Euphoria's Weird love cube
Jules, Nate, Cassie and Maddie's relationships plotline: Can a Maddie/Cassie reconnection and a Jules/Nate one save the plot? - An analysis centered on character arcs
essay written by Hila Arussy (without AI)
So at this point I think most of us are watching Euphoria with nostalgia goggles on and minimal amount of hope that the show will somehow end in a satisfying way. But this season so far is giving us temu version of the first two seasons.
It is if Sam Levinson decided to do his own version of Western and gangster movie mushed together, with the kink objectification element turned to 11 and more "style" over substance.
Putting the obvious faults aside. I want to focus for a second on the character arcs of four of the main characters (singling out Rue and Lexi for their solo cantered arcs) and how important their relationships with each other are to their individual plots, and ask: is there still a place their plots can go, that will make this season redeemable? Or are we too far "out of character" for the plot to feel like a proper act III for those four?
I'm of the opinion that none of those four is irredeemable, and to hope for catharsis from each character's plot by having them complete their development arc on an HBO show, is not an excessive demand. This final act of the show should focus on all of them navigating the damage of high-school years, to soft launch their adulthood lives. But too much of those characters is unrecognizable now, their personalities have been flattened into a single trait. The show seems to forgot they used to have substance and layers, turning them into caricatures of their former self, but I haven’t. I never thought that any one of them are inherently evil, Just stupid, selfish and damaged, the way teenagers can be. The way we are before we learn to reconcile our environment influence on us, with who we really are, and who we want to be.
The four of them share the same desire to be successful, each in their own way or the way "success" has been defined for them.
Each of them also established and built their identity or “persona” in relation to the trauma they experienced as children/teens:
Jules is a trans artist, her persona revolve around exploring the non-binary nature of her gander, and sexuality. But her "fatal flaw" comes from her tendency to lose herself in relationships, and give up on her ambitions at the first sign of struggle, going back instead to old self-sabotage patterns of seeking validation from others.
Nate's worldview was largely shaped by his relationship with his father and the sexual trauma he was exposed to as a child. Before the "lobotomy" his character went through this season (which I think I can sorta make sense… in theory, but more on that later) previous seasons did a great job of showing all the layers in which his trauma affected his behavior - the attachment to binary gander roles, his internalized homophobia, his anger issues, his fear of having no control (being submissive), and the way he uses manipulation for illusion of control, and protection. Not to mention that the lack of real love in his family made him honestly clueless to how it feels to be loved even when you’re being unlikable.
Cassie's identity built around her desire to be loved and wanted by the people around her. Her father, her boyfriends, and now strangers (men) online. all figures who end up disappointing her or breaking her heart. But with Maddie, it was different. With Maddie, she was the one who broke her friend's heart, and losing Maddie's friendship also marks her losing self-respect. As Rue said in the narration on Cassie and Maddie's reunion, 'Maddie realized at that moment... Cassie had stayed with Nate all those years to get that ring that clear her conscience'. The reason Maddie left emotional their wedding, isn't from some left-over feelings for Nate. That Door was sealed shut the night he came for that CD (in many ways Nate, and his family view of her, are Maddie's trauma). What hurt Maddie most is losing Cassie to this "fantasy life" she always wanted. From young age seeing her mom bust her back working for those rich ladies in the beauty salon, while they do nothing, was the future goal she set. Her relationship with Nate was already doomed at the start, as she was willing to pretend and lie for her goal. But eventually the "act" became more harmful than its worth.
She was denied that dream, for not being submissive enough, and white enough. In the fallout of that fantasy being shattered, Maddie is the first person Cassie runs to because more than anyone else, she will understand that disappointment. But for Cassie it might be too late, the damage been done. Years of relying on the attention she got from her sex-appeal and giving up her principals for her boyfriends, have led to Cassie believing this is all she has. This is her self worth and only value.
The second thing that this crumbling marriage made us realize, it's that there wasn’t any real love and honesty there to begin with. Nate don't really love Cassie. He almost loved Maddie, in his own f**ked up way. In one of their more honest conversations Maddie asked him what he loved about her, and he answer “you’re Smart and Cruel, but not really (cruel)”, which to me translates as he liked her good heart, and her confidence, the way she always go for what she wants. But It was his frugal binary view of gander roles, and lack of confidence that he is loved (also something that Maddie directly ask him) that blocked him from not ruining it.
inside Nate vs Outside Nate
Unexpectedly, it was Nate's relationship with Jules as "Tyler" that allowed Nate to show his vulnerable/softer side he buried, and be more honest, more himself. Their correspondence began under manipulation on his part, designed to protect his father's secret, but under the discreet anonymity of the internet, Nate and Jules truly bonded.
Unfortunately for them, the emotional baggage that Nate carries with him works against them. The binary gender roles that Nate clings to out of fear/rejection of his father, are at odds with Jules's being trans. And the anger problem he has trouble controlling, has forced him to use the card he held against Jules (to protect his father), to instead fix his own mistake, and get out of Juvey/anger management/community service/Maddie's parents restraining order... in some sort of combination (depends on how good the Jacobs lawyer is).
For a while, it seemed like things would stay cold between them and the emotional connection is gone. But Nate's storyline about his relationship with Cassie was set up to blow up in his face, and completely change his dynamic with Maddie/Cassie/Jules and force him to move on with only one. His intentions starting a relationship with Cassie was based on his attraction towards her appearance, that subconsciously reminds him Jules. At the same time he’s still trying to fix his problems with Maddie, whom personality-wise is closer to what he also liked in Jules (kind heart, intelligent, creative, confident). But unlike with Jules, with Maddie he never managed to be vulnerable, and every time she called him on his s**t his anger issues surfaced, and he would end up hurting her even when he didn’t wanted. Jules was the first person who saw through him and called his bluff (when they met at McKey’s party) and it happened to be in the same night she also met his dad alter ego. She experienced his recurring nightmare in reality and then moved on. which made her someone he can empathize with, be completely honest with, and respect and care about even when those feelings are not reciprocated.
The final act Oedipus complex
So What happened? when did Nate stop being Nate? And Cassie and Maddie settled on making careers based on horny men’s fantasies? Well, most of it its Just Sam Levinson lack of imagination and lazy writing, minimizing each of those characters to a single trait. Roe's drug abuse problem and criminal centered plot, are "fun trouble and chaos" easy writing. And Lexi is Levinson's self insert in case you didn't notice. Including her writer/director ambitions, slut shaming attitude, and “only rational one of the group”. Other characters are collateral damage... Lexi's play, while very entertaining way to close the show second season, and also establish that Lexi does “worth the hype” she thinks she deserves, It changes the stakes for those characters in a way that pushes them to new areas in their character development. Areas that they probably didn’t want to go towards to begin with, and are brought on by outsiders peeking in on their lives. It’s a great way to set up “to be continued…”, but one episode isn’t enough time for the audience to understand what they will land into when season 3 start and there is a big time jump.
For Nate the effect of the play was probably the most drastic. He already “got the hottest girl in school”, and she is feeding him the fantasy he control every aspect of her life and that that’s what SHE wants. his dad left the house and his secret double life, are no longer something that he needs to hide from his mother and brother(s?). In his head he probably thought “now I can move on, the damage ends here”, but Lexi’s sequence about the inherent homoerotic nature of locker-rooms sport fields, really touched an exposed nerve with Nate. The show focuses on how triggering it is for him, and that the damage his dad did on him won’t really heal so easily with just his dad no longer being there. Nate breaks, leaves the theater and goes to confront his dad, “making him pay” and turning him in, even though he knows that it isn’t smart move for the future of the company his dad built. He took a loan from the likes of Naz probably because others refused him due to his dad reputation. Turning his dad to the police was an impulsive act of desperation, In the hope this might do the trick and release him, but it doesn’t.
The Nate that closes the door behind him while the cops take his dad is sad, not happy. More than anything else what missing for us to realize about where Nate is at season 3, is lingering moments of complete confusion and loss of direction that Nate got himself into. 5 years have passed and Nate is still lost and struggling but he settled into faking it. He’s lying to Cassie alright, but he is mostly lying to himself, that he is happy, that this is what he wants…. Because if he got the super sexy blonde wife, the big house, the successful business, and the support of everyone around him, and yet he is still miserable and dead inside, then what do he want? What would give him comfort, if everything he ever got told he supposed to want is really wrong for him? If “the fairy tale is over” the American dream is a scam, and his life is the embodiment of this big fat lie?
In order for the audience to feel like the characters really reached the end of their arcs, season 3’s plot needs to show us that those characters either finally learned how to stop the cycle of pain/trouble they keep getting themselves into, or they decided to lean into the darkness and embrace the rules of the world they choose to be in.
For Maddy a proper closure will rest on her willingness to use Cassie to advance her career and fortune. There will need to be a moment towards the show’s end where Maddie will face a choice between - “selling” Cassie to get what she wants financially and also maybe revenge. Or choose to leave the dangerous situation they will get into together, because even after everything that happened between them, Maddie still cares about Cassie. And whatever feelings of inferiority she might had in the past towards the Cassie’s of the world are now gone.
For Nate it seems impossible to properly close his arc without him reconnecting with Jules, whether it will be by physically meeting or through his “Taylor” account. If all his life he believed his role in life is to achieve this very specific idea of “American dream” that he actually can’t have, reaching out to the one person he know never cared about that fantasy at all, is like trying to grab a life preserver when drowning. Jules herself is struggling and losing confidence in her identity as an artist, and whenever she feels insecure her ego strategy is to seek validation from someone she likes (Anna, then Eliot, now Ellis). Jules needs to decide that if she really wants to be an artist, she will have to compromise and struggle without seeking shortcuts. That if she can’t gather enough confidence from the inside to get the job done, to out source confidence from someone else will always leave her dependent on others. What you are too scared to face head on - will be able to stab you in the back if you won’t turn around to see the knife coming.