“I'm gonna getcha.” “No, I'm good. Stop. Come on, man.” “See? And I'm gonna getcha.”
“No, I'm good. I'm good.” “I'm gonna getcha.”
Euphoria Season 2 Episode 4 opened up with shots of Rue and Jules as the characters within
various types of art, including the Titanic and Sleeping Beauty. That was a play on Lexi’s
play. And Lexi’s play is going to me more of a doozy than we previously thought. According
to the auditions, some of the lines of dialogue in her play are things that she and her sister
Cassie said verbatim. On top of that, Lexi has changed their names, but one of the auditioners
said the name “McKay,” so there’s a chance that Lexi hasn’t changed every character’s
name. That is bad news. “What happened with McKay?”
In real life, Lexi has always been an observer, and she continued to be one in this episode.
Lexi peaked around the bend when Kat delivered a funny line about Cassie’s bathing suit.
“Well, that was certainly a choice.” Lexi followed Cassie outside and asked her
if she was okay, and she watched Cassie fall into the hot tub later on. So Lexi is still
observing, and who knows whether she is still adding stuff to her play.
Early in the episode, Cassie told Nate that she is not a good person and that she doesn’t
like what they are doing. We don’t know whether or not Lexi overheard that conversation,
but there are plenty of clues to suggest that Lexi does know what is going on between Cassie
and Nate. First, Lexi looked over with intrigue as Cassie
hugged Maddy. And later, Lexi hid her face behind Kat’s in the group photo. It’s
almost as if she knows that things are going to blow at up at some point, and she does
not want to be caught on record as being fake. Speaking of fake. In the opening scene, Rue
was hooking up with Jules and she yelled out a fake proclamation of euphoria. Jules asked
Elliot about it, and he agreed that it seemed fake. That led to them hooking up for the
first time. So now we officially have a second secret love triangle. But this one is different
since Rue is more concerned with drugs than anything else.
Elliot and Jules snuck a kiss while Rue snuck off to do a line in the bathroom. Afterwards,
Elliot kissed Rue as a Dare in Truth or Dare. Jules was a little jealous. But the question
is: jealous of whom? Was she more jealous that Elliot got to kiss Rue? Or was she more
jealous that Rue got to kiss Elliot? The three of them decided to steal some alcohol,
and on the ride home, Rue and Jules began to drink. Elliot warned Rue that she shouldn’t
be drinking while she was on drugs, but that quick conversation went over Jules’s head.
She did not yet realize that Rue was high. When Jules began to question Rue, Rue asked
Elliot to drop her off, and then she said something very hurtful to Jules:
“Drop me off, please.” “Why?” “Because I can't f*ckin' stand you.”
When Jules got back to Elliot’s, she took a shower, and at first, I was led to believe
that she was washing herself clean of Rue. But that’s not the case, or at least, not
entirely the case. After all, when she went into Elliot’s closet, she checked her phone.
So in theory, she was still thinking about Rue. She may have checked her phone in hopes
of seeing an apology. But there was none to be seen.
Jules then tried to hook up with Elliot, but he felt bad for the ongoing deception, so
he told her the truth. That he and Rue had been doing drugs together. This scared Jules,
so she shed a tear and walked off. Meanwhile, Rue took 4 pills, which is presumably
a lot. She then entered a vision of a church, hugged the priest, and began to envision the
priest as her father. Rue apologized to her father for letting him down, claiming that
she is not a good person. The good news is that this all happened while she slow danced
by herself, so she didn’t overdose. At least, not yet. But the night had just begun. So
we will find out next week what came of that. Speaking of fathers, an argument could be
made that the reason that Cassie gets so attached to young men is because she loved her father
and misses him dearly. As a reminder, Cassie’s father got severely injured drunk driving
although she may not know the truth to that story. Regardless, it happened. And it almost
happened again to the father of another family. Cal knows that his eldest son, Aaron, has
secrets in terms of his browser history. And in the last episode, Cal learned that Nate
has secrets as well: “Your son? The one that's in love with Jewel?”
“Aw, that's cute.” “That's not cute, man. What the f*ck?” “What?”
Because of that revelation, Cal drank. Then he went out to party. Cal nearly crashed several
times on the way to the bar, and it’s worth noting that, on his way there, Cal passed
Elliot and Co. So he easily could have killed them as well as many others on the street
that night. Not cool. Putting that aside though, Cal was a pretty
funny drunk. “Wear a seatbelt.” “Ok, Dad.”
At the bar, Cal threw on Sinead O’Conner’s “Drink before the War,” and a nice little
guy came over for a dance. Cal hallucinated and imagined that that guy was his childhood
best friend, Derek. Meanwhile, in a reality far, far away, Nate and Maddy watched Cassie
drunkenly dance to the same song. But let’s actually take a step back. In
the prior episode, Cassie tried so hard to get Nate to notice her. And little does she
now, her bathing suit did the trick. Nate told Maddy that he was going to leave, but
he had a change of heart when he saw Cassie come outside. What a bad, bad boy.
“Well, there's a difference between what you think you should want, and what you actually
want.” Maddy and Nate got into an argument about
their relationship status, and Maddy said stuff that would make Cassie want to figuratively
throw up. “I don't deserve you. But I love you. Please,
when I go to college, move with me. Marry me. Have my babies.”
Cassie didn’t just figuratively throw up, she went the extra step. It was pretty gross.
Afterwards, Cassie apologized to Maddy for everything, but of course, Maddy still has
no idea what Cassie was actually referring to.
In a prior episode, Maddy was enraptured by the mother for whom she babysits, and in this
episode, Maddy looked out at the father and child playing in the pool. So presumably,
Maddy is dreaming of a similar future and family with Nate. And Nate continues to lead
her on, evidenced by the way in which he wrapped the towel around her as Cassie was led upstairs
in embarrassment. But let’s be real, staying together would be a terrible idea for both
Maddy and Nate. They would end up just like Cal and Marsha.
When Cal got home, he peed in the entry way. In other words, he destroyed his home. He
then went on to destroy his home in a figurative sense through his much needed, but ill-planned
coming out party. Cal was brutally honest, and Marsha’s response
confirmed our suspicions that she has known since the beginning.
Cal made a really good point to his sons, in that, if he had said that he’d hooked
up with a hot female stripper, his sons wouldn’t have been one-tenth as appalled as they were
upon hearing that he’d slept with men. “You wouldn't be standin' here saying, ‘Dad,
what are you talkin' about?’ You'd be like, ‘Dad, don't say that in front of Mom.’"
It was a solid point. And he also pointed out the obvious.
“She was a freak... and a f*ckin' fox. Marsha... you were a f*ckin' fox!”
Putting the funny stuff aside, the most important thing that Cal said was this:
“Living a double life? Not my biggest regret. You are.”
Who was he referring to? This is a shot of Cal when he was speaking
to his wife, Marsha. But this is the shot of him pointing to his biggest regret. Therefore,
Cal thinks of Nate as his biggest regret, but what does that mean? Does Cal regret having
a second son? Maybe. But, for now, I tend to believe that Cal is referring to the fact
that he sees so much of himself in Nate. And he feels like a failure of a father.
“I know that you're angry. I'm so sorry I f*cked you up with my double life.”
When Cal left the bar, John Wayne blinked at him. And when he got home, he referred
to himself as another famous fictional rogue cowboy:
“You know what you three assholes are lookin' at? The man with no name.”
So Cal thinks of himself as a Rogue. And on top of that, he feels like a failed father.
So although his speech may have left them feeling differently, Cal loves his family.
That’s why he grabbed the family photo. He turned and walked through his own pee-pee,
just as he had walked through the puddle outside the bar. And here’s where it gets interesting.
Cal told his sons: “I'll see you assholes later.”
But … will he? The first time that Cal drove off drunk, Nate told him:
“Wear a seatbelt.” “Ok, Dad.” But this time, Nate said nothing.
So Cassie walked out on Nate in this episode. And Cal walked out on Nate twice, which begs
the question: will Cal survive his second drunken drive of the night?
In the final montage, Fez stayed up all night, concerned that Mouse’s baby momma had been
asking questions. Jules spent the night with Elliot, Elliot stood below a cross inside
a church, and Maddy laid arms out in a pool. Symbols of sacrifices.
To be fair, the montage also included a quick clip of the construction yard, so that may
be a clue that Cal makes it there safely. But we won’t know until next week. So for
now … “this is farewell.”