The Women of Euphoria: Depictions of Substance and Emotional Addiction
As its second season comes to an end, HBO’s Euphoria has taken the world by storm. The hit series follows a group of high school students through their challenging experiences of adolescence in the 21st century. While the show has received criticism because it puts teenage characters in situations dealing with drug abuse, non-consensual sex, and violence in an aesthetic and stylized manner, show creator and writer Sam Levinson has created a cultural touchstone for Gen Z. The show captures the adolescent experience in a way that caught the attention of teenagers across the world. Euphoria seizes the intense emotional reality of what it is like to be in high school. The brilliant makeup, lighting, and costuming draw teens in, but they stay for the highly developed and relatable characters, especially, the female cast members.
The title, Euphoria, holds significance for each woman in this show. They are all chasing a euphoric state, a state of intense elation and excitement. These women chase that feeling differently, creating amazing cinematic content and emotional connections with the young audience. Euphoria looks at what it means to be a young person today, showing the ups and downs, highs and lows of high school. Each character is a unique entity representing issues that teenage girls face today.
Euphoria’s narrator Rue (Zendaya), is a 17-year-old fresh out of rehab with no intentions of staying clean. Rue’s messy brown hair, baggy clothes, and lack of makeup set her apart from the other glamorous characters and serve as a physical mark of her mental state. Rue struggles with ADHD, bipolar, general anxiety, depression, BPD, and significant substance abuse problems. The fifth standout episode of Season 2 shows Rue at rock bottom. Rue’s mom, Leslie, gets rid of her drug supply, and we see just how reliant Rue has become on brief highs to delude her into thinking everything is fine. As Rue chases after the fleeting feeling, we see how humanity has left her soul. An incredible performance by Zendaya anchors the bone-chilling episode of Season 2. Most high schoolers do not find themselves in situations involving murder, $10,000, and a terrifying locked room, but many teens can relate to Rue because of her substance abuse problems and general attitude toward life. Rue tries to make light of her destructive and unpredictable behavior to mask what she is going through mentally. She acknowledges that her past tragedies have led her to live the way she does, recognizing that she isn’t always the best person. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the fastest-growing drug problem in America is prescription drugs, which Rue struggles with in both seasons. Many claim that the show glamorizes drug use because the characters wear trendy clothing and fabulous makeup at extravagant parties. But Season 2 hones in on what drug abuse can look like in the shadows. It’s crucial for young people to witness this side of drug culture to see how quickly it escalates and leads to severe consequences.
The second season narrows in on the relationship between Rue and Jules (Hunter Schafer). Jules is a transgender woman with a history of body and gender dysmorphia, experiences problematic relationships, self-harm, depression, and impulsivity against an absent mother and Rue’s continued substance abuse. She is robust, dynamic, and hungry for adventure. She is curious about the world around her, which becomes a source of conflict for her throughout both seasons. Jules’ white-blonde hair, colorful makeup, and eccentric outfits make her and Rue the physical antithesis of each other. Throughout the series, Jules is determined to discover herself, none of which helps her grasp what her withdrawn mother and Rue are experiencing with substance abuse. In Season 2, Rue and Jules’s tumultuous relationship takes many turns, and the season ends with Rue removing Jules from her life. Jules has served as an emotional trigger for Rue, and the second season analyzes how the two character’s vastly different outlooks on life create dissension in their relationship.
Another Euphoria group member Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), typifies a popular and conventionally attractive high school student. Her styled blonde hair and cute pastel clothes represent her need to be liked by others. Cassie chases love, making her codependent, emotionally unstable, and she struggles with oversexualizing herself. She is overly romantic and a bit naive. Her character shows depth and sadness throughout both seasons, but there is a noticeable shift in the challenges she faces in each season. Cassie romanticizes being in love which pushes her into extreme situations. Cassie constantly struggles with male validation partially because of trauma with her alcoholic father, which is something that many young women deal with in today’s society. This past season, Cassie wanted her best friend Maddy’s ex-boyfriend, Nate, so bad she did extremely degrading and embarrassing things for a drop of his attention. Cassie is depicted as innocent and sweet at the beginning of Euphoria and as cutthroat and disloyal in the end. In Season 1, a pregnant Cassie gets fawns over the idea of a baby and family, but even amid these unrealistic dreams, she goes through with an abortion. Cassie’s decision to get an abortion shows that she still has a grasp on her life, but in Season 2, Cassie addresses difficult situations with less grace. Cassie is depicted as hysterical and impulsive. When confronted with the moral dilemma of being in love with her best friend’s abusive ex-boyfriend, she struggles to accept the consequences of her actions. The character of Cassie takes a more dramatized route, thoroughly brushing over the fact that she dealt with something as serious as abortion in the past season. While Cassie changes as a character, her motivations for winning validation from the men in her life remain constant.
Cassie’s best friend Maddy (Alexa Demie) faces the emotional challenges of dealing with her past abusive relationship and new heartbreak when she discovers Cassie betrayed her. Maddy’s style changes every episode to reflect her life changes; her long black hair is always in an elegant new style, and she never wears the same bold, trendy outfit twice. In Season 2, Maddy finally recognizes the extent of the abuse that she went through, which is a typical trauma response. Maddy’s parents don’t have a happy relationship, and she struggles to understand what a healthy relationship looks like and questions if she could ever have one. Maddy softens from Season 1 but remains confident, extroverted, and emotional. In both seasons, she is unafraid to voice her opinions, but after dealing with the trauma of being in an abusive relationship in Season 1, she spends a lot of Season 2 addressing her issues with anger, violence, and aimlessness. Many people in abusive relationships don’t realize that they are in an abusive relationship until they are out of it, which Maddy realizes when she talks to Cassie in the bathroom in the season finale. Many teens entering relationships might not know the signs of toxic relationships, so a character like Maddy is essential to see on screen.
Unlike the characters mentioned before, Lexi (Maude Apatow), who is Cassie’s younger sister, is a character who becomes much more developed in Season 2. Throughout Season 1, Lexi is depicted as quiet, shy, and observing, which many viewers connect to because many can’t relate to the other characters’ unapologetic nerves. Lexi’s mousey brown hair and conservative, retro outfits are palpable indicators of her opposition to the other characters’ lifestyles. Until Season 2, Lexi felt like a wallflower, but she proves her observing tendencies weren’t for nothing at the second season’s finale. She puts on a play called “Our Life” about how the people in her life have shaped her worldview. In her play, she goes in-depth with what it is like to grow up with an older sister like Cassie, who is popular, desired, and gets a lot of male attention. This is the first time in the show that the other characters start to pay attention to what Lexi has to say, which is a beautiful moment in her self-growth and confidence, but in turn, hurts the other characters, specifically Cassie, in broadcasting her perception of them to the whole school. Lexi deals with passivity, people-pleasing tendencies, low confidence, and introversion which are a set of issues that are incredibly different from the other main characters of the show. Unlike the other female characters in the show, Lexi doesn’t feel like she is chasing feelings of euphoria, yet, she is judging the other characters in the unhealthy ways that they do so.
Euphoria does a beautiful job at creating separate storylines for each character, each letting them have their own set of problems that they deal with individually. Only some characters cross paths, but ending the second season with Lexi’s play brings all the leading women together. As they watch themselves as caricatures on stage, they see their lives intertwined with what is in front of them. Lexi’s play examines how she feels like a side character to all the important people in her life, and it’s a way for all the characters to witness without interruption how their problematic behavior impacts others.
Euphoria’s highly developed and distinctive characters have been essential representations for teenage viewers. The show covers weighty topics, and the characters are heartbreaking but honest. The show is fiction, but the characters deal with everyday issues in high schools throughout America. Viewers can relate to characters similar to themselves and simultaneously build empathy for those they cannot connect to.
Original content created for Zhive Media
