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Euphoria just ended, and it may have ended itself along the way.
The HBO drama's season 3 finale killed off four major characters across a devastating 90-minute episode, including Zendaya's Rue Bennett, the show's central character since its very first scene.
The deaths, coming just one week after Jacob Elordi's Nate Jacobs was killed by a rattlesnake while buried alive, have left fans and critics questioning whether Sunday's installment was a season finale or a series finale.
Rue's end arrives through a cruel act of betrayal. After escaping Laurie's compound and returning to work for crime lord Alamo, she is given a bottle of Percocet by her boss, ostensibly to help with her injuries. Growing suspicious of her loyalty, Alamo had laced the pills with fentanyl. Rue overdoses in her sleep on Ali's couch. He wakes the next morning to find her gone.
Laurie, knowing the DEA raid leaves her no way out, takes her own life on the roof of her compound. Alamo meets his end at Ali's hands in a climactic strip club confrontation, set up by a betrayal from his own right-hand man. G, played by Marshawn Lynch, is also shot dead in the melee.
Before Rue's fate is sealed, the episode includes one of the most tender moments in the show's history, a tribute to the late Angus Cloud, who died in 2023, delivered through a news report about Fezco escaping prison, prompting Rue to return to her old neighborhood to fulfill a long-standing promise to her friend.
Ali's devastating final speech at an AA meeting captures the episode's emotional core. "I'm tired of losing people," he says. "Pouring my heart and soul into kids, only to not see them get a second chance."
With Rue, Nate, Laurie and Alamo all dead and Zendaya no longer part of the story, the future of Euphoria is deeply uncertain. HBO has not commented on whether the show will continue.
