“Art should be dangerous.”
The Euphoria Season 2 Finale was yet another homerun.
Faye proved to not only be a loyal friend, but witty as well by dropping the glass so
that she could secretly give Fez a heads up not to out himself.
Fez had an insightful conversation with Lexi about social media and getting to know people’s
true character.
We also learned that Lexi is really good story teller, but she can’t do math because 30
to 58 is 28 years.
The number she was looking for was 48.
But in her defense, when Fez asked Lexi if she was glad that they had become friends,
her word voice was adorable.
“Yeah... very much so.”
“Very much so.”
Who says that?
She’s pretty funny.
And although the episode was laugh out loud type funny several times, it was a pretty
serious episode with both ups and downs.
“Sometimes people need to get their feelings hurt.”
Most of the subplots centered on the concepts of support, forgiveness, and rebirth.
Case in point, Lexi’s play.
Cassie came in hot in more ways than one.
She walked up on stage and caused a scene.
For a bit, some of the crowd wondered if she was part of the play.
It became obvious to most, though not all, when Maddy started yelling out.
And when she ran up on stage, the musical score was that of a circus.
Very fitting.
All in all, the crowd loved it.
“Close the curtain!
Close the f*cking curtain!
Now!”
Lexi felt a failure, but Bobbi comforted her.
Then Rue started a chant in the funniest way possible.
“Lexi, Lexi, Lexi!”
“Lexi, Lexi, Lexi!
Lexi, Lexi!”
Lexi heard the support of the crowd, and so did the rest of her cast.
That was a terrific moment.
They felt appreciated possibly for the first time ever.
With the crowd’s support, they sucked it up and got back to it.
And that was the major them of this episode, the theme of their lives, and the theme of
our lives.
Forgive others, forgive yourself, and keep on going.
One step at a time.
“The show goes on.”
Sometime before the play, Rue had gone over to Elliot’s, seemingly to apologize, but
it was a lot deeper than that.
Rue went over there to forgive him, which was confusing at first.
Shouldn’t she have been thanking him for ratting her out to her mother?
No.
Well, yes.
But that wasn’t what Rue was referring to.
Rue was referring to his influence on her.
Ever since they first met, Elliot had been a bad influence on her.
And she to him.
To his credit, he said as much from the beginning, and he still believes it to be true.
Rue is fighting to be sober, whereas Elliot is still doing drugs.
So their lives are going in different directions, but it was cool for Rue to tell him that she
forgives him because it shows that Rue is taking responsibility for her own choices.
It wasn’t all his fault.
But with that said, Rue is now making better choices, so she has decided to move on from
their friendship while she works on staying sober.
She made a similar choice with Jules albeit for different reasons.
Lexi’s play hit on Rue’s father’s death, and it hit her hard so, afterwards, Jules
came over to support her.
Surprisingly, I had held it together up until this point of the episode, but it got dusty
over here when Jules said the same things that she had said during the intervention.
“I just wanted to tell you that I love you.
And I miss you.”
Rue didn’t even respond, at least, not with words.
She kissed Jules and walked away, and that was a good thing.
A great thing.
Rue is finally taking the advice of Ms. Marsha and Ali.
“But…
I had to not be in a relationship, so that I could focus on my sobriety.”
And although Jules is hurting now, a break from Rue may prove to be a good thing for
her as well.
“One day we'll meet again.”
Nate also chose to leave someone behind.
His father Cal.
On back of his breakdown, Cal went to his warehouse and escaped in a bender of sex and
booze.
He tricked himself into believing that he was happier, but it was just an illusion.
A mask.
A patch.
A quick fix.
But Cal sobered up pretty quickly when his son Nate arrived.
We found out what Nate’s nightmare meant, or at least, one thing that it meant.
Nate had grown up in fear of his father.
So he rode up to the warehouse with a gun in hand and thoughts of revenge on this mind.
Nate was tempted to kill him, but he held back, which was a good thing since Nate had
already ratted out Cal to the cops.
What Nate ratted him out for is unclear, but Nate did hold up a thumb drive, claiming that
he has everything on it.
But does he?
I’d like to believe that he told Jules the truth.
That the CD that he gave her was the sole copy of her footage.
And we don’t know for sure whether or not Nate gave that thumb drive to the police.
But either way, Cal has been taken into custody for something.
So for the time being, Nate is free of the fear of his father returning.
A callback to the same feeling that Lexi had had for her father.
While one door closed, another was broken down, but let’s take a step back.
Faye dropped the class so as to secretly tell Fez to keep his mouth shut, but Ash didn’t
know what was up.
And Ash is a little psycho.
So he freaked out and killed Custer at the worst time possible.
Fez covered Custer’s mouth until he died so that the police would not hear him, then
he tossed Custer’s phone into a drink.
Fez smacked Ash and told him that he was going to take the fall, but Ash would not have it.
So Ash bunkered up in the bathroom, prepared not only for battle.
But prepared to die.
“I hate guns.”
The smoke grenade startled Ash, causing him to shoot recklessly.
One of his first shots ripped through Fez’s gut.
The SWAT team fired back.
Dozens and dozens of bullets flying over Fez’s head.
“Ash!”
Eventually, Ash went silent.
He played possum then rose like a phoenix, raining fire onto his enemy.
Very sad.
This kid lived a hard life, and he chose to go out via suicide by cop.
And Fez saw it with his own eyes.
“Nobody's ever got shot at and thought to they-self, ‘Whoa!
Thank goodness we didn't have a gun to shoot back.’”
Naturally, Fez is going to feel like a failure.
The silver lining for us is that, in theory, the truth may come out due to Ash’s sacrifice
and, if so, Fez may stay out of prison.
Just as Cassie had walked over the “Our Life” playbill, the cops walked over Lexi’s
“Our Life” invite.
Not once, but twice.
Now, the ending Maddy had smashed Cassie into the wall, but
off-screen, they made up.
And Maddy told Cassie that: “This was just the beginning.”
in terms of Nate breaking up with her.
That suggests that Maddy expects Cassie to make the same mistakes that she did by giving
Nate another shot.
Of course, he may not even be interested in that.
But regardless, the main takeaway is that Maddy is no longer mad at Cassie, and more
importantly, she herself has finally moved on from Nate.
Nate has moved on from Cal, and Rue has moved on from Elliot and Jules.
But that does not mean that Rue is alone.
A couple days before Rue’s father passed away, he told her that if she ever wanted
to be with him, all she would have to do is close her eyes and they would be together.
Historically, Rue has visited him while doing drugs.
But during the play, she took his advice and just closed her eyes.
Sober.
After the play, Rue called up her old friend Lexi and asked her if she could come over.
“Yeah.
Totally.”
Ali once told Rue that she is not beyond forgiveness.
“That punishment is way too harsh, and it’s also way too easy.”
Ali went on to tell Rue that she needs to forgive herself, and that has begun to happen.
When Rue got to Lexi’s, she thanked Lexi for the play, saying that it was the first
time she was able to look at her life and not hate herself.
That sounds awfully close to forgiveness.
Ali would be proud.
“The thought of maybe being a good person is what keeps me trying to be a good person.”
“Maybe there’s something to that.”