Euphoria - Seasons One & Two Recap - The K.B. Radio Network

Hello everyone and welcome to Movie

Goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the KB Radio Network.

I am your host Kevin Reed and today we're gonna dive back into the world of Euphoria.

The teenage drama series that was created and written by Sam Livingston for HBO it's actually based on a mini series in Israel.

by the same name believe it or not and the series stars zendaya and zendaya at that time of her career or just before she was a disney star you know she was on uh i forgot the name of the show but

she was on a disney show and everybody knew her as this sweet young girl and then she signs on to this show and all that changed you know Oh,

I think I remember it was KC Undercover,

I believe the name of the show.

But anyway,

my kids,

my daughters used to watch that show.

And they,

of course,

followed her over to Euphoria.

And I will say straight off the bat,

I was a late bloomer to Euphoria.

I think after season one and all of the phenomenon was going on,

I didn't watch the show because I thought it was one of these teen comedies or teen dramas like...

uh the gassy which i didn't watch and stuff like that i i didn't want to watch it you know obviously that's not my demographic so i said nah i'll pass now my daughters watched it they loved it and

then you know you go online and peer pressure gets the best of you i see a lot of people enjoying it and so me and my wife we went back and started watching it and completely enjoyed this show.

I was hooked from episode one on.

And after I finished the season,

I was so excited.

I completely forgot that my kids watching this show.

And it dawned on me after the fact.

I'm like,

wait,

hold up.

Because I went to talk to them about it.

And I'm like,

man,

you remember this part or this character?

This is my favorite character.

And this,

And then it hit me.

I'm like,

wait,

I'm talking to my teenage daughters here.

about this show but you know i didn't care it that none of that mattered at that point i actually uh i actually uh was happy that they watched this show because they could see how life is on the other side you know without having to experience it themselves uh

the show in case you don't know what a euphoria is about we follow rue bennett who is portrayed by zendaya and she's a troubled

teenage drug addict who struggles to get sober and finds her and to find her place in the world and she's adjusting to her relationships after rehab uh rue is the center focus of the show and

it begins with most episodes providing backstory for the rest of the main characters and that's how the show was kind of rolled out and i enjoyed that setup drew throughout his run

the first season of euphoria premiered on june the

16th of 2019 and it concluded with eight episodes we got two one hour specials that were broadcast in uh 2020 in between season one and season two and

then we got the eighth episode second season which premiered on january the 9th of 2022 and And we are

geared up getting ready mouth is watering for season three which will finally be released on hbo april the 12th of 2026 and in anticipation for

season three i decided to go back and watch the first two seasons of euphoria because let's be honest i've forgotten

a lot of stuff that has taken place uh in this world that has been set up and you know i want to i want to go into this

new season just ready to roll you know without having to sit there and try to remember well okay why is this character here why are these characters doing this and why you know just racking my brain because it's been five years since

the last season four years or four and a half whatever uh since we've seen these characters and uh unfortunately a lot of these characters or a lot of these actors who portrayed these characters.

have passed away since and it's sad you know you have eric dean who uh dang who just passed away uh what about a month ago uh from uh als uh man that was that

that one hit that one hit pretty hard he also had uh angus cloud who passed away a couple of years back it's it's sad bro because those were some of my favorite characters and it hurts to see them go

But we're going to barter on.

We're going to soldier on without those two characters and a few other characters as well who are not returning.

I think Stormy Reed,

she's not returning.

She plays

Zendaya's sister on the show,

and her character is not returning,

along with others.

But we're going in a different direction here.

I assume we're telling a different story,

and hopefully it works.

Hopefully it...

works out but let's go back i figured we'll go back since i re-watched it got re-acclimated with this world i'm gonna help you out in case you don't have the time to go back and watch the first two seasons of euphoria i

did it for you and so we're gonna go back and i'm gonna do the best i can and break down the first two seasons of euphoria in anticipation for the long-awaited

third season now i'm not gonna go every single episode every single scene breakdown that's not that's not what i do so we're gonna do more of a cliff notes format here we're

just gonna break down the major plot points uh of every season and uh maybe some moments that stuck out to me and we'll just go over that

But as far as every single,

oh man,

remember when

Sidney Sweeney was in?

No,

I'm not doing all that.

Starting with season one of Euphoria,

and it follows

17-year-old Rue Bennett,

who is portrayed by

Zendaya. And she's returning from rehab and immediately relapses,

exploring themes of addiction,

trauma,

and identity.

The show is narrated by Rue.

And the season centers around her intense codependent relationship with Jules Vaughn,

a transgender teen.

So while navigating interconnective high school dramas involving toxic relationships,

sexual expirations and online catfishing,

even when that was a thing.

Or is it still a thing?

I don't know.

I don't know if it is or is it at this point.

But here are some key storylines and character arcs that took place in season one.

Of course,

Rue Bennett,

she struggles to stay sober,

alternate between intense highs and deep depression.

She falls in love with Jules and the relationship is kind of kind of a tall task for both.

You know,

Jules doesn't want to be in a relationship or even have a friendship with anybody with an addiction.

And for rules sake,

Jules is the only thing that's kind of keeping her together.

So there's a there's a big gap between the two.

Speaking of Jules,

Jules,

as I mentioned before,

is a new transgender girl who navigates her own identity.

She got online dangers and has this blossoming.

relationship brewing with rue and there's a sexual encounter she has with a local that plays a big part going forward in this series we have nate nate jacobs who is a popular athletic uh deeply repressed psychopath who

manipulates everyone he's around including his girlfriend maddie and jules and

connection there is first and foremost Nat Jacobs is portrayed by

Jacob Elory who is the it

thing in hollywood right now coming off of the oscar-nominated performance he gave and uh frankenstein and he was in salt burn he has a few other projects lined up for him he is he is killing it in hollywood right now as far as feature films are concerned uh

but he got his start here this is where it all begun but his his uh relationship with with maddie is probably the most toxic relationship I've ever seen on television.

they they they are they are the most disturbing individual i don't know why why they would even be together but that's well you know people say that about me and my wife too so i don't know why they would even attempt

to be together but it's the it's the cliche you know because he's the most cliche is of of teen dramas he's the good-looking athletic popular rich

kid in school and of course he's going to be together with the most beautiful girl in school but so or one of the most beautiful girls in school so it it's it's weird it's a weird relationship the relate uh the dynamic between him and jews that stems from the fact that uh nat's father who is portrayed by the late great eric dean uh

ordained he he

they had a sexual encounter.

And so with that happening,

now

Nat wants to

86 jewels in this sense.

It is a whole thing with that.

Going back to

Maddie Perez here,

her character is basically,

she endures this abusive relationship with Nat,

and they ultimately break up.

in this season and she's navigating in the aftermath of all this toxicity but one of the problems she has is that she feels she always has to return to nat uh to remain relevant which

a lot of abrucio uh abuse abusive if i could talk abusive relationships that's how they end up continuing a lot of the times because of the mental toll it plays on you

You know,

it's like,

well,

I can't do any better.

Or he really did like me.

He really did love me.

Oh,

he was a good father.

Well,

it was that one time he did replace the toilet paper on the roll.

And,

you know,

it's just stupid little things that you find to make an excuse to stay with that person who is mentally,

if not physically,

tearing you apart.

And that is depicted through

Maddie here.

in this uh in this series we have kate or cat who my god man that that is one of the scariest characters for me because at like i said as a father of two girls man

this is the one thing i didn't want my children to go through i did not want him to deal with this she she after she loses her virginity she just goes buck wild for sex

You know,

she starts to develop this confidence and explore her sexuality after she did have one human,

this kind of incident online.

But after that,

that didn't break her down.

That just made her more of a freak,

if you will.

And I'm not saying that is a derogatory way,

but,

you know,

a sexual freak.

And she moves away from her socially awkward persona that she had.

prior and now she's this dominant sexual just pariah on the show uh very very frightening uh we move on to uh cassie and

cassie uh portrayed on this show by sydney sweeney she she's dealing with some daddy issues and it is severe man she has family trauma and all this See?

this is the clear postal child for daddy issues because she's constantly searching for that void to be filled you know her father was a drug addict and whatnot so she she's looking for that for that father figure in her life and

and it's oh my god once again as a father that's my biggest fear

I did not,

I did not want to leave any void for somebody to come along and feel for my girls.

You know,

I needed to be there every step of the way because man,

I couldn't deal.

I couldn't deal with the repercussions of I failed them.

I failed at a lot of things in life,

but I didn't want to fail them.

And I'm still fighting that fight and they're grown now,

but I still,

I still.

want to be that uh uh that peace you know that they can rely on no matter what's going on in their life and so uh cassie here she didn't have that she doesn't have that and she's constantly trying to fill that void she's going through a pregnancy issue and

that she that leads up to an abortion in the first season and uh it's just man her trying to it is so tragic her story is so tragic

It's heartbreaking.

Actually,

all of their stories are heartbreaking.

But,

man,

for her,

because I've seen that happen.

You know,

I've witnessed that.

And nobody I know family-wise,

so the family can chill.

But I'm saying,

unless you hadn't told me.

But

I've seen that happen to young ladies that were close to me.

And so,

at the end of this season,

we get.

the breakup jews she's feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of being with rue uh solely for the reason of sobriety because that's basically what rue is with jews for because she doesn't have to rely

on drugs or alcohol or whatever any of her vices when she's around jews because jews feels that void for she is the ultimate high for her but that's not

That's not what Jules wants.

It was kind of confusing,

but I kind of get it,

but I kind of don't at the same time.

But she feels that

Rue should want better for herself just because,

you know,

not just for her,

but for herself.

And she ultimately leaves Rue,

which leads to one of the most epic relapses.

at the end i've ever seen it's it's weird because it was it was heartbreaking but such a visual feast at the end of the season when we got that musical finale uh when we got when she was going through this relapse this surreal choreographed musical number that was highlighted by a labyrinth song and and zendaya zendaya has a verse on that song as well and

she descends back

into addiction heartbreaking man it was a heartbreaking well-performed episode i i it's season i meant to say but the key themes of the season was addiction you know the show portrayed addiction not just as a drug use but

as a mental state you know it wasn't just uh rue with her drug addiction it was a cat with her sex addiction

addiction it was uh uh maddie with her self-worth addiction as well as cassie you know it was a lot of addiction you know you you could be addicted to more than drugs and alcohol you do know that right and so it really touched in on that and showcased that uh

it also dealt with trauma you know nearly all the characters are shaped by past trauma whether it's missing parents or sexual uh

pressure or abuse of any sorts whether it was mental or physical or sexual and so it is a lot of trauma that our characters deal with it and also one of the key themes of season one it dealt with social media and identity

uh euphoria highlights how generation z defines themselves through a digital lens and

I thought that was

also a very unique way to look at it you know i hate to keep going back to this well but i gotta you know connect to it personally in order to convey it uh you know as a father of gen

z's girls i i i appreciate that you know and it made me look at things differently as a dad you know it made me look at things uh maybe i should

do this differently or talk more about these issues because there's a lot of things that i didn't talk about with my girls because i didn't think it was appropriate for me to be talking to my girls about but

You know,

this show,

believe it or not,

gave me the courage to talk to my girls on a deeper level.

And

I do appreciate this show for that.

And I learned a lot.

Some things I'm glad that I found out.

Some things I wish I didn't.

But

I'm happy that I know it.

I'm happy that we can share that other than me finding out any other way,

you know.

I do appreciate that.

but yeah season one was was bananas i loved it uh for everything every point that it uh brought out but their performances were just outstanding from zendaya to jacob elori to uh uh hunter schaefer to uh

sydney sweeney you know every everybody it wasn't a bad performance that angus cloud uh r.i.p you know all all of them were great and they were perfectly cast you

in their roles uh that is the breakdown of season one let's dive into season two of euphoria which premiered on january the 9th 2022 and it consisted of eight episodes and

in this second season it continues on with the same themes of addiction trauma and toxic relationships uh we find rue

She Hips Rock Bottles.

After the split with Jules,

this initiates a painful detox where she seeks redemption for her past.

We have

Nat and Cassie.

Their affair destroys the friendship between Cassie and

Maddie.

And this is all played out.

This is all played out in a play that was put together by Lexi at a school play,

nonetheless,

where.

The play depicts all of our major,

major characters in this show.

And it was the most ridiculous thing ever.

This is the only thing about season two.

Now I get the vision of it all.

You know,

the poetic view of it all.

Yeah,

but it was so weird to me.

I just didn't connect with the play aspect of it.

Now,

it was funny.

it was funny uh when we got through it uh with all our characters uh seeing themselves in this play and it's just hilarious but the play it ended with rule being sober ash

being dead and uh fizz uh in jail which pretty much happened and this is forcing all the characters to face the consequences of their actions and that's what season two was all about

The key plot points in season two,

of course,

we start off with our lead character of Rue,

played by Zendaya.

Her downfalls,

her downward spiral in her recovery,

and I put that in heavy rotations there.

Rue,

she spirals into several drug additions.

Not just one,

but she was trying them all.

Using drugs supplied by

Laurie, after Jules and Elliot.

Reveal her addiction.

Rue's mom destroys her stash.

Leading to a violent withdrawal.

Breakdown.

Um.

Rue reconciles with herself.

And stays sober.

For the remainder of the school year.

But.

Her relationship with Drews is left.

In the past.

Viewing it.

As her first love.

Rather than a current one.

One element of the show.

I wish.

that they would have kind of dove in a little deeper would have been uh rue and her sister i wish we would have got more with that and how it affected her sister so much and we didn't get that you know now

i know there's only so much television you know only so much screen time with all of these actors and all of these storylines and whatnot i i understand that but

And I can't sit here and tell you which storyline to omit to flush out the Rue and her sister storyline.

But

I wish just a little,

I don't know,

just a little something,

something.

It just felt a little uneven in the home life of Rue with me.

We get the dynamic with Rue and her mother.

That was flushed out fairly well,

but nothing with the sister.

All right.

the fact that we're not getting that character in season three lets you know that we'll never get it it looks like we'll never get anything involving that now it's a nitpick

Is it necessary to have that?

No,

obviously not.

But I would have liked to have seen it.

Another key plot point,

we have the love triangle between Cassie,

Nat,

and

Maddie here.

Cassie and Nat began a toxic affair behind Maddie's back.

Cassie becomes obsessively unhinged,

leading to a violent confrontation with Natty during Lex's plate.

All the while we have Nat

continuing to be the manipulative,

unstable force that he is,

ultimately betraying his own father by setting him up for arrest,

which just shows that his loyalty and love and allegiance has no bounds,

man.

That is,

my God,

that's a despicable character there.

The other plot point,

well,

one of the other plot points is the play.

And that was a major focus in season two,

that play from Lexi.

And the name of the play was Our Life.

And

Lexi, she was basically tired of being an observer of all of these shenanigans going on in her school with her friends.

So she directs a play that exposes the intimate and the...

traumatic humiliating details of her friend's lives you know like any good friend would do it was so ridiculous to play it was so look i know i'm super detached from high school life i'm

30 plus years since i've stepped foot in a high school as far as being a student i i don't know how things have changed i'm pretty sure things have changed but you

No way this play would have went on in my high school.

There is no way on God's green earth anything this explosive would happen at my school.

No way.

We couldn't wear starter jackets.

You know?

We couldn't have book bags that weren't see-through in my high school.

There is no way we would have had a play that would have exposed the private lives of other students.

everybody else to enjoy but you know this is television is hollywood so uh you have to suspend disbelief to an extent but that was it was a hard pill to swallow but it did help the story in the sense that we did get some continued drama from

this it caused so much drama but that uh uh cassie and maddie they went to blows over this they had a fight you know it Thank you.

serves as a tool for Lexi to process her trauma and provide a wake up call for the characters in this story you know for her friends such as Cassie and Rue and

it was something of a intervention if you will you know to kind of turn the mirror on these people because she didn't know any other way to get through to them

And so I get all of that aspect of it.

It was just so weird to do it in this fashion.

It was so,

it was so strange,

but you know,

it was entertaining.

I will give it that.

the next plot point of season two,

it was,

I don't know,

man,

this was the hardest pill to swallow.

And when I think back in,

in hindsight,

it's good that we took a five year hiatus because you

I'm still not over this.

And that is the

Fizz and Ashtray element of season two.

The tragic end to these two characters.

In the finale,

the police raid Fizz and Ashtray's home after Cluster is killed by Ash.

Ash barricades himself in the bathroom,

which leads to a shootout where he is killed.

And

Fizz is shot and arrested,

unable to save his brother.

Let me tell you,

man,

you want to talk about gut punch of an episode.

My God.

You know,

I put it up there with some of the most traumatic finales or episodes of television I've ever watched.

Because

Ashtray was probably one of my favorite characters on the show.

Not because I relate to him so much or anything,

but he was just so entertaining.

I just love that character.

And Fizz,

too,

man.

Fizz was,

I don't know how to.

how to word it do you know it's just something i loved about those two characters in the mere fact that uh there's no way we can redirect those characters especially fizz being as though angus cloud passed tragically passed away a few years ago uh man it's gut-wrenching and ashtray bruh

But he went out like a G.

He went out like a soldier.

But,

yeah,

that was tough.

That was tough.

Still not over it.

Still not over it to this day.

The final plot point of season two was the theme of trauma.

And the season highlights that characters are motivated by past traumas.

You know,

you have Rue grief over her father,

Nat.

distorted view of love because of his father cassie's abandonment issues because of her father you know and so on and so forth it is so much there uh that really shines a light not so much on the children but on the parent that

the parents have failed these these particular children characters so much and man it

Look at the results.

Look at the aftermath of the decisions you make.

And that brings up what I was saying earlier about myself,

why I really have to sit back and look in the mirror sometimes.

And I can admit when I'm wrong.

I've been on an apology tour for the past few months here with my kids.

You know,

thinking back on when they were younger and things that I did.

And,

you know,

I thought were the best things I was doing for the best.

the app

I look back now,

my intentions may have been good,

but I could have done it better.

And I acknowledge that to them.

And I apologize that,

you know,

I wish I could have done it better because I don't want any reason for them to write a tell all book in 20 years.

You know,

entitled My Father's a Scumbag or something like that.

You know,

I want them to know that.

I was wrong in a lot of things.

I made mistakes,

but I'm trying to do better by those mistakes.

But yeah,

man,

these children,

even though they weren't children when they made it,

and they definitely aren't children now,

but the characters have experienced so much trauma in their lives that it just created these toxic human beings,

and it's so sad to see.

And you can't help but feel sorry for him and cheer for him to overcome it in some shape,

form,

or fashion.

Just to summarize the ending of this season,

the season ends on a hopeful note.

Yet,

it's kind of an uncertain hope,

if that makes any sense,

for Rue,

who has chosen sobriety over her toxic relationships.

specifically the one with Jules.

And so the central drama has left the characters in different,

mostly damaged places,

such as Cassie and Maddie.

Their friendship is destroyed.

Nat is fully embraced his villain role.

And Fizz faces a bleak future in police custody.

I would love to see how they write that in season three,

you know,

being as though the circumstances.

surrounding uh that character and who played him but uh yeah going by going by the trailer that we saw for season three it looks like rue is out on the run hiding

out somewhere and she's found it's i think laura finds her uh so there's there's a problem there uh it looks like cassie and uh nat have gotten married up at to this point

and

Cassie is on OnlyFans selling pictures or doing cam girl stuff in her spare time.

And so it's still,

they're grown adults now,

but they're still damaged.

Now,

as far as the omissions,

I think

Jules is not returning because I don't think Hunter Schaefer is returning.

Of course,

we know about.

angus cloud uh uh passed away i don't think the actor who portrays maddie is returning i'm not sure actually actually i take that back she is returning the one who isn't returning is uh

uh my god the actress who plays cat she she's not returning and so uh yeah there's a lot of there's going to be a lot of characters that we will not be seeing return this

upcoming season but our nucleus is still there we still have Zendaya we still have Sidney Sweetie we still have

Jacob Elori there's still some meat on that bone there

I want to know

what's going on with these characters you know how how are they uh uh coping in this new life that they are living and so let's see come april the

14th how this story continues when euphoria drops on hbo for all of your viewing pleasure i can't wait for this i i will i am fully prepared

I am

fully prepared for this not to be as good as the first two seasons because like i said a lot of characters aren't returning and there was a lot of drama behind the scenes of the season

three so much has happened why it's taken so long it isn't for creative reasons you know yes you had a couple of strikes to take place in between there but you had uh

Zendaya blowing up,

Sidney

Sweeney blowing up,

Jacob Allure blowing up.

You know,

there's a lot of political reasons,

you know,

with political views from a lot of actors on the show that,

sadly,

they probably were friends before this last administration took office,

but not so much now.

To the point where they're not going to be promoting the show together.

So there's so much going on behind the scenes.

And I think Zendaya and

Sam Livingston had a little falling out,

I think.

But they kind of patched it up to get through this season.

Labyrinth,

who does the music for the show,

he said he's quitting.

He's quitting.

He's done after this.

It's just so much.

dude

not only did Angus Cloud pass away you had Eric Eric Dane pass away and so it's so much behind the scenes just trauma yeah I was right trauma took

place ironically on a show that deals with trauma but in spite of it all we are going to get this season kicking and screaming we got it

But I would like to know,

are you ready for Euphoria?

Are you excited?

Or have you just said,

forget it.

Two seasons were good enough for me.

I'm done.

There's nothing more to squeeze.

There's no more juice in that orange to squeeze.

I would love to know.

Me personally,

I just want to see a conclusion.

Because they haven't officially announced that this was the final season.

But I'm pretty sure this is it.

I mean,

everybody else has.

moved on i'm talking about the behind the scenes of it all the actors they moved on to bigger and better things you know uh they're being nominated for academy awards and stuff i mean come on come on and you can't play teenagers

forever actually i think they're old i think they aged up for season three but yeah i'll get my drift now it's time to move on i would love to know your thoughts email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com

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Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this recap of the first two seasons of Euphoria.

I want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

Euphoria - Seasons One & Two Recap

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