‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: Love Triangles Galore (2024)

Following suit with the last season ofEuphoria, Episode 2 of the second season has yetanotherNate cold open. Yeah, he’s still alive. While I’d love to say I’m happy with Jacob Elordi getting plenty of screen time, watching Nate is like feasting your eyes on a fish as it guts itself — with a plastic butter knife. And without any of the enthralling childhood backstory playing into the episode, the inner-workings of Nate’s mind get pretty creepy.

Still, it makesEuphoriaas watchable as ever, because here’s what’s going on in Nate’s perverted little lizard brain: He’s in love with Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). Like,lovelove. It’s an infatuation that feels partially based in selfishness, a desire to make himself feel more successful. He continuously has dreams of Cassie pregnant, screaming for him to hold her as she gives birth to their gross baby. It’s sooooo (x100 more O’s) weird. But Nate’s magnetism towards Cassie only elevates her separation between her and the other characters.

Maddie (Alexa Demie), of course, is the largest issue. Even though she’s living in the lap of luxury babysitting for rich families, she’s not quite satisfied with her life. What does she need? A raging, abusive idiot boyfriend like Nate. She’s going to get back together with him. A brilliantly near-sighted Demie is the only person who could play this complete foolishness off as believable.

Maybe, Nate reckons, his life would be different if he had met Cassie instead of Maddie. He wouldn’t be so intense, so cruel — for lack of a better term, fucked up, if he had been with a sweet girl like Cassie. But now, a whole slew of problems stand in the way of his path to reconciliation, with Maddiejustthe start. Season 1 has set up a real vat of problems for Nate (his father’s perversion ranked at the top), and while he fights back against his dark side, he’s got the sweet Cassie by his side. It feels a little like the “She was his queen… and god help anyone who dared to disrespect his queen” meme of the popular kids.

Back to the, er, “normal” side ofEuphoria. Tension is already escalating between reunited couple Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer), thanks to newbie Elliot (Dominic Fike). The brilliance of this love triangle plays out in tucked away corners, rather than in public spaces and easy-to-target betrayal. Rue isn’t doing anything wrong, per se, but she sneaks away for more alluring hobbies with Elliot (see: drugs, deep conversations, freedom) instead of being with Jules. And Jules, thanks to Hunter Schafer’s Florence Pugh-like wobbly frown, rips at the heartstrings. She wants to be the cool, easygoing girlfriend. But her heart is shattering.

While the first episode of Season 2 painfully ignored Kat (Barbie Ferreira), her Episode 2 arc is somewhat redeeming. The catalogue of “You got this, girl!” women exemplifies whatEuphoriadoes best: introduce random, glitzy crap with no explanation, somehow managing to make it purposeful and fun every time. Did we need these women to show Kat’s emotions? Could the scene have just been a gossip-fest with Maddie and Cassie? Maybe. But why not make it weird? Weird is fun. Weird isEuphoria.

The only problem seems to be that Kat’s Ethan (Austin Abrams) dilemma tears her away from the rest of the mangled drama, yet again. While Maddie gets her own fun little plot — she’s obsessed with the wardrobe of the woman she’s babysitting for — she’s still tied into the Cassie/Nate/Cal drama, thanks to the fact that she’s got her little paws on the Jules and Cal (Eric Dane) recording. Maybe Kat will poke her nose into the Rue/Jules/Elliot triangle. Either way, if Lexi (Maude Apatow) can make her way into the main storylines, Kat should be able too as well.

Speaking of Cal, I wouldpay to not have to see him on my screen anymore. I get why he’s important to the story — I really do. But does he have to be the adultEuphoriacharacter with the most screen time? He should be just a bit more evil, creepy, or maniacal. While the set-up surrounding Jules’ recording is daunting, and key to Nate’s current arc, Cal has grown stale. We got a bit of Colman Domingo‘s wise old Ali this episode, butEuphorianeeds to do better by its adults if they’re going to play such important parts in the high schoolers’ storylines.

By far the best source of anxiety to come out of Episode 2, though, is the budding war between the Howard sisters. Cassie has been depressed in the wake of her break-up with McKay, and instead of helping her sister out of a rut, Lexi has absolved herself of all sibling duties. Now, with nowhere else to go, Cassie melts into Nate’s bloody fists instead. When Cal swings by the Howard household to prod them about who beat Nate up, the sisters take defiant sides against one another. Lexi stands by Fez (Angus Cloud). But Cassie gives him up, in order to protect Nate.

To cement their dispute, Lexi finally takes matters into her own hands — or, at least, attempts to — by going to warn Fez about Cal. As she does so, Cassie flounces off with Nate for another tearful escapade into bad decisions. I’m more excited to see where this Lexi vs. Cassie feud goes than I am to see Maddie’s inevitable rage over the whole situation. Neither Lexi nor Cassie knows that the other is flirting with one side of the disaster. When the other finds out, all hell will break loose. I can’t wait.

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Some stray strands of tittle-tattle we’re expecting to hear more about in the episodes to come.

• Faye at Fezco’s:This isn’t a huge deal, but Faye (a magnificent Chloe Cherry) has reared her head again in Episode 2. She’s crashing at Fez’s place, which, if nothing else, gives us more insight into how sweet Fez is. Maybe he’ll tuck me into bed one day.
• Maddie’s Babysitting Gig:The whole party sitch in Episode 1 had me gritting my teeth from start to finish, but Episode 2 was much more calm — except for a brief five minutes when we think Maddie’s about to get busted by her new employer. After the whole thing unfurls, the mom employing her as a babysitter requests Maddie’s help with a zipper. She thanks Maddie for her kindness. There’s an odd bit of chemistry between the two. Maddie wants to get pregnant now too? Something has to happen here.
• Nate Still Fantasizing About Jules:As Nate has his gonzo hospital bed fantasy about Cassie, there’s some intermixed cuts to Maddie. Which makes sense, because she’s, you know, his ex. But every once in a while, the dream world cuts to Jules, too. That’s not over, is it?
• Rue’s Mom and Ali:Right. These two are flirting now?

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