The hit HBO series Euphoria is a show of many beautiful yet fascinating contradictions. Recently renewed for a third season, it is a strikingly inventive work from a visual perspective that challenges the form and stands out from anything else on TV right now. It is also a messy narrative experience, seeming to lose sight of key characters in the pursuit of throwing everything at the screen to see what sticks. It boasts an Emmy-award-winning performance from a committed Zendaya who plays the troubled Rue as she struggles with drug addiction. It still frequently gets caught up in itself, making for an uneven viewing experience where many episodes feel haphazardly constructed and even approach being poorly written. There is nothing quite like it airing right now and, for better or worse, there is no denying the simple fact that it is a show that keeps our attention.
A little past the midway point of its second season, we have already been taken for quite a ride through the tumultuous lives of the young characters trying to navigate an uncertain and often messy world. This was certainly not unexpected as we have all begun to know what it is that Euphoria is at this point. At its best, it is a compelling and arresting look at well-acted, multifaceted characters. At its worst, it is a narrative that woefully lacks focus on what it wants to be. Is it an ensemble show of interlocking stories that all get their moment to shine? At times, it feels like it. Though, sometimes, there are characters who almost completely fade into the background like with Barbie Ferreira's Kat. Is it a show built around Rue and her family trying to deal with the loss of her father with the pain that has caused? Possibly, though the lack of development for Rue's mother, Leslie (Nika King), and sister, Gia (Storm Reid), makes it hard to fully buy into that either. It is a show that is experiencing an identity crisis and needed an episode to come along to help it refocus.
That is what the most recent episode, “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird,” did when the show needed it most. Much like the show's best episode of the first season, the carnival episode, it all takes place more or less in real-time over the course of a single night. It was an episode that proved itself to be the most confident and certain about what it was doing. In narrowing its scope to have Rue be both the central focus and a lens through which to view the story once more, creator Sam Levinson played to one of the show’s greatest strengths: Zendaya. In shifting between various emotional states of anger, fear, and pain as Rue goes through agonizing withdrawal, she created a simultaneously stunning and painful performance. The dynamic journey Zendaya takes us on, both literally as she runs all over town and emotionally as she is hitting rock bottom, is the show at its most unflinching.
This is because the show doesn’t hold back on looking frankly at how Rue is a mess, spiraling out of control when she discovers her stash of pills has disappeared. She is initially furious, even threatening and aggressive, towards her family and friends. The pure rage and desperation seen in every aspect of Zendaya’s performance in these scenes are as magnetizing as they are terrifying. Gone is the person that Rue once was. Gone is the kid who genuinely cared for and loved those around her. She is more than just not herself, she is someone entirely different. She is becoming the person that Colman Domingo’s prophetic Ali foresaw that she would be if she continued to use as she had been before going to rehab. She says some of the most hurtful, cruel things imaginable to those closest to her. In particular, Rue targets Jules (Hunter Schafer) when she finds out that Jules was the one who told Leslie that Rue was using again.
Zendaya transforms at this moment, with the silence of her shock and betrayal giving way to bitterness. It is a performance that isn’t just about yelling, but the in-between moments as well where Rue falls further into the darkness of her own addiction. The scene between Zendaya and Schafer at this moment of intervention is devastating as it becomes clear that Rue may push those she loves the most away. Through her actions, Rue may end up even more alone than she ever has been before. Upon realizing this, her anger instantly melts away to be filled with remorse that wracks her body with sobs at what she has just done. It is unsettling as it is unceasing, only the beginning of an endurance test of an episode that never lets up.
It is in this exhausting yet entrancing episode where the show doesn't pull away from grappling with the ugly aspects of being an addict. Much of the season before it had been seen through Rue’s eyes, an unreliable narrator whose perspective muted just how bad things were getting in her life. All that has now been torn down to reveal the reality of how bleak her situation truly is. It is in every aspect of her performance that Zendaya ruthlessly yet gracefully strips away all of who Rue once was up until this point. It is through her compassionate performance that she gets to the core of the person Rue is becoming as her addiction begins to consume her entire being.
Her performance walks a fine line, never condemning the character or demonizing her even as does increasingly unforgivable things. You feel the love for her in every detail of her descent. Yet it also doesn’t sugarcoat or glamorize the toll Rue’s addiction takes on her (contrary to what D.A.R.E might think.) It doesn’t moralize or offer any answers, it just is a frank portrayal of what happens to a person when they begin to lose themselves as Rue has. It is both harrowing and honest, a testament to how completely Zendaya gives herself over to these scenes with no pretension in her performance. She is pushing the story in a darker direction where the prospect of Rue being either seriously hurt or entirely lost is increasingly becoming a real possibility.
Whether the show can fully capitalize on this momentum and Zendaya’s great performance remains an open question as there are still three episodes left in this season. With all its flaws, this is the moment that the show needed to redefine itself and reach for a much darker yet compelling direction when it had otherwise been aimless. There are the remaining problems of whether the show has a full handle on what to do with all of its characters and the journey they are going on. It is unclear whether the subsequent episodes will fall into some of the show’s old patterns that have made the season an uneven one or whether this could be the beginning of a new focus. Time will only tell whether we will look back at this episode as being a high point in an otherwise muddled season or the start of its reinvention. What is certain is that, for at least this single episode of television, Euphoria found something transcendent and bold through the show-stopping performance of its lead, Zendaya.