Euphoria
Kitty Likes to Dance
Season 3
Episode 1
Editor’s Ranking
-14 stars
Rue’s profession as an underground drug runner turns right into a nightmare as Maddie helps Cassie notice her Hollywood dream.
Picture: Eddy Chen/HBO
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his sewn-up toe in tonight’s Euphoria, Nate Jacobs tells Cassie that the toe, which was mercilessly clipped off by Naz — to whom Nate owes “a million-ish” {dollars} — might function a metaphor for his or her crumbling marriage. On this determine of speech, the wedding, just like the toe, appeared as if it was misplaced eternally, however by being sensible sufficient to protect it on ice, they have been in a position to reserve it. When Cassie presses Nate on what he’s saying, he suggests possibly their marriage is extra just like the scar the sewn-up toe will depart, as a lot an indication of power as it’s of weak spot. The gist, in any case, is that he’s going to repair all of it and get them out of this mess, so long as she will place confidence in him somewhat longer.
“The fairy story is over,” Cassie pronounces, earlier than packing her stuff in a pink journey set and leaving for Lexi’s house complicated, to “work.” The fairy story of their marriage could be over, however Cassie’s Hollywood dream is simply beginning underneath Maddy’s cautious steering. Cassie’s pursuit of pornographic Web fame is juxtaposed variously with Jules’s thwarted inventive expression, Lexi’s misguided ambitions, and Kitty’s survivalist instincts on the Silver Slipper. Kitty (Anna Van Patten) is a brand new lady on the membership who got here in to fill in for Angel.
Rue first meets Kitty in supervisor Massive Eddy’s workplace, as she’s getting evaluated by Alamo. Rue sweats buckets; her matted look stands in stark distinction to Alamo’s cheery temper. He’s completely happy as a result of their plan to kill Paladin labored; Rue is nervous as a result of, as many readers anticipated, she is now an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. After discovering a number of sorts of medicine in her automotive, the feds put Rue in an interrogation room and provides her two choices: Go to federal jail or be an informant. One of many feds advises: “If you wish to flip a curse right into a blessing, that is your alternative.”
In her journey from teenage addict to D.E.A. informant, Rue has made many dangerous choices. Up to now, although, she had largely been a hazard to herself. In addition to saying some significantly imply issues to individuals who cherished her, like her sobriety sponsor, Ali, Jules, and, most memorably, her mother and sister, Rue’s path was primarily self-destructive. In early maturity, having (considerably) kicked her drug behavior, she has inadvertently put a number of lives on the road, together with her personal. Within the interrogation room, Zendaya convincingly embodies the despair in Rue’s realization that not solely she gained’t be capable to allure her approach out of this one, however she has turn into a weapon in a combat a lot larger than herself.
I’ve watched Martin Scorsese’s 2006 masterpiece The Departed a whole lot, if not hundreds, of occasions; I significantly admire the high-stakes drama of a double-crossing crime thriller. Zendaya places up a valiant effort to infuse Rue’s new scenario with emotion, nevertheless it’s not sufficient to make up for the truth that Rue, whereas Euphoria’s protagonist, has turn into passive in her personal plot. It makes narrative sense that Rue would have ended up right here; her underworld profession was certain to escalate in come what may. However we’re midway by way of the season, and up to now, Rue has made just one selection, which was to work for Alamo, and that was within the first episode. Aside from that, each selection has been made for her. Even her first project as a rat is form of lower out for her: When she asks the feds what to do when the fellows on the Silver Slipper notice that the medication they’ve changed in her fanny pack are sugar capsules and laxatives fairly than the actual stuff they purchased from Laurie, they shrug. Alamo will suppose it’s Laurie’s fault, not hers. His belief in Laurie is already damaged to start with.
The feds put a bug app on Rue’s cellphone; all she has to do is dial “Mother” to activate it. They need Rue to arrange one other take care of Laurie, however she is aware of that it is going to be unattainable within the fast aftermath of Paladin’s loss of life. Laurie has a funeral for the parrot, whereas Wayne, Harley, and firm scheme critical revenge, however “killing all of them” doesn’t appear “painful sufficient.” Rue gives to set the feds up with a unique supplier, although one doesn’t instantly come to thoughts; she has been out of the sport for just a few years and has to ask Maddy for a join. It’s the spotlight of tonight’s episode to see Rue, Maddy, Lexi, and Cassie in the identical scene collectively. They was once all in the identical present!
Every lady has set off on a very completely different path. Properly, Maddy and Cassie’s paths are completely different, however they collide: The belief of 1’s ambition would be the different’s success. Maddy has made Cassie over, taking her from “suburbs to town.” She directs Cassie in a photoshoot by the pool in Lexi’s house complicated whereas one Gillie (Gideon Adlon, Odessa’s sister, Pamela’s daughter) tries and fails to function a leafblower to fan wind into Cassie’s hair. Rue is on her personal secret and extra harmful journey, however seeing all of them collectively, every with their very own agenda, we’re reminded that they’re all, roughly, in search of the identical factor: To avoid wasting their very own ass and make a ton of cash.
Even Lexi, who urges the ladies to take heed to themselves — “You’re in search of medication, you’re promoting your physique in your porn web site, and also you’re, like, some Web pimp?” — will get roped in. About twenty minutes into tonight’s episode, there’s a sequence that exists as if in a vacuum. Lexi calls Jules with a possibility: The cleaning soap she works on, L.A. Nights, wants a fictitious murals. Jules enthusiastically accepts the fee to make a portray within the type of the French pointillist Georges Seurat. Her work portray within the lot is juxtaposed with Cassie’s makeover montage, as if each scenes are alleged to mark the ladies’ arrival of their respective Hollywood goals. However there’s an issue with Jules’s canvas: It’s much less “Sunday within the Park” and extra… Seurat if he was possessed by an edgy younger lady with progressive sexual politics. In different phrases, the portray’s picnic is populated by ghoul-like figures with boobs and penises. When Patty Lance wonders who of their proper thoughts would paint one thing like that for a cleaning soap, Lexi gives, weakly, that Lexi is trans. That ensures that Patty and the opposite community execs are good to Jules as they inform her she has to eliminate the nudity within the portray. When Jules tells them it’ll take her a few hours to take action, they punt the scene to the next week.
Patty makes certain Lexi is aware of the error will value them $191,000, which makes Lexi cry in frustration. her portray, Jules cries, too, though she took the word effectively sufficient. In an act of riot, she throws a bucket of purple paint on the portray and attracts an enormous yellow penis within the heart of it. As a result of we have now no clear concept of who Jules is as an artist, or what she hopes to perform, each her interpretation of Lexi’s project and her choice to sabotage the chance to make it as much as the community are inexplicable. If she is keen to play ball with the institution, then certainly, as Patty requested, what would have possessed her to provide them this image? And if she’s not keen to, then why is she so disenchanted?
There’s much less ambiguity relating to Lexi. She doesn’t need to be “a web unfavourable,” as Patty put it. She additionally clearly desires to really feel some sense of energy: She will get smug satisfaction out of pursuing a profession in additional “conventional” channels, not like her sister and highschool buddies. Lexi’s evolution from an over-achieving teen to a desperate-to-please assistant makes extra sense than a few of the different characters’ arcs –– I’ll get to you in a second, Nate Jacobs –– however the truth nonetheless stays that she has, with Jules, been relegated to the margins. Their storylines should not very compelling, nor very convincing. These inconsistencies are indicative of this season’s wobbly perspective and misplaced heart of gravity.
Earlier than we get again into the pornographic weeds, let’s verify in with Nate. He research photographs of the American West whereas ready for his much-anticipated Planning and Zoning Fee assembly, nonetheless blue from his wedding-night beating. Pitching the fee on a backyard of white fritillaries that will enable the Solar Settlers group to be developed across the endangered species, Nate is determined. He even quotes the Bible. His movement is denied instantly, however Nate gained’t take no for a solution. “My marriage is in shambles due to you,” he tells the fee’s chairman, Invoice. “Are you attempting to break my life?” He will get on his knees and begs. “I’m attempting to do a superb factor,” he pleads, “I can’t be dangerous.” The chairman is unmoved, and Nate sobs on the ground. Jacob Elordi gamely delivers Nate’s desperation, however I’ve misplaced the thread on Nate’s storyline. I perceive that he’s in deep shit, however how he acquired right here is such a thriller that his desperation has fallen sufferer to Euphoria’s Achilles’ heel: It’s extra image than which means.
Cassie rents herself a pink-walled house “throughout the pool from Lexi” with money she acquired from pawning her wedding ceremony ring, having determined to “spend money on herself.” She wears a skintight cheetah-print jumpsuit, authorized by Maddy, to a celebration on the home of an influencer with over 20 million followers, Brandon Fontaine (Jeff Wahlberg, nephew of Mark). Maddy prepares Cassie for battle as quickly as they arrive: The women there are “stray canines” and “bitches,” to not be trusted. “Keep sharp, keep centered. Let’s fucking win,” she encourages.
Regardless of wanting initially frightened, Cassie rapidly rises to the event. She dances with Katelyn — the identical lady Maddy represented on OnlyFans earlier than getting in bother together with her boss — and makes out together with her. She appears to be genuinely having fun with herself; she even seems to be too keen. The pictures of her dancing are juxtaposed with Kitty giving a gaggle of fratty-looking, backwards-cap-wearing boys a personal dance. Whereas Cassie escalates her personal involvement with Brandon and Katelyn, becoming a member of them in his room for cocaine, Kitty is subjected to intercourse with the boys. Seeing it by way of the safety displays in Massive Eddy’s workplace, Rue can inform that it doesn’t look proper. However when Massive Eddy is available in, he’s nonchalant, solely asking if Kitty is “making her cash’s price.” There’s solely a lot doubt Rue can categorical with out blowing her cowl. Throughout a poker sport with G, Alamo, and Bishop, which the feds pay attention to, she practically goes too far with a suggestion to reconnect together with her contacts in Mexico, now that Laurie is out of the image. The extra Alamo probes, the extra he can sense that Rue is hiding one thing. He concludes she should be utilizing once more.
It’s a fortuitous exit from a dialog that would derail rapidly. Rue is attempting to suppose on her ft so she may give the D.E.A. one thing; she is aware of the membership’s drug inventory is working low. When she sees a visibly shaken Kitty within the toilet, she asks if anybody is forcing her to work on the Slipper. This might be a technique to get Alamo and his individuals, and in addition an avenue to search out a solution for what occurred to Angel, whom the opposite ladies suppose has “run away” from rehab. In narration, Rue speculates that Angel all the time knew she wasn’t coming again, which suggests the potential for an ethical drive assembly her duties in direction of the D.E.A. to encourage Rue’s informing exercise. This nuance could be a welcome addition to Rue’s journey, however first issues first: She’ll need to get previous Magick.
Magick overhears Rue’s discuss with Kitty within the toilet and relays what she heard to Massive Eddy, as proof that Rue can’t be trusted. Rue comes into his workplace to get her cellphone, which she forgot there, bug nonetheless sizzling. She will get a name from Jimenez, one of many feds, who warns that her place has been compromised by Magick. The 2 girls yell over one another, one accusing the opposite of mendacity, of stealing medication, of snitching, of being “a Spanish hoodrat.” Their combat is interrupted when Harley and Wayne, sporting Obama masks, storm in. They maintain a gun to Eddy’s head, demanding he open the protected. When he refuses, they threaten to shoot Magick and Rue, however find yourself capturing Eddy within the abdomen as an alternative. He lastly agrees to open the protected when the boys threaten to shoot him within the balls. They make out with the contents of the protected. Whereas Rue places strain on Eddy’s wound, Magick scrutinizes the safety footage underneath Bishop’s instructions over the cellphone. The truck doesn’t have license plates, and you’ll’t see the boys’s faces, however you possibly can see the underside half of the getaway driver’s face, and it exhibits, clear as day, Faye’s signature plump lips. Rue, sensing the potential for getting away with all of this, instantly identifies Faye.
Cassie’s evening doesn’t find yourself fairly so dangerous. Within the room with Brandon Fontaine, she and Katelyn have interaction in competitors over the person’s consideration after Cassie reveals to Katelyn that she’s there with Maddy, her “finest pal” and rep. Cassie does essentially the most and wins Brandon’s consideration. In the meantime, Maddy seems to be for her everywhere in the home, banging on the door to Brandon’s room, and in the end resorts to having his crew unlock the door. They achieve this, with cameras, hoping to “go viral.” Cassie doesn’t miss a beat when the digicam lastly shoves as much as her face: “It’s simply me, Cassie,” she beams, “and that’s my deal with.” On the best way dwelling, Cassie’s cellphone blows up with notifications. Maddy warns that now that Cassie has the general public’s consideration, she should work to maintain it. Cassie seems to be pleased with herself; proud, even. However we all know that her happiness is provisional at finest. The writing is on the wall; the query is provided that Cassie has it in her to learn it.
• As Maddy and Cassie drive away from Cassie’s right-wing suburban bubble dwelling, a pair of ladies — one brunette, one blonde — watches them from the curb. It’s a small nod to their departed innocence, about their life in addition to their friendship. They drive previous the Cinerama Dome on Sundown Blvd, a Hollywood establishment that shut down in the course of the pandemic.
• Talking of Maddy and Cassie: They inform a pearl-clutching Lexi that Bhad Bhabie, the rapper mostly identified on the Web for being the “money me outdoors” lady, made 53 million {dollars} in her first yr of OnlyFans. Bhad Bhabie shared the clip referencing her on X.
• In one other racially motivated expression of aggression, Laurie’s guys drive away from the Silver Slipper yelling out of the truck, “Kiss my white ass, motherfuckers!”
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