{"id":679771,"date":"2026-06-02T12:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679771\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T12:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:18:14","slug":"euphoria-creator-sam-levinson-cast-on-season-3-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679771\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Euphoria’ Creator Sam Levinson & Cast On Season 3 Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn another world, HBO<\/a>\u2018s Euphoria<\/a> might\u2019ve had a happy ending. But then, that wouldn\u2019t have been very truthful, says creator Sam Levinson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe honest ending is people like Rue don\u2019t make it,\u201d he said in a behind-the-scenes video after the now-series finale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Sunday night\u2019s finale, Zendaya<\/a>\u2018s Rue Bennett dies of a fentanyl overdose after relapsing on laced Percocet given to her by Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). That is how former Euphoria star Angus Cloud, who played Rue\u2019s friend Fezco O\u2019Neill, died in 2023<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s also a fate Levinson believes he narrowly escaped himself. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople relapse. They f*ck up. They\u2019re not ready to get clean, and they weren\u2019t dying like they are now with the influx of fentanyl into this country,\u201d he said. \u201cI could say with absolute certainty that if I was going through what I went through when I was younger now, then I wouldn\u2019t be here, either. There\u2019s no reason to sugarcoat that. I wanted to tell the story for Angus and for people who aren\u2019t granted a second chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, he acknowledges how difficult it might be for viewers to wrap their head around the choice, in part because of Zendaya\u2019s magnetic performance that has kept audiences on her side despite her transgressions. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cZendaya\u2019s performance has been so wonderful and layered over the course of these seasons,\u201d he added. \u201cWe fell in love with this character, this girl who\u2019s flawed, f*cked up, but has a good heart and is trying to do right, at least sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRue\u2019s death comes just 45 minutes into the finale, around the halfway point. In another story, things might\u2019ve ended there. That would be the \u201cnormal, sane television show,\u201d jokes Levinson, which Euphoria is not. <\/p>\n

\n\tAli (Colman Domingo), Rue\u2019s sponsor, finds her dead on his couch the morning after Alamo tells her to take some time off to address her injuries from escaping Laurie\u2019s. He quickly discovers the fentanyl-laced pills and sets out for revenge against the man who killed her. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew that I wanted to experience Rue\u2019s death through him,\u201d Levinson explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a sort of [feeling of] helplessness. Letting Colman articulate that, for us as an audience, is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAli doesn\u2019t remain helpless for very long, though. After trying to grieve the quote-unquote proper way for a few months \u2014 going to AA meetings, sponsoring others, and relying on his faith \u2014 he\u2019s found that doesn\u2019t really work for him anymore. Eventually, a hardened Ali tells his support group that he\u2019ll no longer be attending meetings, as he\u2019s searching for a more meaningful way to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen, he saws the barrel off his shotgun and, in the second shootout of the episode, Ali murders Alamo with three bullets to the chest inside the Silver Slipper. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was nice to take Ali out of the box and have him dance with other players,\u201d Domingo said of branching out from his typically isolated scenes with Zendaya. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not exactly as if any of the other characters are in a much better spot, either. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney<\/a>) and Maddy (Alexa Demie<\/a>) are in a mountain of debt and are trying to cover up Nate\u2019s (Jacob Elordi<\/a>) death. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMaddy has always been very guarded, and I think at that point in the diner, I think she\u2019s done. She\u2019s really tender inside,\u201d Demie said in the video. <\/p>\n

\n\tLevinson thinks that, while their reunification was in some ways born out of duress, Cassie and Maddy are the real \u201clove story\u201d of Season 3. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ve been through so much together, and there they are in the end, all they really got is each other and a whole bunch of debt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Lexi (Maude Apatow<\/a>) is having an existential crisis after reading the Bible that Rue left at her apartment. She tries to talk to Cassie about it, but the sisters have never really had an emotional connection, and Cassie shrugs her off. Jules (Hunter Schafer<\/a>), still living in her sugar daddy\u2019s apartment to pay for art school, is clearly grieving the loss as well.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always been against utopian storytelling,\u201d adds Levinson. \u201cI think in the end I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction. I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil that it can create.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In another world, HBO\u2018s Euphoria might\u2019ve had a happy ending. But then, that wouldn\u2019t have been very truthful,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[234862,88,27686,1035,151284,34564,87645,221688,7105,49615],"class_list":["post-679771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alexa-demie","tag-entertainment","tag-euphoria","tag-hbo","tag-hunter-schafer","tag-jacob-elordi","tag-maude-apatow","tag-sam-levinson","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-zendaya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}