If you watch Euphoria, then you are probably still catching your breath after last night's truly brutal episode.
Before I get into the specifics, I'd like to point your attention to Charlie Puth, who had a VERY appropriate reaction.
The singer posted to Twitter: "I gotta be honest…I had to turn off last nights episode of Euphoria. I almost threw up….this shit is too real…I forget that they’re acting."
I gotta be honest…I had to turn off last nights episode of Euphoria. I almost threw up….this shit is too real…I forget that they’re acting.
Let's unpack what happened, shall we? [Warning: Major spoilers ahead!]
First off, Rue's (Zendaya) drug relapse became public knowledge after Jules (Hunter Schafer) told her mother everything. (And I do mean EVERYTHING.)
Rue explodes into a violent rage after finding out her stash has been thrown away (partially due to the fact that that suitcase full of drugs — worth about $10,000 — doesn't technically belong to her).
To make matters worse, Rue, who suffers from opiate addiction, is going through withdrawal. As her mother tries to take her to rehab, Rue leaps out of the backseat of her mother's car and races into traffic rather than go to rehab.
While in the throes of withdrawal, Rue also says some truly horrific things to her mother, her sister, Jules, and pretty much every person in her life.
In an attempt to distract from her situation, Rue reveals to Maddy (Alexa Demie) that her BFF Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) has been sleeping with her ex, Nate. And Maddy is FURIOUS.
Rue also gets chased down by the police, races all over town in search of drugs, breaks into a stranger's home to steal cash, gets thrown out of Fezco's (Angus Cloud) apartment, and throws up repeatedly in the street (among other things). Like, it's BAD.
The only place Rue can go is to her scarily deadpan drug supplier's apartment, where she gets a dose of morphine, temporarily assuaging her withdrawal symptoms. The catch, however, is that she is padlocked inside the apartment and has to jump out a second-story window to escape.
ANYWAY. This was easily the wildest episode Euphoria has ever done. I, like Charlie Puth, was on the verge of collapsing in a pile of tears and vomit the entire hour.
Zendaya deserves to be showered — I repeat, SHOWERED — with Emmys for her performance.
Before the episode aired, Zendaya posted a note on Instagram revealing the hopes she has for her character, who the actor admitted had hit "rock bottom."
"It's my hope for people watching that they still see [Rue] as a person worthy of their love," she wrote. "And worthy of their time, and that she has a redemptive quality still, and that we still see the good in her even if she can't see it in herself."
"I think that if people can go with her through that, and get to the end, and still have hope for her future, and watch her make the changes and steps to heal and humanize her through her sobriety journey and her addiction, then maybe they can extend that to people in real life."
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386.