Zendaya as Rue Bennett in Euphoria season 3.
Photograph by Eddy Chen/HBO
Major spoilers ahead for Euphoria season 3 episode 5
The fifth episode of Euphoria season 3, “This Little Piggy,” saw Rue (Zendaya) literally digging herself into a hole until she was buried up to her neck. However, the apt visual metaphor for her decision-making isn’t just a scare tactic. Rue’s life is seriously in danger.
Once again she’s set to meet the business end of a weapon of Alamo’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) choice. This time a polo mallet. Rue survived a game of target practice with his golden gun in the premiere and last episode’s near fatal robbery. She’s likely to escape this terrifying situation, too.
But it looks like Alamo has Rue dying on his to-do list. How did she end up there? By forgetting she framed Magick (Rosalía) to cover-up snitching to the Feds and leaving herself open to the woman running right to Alamo with her suspicions.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Alamo Brown in Euphoria season 3.
Eddy Chen/HBO
Alamo No Longer Trusts Rue Because of Magick
Though Alamo took Rue under his wing, he’s grown increasingly distrustful of her motives. At first he thought she’d relapsed, and he told her to stop taking hard drugs. She’d leaned into his assumption to excuse the leading questions she was asking him about getting a new drug dealer.
But when Magick told him that Rue planted drugs in her locker, asked Kitty (Anna Van Patten) if she was being forced to work at the Silver Slipper, and somehow didn’t recognize the voices of the robbers who hit the club but could identify the driver was her friend Faye (Chloe Cherry), he decided to remind Rue of the kind of man she works for.
Alamo has been on a hairpin trigger since the robbery. He took Big Eddy (Kadeem Hardison) choosing his life over protecting his assets personally. To Alamo, it was a an insult. He believes the whole situation has made him look weak and small. The possibility that Rue could be playing him isn’t something he would be able to countenance.
That’s why he found her at the diner with Maddy (Alexa Demie). He dismissed Rue, sending her off with Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson), G (Marshawn Lynch), and Kidd (Asante Blackk). She learned later that she’d be digging what could be her own grave, they were the ones who buried her until only her head was above ground.
What Alamo doesn’t know is that Rue wasn’t in on the robbery, but she is trying to work both him and Laurie (Martha Kelly) so the DEA don’t throw her in jail. Confessing to her duplicity is not going to keep her alive. But Alamo’s new business venture with her friend Maddy (Alexa Demie) might be what gets her out of her latest scrape.
Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez in Euphoria season 3.
Eddy Chen/HBO
Maddy Could Be The Key To Saving Rue’s Life
Never one to let a money-making opportunity slip by, Maddy used her time with Alamo at the diner to pitch a lucrative new stream of income for him. She shared that in the next six months, her girl Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) could make upwards of a million a month on OnlyFans if Maddy keeps her on the trajectory she’s set as her manager.
Maddy told Alamo she could generate similar revenue with his girls. He suggested a 60/30 split with them each taking a 15% cut, which Maddy seemed open to accepting. She chose Magick and Kitty to spin into explicit content creators and looks to have entered into business with Alamo.
But the pair didn’t only discuss a partnership. Rue was a topic of discussion as well with Maddy telling him that she trusts her. She was honest about only being as close to Rue as Rue is capable of letting people in, but was sincere about her friend’s good heart.
Maddy vouching for her may go a long way with Alamo who prizes loyalty. He could hand-wave Rue’s concern for Kitty’s well-being as being too soft for the lifestyle Rue says she wants. Failing to harden herself to his business might not be an unforgivable offense to him.
As for whether she’s playing him, Rue is fully capable of talking herself out of this mess, especially since Alamo didn’t have all the facts about the robbery and may not know her and Magick’s lives were under threat.
With a gun to her head and then Eddy’s blood sprayed across her face, the intensity of the event could have kept Rue from recognizing the robbers’ voices. They were after all masked and she was terrified. Leaning into the fact that she’s green and Alamo’s belief that she’s using again may be what saves her.
New episodes of Euphoria season 3 air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and stream exclusively on HBO Max. Follow me on Forbes for weekly coverage of the season and news about the business of TV.