If the ending of Euphoria left you dazed and confused then prepare to trip out on my theory for what happened in the finale of the show.
Whether it was music to your ears or had you afraid that Rue went on relapse, the closing scenes left a lot to unpack from them. Throughout this video I’ll be breaking down exactly what I think happened in at the end of Episode 8 ‘And Salt The Earth Behind You‘ and giving my theory on what happened to our protagonist.
There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t seen Euphoria yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.
With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, now let’s get into my breakdown of Euphoria Season 1.
Euphoria Season 1 Ending Explained
Euphoria mainly follows Rue and Jules who probably have one of the most fleshed our relationships that we’ve seen on television for a good couple of years, especially with the series just being 8 episodes long. There’s lots of other things to talk about at the end but for this video I just want to focus on those two and what happens to them in the season finale.
Rue and Jules, in the end, come up with a plan to up and move sticks and flee to a nearby town to get away from their life. However, in what is a really heartbreaking moment, Rue backs out of it last minute and decides not to step on the train with Jules because she says that she can’t leave her family.
Rue’s family have already been through a lot and after losing her father I believe that she takes responsibility for her actions and realises that this would only add more devastation to their misery and though she doesn’t want to be there she realises that she has to.
In addition to this I also think Rue finally realises that in her relationship with Jules, there comes a lot of toxicity and she must break away from this cycle. In removing Jules she will actually be able to finally focus fully on her family though that doesn’t mean that she has fully gotten rid of all her demons.
This devolves into her walking home crying and we get flashes of some of her happiest and ugliest memories and we finally learn that Rue’s red hoodie actually belonged to her father and that everything that has happened to her has pretty much been driven by his death.
I’m sure many of you watching this have been in similar situations when losing someone where you hold onto some item of clothing or object that the deceased person owned as a way to remember them and hopefully keep them in your life. With a death of a loved one there’s always one of two ways you can go, either it strengthens you or weakens you and unfortunately we see in the close that Rue goes with the latter, breaking her sobriety and relapsing. From here we get a music video set to the song “All Of Us” by Labrinth which Zendaya herself sings.
Euphoria The Music Video
It’s a really haunting piece that indicates several things about the character. The feeling of being high can often leave you thinking that you’re in a music video and somehow the things around you may not quite be a reality which it becomes clear that Rue is experiencing.
Reddit user – ulooksosexylisa said the following when discussing Rue’s experience of this:
I doubt Rue pretty much all of the time. She’s an unreliable narrator but rather than as a writing prop, I think she’s unreliable because she’s an addict and addicts are liars (source: am one), but I think in that moment when she relapses, we see the euphoria she experiences, her dad is alive, she’s loving on the family, you’re singing and dancing and there’s a choir. Personally I don’t hear a choir when I’m fucked up but I 100% am a star in my own music video so I think that’s rather accurate. I thought it was an insanely innovative way to portray the feeling of a high.
So it seems like though she is treating this as a reality, it doesn’t mean that this is how it is playing out.
For the finale of the video, the people around her in the song form a hill with one another, which Rue climbs up and jumps into the sky from. Whilst I’ve seen a large handful of people take this as meaning that the character has overdosed and this was her brain living out a fantasy which is backed up by the fact that during the video she hugs her family as if to say goodbye but the lyrics of the song itself indicate something different which comes in the line ‘Into That Good Night’ which is a reference to “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” which I’m sure that many of you have heard. Those who know the poem well will understand that it’s about fighting against death which I think this ending actually summarises.
Does Rue Die?
Rue escapes from the darkness and into the light which to me sums up that the relapse has helped to clear her slightly of all of the troubles in her life and she will attack things from a new perspective. In regards to her family, I get the feeling that she has forgiven them and in the end, her choice of them over Jules signifies to me that she is now moving on completely and away from this toxic situation. That doesn’t mean that life is easy though and similar to the rest of us Rue still makes mistakes and has to battle her addiction even when she’s taking a positive step forward which solidifies just how complex that Euphoria is.
Even when we are moving forward there are still things that can pull us off track and one moment of weakness can undo months of hard work which happens in the case of Rue.
Euphoria Season 2 News
There’s also the fact that Zendaya recently posted on twitter that she had just got the call from HBO that the season was being renewed so it seems like that are indeed keeping her around an in the loop which cements my theory I think.
This is due to be released in 2020 and I believe that it will pick up with Rue coming down from this high and potentially backtracking on her stance on Jules similar to the way that she backtracked on her sobriety. However, the second season will focus on her recognising in herself that this is still wrong and therefore moving on from it but without the relapse.
Your Thoughts
There’s obviously a lot to unpack from the show and even without Rue season 2 is set up to be something special. Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the finale and if you think Rue is alive or dead so comment below and let me know!
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