‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: Happier Than Ever

In the Euphoria Season 2 Episode 2, Maddie (Alexa Demie) says something revealing to Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). After the latter says she’s going to stay single for awhile. “Bitch, I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” she says. “Because you love to be loved.” Now, Maddie’s no prolific speech-giver. And yet, she’s just broken down the entire situation in Episode 3. In Episode 2, Nate professes his love for Cassie. In Episode 3, she parrots the feeling right back to him — only, she’s not in love with Nate as a person. She’s enamored by his love for her. The backstory open might not be focused on her, but this is Sydney Sweeney’s episode, plain and simple. More on that later.

The opening monologue hones in on Cal Jacobs (Elias Kacavas), the first grown-up to earn a backstory of his own. And while I spent last week’s recap lamenting Cal’s overbearing presence in Euphoria so far, the third episode reverses my feeling entirely. Cal’s backstory, laying out his obsessive feelings towards BFF Derek (Henry Eikenberry), is a raw, tender stab at the heart of folks who may have iced out the character. While the backstory doesn’t seem to add a whole lot to the kids’ plots, it adds some texture to Cal’s growing storyline, which comes in handy as he’s layered into their stories more.

Cal’s cold open of ’80s-era dancing shifts right into a brilliant Rue (Zendaya) dance sequence — the music is spectacular in this episode — but she’s high, so it’s a little unsettling. She’s caught in the kitchen by Gia (Storm Reid). But it’s a fake out, a Rue-se, if you will, because Gia already knows Rue is getting high. She just doesn’t know on what. To reveal this, Rue spins into one of her personas. No, we’re not back with Detective Rue quite yet, but remember the Dick Pic Dilemma in Season 1? It’s that Rue, flinging around a pointer at a ’00s era projector in order to explain her current drug situation. Rotating between harrowing scenes with Gia and manic  powerpoints, Rue’s return to chaos feels, in a weird way, triumphant.

But on the flip side of Rue’s storyline, Jules (Hunter Schafer) and Elliot (Dominic Fike) are bogging everything down. What started off as a tense love triangle has somehow morphed into a bizarro friendship between the three, in which the stakes feel surprisingly low. Jules now approves of Elliot, so the three kind of hang out. What happened to hanging out with Kat (Barbie Ferreira), Jules? I’m trying to get into this new Elliot storyline, but honestly, this just feels like a stalled-out version of Season 1’s arc between Rue and Jules. This isn’t anything new.

What is new, on the other hand, is Sydney Sweeney’s gonzo performance as Cassie — I promised we’d get back to it! — who forces herself out of bed every morning at 4 a.m. to get ready for Nate (Jacob Elordi). She primps, presses, rolls, moisturizes, and manicures herself each day to earn winning looks of love from Nate, who, naturally, never reciprocates in the hallways of their high school. Slowly driving herself mad, Cassie’s masterful morning routine will singe itself into your memory as something of the likes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s first episode out-of-bed-before-he-wakes morning shebang.

As if that weren’t enough, there’s a bathroom scene I could watch over and over again that cements the episode as an all-timer. (Apparently, Euphoria‘s digging the loo this season.) A flurry of plotlines collide at once in that fateful, dingy high school bathroom. For one: Lexi (Maude Apatow) introduces her play, a show that seems more anti-Oklahoma! than autobiography. Rue, on the other hand, is getting some inspiration for a new drug dealing plot that would snag her more heroine. And then, to top it all off, Cassie waltzes in sporting an over-the-top western get-up that, yes, looks straight out of Oklahoma. “Are you auditioning?” one of her pals asks. Cassie freaks. I stopped breathing the moment she started yelling all the scandalous details about her and Nate — a fake-out — and didn’t start again until everyone had exited to return to sixth period.

Lexi’s play gives Episode 3 more pizzaz, a detail that’ll surely spin things out of control in the episodes to come. Right now, it’s just funny. Lexi, tired of the antics brought on by the school’s production of Oklahoma! (thousands of theater kids suffer, yearly, at the hands of Oklahoma!), decides to stage her own play. This is not something that would ever be allowed in a real high school, but at Euphoria High School, anything goes. The subplot is entertaining on its own, but to really spotlight Lexi’s theater-kid insanity, we get a fake “look into the show.” This, paired with Cassie’s bathroom freak out, emphasizes what I was saying in last week’s recap: the Howard sisters own Euphoria Season 2 so far.

Even though Nate ignores Cassie in the hallways — the only time he notices her, an exquisite detail, is when she wears an outfit identical to Maddie’s — he’s still railing her after hours every Friday. A brilliant line from Nate’s parents, as he overhears the pair moaning and groaning upstairs: “What I wouldn’t give to be back in high school,” his mother says, earning a sorrowful sigh from Cal. Get it? Because of Derek? Oh, and speaking of Cal: his chaos parallels that of Cassie. Nate is driving these people berserk. In a fit of rage, Cal rolls up to Fez’s (Angus Cloud) house, demanding the tape. Fez doesn’t have it. So, Cal knows two things: his son is lying, and the tape is still out there, somewhere.

In the end, Euphoria seems to tie up its love triangles. Jules and Elliot chat together without Rue, who is off on a drug-dealing escapade. And then we’re faked out again, a move that’s becoming eyeroll-inducing, as Nate drives to pick up Cassie with a bouquet of flowers. Psych: he’s going to win over Maddie instead, heading over to pick her up from babysitting. While it’s easy to scream at Nate for this douche-y move, let’s remember: Nate loves Cassie. He hates Maddie. Could he be doing this to protect Cassie from Maddie’s bedazzled claws? Or would that be giving him too much credit?

Hot Gossip From East Highland High

Some stray strands of tittle-tattle we’re expecting to hear more about in the episodes to come.

• Rue’s Drug Dealing: This, obviously, isn’t going to end well — but while she pitches her idea to Lori, Rue mentions using three well-rounded girls to help her. Who might this be?
• What’s Going On With Kat? As predicted, poor Kat’s storyline has been reduced to what Lexi was in Season 2. She meets Ethan’s parents, flops, and that’s about all we see of her in Episode 3. Please, let’s cut some of Rue/Elliot/Jules to get to our FanFiction Queen.
• Ethan, the Big Star: Ethan (Austin Abrams) landed a role in Lexi’s play! Now, since it’s based on Lexi’s life, who the hell is he playing? Nate? FEZ?!?
• Elliot and Jules: While I mentioned this at the end of the recap, it’s worth noting again. These two have a lot of chemistry. The big question here, I’d say: what happens when Jules finds out about all the drugs shared between Elliot and Rue?