The following article contains spoilers for the HBO show Euphoria, as well as disturbing videos and discussions of gun violence, sexual assault, rape, homophobia, and drug addiction.
HBO's teen drama, Euphoria, was popular before it even premiered, and now that Season 3 is filming, everyone is even more invested. The show has gained quite the following with its notable sardonic humor, intriguing cinematography, and abundance of bisexual lighting. However, as binge-worthy as the show is, it's still extremely heavy material.
Euphoria explores addiction, sex and sexual identity, physical and mental abuse, and coming of age in a world that is dying. Like life, it is funny, and it is sad, it is dark, and it is light, and at times it is just plain traumatizing. To prepare for Season 3, let's check out the Euphoria scenes that lean more towards traumatizing.
Euphoria
TV-MARelease Date June 19, 2019 Creator Sam Levinson Cast Maude Apatow , Eric Dane , Nika Williams , Sydney Sweeney Main Genre Drama Seasons 312 Rue Bennett Hurts Ali Muhammed
"Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys" (Season 2, Episode 3)
The show has made it clear that Rue (masterfully played by Zendaya) has a tendency to hurt those around her, especially friends and family offering support. This is why it shouldn't have been too surprising that it was bound to happen to her friend and supporter in recovery, Ali (Colman Domingo).
When Ali points out that Rue is carrying a suitcase that obviously isn't full of books, Rue just isn't having it. She snaps back and uses personal details Ali shared with her in confidence to hurt him, highlighting how manipulative and toxic she can be. The interaction clearly affects Ali, who understandably draws the line there.
11 Nate Jacobs Stalks and Beats Tyler
"Stuntin' Like My Daddy" (Season 1, Episode 2)
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This is an important moment in the first few episodes because it is one of the first instances that exhibit Nate's (Jacob Elordi) true nature. A show like Euphoria doesn't typically categorize its characters into "good" or "bad," but Nate (who appears several times on this list) is definitely not a character that anyone should be rooting for.
After Maddy (Alexa Demie) has sex with Tyler (Lukas Gage) in the pilot (one of the memorable Euphoria sex scenes), Nate follows him home and puts him in the hospital. Nate insists that Tyler had raped Maddy because she was drunk. Unfortunately, the audience knows that this isn't the case. Nate's actions, which he sells as heroic attempts to protect Maddy, are really just violent for the sake of violence.
10 Mouse Forces Rue Bennett to Take Fentanyl
"Stuntin Like My Daddy" (Season 1, Episode 2)
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While Rue immediately relapses after being released from rehab, she hasn't ever touched fentanyl, that is until a drug dealer higher up than beloved Fez (Angus Cloud) comes along. Rue happens to be there when Mouse (Meeko Gattuso) drops by Fez's place, and the scene is tense. While Fez is preparing for the possibility that this exchange might get violent, Mouse is harassing Rue and pushing fentanyl on her.
After he practically forces the drugs down her throat in the shocking TV scene, Mouse demands $300, which she doesn't have, and he adamantly refuses Fez's attempts to pay for it. It's an uncomfortable scene to watch, and the amount of drugs Mouse forces on Rue puts her out for one to two days, until Fez has to call Jules (Hunter Schafer) to come and get her.
9 Rue Bennett's Hoodie
"And Salt the Earth Behind You" (Season 1, Episode 8)
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Rue's trademark maroon hoodie, which appears in every single episode of Season 1, delivers a huge emotional punch in the gut in the season 1 finale. In it, it is revealed that the hoodie belonged to Rue's father, adopted by her after his death, and she's had it ever since. It's a chilling revelation, and it is made all the more heartbreaking with a prior scene between Jules and Rue, where Jules asks when the last time Rue didn't wear that hoodie was.
The way the flashback scene is shot and intercut with the present, as well as the score and Zendaya's mighty acting chops make for a moment that hurts the heart. There are many times in the series when fans feel for Rue, but none more so than when she is a 14-year-old girl, watching her father's body being taken away as she wraps herself in his oversized hoodie.
8 Cal Jacobs' Walk Down Memory Lane
"You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can" (Season 2, Episode 4)
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Season 2 of Euphoria gives some insight into Cal's (Eric Dane) character, and like almost everything else in this show, it hurts. In a flashback sequence, fans learn that Cal was in love with Derek (Henry Eikenberry), his best friend in high school, but was unable to act on it after an unplanned pregnancy drastically changed his life trajectory.
This episode sees Cal drunkenly re-living his past as he takes out his old car and visits the bar where Derek took him before their paths diverted. It is a heartbreaking moment when Cal slow dances to a song, imagining Derek is there with him. While Cal isn't the best person in the world, this scene still tugs at the heartstrings. After all, Cal didn't mean to raise a male Cersei Lannister as a son.
7 Cal and Nate Jacobs' Physical Altercation
"And Salt the Earth Behind You" (Season 1, Episode 8)
It is assumed that Cal wasn't a good father, considering he raised a son like Nate, and many of Cal's actions throughout the first season seem to reinforce this. Viewers never see any physical abuse though, until the season 1 finale. The scene has Cal confronting his son about his inability to control himself, and it gets violent.
After a very intense struggle between the two men, Nate is thrown to the ground, and he bursts into tears. Nate may be a morally corrupt individual, but this scene is in no way fulfilling to the audience. As Nate sobs he petulantly bangs his head on the floor, completely devastated, audiences are left feeling sorry for him, rather than hating him. It is an extremely distressing scene to watch, and it only strengthens the animosity between father and son going into the second season.
6 Chris McKay Gets Hazed
"The Next Episode" (Season 1, Episode 6)
A secondary character's story in the series is highlighted in "The Next Episode," with McKay's (Algee Smith) difficult upbringing being in the spotlight. Fans finally see why McKay is the way he is as they watch his dad act more like a tough coach than a loving father. The immense pressure to be perfect and to never show weakness has been deeply ingrained in McKay, and influences his every decision.
This is why after he's violently assaulted by his future frat brothers, McKay pushes Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) away and only allows himself a short time to react to what just happened. The controversial moment showing a group of men interrupting McKay and Cassie's intimate moment before beating him up and shouting "McGay" has sparked debates online about what's actually going on – many speculated that it was actually a rape scene in Euphoria. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor clarifies that they "were fake humping him" and that it was the editing that made the scene look "really graphic."
5 Nate Jacobs Chokes Maddy Perez and Blackmails Jules Vaughn
"Shook Ones Pt II" (Season 1, Episode 4)
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A lot went down the night of the carnival. After Nate and Maddy get into a fight, Nate pushes her up against a trailer and chokes her, leaving some pretty nasty bruises on her neck. From the get-go, it is clear Maddy and Nate's relationship is toxic, but this is the first time Nate is physically abusive toward her, and it is one of many despicable moments for Nate's character.
Later in the episode, Nate meets Jules and threatens to send her nudes to the police and call her in for distributing child pornography. Nate gets violent for the second time that night when Jules provokes him. Nate's violence towards Maddy came from what she did to his mom and his violence against Jules came from what she has the potential to do to his dad, and yet he's never shown anything but disdain for both his parents.
4 Rue Bennett's Hallucination of Her Father
"You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can" (Season 2, Episode 4)
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After getting in a fight with Jules and Elliot (Dominik Fike), Rue stumbles home and takes more pills, getting even higher than she was throughout the whole episode. Once again she is thrown into a dream sequence where she enters a church and comes across her father. Well, he goes back and forth between being her father and being Labrinth.
Rue squeezes her dad tight as she apologizes for letting him down, for being a bad person, for being someone he doesn't know anymore. The scene shows how deeply Rue wants to change, and how heartbroken she is that she can't seem to do it. When taken back to reality, Rue is holding only herself, completely out of it, and completely alone. Sam Levinson needs to start taking it easy on his audience.
3 Rue Bennett Screams at Jules Vaughn
"Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" (Season 2, Episode 5)
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As far as chilling moments go, "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" is a cornucopia. The entire episode is distressing, but the most difficult moment is Rue's confrontation with Jules. The episode opens with Rue suffering from withdrawal as she discovers her mother has found out about her suitcase full of drugs, and Jules was the one who told her.
This episode sees Rue screaming at her mom, shoving her mom, shoving her sister, getting slapped by her mom, getting thrown out by her mom, getting thrown out by Fez, breaking into someone's house, and being chased by the cops onto a busy highway, but none of that really compares to the altercation that goes on between Rue and Jules. Up until this moment, their relationship has been a positive thing, and although a lot of their issues come to light in the second season, it is a huge shock to see Rue scream at and abuse Jules as she does in this scene. In Season 1 Rue was in love with Jules, and in Season 2 Rue is mainly concerned with drugs. It is a heartbreaking character transition and this episode is the pinnacle of it all.
2 Rue Bennett Relapses
"And Salt the Earth Behind You" (Season 1, Episode 8)
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After Rue is left by Jules at the train station in the Season 1 finale, she goes back to what she knows. Rue's relapse is upsetting, to say the least. She'd been keeping herself clean for the majority of Season 1 thanks to her relationship with Jules, and it's difficult to watch her fall apart like this.
This gritty scene in the powerful teen series evokes a feeling of twisted anguish as Rue finds herself in a surreal fantasy sequence in which she is flailing about her house, completely unable to control her own body. The sequence includes herself, her mother, her younger sister, and her late father as she attempts to show her love for her family while simultaneously being unable to get a handle on her actions. The scene comes fully together with the addition of Labrinth and Zendaya's "All For Us," a deeply eerie musical contribution.
1 Nate Jacobs Puts a Gun to Maddy Perez's Head... and His Own
"A Thousand Little Trees of Blood" (Season 2, Episode 6)
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Nate visits Maddy to retrieve the tape she took, the tape in question being the recording of Jules and Cal having sex, recorded without Jules' knowledge or permission. When Maddy denies having the tape, Nate threatens her with a gun. However, he doesn't just threaten to harm her, but himself as well.
This moment has a very violating and uncomfortable vibe. With Nate lying on top of the sobbing Maddy pointing a gun at her head, it is just plain disturbing. Nate's put Maddy through a lot, so fans can only hope that this is the final moment of their relationship, for Maddy's sake.
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