Euphoria
ユーフォリア/EUPHORIA
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
High schoolers, drugs and nudity in glitter; the show whose actors publicly asked for fewer nude scenes.
East Highland, California. Rue Bennett, who narrates, has been using since she stole her dying father's painkillers at thirteen, and comes home from rehab after an overdose with no intention of staying clean. She falls for Jules Vaughn, a trans girl new to town. Jules has been meeting older men through a hook-up app; one, who sexually abuses her in a motel room and secretly films it, is Cal Jacobs, a married father. His son, Nate, the star quarterback, is violent towards his girlfriend, Maddy Perez. Posing online as a gentle boy called Tyler, he blackmails Jules with her own pictures into silence about his father and into blaming another boy for choking Maddy, which he did. Maddy's best friend, Cassie Howard, has an abortion. Rue and Jules plan to run away together, but at the station Rue stays behind; Jules leaves alone, and Rue relapses.
In the first of two specials, Rue, high on Christmas Eve, tells Ali, a recovering addict who becomes her sponsor, that she wants to die.
In the second season Rue is secretly using, and Jules cheats on her with Rue's new friend, Elliot. Rue takes a suitcase of drugs on credit from a dealer, Laurie; when her mother throws it away, Rue turns violently on her family. Cassie begins a secret affair with Nate, Maddy's ex, and it comes out. Fezco, Rue's dealer, falls for Cassie's younger sister, Lexi, whose school play shows everyone to themselves. That night, after Fezco's young brother Ashtray kills a police informant, officers storm their house; Ashtray is killed and Fezco arrested. Nate gives the police his father's hidden videos, and Cal is arrested. Jules tells Rue she loves and misses her; Rue kisses her head, walks away, and says she stayed clean for the rest of the school year.
The final season jumps five years. Rue, who relapsed after high school, smuggles drugs over the Mexican border to pay off Laurie, then works for Alamo Brown, a strip-club owner and crime boss; caught by drug agents, she becomes their informant. Nate, in debt to a loan shark, Naz, marries Cassie, who sells sexual content online with Maddy as her manager. Jules, kept by a plastic surgeon, turns down Rue's plea for a life together. Naz buries Nate alive; Cassie and Maddy find him dead and tell no one. Rue, who has turned to God, helps the agents bring down Laurie, who takes her own life. That night, asleep on Ali's couch, Rue dies of an overdose: Alamo, who knew she was informing, had poisoned her. Ali shoots Alamo dead, then visits the Christian family in Texas who once sheltered Rue and says grace at their table.
Starring
Zendayaas Rue Bennett
A teenage addict just out of rehab, the show's unreliable narrator, who lies to everyone who loves her to keep using.
Rue Bennett’s story
Rue started on her dying father's painkillers at thirteen and leaves rehab with no plan to stop. She relapses when Jules leaves town without her, and tells Ali, her new sponsor, that she wants to die. In the second season she turns violently on her family when her mother throws away a suitcase of drugs Rue owes Laurie for, then, she says, stays clean for the rest of the school year. Five years later, after a relapse, she smuggles drugs to pay Laurie back, then works for Alamo and informs on Laurie for drug agents. She turns to God and asks Jules for a life together; Jules refuses. After a last job at Laurie's she dies of an overdose on Ali's couch, dreaming of Fezco and her mother: Alamo, who knew she was informing, had poisoned her.
Hunter Schaferas Jules Vaughn
A trans girl new to East Highland who falls in love with Rue while exploring desire and her own identity.
Jules Vaughn’s story
Jules meets older men through a hook-up app, and one of them, Cal Jacobs, sexually abuses her in a motel room and secretly films it. Tyler, the boy she falls for online, is Cal's son, Nate, who blackmails her into silence with her pictures. She falls in love with Rue but leaves town alone, and in therapy admits how heavy it was to keep Rue sober. In the second season she cheats on Rue with Elliot; after Lexi's play Rue walks away from her. Five years on she has left art school to be kept by Ellis, a plastic surgeon. At Nate's wedding Cal, now a registered sex offender, apologises to her. When Rue asks for a life together, Jules calls it a fantasy, then slaps her for calling her Ellis's toy. After Rue's death she paints her, in tears.
Jacob Elordias Nate Jacobs
The star quarterback, violent towards Maddy and Jules, whose rage covers his fear of his father and of himself.
Nate Jacobs’s story
Nate found his father's secret videos as a child and has grown up controlling and violent. He chokes Maddy, then, posing online as Tyler, blackmails Jules into silence about Cal and into blaming another boy for it. In the second season he begins a secret affair with Cassie, takes from Maddy at gunpoint the disc recording Cal's abuse of Jules, returns it to Jules, and hands his father's videos to the police. Five years on he runs Cal's building firm, owes a loan shark, Naz, and marries Cassie. Naz's men beat him on his wedding night; Cassie leaves him, and he lives on the money she makes online. Naz buries him alive at his own building site, and by the time the coffin is dug up he is dead. Cassie tells people he walked out.
Sydney Sweeneyas Cassie Howard
Lexi's older sister, followed by her sexual past, who has an abortion, falls into a secret affair with Nate and later marries him.
Alexa Demieas Maddy Perez
A popular cheerleader and Cassie's best friend, drawn back to Nate after he attacks her, who later manages Cassie's online career.
Eric Daneas Cal Jacobs
Nate's father, a respectable family man leading a hidden sexual life that includes the abuse of Jules.
Why it matters
Euphoria takes the teenage drama and removes its safety net. It puts addiction at the centre, narrated by an addict who lies to the audience as readily as to her mother, and around it sets what adolescents are rarely shown facing alone: a trans girl finding her way through desire and danger, a boy whose violence covers his own sexual shame, a sex video shared without consent, a respectable father who abuses a minor. It won Zendaya the Emmy for lead actress in a drama in 2020 and 2022. Critics praised its images and argued over its nudity and sexual content given the characters' ages, and the anti-drug programme D.A.R.E. accused it of glamorising teenage drug use. Levinson closed the series with Rue's death, saying, "Most people don't get a second chance." Its sharpest question is about looking: whether a series this beautiful to watch can show harm without making it look like something to want.