And EuphoriaвЂ™s excesses are a lot more endearing-which is to say, less exhausting-when theyвЂ™re canonically rooted in enthusiastic immaturity. But this episode ups the ante even further: In the world of Euphoria, Our Life is narrated, written, and directed by an actual teenager. The show as a whole is narrated by Rue, who serves as our Virgil through the raging inferno of teen angst. According to The Daily Beast, Ferreira walked off set multiple times during production following disputes with Levinson and did not attend the season premiere.) Euphoria is a disorienting mix of genres, tones, stakes, and overall vibes, a whiplash-inducing experience thatвЂ™s chaotic by design. (The role of Barbie FerreiraвЂ™s character Kat Hernandez has been noticeably diminished in Season 2.

The show has always been a bumpy ride, both for viewers and, according to some recent reports, behind the scenes. In doing so, she brings Euphoria into the stronger side of its eternal highs and lows. On a show that features a sociopathic bully, a predatory parent, and a queenpin who threatens to sell Rue into sexual slavery, Lexi unmasks herself as EuphoriaвЂ™s most terrifying villain of all: a theater kid with an ax to grind. ItвЂ™s an hour built around Our Life-the play-within-a-show that LexiвЂ™s spent all season writing-and FezвЂ™s conspicuous absence from the performance. Yet in a season thatвЂ™s otherwise strayed from Season 1вЂ™s character-focused cold opens, вЂњThe Theater and Its DoubleвЂќ has a relatively focused structure. Jules (Hunter Schafer) smashes the illicit sex tape of her and a classmateвЂ™s father, destroying the evidence of an encounter sheвЂ™d like to forget. Maddy (Alexa Demie) confronts Cassie about dating her awful ex-boyfriend and destroying their close friendship. RueвЂ™s mother tells her that her younger sister Gia (Storm Reid) has been struggling and sheвЂ™s just too self-absorbed to notice it. Unlike вЂњStand Still Like the Hummingbird,вЂќ the standout hour that focused exclusively on Rue and her nightlong descent to rock bottom, вЂњThe Theater and Its DoubleвЂќ works in updates that span EuphoriaвЂ™s ensemble cast. In this weekвЂ™s episode, the penultimate installment before next weekвЂ™s finale, both LexiвЂ™s and FezcoвЂ™s arcs come to a head.

Depending how you looked at it, the combination was either a self-aware nod to how underused both characters were in Season 1 or a rote solution to how Euphoria could use them better. Starting with last monthвЂ™s premiere, Levinson paired the two up in an unlikely friendship-possibly a budding romance. If your Twitter feed looks like Euphoria is more ubiquitous than ever, thatвЂ™s because it is.Д«ut in terms of actual story, whatвЂ™s changed in Season 2 can be neatly summed up by the increased prominence of two characters: drug dealer Fezco (Angus Cloud), who keeps a watchful eye on protagonist Rue (Zendaya) even as he sells her drugs, and shy nerd Lexi (Maude Apatow), RueвЂ™s former best friend and the younger sister of beautiful, popular Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). Most importantly for HBO, the network now has a massive, youth-friendly streaming service to distribute its first teen drama, contributing to an equally sizable ratings bump. TikTok has blown up in the meantime, so we get Euphoria High memes. It took nearly three years and an entire pandemic for creator Sam Levinson to produce a follow-up, so the characters seem less familiar than they might have on a more regular production schedule. Much of that difference is due to factors outside the show itself, which has stayed relatively consistent from one volume to the next. Six weeks in, thereвЂ™s a lot that feels different about the second season of Euphoria.

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