‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Finale: Is [SPOILER] Alive and 10 More Unanswered Questions

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read unless you have watched the Season 2 finale of “Euphoria” on HBO.

And just like that, Season 2 of HBO’s “Euphoria” has come to an end.

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In Sunday night’s finale, titled “All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name,” reality morphed with Lexi’s (Maude Apatow) play as the audience saw its second act. The fourth wall was broken as Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) strutted onstage and gave Lexi a piece of her mind, leading to an all-out fight with Maddy (Alexa Demie) and Kat (Barbie Ferreira). In an explosive scene involving a S.W.A.T. raid, Fezco (Angus Cloud) is accidentally shot by Ashtray (Javon Walton), which leads Ash to presumably kill himself. Meanwhile, Nate (Jacob Elordi) decides to turn his father, Cal (Eric Dane), into the police for child pornography, and Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) finally talk after the intervention that forced Rue to get clean.

But of course, there are still plenty of unanswered questions regarding Rue and the rest of the East Highland teenagers. Below, we postulate about the fate of Fezco and Ashtray, wonder whether Rue and Jules will get back together and if Laurie will make a comeback — and predict what might happen in the show’s already highly anticipated Season 3.

Is Ashtray dead?

After killing Custer (Tyler Chase) at the beginning of the episode, Fezco tells Ash that he’ll take the blame for the murder, going so far as to put the blood from the knife onto his hands. But when the S.W.A.T. team raids Fezco and Ash’s apartment, Ash barricades himself in the bathroom with an artillery of guns. Fezco pleads for the officers not to shoot, saying, “There’s a kid in here,” while also begging Ash to come out of the bathroom. But Ash refuses, instead firing through the door at the officers with a machine gun — and accidentally shooting Fezco in the stomach. Ash eventually stops firing, instead playing dead to lure an officer into the bathroom, where he kills him. But with the door now open, Ash realizes that he shot Fezco and tears well up in his eyes as he holds a gun close to his chest. All the audience sees is Fezco’s face as another shot rings out and a body hits the ground. Though it is uncertain since the audience does not see it, Ash has either killed himself after realizing that he has possibly killed his brother, or was shot by an officer.

What happened to Fezco?

This will surely be the main question on everyone’s minds after the finale. After Ash is seemingly killed, the audience sees the brothers’ empty apartment as a S.W.A.T. officer leaves, stepping on Fezco’s card for Lexi on the way out. But Fez himself is nowhere to be seen, raising all the questions: Is he dead? Has he been hospitalized? Was he arrested? Any of these things could be true, and “Euphoria” viewers everywhere will be waiting with bated breath for the answer to be revealed in Season 3. But if we had to venture a guess, it’s likely that Fez was taken immediately to the hospital, and will likely face jail time on drug-related charges — and perhaps murder as well — after he recovers from his gunshot wound.

Screenshot courtesy HBO Max

What will happen to Faye (Chloe Cherry)?

Dear Faye! She had us in the first half, not going to lie. By the end of Episode 7, it looked like Faye was going to betray Fezco and Ashtray, turning them over to the police and submitting to her boyfriend Custer’s request to out them as Mouse’s murderers. Ride or die Faye, however, took a genius and diplomatic approach to the situation: Instead of betrayal, how about blaming third-party bad-guy Laurie? If her brilliantly improvised plan had worked, Custer and Ash would have survived, and Fezco’s whereabouts would be (we’d like to believe) at Lexi’s play, cheering her on and maybe dragging Cassie off the stage himself. But, alas, neither Custer nor Ash caught on to Faye’s efforts to shift the drama over to Laurie. But fans will not forget Faye’s sincere attempts to be a hero, and the character will return (we hope) in Season 3 — but will she be a free woman staying sober, or will she be behind bars? As with Fez’s circumstances in the aftermath of the cop showdown at his grandma’s home, Faye’s circumstances are uncertain, but surely “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson won’t let one of the season’s most talked-about actors go.

Will Maddy and Cassie become friends again?

After exchanging C-words, B-words, and several other colorful insults we won’t write here, the fate of East Highland High’s prettiest and most intimidating teen queen duo is fuzzy. Cassie sabotaged Lexi’s play in a fit of pure, unfiltered rage, and Maddy took advantage of the chaos to (literally) choose violence, chasing down her former BFF on-and-off stage and down the hallway. We don’t see much of the frenemies after they make it past the hallway until later in the episode. In that scene, we find Maddy and Cassie nursing their injuries in the bathroom, with Kat and BB (Sophia Rose Wilson) in there with them. Cassie admits that before she stomped on that set and screamed at her sister, Nate had broken things off with her, to which Maddy replies with a cryptic: “Don’t worry, this is just the beginning,” and leaves. Is it the beginning of a cycle of abuse with Nate, one that she knows all too well? Or, is this the beginning of the end of the sisterhood she once shared with Cassie? Given the amount of hurt and betrayal — and Samantha’s wise words during their late-night swim — it appears unlikely that Maddy will be the one to extend the olive branch first. If it is ever extended, that is.

What’s up with Kat?

Many “Euphoria” fans were disappointed this season when Kat’s storyline seemed to get less and less relevant. Though the first season saw Kat own her sexuality by becoming a cam girl, gain immense self-confidence and find a boyfriend in Ethan (Austin Abrams), the character took a major step back this season. Her main storyline was breaking up with Ethan by faking a terminal disease, which seemed pretty random at the time. Of course, fans began to speculate about if something happened behind-the-scenes, leading to a Daily Beast report that Ferreira had walked off set due to a fight with Levinson. Although the rumors of on-set turmoil have not been confirmed, it will certainly be of interest to see if Kat’s character regains prominence in Season 3 — if she returns at all.

Will Cassie and Nate get back together?

The end of Episode 7 saw Nate and Cassie break up after Lexi’s play poked fun at Nate’s veiled sexuality with a homoerotic dance to Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero.” But having seen Nate and Maddy’s toxic relationship play out in Season 1, it’s, as previously noted, likely that this is “just the beginning” of an abusive cycle for these two. It’s clear that Cassie is still head over heels for Nate, and Season 3 will likely show her trying to win him back anyway she can.

Was Cal’s tape of Jules on the flash drive Nate turned into the police?

In one of the most intense scenes of the finale episode, Nate Jacobs confronts his father, Cal— who seems to have shacked up in his construction site with a gaggle of sex workers keeping him company— with a gun in tow. After being publicly shamed for rumors surrounding his sexuality by his ex-girlfriend’s sister on-stage and storming out of his high school, drinking and driving, it all gives the impression that Nate will wind up shooting someone. What viewers don’t see that Nate also has a USB with him, which he claims contains “everything” that his father has done— all of the nonconsensual videos of him having sex with prostitutes and with dates, some of whom were underaged, like Jules. Nate tells his father that this is his revenge, and soon the police whisk Cal away after Nate has, one would imagine, shown them proof of his father’s criminal actions. But was it everything? Earlier in the season, Nate gave Jules a CD of, what we were led to believe, was the only existing evidence of her sexual encounter with Nate’s father, and gave her his blessing to do whatever she wanted with that footage. Was Nate too impatient to stick it to his dad, or did Jules facilitate this ambush along with Nate? It seems a reasonable assumption that Cal had other underage encounters. Still, it also seems just as conceivable that the cops are now aware of what Cal did to Jules, and that in Season 3, she will be in court testifying against the Jacobs patriarch. After being sidelined for much of Season 2, this could be the character’s chance to have more to do on-screen than being caught in a love triangle.

What happened to the suitcase Rue got from Laurie (Martha Kelly), and will there be repercussions?

In Episode 3, Rue told Laurie she intended to become a drug dealer — though really, she just wanted easy access to drugs — and was given a suitcase of pills to sell worth $10,000. However, when Jules and Elliot tell Rue’s mother that she is using again in Episode 5, Leslie (Nika King) disposes of the suitcase and tells Rue she is going back to rehab, causing her to have a full-blown breakdown. Laurie was clear when she gave Rue the suitcase that there would be major repercussions if she didn’t get her money back — with a threatening implication of human trafficking or possibly death. But in the finale, the whole suitcase debacle with Laurie seems to have been put to the side, though certainly it hasn’t been forgotten. In Season 3, Rue is sure to face a rude awakening from Laurie and her associates when they realize they aren’t getting their money back.

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Will Rue stay clean?

At the end of the episode, the audience learns that Rue was able to stay clean for the rest of the school year — but will it stay that way? Although viewers certainly hope so, there is a looming sense of disaster ahead due to Rue’s failure to pay back Laurie for the suitcase of drugs she gave her. And, knowing that Elliot admitted in the finale that he is still using, Rue could still have bad influences around her. However, the possibility of Rue’s reignited friendship with Lexi — though it is unclear if the reality-twisting scene in Lexi’s play actually happened — and the promise of her heightened self-awareness make it possible that “Euphoria’s” protagonist could finally be on the road to recovery.

Will Elliot and Rue stay friends?

After Elliot’s (Dominic Fike) moving, original song for Rue (in which Fike was able to show off his real-life singer-songwriter skills on-screen), followed by that “sup?” nod the two exchanged in the theater while watching Lexi’s play, a healthier version of their pre-existing friendship budding in Season 3 could happen. Although Elliot is still using drugs — and that he doesn’t think they’d be good for each other — after she shows up at his place to both apologize and accept forgiveness, the two seemed to part on a positive note. Rue’s narration that she stayed clean for the rest of the year may indicate that she didn’t hang out with Elliot, but who knows? Maybe Elliot was inspired by Rue and took the step forward to sobriety as well.

Will Rue and Jules get back together?

Season 2’s explosive finale left a trail of emotional wreckage among its protagonists, and Rue and Jules were no exception to these heart-wrenching scenes that didn’t entirely lead to closure. Toward the end of the episode, Jules slides up next to Rue at the theater after Lexi’s play ends. Between sobs, Jules tells her: “I know you’re probably still really angry with me, but I just wanted to tell you that I love you and I miss you so much,” referring to Rue brutally terminating their friendship weeks earlier. Rue says to Elliot that he “might have accidentally saved my life,” and that she forgives him, leaving the question of whether or not their friendship will survive open. But whether Rue fully forgives Jules, or is ready to be friends with her is not clear, either. Rue tenderly kisses Jules’ forehead without a word, and leaves her to cry alone in the theater. A voiceover plays, where Rue says: “Jules was my first love. I’d like to remember it that way. I don’t know if that’s actually true. I think I was high for too much of it.” Though we won’t know for sure until Season 3 airs, it seems safe to assume that the door for romance between Rue and Jules has officially been shut.

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