‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 7 Says A Few Goodbyes Ahead of the Finale

Warning: This article contains major spoilers.

I thought it would be impossible for Euphoria to get any more chaotic than it has been in the past weeks, but the penultimate episode of Season 3 kicks everything into dangerously high gear. You either jump out of the car and hurt yourself, or stay for the car crash and still hurt yourself. Either way, nobody is leaving this show unscathed.

I was right to be suspicious when Gillie (Gideon Adlon) said in the last episode, “If someone doesn’t die periodically, people get bored.” Episode 7 sets us up for a major character death, but we’re left asking who it could be until the episode’s last moments.

It could be Rue (Zendaya), whose life is threatened every episode either by Laurie (Martha Kelly) or by Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). The episode begins with a flashback to Ali’s (Colman Domingo) past, which he spent between smoking crack with his junkie buddy (Natasha Lyonne) and being an awful husband at home. Years later, he sponsors younger individuals struggling with addiction at Narcotics Anonymous. Many of his sponsees pass away, and Rue could very well be next in Ali’s memorial book.

It could also be Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), who received a package bearing Nate’s (Jacob Elordi) severed ring finger last episode, and now must find a way to bring in cash to pay loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian), or her husband dies. It turns out she still loves Nate for more than just his money. But is she willing to die for him?

Or it could be Maddy (Alexa Demie), who’s been warned against making deals with Alamo. This cowboy pimp and drug kingpin has a talent for making people disappear without a trace when they cross or displease him. And even though Maddy says she can defend herself, she barely has the connections, machinery, and money to stand up to someone like Alamo if she messes up in their partnership.

Silver Slipper manager Big Eddy (Kadeem Hardison) has returned to Alamo’s ranch after the Episode 4 robbery. He has stitches and a colostomy bag, but that doesn’t stop Alamo from sending him out to Mexicali for a pick-up with one of Laurie’s men, Mitch (Daeg N. Faerch).

In downtown Los Angeles, Rue tells Lexi (Maude Apatow) that she thinks God revealed Himself to her, and that she’s been working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). But they have a disagreement when Lexi says she believes Rue is still taking drugs.

Angry, Rue walks out and catches someone watching through Cassie’s window across the apartment complex. She goes up to the door and knocks on it, but leaves when no one responds. Little does she know that behind it, Cassie has been tied up by Naz and his henchman Artur (Matthew Willig).

How did Cassie End Up Hostaged?

A few days earlier, Cassie was dropped from the show L.A. Nights just after she was promised a bigger role by producer Patty Lance (Sharon Stone), because the network doesn’t want to employ a sex worker. To make matters worse, she had also just deleted her OnlyFans account. While she’s able to make a new one, she now has to work on regaining the 50,000 subscribers she just lost.

This angers Maddy, who’s also been fired from the talent agency because she booked the L.A. Nights audition for Cassie, and “misrepresented” the firm. But to get Cassie’s followers back, she sets her up on a date with actor Dylan Reid (Homer Gere). They got spotted by a paparazzo after dinner, and back at the apartment, Cassie manages to sneak into Dylan’s phone and post a selfie on his Instagram. She does this while he drunkenly goes out to the kitchen to drink water and unknowingly shovels Nate’s severed finger (which Cassie kept in her freezer’s ice compartment) into his glass.

While she’s recording a video for a subscriber, Naz and Artur bust into Cassie’s apartment and tie her up, threatening to kill Nate if she doesn’t produce them a million dollars in 72 hours. “What happens in 72 hours?” Cassie asks.

The End is Near for Some, and Here for Others

Nate has been buried alive, stuck in a box six feet under his construction site, with nothing but a pipe connecting his coffin to the outside world. Cassie calls up Maddy to help her get the money to pay off Naz, and Maddy gets the help of Alamo after sweet-talking him in a jacuzzi and telling him that Rue has been in cahoots with the DEA (which Lexi inadvertently revealed to her in an argument).

Maddy and Alamo go to the construction site to meet with Naz and Cassie. Alamo has prepared a duffel bag for Maddy to hand to Naz, but when the loan shark takes it, he takes a look inside and says, “Is this a fucking joke?” Naz gets shot to death and Artur stands down.

With a backhoe, they dig up Nate’s coffin in the hopes that he’s still alive. After all, it hasn’t been 72 hours. But they find him dead after having succumbed to the bite of a rattlesnake, which had made its way in through the pipe.

Meanwhile, Rue stays over at Ali’s place and confides in him about her faith. Ali encourages her to stop working between the Laurie, Alamo, and the DEA, but Rue fears that if she doesn’t steal Alamo’s money back and see the DEA’s bust operation through, her mother’s life could be on the line. Rue leaves in the morning to carry out what she hopes is her last job for Alamo.

She makes her way to Laurie’s home, pretending to switch sides after Alamo hurt her. Laurie’s men have lost their trust in her, but they don’t act on it right away. Instead, neo-Nazi Wayne (Toby Wallace) tells his girlfriend Faye (Chloe Cherry) that she would have to put her Rue down “like a dog.”

Faye doesn’t want to, partly because Rue is her friend, and partly because she was promised all the money in Laurie’s vault if she’d help Rue crack it open. At night, they head down to the basement where the vault is — and where Wayne also sleeps. In it, instead of the money Laurie’s men had stolen from Alamo, they find ID cards of girls, including Alamo’s dancer Angel (to recall, she was sent to “rehab” and was said to have run away in previous episodes).

Faye and Rue are upset for totally different reasons. Rue doesn’t know why Laurie has Angel’s driver’s license. Faye, on the other hand, doesn’t have the money that was promised, and she takes her anger out on Rue, waking Wayne up with a scream.

Euphoria Season 3 is currently streaming on HBO Max.

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