Euphoria's divisive finale glosses over an important message about drug epidemic affecting millions of Americans
Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction, which some readers may find distressing.
Warning: major spoilers ahead for the Euphoria finale
After three seasons, 26 episodes, and a whopping seven years, HBO's Euphoria has come to an end. Making household names of Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Jacob Elordi, Sam Levinson's sex-fuelled teen drama has never been afraid of controversy.
At the core of the story was Zendaya's Rue Bennett, a young girl battling with drug addiction and pushing away those who are closest to her. While early parts of Rue's arc were praised for their psychological reality, critics have called out Euphoria for potentially glamorizing the abuse of drugs.
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While season 2 of the streaming hit ended with a more hopeful Rue on the straight and narrow, the long-awaited third (and now final) season saw her drawn back into this dark world. Levinson and HBO have confirmed this is the end of the road for Euphoria, and while that also means it's the end of the road for these characters, that's even more literal for some of them.
What happened to Rue in the Euphoria finale?
After besting the villainous Laurie (Martha Kelly) at her compound, and injured Rue escaped to find help from Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). The strip club-owning drug lord looked like he was coming out on top, and in addition to taking hold of Laurie's fentanyl shipment, he’d discovered Rue's bargain with the DEA. Knowing that Rue was likely to relapse, he gave her a bottle of Percocet and saw her on the way. Turning up at the house of her sponsor, Ali (Colman Domingo), Rue took Alamo's pills but was unaware he'd purposefully laced them with lethal amounts of fentanyl.
Euphoria already drummed up controversy with scenes earlier in the season where Rue was used as a drug mule to smuggle fentanyl, which has been described as a 'weapon of mass destruction' by President Donald Trump.
Said to be 100 times more potent than morphine, fentanyl comes with plenty of warnings. Despite this, a National Survey on Drug Use and Health (via Science Direct) reported that some 0.4% of people misuse fentanyl every year in the USA. More worryingly, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that 70,000 Americans fatally overdose on synthetic opioids because a lethal dose can be as minute as 2 milligrams. Considering fentanyl is often mixed into other street drugs like cocaine or pressed into fake prescription pills, stories like Rue's are far too common.
UNILADTech spoke to Bonnie Lambert, LMFT, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at Crestview Recovery, about what Euphoria got right and wrong with Rue's untimely demise.
Specializing in the intersection of mental health and addiction treatment, Lambert warned: "Fentanyl still belongs to the deadliest substances causing the overdose epidemic in the USA."
Reminding us of its potency compared to morphine and how even a minuscule dose can lead to the threat of an overdose, she reiterated that those who are new to opioids are most at risk.
Like we said above, Lambert added: "It should be noted that fentanyl can appear in various products unsuspecting users would not expect to contain this dangerous ingredient. Therefore, the main factor explaining high numbers of overdosed patients in America is their unawareness.
“It cannot be ruled out that many victims actually had another substance in mind when using their drugs."
Euphoria prioritizes a flashy finale over the more tragic aspect of Rue
Still, Lambert praised the finale, saying: "Despite the fact that television shows like Euphoria cannot fully convey reality, they may be useful in the matter. Such shows may help to initiate discussions on topics relating to substance abuse and overdosing.
“Moreover, one may find out that it is not a question of morals and personal will, but a problem of mental health."
She confirms that fentanyl overdoses can occur in any patient regardless of their social status, which is somewhat represented by Rue envisioning her loving mother as she actually lay dying on Ali's sofa. In reality, Leslie Bennett (Nika King) had become estranged from Rue as she decided to prioritize her other daughter, Gia (Storm Reid).
While it would've been easy to leave Rue's story here with a somber finale where Ali still ends up having to deliver the tragic news to Leslie, Levinson couldn't help but up the ante as he went on a mission of vengeance against Alamo.
Despite Euphoria always being a glossy show that lives slightly outside the realms of reality, it feels like it lost some of its message by delivering a blood-soaked showdown at Alamo's Silver Slipper Club. It's also not hard to spot the similarities to Breaking Bad's lauded finale.
Sam Levinson says Euphoria's finale was 'always' going to happen that way
While we can't knock Euphoria for at least highlighting some of the dangers of fentanyl, it was odd to lose Rue as the show's MVP some 45 minutes into this 88-minute epic. Even though Domingo is undoubtedly a brilliant actor and carried the burden of seeing the TV series off with ease, some of Rue's impact was lost under a hail of bullets. According to Levinson, it was always going to go down this way, telling The New York Times it was a story about "addiction and its consequences."
Another tragic turn that might've been lost on viewers is that Rue's demise was a purposeful tribute to the death of Fezco actor Angus Cloud. Cloud died of a fentanyl-related overdose while the final season was being written.
While it's easy to accuse Levinson of losing this message, he was at least trying to highlight the dangers of fentanyl. Saying it's an issue he's broached in earlier seasons and even in his first film (2011's Another Happy Day), the Euphoria creator concluded: "Most people don’t get a second chance. Fentanyl can just take you out in an instant. It wasn’t like when I was growing up; you could literally take pills off the street and you might have a bad trip or something, but you’d be fine.
“This is something that hits close to home for a lot of people in this country. So it felt like the responsible thing to do.
You've got to applaud Euphoria for the idea that the consequences Rue faced in high school are far more dangerous when out there in the adult world, but with such a chance to highlight the opioid epidemic, you've got to ask what the finale will really be remembered for.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (313) 209-9137 24/7, or contact them through their website.