Episode 3 laid the foundations for what will be yet another downfall arc for Rue.
Here’s how it went down.
The episode opens on Cal Jacobs, high schooler.
Rue narrates the extended sequence, saying Cal spent every day with his best friend,
Derick.
The two drive around listening to INXS, they attend wrestling practice together, they meet
girls, they date girls, and then they graduate.
All the while, the two share intimate, increasingly-tense moments, which culminate in a gay bar kiss
on a rainy summer night before college.
And then the summer of love is shattered by a phone call.
Cal learns that his girlfriend is pregnant, presumably, with Nate.
He cries.
Rue dances around her house to a song playing in her head.
She’s spotted by her sister who asks if she is high.
Rue then pauses to explain to the audience in an extended fourth-wall-breaking sequence
that she is in fact high; however, she has a cover.
Realizing that there’s no way to fully hide her drug usage, she has decided to plant the
idea of her using weed in the minds of her friends and family.
Both Jules and her sister buy Rue’s ruse, and they chalk her fluctuating emotions up
to weed usage.
With this knowledge, Jules forgives Rue for hiding her relationship with Elliot.
Still, Jules believes Elliot just wants to sleep with Rue, and she interrogates Elliot
to find out.
The two exchange accusations of sexual promiscuousness but seem to get along.
Jules discovers that Elliot doesn’t rigidly classify his sexuality, having relations with
both genders.
The three appear to become friends and begin hanging out.
Sexuality comes up often in their conversations.
When Rue is away, Jules and Elliot discuss sex drive.
Elliot discovers that Rue and Jules are not sexually active.
He tells Jules that he first assumed Rue might be asexual and asks how Rue’s sex drive
has impacted their relationship, given Jules previously admitted she is a more sexual person
than Rue.
Elliot then says he’s attracted to Jules and proceeds to validate her.
(It’s insinuated that Rue has not said these things to Jules.)
The camera lingers, suggesting that the two are Having a Moment.
We’ll see how this plays out in future episodes.
Lexi has been writing a play ever since the tense convenience store confrontation between
Fez and Cal.
Lexi realized her lack of intervention stems from her being mostly an observer.
She begins writing about her observations—particularly her relationship with her sister Cassie and
their dysfunctional family.
The play will be put on by the school, leading to a mock behind the scenes sequence of Lexi
explaining to the audience (us) her idea of casting the side character as the main character.
The sequence features mock BTS interviews with Rue, who is playing a side character.
It’s all very meta and seems to echo a previous point made by Rue in her own fourth wall break
when she said people seek comfort in entertainment/television (referencing the very show that she is in,
Euphoria, and HBO.)
If ever there was a scene screaming for film students to analyze it, this would be that
scene.
Meanwhile, Cassie has been waking up at 4AM to spend more time on herself.
Her self-care routine, however, is also designed for Nate to notice her in the halls.
He does not.
Cassie convinces herself Nate is actual a sartorially attentive man, and the sequence
ends with Cassie and Maddy walking side by side wearing the same outfit.
Cassie then runs off when she realizes Maddy realizes.
Later in the episode, Cassie begins to silently break down and comes close to telling Maddy
that she’s in love with Nate.
She later tells Maddy that she (Maddy) deserves someone who actually cares about her (Maddy),
even though it is she (Cassie) who believes she (Cassie) deserves someone who actually
cares about her (Cassie).
We then cut to scenes of Nate definitely not actually caring about her (Cassie).
Fantasies of compassionate sex are interrupted by Nate being a fucking creep and hooking
up with Cassie while his parents listen downstairs.
What the hell is this show?
At the end of the episode, Nate shows up at Maddy’s babysitting house with a bouquet
of flowers.
Realizing she cannot financially sustain her drug habit, Rue propositions Fez (who refuses)
and then later Fez’s plug (the laconic woman from that scary apartment) to use her to sell
drugs.
(Instead of just, you know, getting a legal job to make money.)
She says she can avoid harsher sentencing because she’s underage and suggests that
because her friends are worried about college admission, they won’t narc.
The woman—who knows Rue is an addict—inexplicably gives her a shot, providing her with $10,000
worth of drugs in a totally inconspicuous black suitcase.
On her way out, the woman tells Rue that if Rue loses her any money, she will kidnap Rue
and sell her to “some real sick people.”
Rue later takes the totally inconspicuous suitcase to NA where Ali confronts her outside.
Rue (after learning about Alli’s past during that diner episode) calls Ali a bad father,
causing him to give Rue an ultimatum: if she disrespects him again, he’s done with her.
Rue disrespects him again, mentioning his previous domestic violence.
Ali leaves.
Rue sits alone in her room and begins to get high on her own supply.
Here we go again.
After learning Nate does not have the tape, Cal goes to see Fez.
Ashtray repeatedly pistol whips Cal with a shotgun as Fez interrogates him.
Cal, assuming Fez has the tape and has been blackmailing Nate (an accusation, we’re
made to believe, which came from Nate), asks Fez to return it.
Fez, only just now learning that Cal had sex with an underage Jules, and realizing that
Nate has sicked his father on him, drops the bomb: Nate is in love with Jules.
Cal is utterly perplexed.
Fez is utterly perplexed.
Fez allows an utterly perplexed Cal to leave.
The tables have turned on Nate.