As with the watchful eye on Rue’s spiral of sobriety after Jules left in “Problems don’t always last, ” EuphoriaThe latest special episode is approaching, avoiding the plot in favor of a closer study of the character. This time, it’s Jules in the spotlight. We don’t see exactly what happened when Jules left Rue on that train platform at the end of the first season. Instead, we see the consequences. The episode takes place mainly during a therapy session, where Jules soliloquies about gender, family, love, self-image, self-mutilation and more. The script is sometimes overly precious, but it all comes together because of the powerful force that is Hunter Schafer. She has an indelible performance throughout, making it a very memorable and special episode on television.
The episode literally keeps a very close focus on Jules, much of which unfolds on Jules’ very close-up shots talking about his feelings. Some of these feelings concern her gender and sexuality: She is thinking about losing some of her hormones because she feels that she has made many of her decisions in life based on becoming desirable to men. Some of these feelings concern the mother, an addict with whom she does not have much relationship. Many of these feelings belong to Rue. All of these things touch. Jules expresses anger at Rue for making his sobriety dependent on Jules’ availability for her. She initially doesn’t realize that she talks about Rue in the same way that she talks about her mother. Your therapist has to point this out. These little moments really make it feel like a real and intensely incisive therapy session. Jules speaks as if he knows exactly what he feels, but sometimes he cannot see what is right in front of him.
The direction of the episode is a little more striking than “Trouble Don’t Always Last”, but there is still a level of restriction that is not really seen in most of the first season of the series. The departures from the therapy session are fluid and dynamic. “No girl has ever looked at me the way Rue did,” Jules says when we really see Rue’s face from his perspective. Even the scene lighting is intimate and warm. Euphoria is so good at evoking specific feelings, and this Jules-centered episode really feels like a deep dive into the character’s interiority.
TThe most distorted parts of the episode work very well, leaning towards some of the Euphoriaexaggerated aesthetics, but remaining strongly rooted in the emotional narrative. Jules enters a kind of horrible landscape when he remembers sexing “Tyler”, who was actually Nate fishing for her. She created a fantasy when she was having sex with him, and that fantasy is pierced by reality. A reality in which Nate was trying to hurt her. The episode distorts itself in a very stylized sequence that depends on a pulsating score and a dance-like block. But it still seems strongly rooted in the character, infused with palpable emotion and creating a sense of fear and confusion.
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We also see literally one of Jules’ nightmares unfold, and it is a stark contrast to the fantasy life Rue envisioned for her and Jules in New York. Rue’s addiction affects Jules deeply, especially because of his relationship with his mother. The same way Euphoria lends a lot of empathy to Rue’s experiences as an addict, this episode looks at all the challenges that come with being an addict’s support system and being intimate with someone struggling with addiction. We see it in the way Jules thinks of his mother, and we see it in the way she interacts with Rue. The two share a lot. They have a lot of love for each other, but that love gives and takes. There is a lot of care in the Rue scene managing Jules’s photos. And then there is so much destruction in Jules’ nightmare about Rue not being able to answer the door. Its dynamics remain the strongest part of the show, but it is especially fascinating in how difficult it is to define. The romance between them is as moving as the conflict between them. Jules and Rue devastate and enchant.
Even though not much happens in this episode, there is a lot going on at the character level. “I want to be as beautiful as the ocean,” Jules reflects at one point. This thought lingers in her grandmother’s memories, a contemplation of femininity, a touch of spirituality with trans lenses. It is interspersed with photos of Jules in the ocean. It’s beautiful, but it also has an intentional mess. It is reminiscent of Angela Chase’s fluent monologues in My supposed life, and Hunter Schafer is as attractive as a teenager full of contradictions and complexity as Claire Danes was in that role. Watching the episode is like reading Jules’s diary. It is like having an unfiltered, organic and intricate glimpse of your psyche. His thoughts are interwoven between so many different moments and significant memories of his life, but everything is connected. Euphoria it keeps us so deeply rooted in Jules’s perspective that it’s easy to follow from point to point.
Again, none of this could really work if Schafer were not so talented and in charge of the material. The dialogue in Euphoria it may occasionally seem so intentionally poetic that it almost comes across as affected or exaggerated. This is sometimes true in “Fuck anyone who’s not a Sea Blob”, but it’s also one of the strongest episodes in the entire series. Sam Levinson is usually the sole author of the episodes, but this time he shares the co-authorship credits with Schafer, making her the highlight star of this episode on several levels. The script is a silent but powerful stream of consciousness that captivates. We see Jules moving between so many different emotions, desires and perceptions of itself. It’s kind of a good mess –mess that looks deeply human. Euphoria let Jules overflow with contradictions. Their monologues are specific, but they also manage to touch many things at the same time. Writing does a lot with little, and that doesn’t Euphorianormal speed of.
Missed observations
- All prizes for Hunter Schafer, please! Also, let her co-write more episodes, because this script is really wonderful!
- I really wasn’t sure how I would feel about this episode, since I tend to hate it whenever television does therapy sessions, but this actually looks like a pretty credible therapy session.
- Zendaya and Hunter Schafer together on the screen are very good.