For every “don’t steal my boyfriend,” there’s a stark reminder of Rue’s drug use pushing her closer to suicide than to a wild night of partying. We’re reminded that the gritty tale of high school students is a lot less Degrassi and a lot more Goodfellas. After arriving at the home of Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Lexi (Maude Apatow), our lead is met with warmth and love and responds by chucking a social grenade into the center of it all. She spits vitriol at Jules, shouts at Elliot, then sprints into the streets to smash relationships with most everyone else in her path. This moment, wherein Rue has discovered she is in the middle of her own intervention, sets our lead down a path of destruction, setting fires to every bridge she’s ever built. From the other room, Jules (Hunter Schafer) utters “we flushed them down the toilet.” After pleading for the whereabouts of the drugs, she finally hears a voice. Audiences all knew Rue was never going to move the suitcase on her own, but few could fathom such a descent for the beloved lead of a high school fantasy series. Against the wall, Rue turns angry and violent, shouting at her mother and sister, trashing their home, and begging for the whereabouts of her suitcase full of drugs, a suitcase she promised to sell at the risk of being sold herself. "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" Is Euphoria At Its Most RawĪt the start of this now buzzed about fifth episode, Rue’s mother, Leslie (Nika King), has confronted her about her addiction. Her drug use is often portrayed as dark, but with a wash of glitter and spunk. Meanwhile, Season 2 opens with her playing fast and loose with pills, barely escaping cardiac arrest, then handling it with casual ease. Each episode is another hour of bated breath waiting to witness her ultimate fate. Speculating as to Rue’s fate, fans considered if the omniscient narration was a manifestation of the lead having passed into the afterlife. In the between-seasons special episode, Rue sits across from her sponsor and discusses the ruthless hold of addiction, allowing her trajectory to feel dire. In her signature poetic style, she paints a picture of a life spent outrunning her own anxiety, and then the beautiful, “two seconds of nothingness,” she chases every time she gets near that perfect chemical concoction. Rue has a romantic relationship with her addiction. Ruby “Rue” Bennett is a human worthy of sympathy and love who trips over her relationships on her way to drugs. She isn’t a tragic hero or a disposable side character. Though she instantly betrays the trust of her glowing family, she is never viewed as the villain. “I had no intention of staying clean,” she tells us with an inescapable magnetism. She’s quippy and funny, falling in the warm embrace of her mother and sister who are elated at her drug-free future. When we first meet her, Rue’s fresh out of rehab having barely survived an overdose. As the anchor of this showcase of tumultuous youth, Rue sits center stage, a position that allows space for the delicate portrayal of a flawed woman whose worst behavior never precludes her from being deserving of the love of both her family and fans of the series. Rue, the series lead, takes not just the form of the all-seeing eye, but also of a young woman experiencing love, loss, and addiction. Narrating the turmoil of the otherwise well-adjusted high school students is the lucid voice of Rue (Zendaya). There was a lot of hype leading up to the most recent episode of HBO’s Euphoria.
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