Anticipation is replaced with ambivalence as Euphoria S2 grinds to a painfully open end

By Saiba Haque, Second Year, Politics and Philosophy

The finale of the sophomore season of Euphoria has been as dramatic as one may expect; with a cliff-hanger that hooks the audience in anticipation for the third season which has already been green-lit, the finale of the season was emotionally resonant. However, it fails to leave a strong resolution with questions that could have been answered in its run-time.

Lexi continues her directorial debut for ‘Our Life” which we have seen in the penultimate episode. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) falls apart and causes a scene as she takes over the limelight of her sister’s (Lexi’s) play. Maddy (Alexa Demie) finally confronts Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) in a why which arguably satisfies the audience’s need for justice. On the note of confrontations, Nate (Jacob Elordi) finally seeks revenge on his father, Cal (Eric Dane) after finding him and calling the police on him.

The finale leaves a sense of nostalgia for the audience to linger on. Lexi’s (Maud Apatow) title of being the “the observer” truly comes to life with her play (which started on the penultimate episode) inspired by her real life friends. We get to see the story through a different narrative lens. Prior to this, most of the narrative of the story was controlled by the unreliable Rue (Zendaya). Therefore, Lexi’s more reliable rendering of the important events that were previously narrated by Rue, provides a fresh take on Lexi as a character. Along with Fez, season two has been a strong season for character growth in Lexi, where we learn that her burden of being the observer has resulted in her living in everyone else’s story rather than ‘living her own’.

Overall, this season has received its fair share of criticisms, and understandably so. Kat’s (Barbie Ferriera) character almost feels like a shell of herself throughout the whole season. We get a backstory for Cal, (Eric Dane) but nothing about the backstory explains why he started recording tapes. There is too much gratuitous nudity that doesn’t necessarily add much to the plot nor story. The pacing seems very slow (especially in the last two episodes) and often felt dragged out at parts. Alike Kat, Jules also had frustratingly little to do this season especially after the first three episodes.

Although there were some very strong performances this season, especially in the episode 'Stand still like a hummingbird', we see one of the strongest performances by Zendaya, and it’s hard to ignore the very little character development of some secondary characters, and dismissal of plot. Nevertheless, I appreciated the growth of Fez and Lexi’s characters this season, and the cinematography was beautiful.

Featured Image: A24, HBO, 8FLiX, Eddy Chen

What did you think of the Euphoria finale?