Euphoria Finale Kills Rue in HBO Max Send-Off, Drawing Fire for 3rd-Season Narrative Collapse
Updated
Updated · Variety · Jun 1
Euphoria Finale Kills Rue in HBO Max Send-Off, Drawing Fire for 3rd-Season Narrative Collapse
2 articles · Updated · Variety · Jun 1
Rue Bennett dies of a fentanyl overdose midway through “In God We Trust,” a feature-length finale that narrows the ending to her addiction story while leaving much of the ensemble with rushed or dangling conclusions.
The review says Season 3’s many threads never cohered: Rue becomes a DEA informant and drug mule, Cassie turns to OnlyFans, Maddy enters Alamo’s orbit, and Jules remains largely isolated from the main action.
Ali’s response sharpens the tonal clash. After Rue’s death, he abandons the show’s recovery framework for a shotgun revenge raid on Alamo’s club, turning a grounded overdose tragedy into a Tarantino-style shootout.
Zendaya and Colman Domingo are praised, but stars including Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi and Hunter Schafer are described as poorly served by half-finished arcs and prolonged, unsatisfying payoffs.
The finale closes on Rue in a beatific vision over farmland and an American flag, a nationalist-religious image the review argues caps a final season that became an epilogue-like jumble rather than a coherent ending.
Has Euphoria's finale destroyed its legacy by trading its raw look at teenage life for a confusing mix of religion and violence?
Did Euphoria’s creator betray Rue’s story by turning her tragic death into a stylized revenge fantasy?