Throughout the first season of Euphoria, Jules was very much viewed as an almost toxic villain that was a big liability but is now one of the most complicated characters in the ensemble.
Hell, they even start her solo episode with the song Liability by Lorde and it’s clear that this is very much how the audience views her.
However, after this entry, I don’t think that anyone can deny that the show completely flipped the script and showed that in life when it comes to addiction there are never really any winners, just losers.
We’re gonna be breaking it all down in this post but if you missed us going over part 1 and need a quick recap then you can find it here. There will also be heavy spoilers here and this is something that you should experience yourself firsthand without some annoying British Dude telling you what happens beforehand.
Juxtaposing Rue & Jules
Part 1 was very much a therapy session with Rue that dug into not only her relapse but also how if she continued on this path that it was destined to only go one way. It was an extremely cathartic experience that pretty much became a therapy session for Rue and we see Jules going through a similar sort of experience but in a much more formal setting.
She has been brought home by her father after running away and is having to face up to what she is in a very by-the-books sort of way.
Now this actually shows the key differences between Rue and Jules themselves, they are opposites in many ways and though that leads further into their attraction it’s clear that Rue will have a different experience from what Jules does.
They are very much on other sides of the track and this was of course symbolised by the heartbreaking finale at the end of the first season.
Jules’ Journey
We open with Jules, played by Hunter Schafer, looking very angry and throughout this episode we see almost a collage of things that have made her the way that she is playing out on her eyeballs. It’s almost like her life flashing before her eyes and it’s an artistic way to showcase that she feels somewhat of a passenger in this journey. Rue very much blamed Jules for her issues but as we uncovered she was very much to blame.
I feel the same in many ways with Jules and throughout the first season, she very much was someone who was living to be the person that she thought she should be to make others like and accept her.
This was seen in her online flirting with men and in the opening monologue, she states that she became infuriated with them because she realised that she was building her entire self around what she thought that men desired. Her transitional journey in this episode very much takes an alternate path as she re-examines who she really is and more importantly who she wants to become.
Jules was very much living a lie in some ways whereas Rue was more accepting of the person that she was. However, this came with issues and Rue was a burden on Jules because she placed her sobriety under her control. Jules wasn’t ready for this on top of everything else and in many ways, the pair becoming separated was liberating for her.
Relationships
Both Dr Nichols and Ali do a fantastic job of bringing the pair back down to earth and throughout the seasons we’ve watched as they pretty much live in almost a manufactured reality made up of pure fantasy. Even season 1 ended with a music video rather than being the reality of the situation which is that Rue was relapsing.
Jules has very much been part of the same sort of scenario and she has been living in a fantasy in which she forced her life to be a certain way to live up to the expectations of others. There’s a really powerful line where she says that she feels like real life is always such a letdown and this very clearly paints out the psychological side of her mind.
Jules clearly found online relationships better than the real thing, especially because she could manipulate the fantasy to her own liking. However, the truth about Tyler coming out was completely horrifying and she would’ve rather remained in the fabrication than having experienced the terror this manifested. This further ties into the idea that she wants to live in a controlled environment that is exactly the way she can fake it and so on. She says the best sex she ever had was through sexting and this is because it was pure imagination, not something that existed with any tangibility.
Throughout the session, she also examines her own femininity and almost tries to map out the best way to transition to becoming the person that she needs to be rather than the person she wanted to be.
Family
It becomes clear that though never really stated until now, Jules has very much been crying out for help but up until this first therapy session, she hasn’t got it. Jules even states that she prays to the ocean in a scene that is probably worth winning an Emmy for alone.
Now, this mirrors Rue as in Part 1 she said she was an atheist that found a higher power in things like the ocean. Jules states that for her, transitioning is spiritual and the two are going on parallel journies in several ways, due to the absence of a parental figure.
Now Jules’ mother becomes a big talking point and it becomes clear that Jules turned to herself and the elements rather than her.
Jules’ mother, Amy, is also an addict and in retrospect, it massively changes how we view both Rue and Jules’ relationship. She created an imbalance in their love and the self-centred mother who couldn’t see how her addiction affected her child has clearly been repeated through the actions of Jules.
We learn that around the time of the Halloween party that her mother relapsed and this massively changed how I think Jules came across. So far throughout all of Euphoria, everything has pretty much always been through the eyes of Rue and Jules has been a goal rather than a character to whom we can understand and relate.
We realise that Jules actually does love Rue but that she was scared that she loved her too much and due to her relationships with others she knew that there was a huge potential for heartbreak there which she didn’t feel strong enough to go through again.
Understanding Jules
Now this new information that we get not only about her mother but also the other aspects completely recontextualises certain elements and leads to us having a better appreciation for why Jules ran away.
It’s clear she didn’t want to go back no matter what and she was in a constant state of her mother’s relapses and this had a highly damaging effect on her life.
You can totally understand why she didn’t get off the train to be with Rue and it makes the character so relatable.
We see a sort of continuation of the fantasy from last time and the reveal that it would’ve led to Rue OD’ing because of the cycle they existed in.
Bitter Endings
The episode culminates with Rue and Jules coming face to face once more before the former goes to meet Ali. As we know she received an ‘I love you’ text from her but the events that would follow show that perhaps they aren’t meant to be together.
It’s a really tearful reunion and rather than facing things head-on and what they’ve been through, Rue leaves before the pair can really confront what’s gone on between them. They clearly need each other but neither can bear to be hurt again and much like the ending of part 1 we close out staring at our protagonist through a rain-soaked window as the world closes in around them.
It’s such a bitter way to end things and you really get the feeling that the things they’ve been through together might have pushed a wedge further between them.
Overall though this was an incredible episode yet again and I actually prefer these character-focused entries over the main season. I dunno why but I think the pandemic actually pushed the writing to be more personable and they’ve managed to do more with less.
Euphoria deserves all the Emmys right now and this was another incredible entry that I’d love to hear your thoughts on.
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