HBO Max’s hit series “Euphoria” season two finally aired worldwide on January 9th, 2022. With each episode releasing every Sunday until the finale episode (which came out on February 27th, 2022), viewers were entertained with eight quite eventful episodes. If there’s one word to explain it in its entirety, it would probably be “chaos”. Throughout the episodes leading up to the finale, many storylines within the characters are set up. Although some of the storylines from the previous seasons were scrapped or did not really appear much in season two, the show still did a good job at amusing their audience with the new ones. Whilst most characters stayed and even some new ones got introduced (for example Faye, Laurie, Elliot, etc.) most of this season focused on characters like Maddy, Cassie, Nate, Rue, Jules, Lexi, Fez, and Nate’s dad Cal. 

Two of the major storylines are Rue slipping deeper into her battle with addiction and even turning to more hardcore drugs, and Cassie betraying her best friend Maddy by having intimate relations with her abusive ex and quickly becoming obsessed with him. Rue also finds herself in a love triangle with her “first love”, Jules, and her new friend Elliot. Her new friend who furthered Rue’s drug addiction tells Jules about her stash, and they work with Rue’s mom to get rid of it. This sends Rue into a downward spiral and causes her to cut ties with both Jules and Elliot, since she has no more drugs and risks some very serious consequences for losing 10k worth of them. Cal reminisces about his past and comes home drunk to come out to his family, then ditches them that same night. Since the beginning of season two, Lexi and Fez have been developing a romantic relationship. He encourages her and seems to help her uncover a more self-assured version of herself. Throughout all of this, Lexi writes a play through her perspective of the lives of herself, her family, and friends. This all sets up the story for the big finale at the very end.  

Lexis’ play finally airs, and although she is scared that she will hurt the ones she loves through it, Fez encourages her and tells her that if her intentions are good, sometimes people need to get hurt. While watching the play in the finale episode, a bit of chaos goes down. Nate becomes enraged at a musical number about him and his football team highlighting his sexuality. This leads him to storm off and break up with Cassie, which causes her to stomp onto stage to confront and embarrass her sister Lexi. This is a final straw for Maddy, who runs on stage to fight Cassie and ends up chasing her off into the hallway where she beats her up. Maddy seems to be at peace with moving on from Cassie and Nate after this. As a result of all the commotion on stage, Lexi gets embarrassed and doesn’t know if she wants to continue the play. However, the crowd chants for her and she does. Meanwhile, Fez is at home getting ready for Lexi’s play.  His friend Custer comes over and is actually an informant who tries to get a confession of a murder out of Fez on recording for the cops. Ashtray, Fez’s brother, doesn’t get the message and like always, responds with violence. He murders him without thinking. Fez plans on taking the fall for both of the murders, but Ashtray locks himself in the bathroom filled with arsenal. No matter how much Fez pleads for him to come out, he stays in there and when SWAT comes, he opens fire. This causes the police to shoot back, killing Ashtray while his brother lays on the floor and begging for Ashtray’s life before being arrested. Nate confronts his father, who finally apologizes for all the emotional trauma that he gave him. However it was too late, and Nate already reported him to the authorities for the non consensual recordings of his intimate partners of varying ages. As the finale wraps up, Rue forgives Elliot for his intervention and thanks him for saving her life. Her and Jules however end on a more complicated note. After a small talk and what seems like Rue just trying to move on, she gives Jules a kiss on the forehead and leaves. 

Rue finally finishes off the rest of the season by telling the audience how she stayed sober for the rest of the year. She didn’t know if it would last forever… but right now, she was trying. Although most storylines were tied up at the end, this leads us to wonder what will happen in the next season due to the outcomes that came out of this one. If there’s one thing we know, it’s that “Euphoria” sure does know how to wrap a season up just enough to always make us eager to come back for the next.