Editor’s Note: Euphoria is a show that deals with themes meant for mature audiences and is not appropriate for all ages. 

Spoilers ahead!

After witnessing the show-stopping performance of Lexi Howard’s play, the reactions of the spectators seeing their lives before them, and outlying scenes leading up to conflict outside the theatre, Euphoria watchers were dazzled by the new episode on February 20, 2022. 

This episode was said to be the best yet, setting up the season finale. With the new point of view of Lexi revealed throughout the play, the episode’s cinematography divulges interesting parallels, symbolism, and foreshadowing all throughout the play.

The start of the episode kicks off with Lexi’s (Maude Apatow) internal monologue into something none of the watchers expected. Peaking back into season one, Rue’s father’s funeral is shown, creating a more somber atmosphere and catching the watcher’s attention, especially the heartfelt moment between Lexi and Rue. That melancholy moment quickly shifted into surprise when the watchers realized that the scene was one of the onstage moments of Lexi’s play, just a flashback comparison to shock the watchers.

This truly encaptured the strong emotional aspect of what the play offered and revealed Lexi had no intention of leaving out anything in her life, no matter what it was. The range throughout the play was extraordinary and certain moments in the show exhibited just that.

One of those moments was symbolism during the show, a symbol that revealed Cassie Howard’s (Sydney Sweeny) character development and issues. After storming out of the auditorium from the reality check she received from the play, Cassie finds herself alone in the restroom undergoing a silent internal conflict.

Fans believe Sam Levinson may be referencing two famous movies as Cassie tries to contain her composure as she stares back at herself.

“Smiling into the bathroom mirror before stoically returning to the play, Cassie replicates ‘Carrie’ and ‘The Joker’ — two characters who wreak havoc on their peers after being repeatedly humiliated,” according to Alice Kelly’s review on Your Tango. “The entire season has shown Cassie sink deeper and deeper into villainy and Lexi’s play may have just pushed her over the edge.” 

Cassie symbolizes this calm before the storm within her character, having been compliant and dismissive in her actions and the people around her besides Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). Fans are interested in seeing what her character will become.

Sitting beside Cassie was her current boyfriend, Nate Jacobs, whose more closely related experience with the play was the dreams of his father. 

In the midst of the play, the viewer is unsure of whether Nate’s dreams are a part of Lexi’s play or an outlying scene, as Nate’s life is highlighted by his father’s actions when the hotel Cal Jacobs uses for his intimate affairs outside work and home appears on screen in a sequence of different shots. One where Jules caresses the back of Nate’s head in the mirror and Nate lying beneath his father. It’s sort of unclear what the sequence of dreams means but there are some common theories.

One of those theories concludes Nate’s broken connection to his father. Screen Rant’s article on Nate’s dreams epitomizes the odd father and son relationship the two have and it probes the idea of the possibility of Nate seeing his father in himself.

Not only have they both shared two different intimate relationships with Jules and use the same hotel for their private affairs, but they share something else as well. The two have many similar attributes, like their anger and rashness, especially when something doesn’t go their way, which was shown just episodes before. 

“A direct line is drawn between the two when, in the premiere, Nate is shown recklessly drinking and driving with Cassie in the car, which is similar to a scene in which Cal later drives drunkenly and with no regard for other life as he has his own nervous breakdown later in the season,” according to Screen Rant.

This parallelism gives the watchers a closer look at Nate’s character as a whole.

One of the missing spectators personally invited by Lexi was Fezco (Angus Cloud). His character’s lack of presence in the theatre leaves watchers to wonder what will happen with a bit of foreshadowing. Throughout the episode, we see multiple in and out moments of Fezco prepping his leave to attend Lexi’s play.

Watchers soon realize these scenes are shown having occurred before the play. With the jumping back and forth between scenes, the entirety of the play has happened without Fezco present revealing the current problem only the watchers along with Faye and her boyfriend, Custer, know.

Earlier on in the episode, we witness a moment with Faye and Custer discussing in secret a police raid that would soon happen. Custer warns Faye that he has been working with the police investigating Mouse’s murder in order to protect Faye from going to prison and to capture Fezco and his brother Ashtray. Custer tells her that the police “already had their sights set” on the two pushing the worry into motion for the watchers.

Alongside this, at the very beginning of the show, Lexi’s first words were, “I feel like I’ve lived most of my life in my imagination, taking the smallest moments and dreaming them up into something bigger. But I always have this feeling that at any moment, something horrible is going to happen,” Pop Buzz said.

In the teaser and in the show, Fezco promises Lexi he will be there, front row, for the show but is walking into a trap. Custer also pulls out his phone and places it before him as if he were recording in order to get some sort of confession from the brothers, foreshadowing the horrible development to come. In the end, the biggest worry on Lexi’s mind throughout the play was Fezco’s presence so her words most definitely have a solid connection to what happened to him.

As a whole the play episode was unforgettable. The many pieces of symbolism, parallels, and foreshadowing really added to the complexity and ambiguity of these characters.