Euphoria special episode answers burning finale question

Euphoria ended on a cliffhanger with fans questioning whether or not the main star had died, but a bridge episode has set the record straight.

Euphoria is available to stream on Binge.

WARNING: Spoilers for Euphoria ‘Trouble Don’t Always Last,’ aka ‘Euphoria Special Episode Part 1: Rue’.

It’s hard to think about HBO’s Euphoria without picturing copious amounts of glitter, rotating cameras, scantily dressed “teens” grinding up against each other and haunting music playing on the soundtrack.

The series, created by Sam Levinson and based on the Israeli series of the same name, is so visually distinct that it essentially meme'd itself immediately, launching parodies and often mockery online.

Yet past the seemingly outrageous sexuality and hot-button storylines, Euphoria has always been so much more: A story of one girl’s addictions, and how she finds salvation – and perhaps damnation – through her love of another woman.

That’s what a special episode that debuted yesterday on Binge shows off. It strips away all the regular, flashier trappings of Euphoria, and instead lets the deep wells of feeling Zendaya is able to elicit with a single glance as Rue shine brighter than any club-style strobes ever could.

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Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn and Zendaya as Rue Bennett in Euphoria. Picture: Binge/HBO

In a way, ‘Trouble Don’t Always Last’ is a stunt of its own, though of the acting variety. After a brief introduction featuring an alternate reality where Rue left with Jules (Hunter Schafer) for the city at the end of Season 1, instead of staying on the train platform and relapsing, the majority of the episode is spent in a diner with an extended My Dinner With Andre-style conversation between Rue and her sponsor, Ali (Colman Domingo).

This puts to bed fan theories Rue’s big musical relapse at the end of the season was her dying.

Over the course of a mostly music-free hour, the two discuss addiction, family, god, race, and everything in between, leading to a moment of dark revelation by Rue that provides no closure, but does allow her to move a few inches forward.

And it is an absolute joy to watch two excellent actors bounce off each other. Zendaya rightly won an Emmy for her performance as Rue in Season 1, and it’s quite possible she could nab another nomination off this episode alone.

Watch the Euphoria special episode plus the entire first season of the award-winning drama. New customers get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly. Sign up at binge.com.au

Zendaya won an Emmy for Euphoria. Picture: Supplied/HBO

Domingo, who appeared briefly in Season 1, is probably best known for his standout role as Victor Strand on Fear the Walking Dead, but has a long history not only on TV and in film, but on the stage as well. The latter are the skills he brings here, as he prods Rue subtly (and not so subtly), trying to get to the root of her relapse.

Beyond the acting (and a bit more on that in a second), the episode also represents possibly the best use of COVID restrictions I’ve seen to date.

While some shows have struggled to produce Zoom meeting-style episodes, others have shown off sporadic mask wearing in between make-out sessions and action scenes, and others have ignored them (on screen, at least) entirely, Euphoria takes the idea of filming during COVID as a challenge, and rises to it.

Other than a brief interjection from a waitress at the diner played by Marsha Gambles, who sits at least six feet (1.8m) away from the other actors, the scenes are all one-on-one.

The bulk of the action is set inside a large, mostly empty diner, meaning the crew is able to keep their distance (even with angles that push in hard on Zendaya’s often inscrutable emotions, and Domingo’s expressive demeanour) and the actors are kept safe.

This is part of the world we’re living in right now, but I find it hard to watch TV without wondering what a show is doing behind the scenes.

With the way this Euphoria episode is set up, it’s the first time in months I’ve been able to view an episode of TV and push that idle thought of “are they going to be okay?” to the side, and instead focus on the fictional drama on screen.

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The focus on the actors also allows the crew to create some really beautiful, simple compositions.

Lighting has always been an important part of the series, but the way it’s subtly used in this hour helps emphasise the actors, instead of making them feel like part of a set piece (something the series occasionally does, and purposefully so).

Neon glittering through the diner window, or a haunting scene where Ali phones his kids for Christmas in the parking lot between the diner and a motel, highlight the feeling in the performers’ faces, letting you see every bit of Domingo’s expressive mouth as it flicks upwards in happiness, or downwards with frustration; or Zendaya’s eyes as she struggles to hold back her pain.

Even the music – or lack thereof – purposefully challenges how you view a “normal” episode of Euphoria.

The now familiar theme song doesn’t play until the end of the episode, and it’s about two-thirds of the way through when Rue listens to Moses Sumney’s Me in 20 Years.

It’s an almost hilariously on-the-nose choice in the middle of a conversation that focuses on Rue’s seeming lack of a future, and how Ali has been struggling with addiction for decades. While Rue sits at a table wondering whether life even has anything in store for her, Ali tries – and mostly fails – to connect with his kids.

But as the sounds of Sumney fill the soundtrack over these straightforward tableaus, some viewers may find themselves reassessing sequences from Season 1 that could have been dismissed as de facto music videos, but, like the Sumney sequence in ‘Trouble Don’t Always Last,’ are using songs to express the inner lives of the characters in a way those characters are not able to do out loud.

All of this is background, though, for a far-ranging conversation between Rue and Ali that wouldn’t be out of place on a stage off-Broadway.

Most of the hour finds Rue challenging Ali rather than looking inside herself, something that’s ably set up right at the top when she insists that she’s doing great post-Jules.

We still don’t know about how Jules will factor into season 2. Picture: Supplied/HBO

She’s of course not doing great, and late in the episode she repeats something she’s hinted at earlier in the series, but perhaps not so starkly as she does when Ali asks herself about her future: “I just don’t really plan on being here that long.”

It’s an agonising statement rendered plainly by Zendaya’s almost flat delivery of the line. The conversation continues from there, and Rue even reaches a new emotional point by the end. But whether Rue is truly doomed, or only thinks she’s doomed, is left an open question.

Hearing all this might seem like ‘Trouble Don’t Always Last’ is grim subject matter for a special set on Christmas Eve, yet what the hour does more than anything else is provide a germ of hope, a glimmer that, if things won’t take a turn for the better, they might at least be “okay”.

There’s an exchange late in the script (the episode, like the majority of Euphoria, was written and directed by Levinson) where Ali tries to explain to Rue that it’s the process of trying to do good that makes you a good person, not the doing good itself.

When this starts to chip away at her resolve, and Rue doubles down on her nihilism in response, he plainly asks her, “How do you want your mum and sister to remember you?” This leads into a 32-second long shot of Zendaya that is among the most emotionally raw scenes put on television all year.

It’s also a powerful reminder of what we can do, and who we can become with the simple act of reaching out to another person.

It’s possible some fans of the series might be frustrated by this episode, particularly as the rest of the main cast stays off screen, and we don’t get any resolution to what’s next for Rue and Jules.

Most likely, we’ll see Jules’ perspective on the “break-up” when Binge drops another one-off episode in January, before Season 2 kicks off properly (the show was shut down for COVID essentially one work day before Season 2 production was about to begin).

But as an episode that digs towards some truths, illuminates the best parts of Euphoria, shows off two seasoned actors at the height of their abilities, and provides a little bit of light in an otherwise very dark year, ‘Trouble Don’t Always Last’ is a triumph.

Euphoria ‘Special Episode Part 1: Rue’ is now streaming on Binge

This article originally appeared on Decider and was reproduced with permission