Euphoria – Season 2 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name

Does Fezco make it to Lexi’s play?

Episode 8 of Euphoria Season 2 starts with Fezco about to head out and watch Lexi’s play. However, his world is turned upside down when Custer inquires about news of Mouse’s body. Realizing he may have been compromised, Ash pounces on him and stabs his neck.

Fezco handles his phone quietly, realizing he’s been compromised, and quickly places it in a cup of juice by the sink.

This tense scene is then juxtaposed by flashbacks of Fezco and Lexi talking together about their interests and life in general. Fezco’s outlook on life is one that’s refreshingly simple, and far away from today’s increasingly digitalized world. This also does well to show how these two are worlds apart. Unfortunately Custer’s death means he’s going to miss Lexi’s show.

What happens during Lexi’s play?

At the theatre, things take a awful turn when Cassie shows up and marches onto the stage. She calls out Lexi for living in her shadow and embraces her sister in front of everyone. The crowd are incredulous, unsure whether this is part of the show or an improvised disaster. (Hint: it’s the latter.)

Of course, Maddy calls her out for being a cheater, cursing her and eventually rushing up onto stage. The two girls scramble backstage, where Kat follows along and tries to stop them.

Does Rue become friends with Elliot again?

Another person at the theatre, watching all this take place, is Rue. She’s doing better now than she was and this play, and seeing herself projected up on stage, has done wonder to give her some much-needed self-reflection.

As we soon see, Rue actually head to Elliot’s place several days earlier and thanked him for ratting her out when he did. If he hadn’t, Rue admits she probably wouldn’t be there. So Elliot plays an overlong song (can you not, please?) on his guitar before leaving the question of whether they can ever be friends hanging in the air without a definitive answer.

Given Elliot has been confirmed for season 3, it’s fair to say he’ll be integral to the plot going forward. Hopefully without a 5 minute guitar session this time.

What happens in Fezco’s apartment? Does Ash die?

Lexi salvages her play, partly thanks to chants of “Lexi” from the audience. She also dedicates part of her play to Fezco, as we cut back to his apartment and see all hell break loose. Fezco tells Ash to leave. He’s going to protect his little brother and take the fall for Custer’s death.

Ash refuses though and instead grabs a gun, holding up in the bathroom. Fezco pleads with his brother not to shoot but soon, police bust into the apartment and raid the place.

While Fezco (still holding the bloodied knife) is compliant and drops to his knees, Ash is not. He sprays the hallway with bullets. One of them hits Fezco, who starts bleeding out. Ash plays possum and then kills one of the cops in cold blood, which in turn sees him shot in the head. Fezco can only watch in horror.

Does Nate get his revenge on Cal?

Meanwhile, Nate finds Cal partying with a bunch of kids. After pouring himself a drink, he calls out Cal for being happy and points a gun at him, telling him he wants revenge.

With glimmers of the USB stick in hand, cars approach, followed by red and blue lights through the window, as the police arrive at the scene. Nate has decided not to protect his father after all and in doing so, condemns him to a fate behind bars.

After Lexi’s play, Jules heads over to Rue and tells her she misses and loves her. Rue leans over and kisses her on the forehead before walking away.

How does Euphoria Season 2 end?

As we soon hear from narration, Rue actually stayed clean for the rest of the school year and although she’s unsure whether she’ll stick to it, after making peace with her father’s death she’s definitely in a better place.

The Episode Review

Given the first episode started with a Fezco-centric chapter, it’s perhaps fitting to see his story come to an end in the way it has.

All of that episode was about protecting Ash no matter what but by the end Ash made his choice and lost. It’s a bittersweet conclusion to his character, something that ultimately sees Fezco’s fate uncertain right now.

Less desirable though is the distribution of time given to different characters. Kat and Ethan have been utterly wasted in this show and even worse, this finale dedicates 5 minutes of Elliot singing to Rue. Yay? That time could have been used to actually extend the chat between Rue and Jules or show the fight between Maddy and Cassie.

Speaking of which, this whole Cassie/ Maddy/ Nate situation has felt really anticlimactic. All season long we’ve been teased a big fight between the two girls but instead, all of this happens off-screen. I can’t help but feel there should have been a really scathing, brutal fight between the two girls, simultaneously showing how dangerous Maddy is and how far Cassie has fallen. Instead, we simply get an ominous “this is just the beginning.”

Of course, given Euphoria has been renewed for a third season, that’s perhaps unsurprising but it still feels like this follow-up has been a step down from what we’ve seen before.

The show is still good though, and artistically the cinematography and aesthetic in this looks fantastic. Unfortunately it’s not backed up with a meaty story like the first season was.

Either way though, everything is left wide open for the next season – let’s hope we don’t have to wait 3 years for that to drop!