![]() If Season Two were to reveal that various federal law enforcement agencies had arrested Nate and renditioned him to Guantanamo, never to return, it would be a massive improvement for a show that has plenty of other room for melodrama, but not to the absurd degree Nate brings.Įven more than the first special did for Rue, this one provides a great deal of depth and grounding to who Jules is and what motivates her. (*) Nate, with his ability to talk anyone - even his own victims - into aiding and abetting his many crimes, was already the most ridiculous and frustrating part of Euphoria, and he feels even more so after these episodes. This is huge new information that recontextualizes Jules and Rue’s entire relationship, including Jules’ reasons for not sharing it with Rue in the first place. She confesses to the unfair burden she feels as the person who is almost singlehandedly keeping Rue sober, and reveals that her mother Amy (Pell James) is herself an addict. (It’s in this sequence in particular where having Schafer co-write the episode seems especially valuable, because it’s territory she understands from the inside out.) She talks about the pain she felt when she discovered that her online crush “Tyler” was really Nate manipulating her(*). Jules admits to now having some agnostic feelings about her transition - “I feel like my entire life, I’ve been trying to conquer femininity, and I feel like somewhere along the way, femininity conquered me” - and contemplates going off some or all of her hormones. Over the course of this hour, the mysteries are laid bare. ![]() We saw her away from Rue, particularly when she was pursuing violent sexual relationships with older men like Nate’s father, and we heard her talk about her gender transition, but she was also something of a puzzle for both Rue and Euphoria to solve. This dynamic works to the story’s advantage, because we already knew so much about Rue - the show’s main character, narrator, and main point-of-view figure - where Jules previously existed at a slight remove. Nichols is there to listen, not share painful details from her own life, so this isn’t a two-hander like the last special. But while Weedman is excellent, the nature of her role as a mental health professional makes this a different conversation than the one Rue and Ali had. ![]() Mardy Nichols (Lauren Weedman), as if Schafer and Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, who co-wrote the episode and directed it, were huge fans of HBO’s late, great, and soon-to-be-rebooted drama In Treatment. Much of it takes place in Jules’ first session with her new therapist, Dr. “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob” is slightly less of an acoustic duet. It was Euphoria stripped of all its stylistic tics, and the emotional substance proved more satisfying than the show’s usual flash. The Rue episode, “Trouble Don’t Last Always,” was essentially a one-act play in which Rue and her Narcotics Anonymous sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo) open up about their respective addictions and heartbreaks. ![]() It’s as if these two episodes - created and produced under Covid safety guidelines, with stripped-down casts and crews - are meant to be “real life.” And they have been anything but a letdown. But it’s striking to see how much this special and the one focusing on Jules’ girlfriend Rue (Zendaya) serve as a departure from the heightened reality of the series’ first season. ![]() “I feel like real life is always such a letdown,” Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer) announces midway through this second Euphoria special, titled “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob.” She’s referring to how much more satisfying she finds online relationships than in-person ones, particularly in the aftermath of being catfished by sociopath supervillain Nate (Jacob Elordi). This post contains spoilers for the second Euphoria special, which premieres Sunday night on HBO and is available on HBO Max. ![]()
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