This week on Euphoria, East Highland gets a taste of its own medicine courtesy of Maude Apatow‘s Lexi Howard. Quite literally placing a spotlight on the betrayal, tyranny, insecurities, grief, addiction, and abuse thrusted upon our core crew of troubled teens, the ever-complicated relationships, flawed friendships, and indecent entanglements get the birds-eye view from the perspective of a wallflower.
“The Theater and Its Double” marks the seventh episode of the second season, with only the finale left to go. Certainly setting up the last episode for a shocking close, tensions frenetically arise amid Lexi’s opening night. Dubbing her brainchild, “Our Life,” the crowd quickly realizes that the play is about them. Part love letter to the people she cares most about and part scathing documentation of bad behavior, our new favorite auteur suffers some anxiety about alienating those in her life, while simultaneously blossoming into her own, fully realized person. “It’s like the first time in my life I’m doing something for myself,” she says.
Reenacting an intimate moment with Rue (Zendaya) at her father’s memorial service, Lexi recites an excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Let This Darkness Be A Bell Tower, reading, “If the drink is bitter, turn yourself into wine.” A deeper, more poetic way of saying, ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,’ Lexi’s reading applies to her now as much as it did to Rue then. Afraid she’s lived too much of her life inside her own head, Lexi harnesses her imagination to create a piece of commentary everybody’s been needing to hear.
Sporting her black Batsheva Prairie cotton-velvet mini dress and theatrical Twiggy-inspired eyeliner, Lexi sets the stage for a Stand by Me-inspired coming of age story surrounding the five central girlfriends Rue Bennett, Lexi, her sister Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney), Cassie’s best friend Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), and Maddy’s best friend Kat Hernandez (Barbie Ferreira).
In Lexi’s alternate universe, Cassie is dubbed Hallie, Maddy is known as Marta, Kat’s alias is Luna, Rue’s character is named Jade, while Lexi is Grace. “This is life. Not everyone’s life. But our life!” Confiding in Fezco (Angus Cloud) throughout the planning process, her new friend and potential love interest reminds her,”Some people need to get their feelings hurt sometimes.”
If anyone is in need of a healthy dose of reality, it’s Cassie. Consistently running away from her problems and towards bad relationships, Cassie insincerely, and condescendingly convinces her sister that “some guys prefer smaller boobs.” Cassie’s Bershka cardigan and Urban Outfitters Perrie Lace-Inset slip dress in her signature baby-blue color palette serve as a juxtaposition of innocence and naïveté as compared to the scandalous predicaments she finds herself in.
Chronicling the lost relationship between Cassie and Maddy, real life developments see Cassie strolling down the hallway arm-in-arm with Maddy’s abusive ex-boyfriend Nate Jacobs. Judging Cassie’s hot pink, hot mess Barbie ensemble from the sidelines, Maddy appears fashion-forward and put-together in Jacquemus while Kat works a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier Egyptian print dress with her mini Telfar Black shopping bag.
Strutting down the hallway as a new, but certainly not improved Cassie, she sports a MSGM mohair bralette top, a MSGM asymmetric-hem skort, coordinating Steve Madden Twice Pink patent leather chunky mary-jane heels and her white Balenciaga Hourglass handbag in tow. A sign of an abusive relationship, Cassie is completely cut-off from her friends and family, clearly struggling with who she genuinely is and who she expected to be, with Maddy commenting, “Well, she certainly looks the part.”
Proclaiming Lexi as a “f—ing G,” Maddy and Kat clearly approves of the end result of Lexi’s observant adaptation. Expertly sporting a pistachio green Jacquemus Le Body Yeru Bodysuit and the brand’s Le Chiquito bag in Light Green to match, Maddy’s audience ensemble steals to show.
Pulling no punches when it comes to Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), Lexi’s homoerotic gym sequence sees the show’s main antagonist clench his firsts in fury next to his new girlfriend Cassie. Again in her trademark baby blue, Cassie’s Danielle Guizio scoop neck knit top highlights her regifted Tiffany & Co. Return to Tiffany Heart Tag Pendant — the exact necklace Nate gave to Maddy on her birthday.
After Nate kicks Cassie out of his house due to her sister’s cut-throat impression of him, Cassie hyperventilates through transparent glass, witnessing her life being portrayed on her high school stage, huffing and puffing straight rage.
