Now unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve most likely heard of the HBO show Euphoria, starring Zendaya. Long story short, the show follows the lives of these dysfunctional highschool students as they navigate their way through life.
I’ll admit that I was kinda late to hop on the Euphoria train ‘cause I didn’t start watching the show until 3 episode of season 2 had already came out, but after finishing all two seasons….. this show is AMAZING and if you disagree you’re wrong!
What makes this show so great is the complexity and storylines behind all the characters, so I’m gonna be breaking down my thoughts and opinions on the all the characters in Euphoria, starting with everyone’s least favorite….
Cal:
Do I even need to explain myself? There’s not one likable bone in Cal Jacob’s body, and no matter how bad everyone else on this show gets, Cal will always be the worst. The dude is a neglectful, toxic, abusive, and predatory person, father and husband, and that’s all there is to say. This man is way too damn old to be messing with someone as young as Jules, and needs to be imprisoned (thank you Nate in the season 2 finale).
His entire plot line is living a double life where he’s married (to a woman!!!) and has 2 kids, meanwhile on the low, he's out here messing with men and trans women. And not only that, he also FILMS these sessions without the consent of the people involved.
He goes insane mid-way through the second season and comes home disgustingly drunk at night, pees on the floor, insults his kids and his wife, admits to being into men and trans women, and then abandons his family just like that.
There’s just no redeeming this guy. Stan Eric Dane, but Cal Jacobs is as bad as it gets.
Nate:
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with Cal and Nate ‘cause truth be told, these two are under the same bucket of worst characters on the show. That first scene of him and Jules in the first episode of season 1 says a lot about Nate. He tries to put up this front of being all macho when he’s really the complete opposite. Nates said it himself in the season 2 finale, him and Cal both get off on hurting other people.
This dude‘s a self-centered, toxic, self-serving, manipulative, and abusive person. He chokes Maddy and has been violent towards her on multiple occasions and broke into a guys house and beat him up. Now, yes, the guy Nate beat up was a 21 year old dude (Tyler) who had statutory r*ped Maddy, but Nate didn’t do what he did because he cared about Maddy. He did it in order to assert his power and possessiveness over Maddy.
And then later after Maddy’s parents filled a domestic abuse case against Nate, he blackmailed Tyler into confessing to strangling Maddy, threatening to put him in prison for statutory r*pe if he didn’t.
Nate is epitome of a rich and white privileged, with a sprinkle of toxic masculinity. In season 1, he meets Jules on a gay dating app! (empahizes on “gay”), and after the two message for a while back and fourth, it seemed like Nate had actually began to fall for Jules (he said it himself), but in a plot-twist I didn’t see coming, he ended up doing a complete 180 and using the nudes that Jules sent him as blackmail later on ‘cause Jules is a minor.
Nate’s sexuality is one of the biggest storyline he has, and a lot of Euphoria fans believe that deep down, he really does love Jules, but since Jules is a transgender girl, Nate’s phobia towards anything that’s not cishet and hetero, prevents him from fully accepting his feelings for Jules.
Me? I can see where people are coming from, but the way I look at it is this: Nate is a deeply troubled and traumatized person, and I wound’t go as far as to call him gay ‘cause I feel like doing so perpectuates the harmful narrative that trauma turns people gay, which isn’t true.
Rue:
Rue, Rue, Rue. Where do I even begin? To put it simply, Rue is her own worst enemy and she’ll be the cause of her own destruction. As much as I wanted to root for Rue in season 1 and season 2, it’s so hard to do so ‘cause SHE doesn’t even wanna root herself. Losing her father, battling with her mental health and dealing with addiction all at once is an experience like no other, so I won’t sit here and rant about how much I hate Rue ‘cause she’s a drug addict. Rather, imma just talk about how annoyed I am with her.
Like I said, the majority of this show makes it very hard for me to root for Rue as a character because everytime we think she’d made some progress, it vanishes just like that. She takes 3 steps forward and then 15 steps backwards, and it’s doing nothing but hurting her, her friends, and her family.
What really made me side eye Rue in season 2 was her reaction to when her mom told her that she's had enough of her (Rue) and would be stepping back and letting Rue do whatever the hell she wants. Rues reaction? “sO tHat meAnS i cAn dO drUgS?”
She just keeps digging and digging her own grave, and at a certain point, I lowkey began to agree with her mom ‘cause Rue is EXHAUSTING! She blames others for her own addiction, gaslights her family who are truly just trying to help her, and acts as though she’s the only person who’s going through things.
However, I wouldn’t go as far as to say she’s a bad person ‘cause to be honest, I don’t think she is. Season 2 ends well for Rue which gets me excited for season 3 ‘cause my “Go Rue!” spirit is at an all-time high right now.
McKay:
I wanted so badly to root for McKay, but he just wasn’t it. It all started with him slut shaming Cassie and his clear as daylight misogyny, and that was a done deal.
Then it was that whole scene where a group of frat boys broke into his room while he was getting it on with Cassie, and they (the frat boys) proceeded to pull McKay to the ground, and sexually asault him, all while getting it on video. Now this situation made me genuinely feel bad for McKay, but he had to ruin it for himself with what he did next.
After crying in the bathroom, he comes out and proceeded to take his anger out on Cassie through sex. I wouldn't go as far as to say that he r*ped Cassue, but in that situation, it’s very clear that Cassie was extremely uncomfortable, and McKay just wanted to assert his masculinity after what those guys did.
No, I don't care that McKay feels a lot of pressure from his dad to be the greatest football player. I don’t like McKay and that’s that!
Maddy:
A lot of y’all bouta be real mad at me, but I gotta say it…. Maddy is not that girl. Out of all the female characters, it’s clear that Maddy’s the fan favorite, and while I can see why, I don’t feel that way about her.
Maddy is not a good person, and I’m sick and tired of people acting as if she’s better than the rest of the characters. Maddy is a straight up toxic friend, who literally put an innocent man in prison in order to protect her abusive boyfriend. Yes Tyler is guilty of something, but he wasn’t the one who physically assaulted her (that was Nate), so why is she putting him in prison for a crime he didn’t commit? To protect her abusive boyfriend…that’s why.
The reason why fans love Maddy so much is because this generation is so obsessed with “mean girls.” I don't know why that is, but it’s either people want desperately to BE mean girls, or they love mean girls. Maddy isn’t the confident girlboss that she pretends to be and that fans say she is. She’s fake confident, and people needa stop acting like she’s the best character just because she’s hot and has cute outfits.
Maddy is an idiot and that’s that!
Cassie:
Ok, this is gonna be an unpopular opinion, but Cassue really isn’t as bad as people say she is, or as bad as the show is trying so hard to make her out to be. The Cassie vs Maddy feud to me is so dumb because it literally paints Cassie as this evil villian, while painting Maddy as the innocent victim. Lemme just straight up say that yes, Cassie is wrong for getting together with Nate a.k.a., Maddy’s abuser, but here’s the thing, not that it cancels out what Cassue did, but, Maddy would have gotten back together with Nate (her abuser) had it not been for Cassie.
I understand why Maddy’s hurt by what Cassie did, and she has every right to be, but let’s not sit here and act as if Cassie is a million times worse than Maddy. Maddy putting a man in prison for a crime he didn't commit is fine with y’all, but Cassie sleeping with Maddy’s ex is where y’all draw the line?
I’m not team Cassie or team Maddy in this situation because at the end of the day, both of them look like clowns. Cassie looks like a clown for being so desperate for a dude who abused her so called best friend, and doesn‘t even like her like that, and Maddy…we’ve already discusses her and the Tyler situation, and like I said, it’s still obvious that Maddy would have gotten back together with Nate in a heartbeat had Cassie not gotten in the middle. And who knows, now that Nate and Cassie are done, Maddy probably will take him back.
If Nate had never laid hands on Maddy, I wouldn’t care that Cassie got with him ‘cause there are more important things to worry about that her sleeping with just Maddy’s ex, but her sleeping with Maddy’s abuser, was a whole different story.
Do I like Cassie? No, but at the end of the day, Cassie is not the villain that y’all say she is. What Cassie did was dumb, but what Maddy did was ILLEGAL!
Cassie and Maddy are both idiots who got played by Nate, and that’s that!
Kat:
Kat’s situation is *insert side-eye* and gross to me, and we’re gonna get into it.
(First of all, Kat ain’t shit for the way she broke up with Ethan, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.)
About Kat’s storyline, why am I not surprised that her storyline is her being the typically fat girl in her friend group full of hot and skinny girls, and she’s insecure about her weight, and goes through a transformation?
Now what I will say is that I’m at least happy that they didn’t go down the path of having Kat become skinny as a way to fix her self-esteem, but the path the writers did chose to go down grosses me out.
Why is 16 year old Kat a cam girl and why are people saying that it’s empowering? Kat “fixes“ her self-esteem through male validation and being a cam girl? AT 16???? Her sex tape is posted without her concent (a crime, plus the fact that she’s a minro), and she decides to start doing private videos for gross old men for money??? How is this empowering??? SHE’S A CHILD! If this is what our generation deems as “empowering,” then jesus take the wheel….
Jules:
I’m not sure where this whole “Jules is the villain” bs started, but it makes no sense. How is Jules the villain? Jules isn’t innocent but going as far as to call her the villain is a reach. Jules as a person on her own isn’t that bad to me, I actually kinda like her, but Jules as a partner for Rue, issa no for me.
The first immediate “HELL NO” for me, was when Jules was telling Rue that the two of them could only be together if Rue got clean. NEVER say something like that to an addict. EVER! But I do have a lot of sympathy for Jules when it comes to her backstory ‘cause although Jules being transgender isn’t really shoved in our faces, we still get the understanding that Jules‘ identity plays a huge role on the way she acts.
It’s clear that Rue’s addiction takes a toll on Jules, which is why I say that the two are not good for each other. Jules should focus less on relationships and hookups and more on finding herself and finding self-love 'cause she really needs it. And if she was to be with anyone, it sure as hell shouldn’t be a drug addict. Jules needs someone stable in her life, and Rue is the complete opposite of that.
Dealing with Rue, her struggle with identity, and on top of that, dealing with Nate and his blackmail, is a lot, and I’m honestly surprised that Jules isn’t more fucked up.
Leslie:
Now here’s the thing with Leslie, I don’t agree with a lot of people’s opinion on her. Leslie is NOT a bad mom, but like all parents, she’s also not perfect. We have to understand that parents (especially moms) are not superheroes and cannot do it all. Let's take a look at Leslie’s situation for a second, she lost her husband to cancer, she’s a single mother of 2, her eldest daughter is a drug addict with mental health issues, her youngest daughter is having to grow up in that household and witness her sisters addiction, Leslie has to help and save Rue’s live, while also trying to raise Gia and not make her feel like Rue is more important than her, all while also battling with her mental well being.
At the end of the day, you cannot help someone in Rue’s situation, until they themselves decide that they want to get help, and that’s what Leslie finally realizes in season in the scene where she finally gave up on Rue.
It gets exhausting, and feels like HELL for her to be constantly trying to save Rue and having to constantly worry about her life, when Rue herself doesn't even seem to care. So no, I'm not surprised that Leslie finally reached her breaking point, and I don’t think she’s a terrible mom for what she said.
She’s spent years putting her full attention on Rue at the expense of her younger daughter who’s been suffering in silence, and now, Leslie is finally realizing that it's clear that Rue will only get better if and when she wants to, and right then, she clearly didn’t want to. I don’t blame Leslie for deciding to focus on Gia, who isn’t far gone at the moment.
People who call Leslie a bad mom are not able to consider what it’s like being in her situation. I’m not even Rue’s mom and even I’M exhausted because for her.
Elliot:
Imma be honest, Elliot kinda boring, but I understand his purpose for the show. Besides Jules and Gia, Elliot’s the only character that Rue finds somewhat of happiness being around, so I can’t really be mad about that…..but at the same time, there’s a small part of me that ain’t feeling him as a character.
I don’t think him and Rue are good for each other ‘cause Elliot was kinda Rue’s new vice in season 2 when she began using drugs again, and he said it himself that him and Rue might bring out the worst in eachother. Yes he did save Rue’s life, but he also kinda played a role in her almost dying in the first place, so…… it gets complicated.
One minute he’s doing drugs with Rue, the next minute he’s kinda leading Rue on, and then the next minute he’s hooking up with Jules. He’s just like every single character on this show, MESSY!
Fez:
This might shock some people ‘cause every time the topic of Euphoria comes up, people always have Fez as their favorite and least problematic character, but not me. Is Fez less problematic than most of the other major characters, yes, but at the end of the day, the dude still sells drugs to teenagers, and I don’t know why that goes over a lot of people’s heads.
Yes he had to drop out of highschool to take care of his sick grandma and his little brother, and I’ll give him some slack for that, but…. I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s the least messed up character ‘cause….. the dude still sells drugs to kids. He can’t at least sell to only grown-ups?
Ashtray:
I get that Ashtray is a fan favorite 'cause I mean c’mon he’s a kid stuck in this mess of an environment he grew up in and knows no different, and I do like Ashtray, but……I still have some critics when it comes to him, especially after the season finale of season 2. Spoiler Alert! He ends up shooting his entire place up and also ends up shooting a cop.
The only reason why I’m not putting Ashtray up there with the worst of the worst is ‘casue again, he’s a kid who’s only the product of his toxic environment, so just like Fez, I can cut him some slack.
But that season finale was intense, even for him.
Faye:
Now I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand Faye as a character, and what I mean by this is that I don’t understand her role and what she brings to the table. I don’t not like her, but I can’t say she’s my favorite as well ‘cause I kinda don’t see the point of her. She doesn’t really do anything bad in the show, so I guess she gets brownie points for that…..?....
Imma just pray she actually gets a storyline in season 3….(if she’s even still alive).....
Gia:
If there’s anyone I feel bad for in this entire show, it’s Gia. She has to deal with her drug addict sisters, and a somewhat neglectful mother who’s constantly fighting with her drug addict sister. Leslie pays so much attention to Rue that she almost forgets that she has another daughter who’s suffering in silence, which is Gia. This is why I’m actually happy that Lesie acknowledged the lack of attention she’s been giving Gia, and vowed to focus more on her.
We always talk about Rue’s mental health and how drugs are messing with it, but when are we gonna talk about Gia and how much mental toll it takes for her to endure her family’s situation?
Lexi:
Lexi, Lexi, Lexi…… I don’t know! I’m not sure exactly how I feel about Lexi after season 2. In season 1, I didn’t see anything wrong with her ‘cause she wasn’t really involved in the whole mess along with the other characters but after season 2, I’m having second thoughts.
Lemme get one major thing straight, I don’t ship Lexi and Fex! I know that the whole Euphoria fanbase as a whole loves Lexi and Fez together, but not me. I think Lexi deserves better. I’m sorry but I had to say it. Fez is literally a drug dealer who sells to kids and I don’t care how y’all try to flip it, twist it, bop it, and turn it, that’ll always be a no-go for me. I don’t mind if the two just become friends, but as a couple, Lexi doesn’t need that mess in her life.
Now, the second thing I wanna say about Lexi is her play in season 2. Now this is an unpopular opinion, but Lexi’s play was wrong and the other characters have every right to be mad at her. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but imma have to agree with Cassie and Nate on this one and say that Lexi was outta pocket with that play.
Imagine if somebody in real life did what Lexi did….. EXACTLY! No one would be cheering her on, and I’m still not cheering her even if it’s television. The excuse of, “the characters are horrible people who need to see how they really are as people,” isn’t a good enough excuse in my book. A large reason for that play was meant to embarrass and humiliate the other characters because there were scenes in it that were so uncalled for. Like Cassie and that carousel scene. Was that really necessary? No it wasn’t.
Were the performances good? Yes, but that doesn’t make it okay.
Ali:
Ali is by far the most underrated character in this entire show, which sucks ‘cause he’s one of the best. I was so disappointed that we didn’t get a lot of Ali screen time in season 2 ‘cause I feel like he adds so much to the show. He’s literally like Rue’s mentor and besides Rue’s family, is the number one person who genuinely cares about Rue and wants to see her get better. When I said that season 2 ends kinda well for Rue, it’s exactly why I feel like Ali could’ve played a much bigger role in Rue’s life in that season.
However, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed ‘cause now that Rue seems to have finally accepted that she has a problem and seems to want to get better, I hope that that’s where Ali comes in more often and guides her on her path to recovery.
Ethan:
This isn’t even an opinion, it’s a FACT! Out over everyone on this show, Ethan is by far the least messed up character. I can’t even name one bad thing he’s done. He genuinely loved Kat which made me feel even worse for him when she broke things off. And his performance in Lexi’s play……… a MASTERPIECE!!!
I don’t even care if Ethan gets no storyline in season 3 ‘cause just his presence alone, just adds such a great balance to the show’s craziness. I believe that he’s genuinely a nice guy, so it would make me so upset if the show decided to turn him to a messy character.
Euphoria is one of those shows where I really don’t have a favorite character. Everyone on it kinda sucks, but the ones that don’t suck are kinda boring, so my options are limited.
The show is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion, and the characters, no matter how fucked up they are, they’re what make the show interesting. It wouldn’t be the same without Nate’s sociopathic moments or Cassie’s breakdown every 4 minutes.
Nobody on this show is the center bad guy that everyone else is trying to take down because everyone’s dealing with their own personal issues.
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