Sure, Cassie loses it, but her monologue was convoluted and weak, the response from her peers was confusing at best (they\u2019re clapping, then they\u2019re jeering?) and we ended up back at her \u201cthey <\/span>weren\u2019t<\/span><\/i> even <\/span>together<\/span><\/i>!\u201d bullshit which is, honestly, getting really tired. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cassie had a lot she could have said here – I really feel for this teen who is addicted to validation and sees relationships as the source of this. Her sister literally splashed her most vulnerable moments on stage, her boyfriend dumps her subsequently, and all she does is jump up and stomp around saying \u201cis this part of the <\/span>play?<\/span><\/i>\u201d Where was the final straw that broke the camel\u2019s back and resulted in a searing take-down of the judgement that\u2019s been heaped on this broken teen for two entire seasons? Where was Cassie\u2019s <\/span>moment<\/span><\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Cassie deserved better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don\u2019t even start me on Maddy, getting up to finally fight Cassie, as we\u2019d all expected her character to do since discovering the betrayal, only to get a few hair-pulls in and then let the whole drama go with a dismissive \u201cthis is just the beginning\u201d. That\u2019s not the Maddy we\u2019ve been given over the course of this series. That was just a lazy way to wrap up some drama.<\/span><\/p>\n

The one climax that did pay off, albeit in the most tragic of ways, was the raid on Fezco\u2019s home. This, I have to say, was brilliantly done – Ash was always going to fight back, and watching Fez beg the cops to lay down their weapons was heartbreaking. I hate that we lost Ash, but I think if that raid didn\u2019t result in some sort of casualty it would have been, frankly, ridiculous.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ash\"
The death of Ashtray was heartbreaking and well-delivered, what we expected from the Euphoria finale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, one well-paced storyline does not make up for the myriad of mess we were served in <\/span>Euphoria<\/span><\/i> this season. Will I tune in for season three? Absolutely – I just hope the writer\u2019s room gives us some more follow-through next time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Melissa is a contributing editor at Grazia. You can find her on Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31333,"featured_media":19460,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[36],"yoast_head":"\n'Euphoria' Season 2 Finale: A Let Down, Even With That Shock Death<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Euphoria's season 2 finale was a massive let down to fans of the tv series, even with a shock death and some dramatic scenes following Lexi's play.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/euphoria-season-2-finale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is \u2018Euphoria\u2019 Just Convincing Us It\u2019s Good With Great Eye Makeup?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Euphoria's season 2 finale was a massive let down to fans 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