Rue (Zendaya) in the series finale of ‘Euphoria’
HBO
Euphoria is officially over, the series ending with a tragic death and an oddly optimistic message.
Season three of the HBO series always felt like a wild tonal shift away from the previous two seasons of Euphoria, and the series finale moves even further away from the show’s roots.
The finale concludes with a gunslinging showdown between Ali (Colman Domingo) and Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), with Maddy (Alexa Demie) briefly appearing as a human shield.
It was an exciting finale, but a messy ending for the main characters—the cast are barely present in many of the most important scenes.
What Is The Plot Of The ‘Euphoria’ Series Finale?
Warning—Spoilers Ahead
Rue (Zendaya) barely manages to escape the ranch alive, with the DEA arriving to bust the dealers, resulting in Laurie (Martha Kelly) hanging herself over the roof to escape prison.
The drugs didn’t even arrive, Alamo delivering only a dead rat as a message.
Alamo flatters Rue after she arrives with his treasure trove of IDs, genuinely happy that she accomplished the mission, but has been secretly plotting to finish her off.
Ever since Maddy told him that Rue was in contact with the DEA, Alamo has been ready to take her out.
Alamo hands Rue a bottle of Percocets spiked with fentanyl, tempting Rue into a minor relapse that results in her untimely death.
While sleeping on Ali’s couch, Rue’s final high delivers a hallucination of Fez (the late Angus Cloud) escaping prison.
Rue reflects on the long, strange journey her addiction has taken her, reuniting with her mother, in her mind, before quietly passing away on the couch.
It’s a sad, pointless and underwhelming death for a sympathetic character, the series protagonist, no less—but that seems to be the point.
Why Did Rue Die In The ‘Euphoria’ Series Finale?
As Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson explained during an interview with The New York Times’s Popcast, Rue’s ending was rewritten.
“There was a different trajectory for the character of Rue,” Levinson said. “But once [Angus Cloud] passed away, I had to reconceive of the script, and I thought, you can’t tell a story about addiction today without the very real consequences.”
After the tragic death of Angus Cloud, who died of an accidental overdose at the age of 25 in 2023, the story changed to highlight a bleak message.
“Most people don’t get a second chance. Fentanyl can just take you out in an instant … It felt like the responsible thing to do.”
“It felt like if we were really gonna be saying something with this season, we needed to put the audience in the position of a family member who loses someone that they love,” Levinson explained.
“I wanted to mirror that feeling. And I know how much audiences love Rue. It felt like I could put them in the position that I think a lot of families are in.”
Previous episodes saw Rue experience a religious epiphany, interpreting coincidences as signs from God. In some sense, Rue’s path did lead to Biblical justice.
Rue’s death was foreshadowed during a conversation with Ali in which she compares herself to Moses witnessing the burning bush, and Ali tells her that Moses never lived to see the promised land.
Rue did not survive the series, but her actions did lead to the death of Laurie and the arrest of her gang.
Most importantly, her death motivated Ali to take down Alamo.
Ali, deeply disillusioned after testing Rue’s spiked pills, vows to take revenge. He heads to Alamo’s club, where Maddy is trying to uphold her uncomfortable business arrangement.
Alamo is trying to convince Maddy that he wants to settle down and start a family with her, to experience the “American dream,” but his epiphany is quickly exposed as a lie—the moment Ali starts firing bullets into the club, Alamo uses Maddy as a human shield.
Ali is outnumbered and in a state of desperation, but he refuses to shoot at Maddy, even to kill Alamo. Realizing that his assassin has a conscience, Alamo decides to have some fun before he takes him down.
Alamo always fancied himself as a cowboy, dressing for the part and carrying a pistol. He sets up an old-fashioned draw, challenging Ali to shoot only when a rolling champagne bottle hits the floor.
Of course, Alamo cheats, firing his pistol early, but he realizes that the gun is empty, thanks to the betrayal of Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson).
Knowing his time is up, Alamo curses Bishop and Ali shoots him down, riddling his corpse with shotgun blasts just to be sure.
Bishop’s betrayal was foreshadowed by the story he told Rue about a python, which appeared to befriend a dancer, but was secretly sizing up the girl to eat her.
Bishop, it seems, was the snake all along.
Why Did Bishop Betray Alamo?
While Bishop always seemed the most reasonable out of Alamo’s minions, his betrayal did seem to come out of nowhere.
Bishop didn’t like how Alamo was treating Maddy, or the way he killed Rue with poisoned pills, but these crimes are standard for their criminal enterprise—Alamo has spent years abusing and murdering girls—why did Bishop draw the line at Maddy and Rue?
Perhaps he liked them more than most, or perhaps he was simply biding his time, like the snake, and saw a perfect opportunity in the showdown with Ali.
What Happens After Rue And Alamo’s Death?
After Alamo is taken down, Maddy is freed from her obligation to him, and it appears that Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is continuing her OnlyFans work, while Lexi (Maude Apatow) has taken an unexpected interest in the Bible left behind by Rue.
Jules (Hunter Schafer) barely had a story at all, while Nate’s (Jacob Elordi) purpose was to be abused and murdered by loan sharks.
The series finale ends with Ali returning to Jerusalem, to the religious family where Rue felt at peace, to inform them of her death.
The final shot, of a billowing American flag and Rue’s voiceover declaring “God bless us all” could easily be interpreted as sarcasm, considering the cynical tone of this season, and the series as a whole.
However, according to Levinson, it’s an earnest message—his religious conviction and optimism are sincere efforts to end his story on a hopeful note.
“The moment I started living my life with the knowledge that God exists,” he told Tablet Magazine, “life got better.”
“I don’t think of myself as cynical and I don’t want to put out cynical movies or art,” said Levinson. “There’s plenty of nihilism in the world. I see Euphoria largely as a rejection of it.”