rue’s ending on euphoria is one she didn’t deserve, but it’s one the audience needed.
euphoria starts off in season 1 with these dreamy, soft visuals, immersing you in a haze that looks and feels like taking ecstasy for the first time. it continues that way in season 2, but it feels a touch off - as if the drug’s beginning to wear off, but it isn’t fully gone. and then comes season 3 - the high is gone, the euphoria is over, welcome back to reality.
it's why the lighting is harsh, the landscapes unforgiving, and everything feels ugly. everything sucks, like withdrawal does, and the consequences of your actions from that euphoric haze begin to catch up to you. in rue's case, it was every decision she made in the throes of her addiction.
does that mean I liked rue’s ending? nope, and it fucking HURT. but i absolutely get where it came from, especially when you watch the finale BTS. levinson is crying on camera when he talks about it, about the insidious and systemic abuse of addicts, and about how he absolutely wouldn’t have made it if fentanyl was present during his days as an addict. he's heartbroken, and he's furious.
and he has every right to be! fentanyl took angus cloud, someone sam cared about, and it re-opened some very real wounds for that man. so i’m guessing this last season is him finally snapping and going “if the only way for you to understand how fucked up this whole situation is by killing someone you love, then so fucking be it.”
ali’s entire monologue in the finale shows just how pissed off levinson is at the fentanyl crisis, and that showdown with alamo is a cathartic release, a revenge he wishes he could achieve in real life but knows he cannot. he killed off rue because while euphoria is his love letter to addicts, it is also an angry rant to the world about how it treats them.
as a writer and an artist, my belief is that artists don’t owe us anything but the stories they want to tell us, and it’s our job to broaden our horizons to see that vision. what sam levinson made wasn’t really a show for the viewers, but a manifesto from a former addict.
levinson has a lot of problems—and god do i loathe his visual exploitation of women—but his handling of rue’s story, the love he engendered for her in all of us and the devastation that followed, could only be achieved by someone who actually loved her all the same.
addiction is a disease. fentanyl kills. and for fuck's sake, let's hold the real villains accountable - the dealers, the manufacturers, and the politicians who keep this vicious cycle going.
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