Let me start this off with a BIG spoiler warning for the Season 2 finale of Euphoria. I’m going to get into all the messy details of the last two episodes (Lexi’s play), and breakdown my thought process here. And before you run to the comments to totally roast me and tell me how Lexi was being a baddie in those episodes; just hear me out first. There’s a few things about those episodes that didn’t sit right with me, and I feel like the fanbase has just glossed over those.
Outing Nate
Let’s start with my most obvious issue. And before you try to say “No one knew it was Nate!”, yes they did. Everyone was looking at him and laughing. Can you imagine, your most personal struggle, something you still haven’t fully wrapped your mind around, being made into a big musical number that a crowd cheers and laughs at? It’s not just hurtful, it’s disgusting. I couldn’t care less if he’s the worst person on the planet; for a show that claims to be ‘progressive’, it seems pretty gross to me that you are going to out a character without their consent, and do it in front of an auditorium full of their peers. This causes him to have a panic attack and run out of the auditorium. He tells Cassie how “messed up” it is that Lexi would do something like that. And you know what? It is messed up. It’s despicable. So we’re going to act like it’s ok to embarrass and out closeted LGBTQ+ people in front of a room full of their peers? Is it ok to make fun of their closeted nature to the point of them having a panic attack? How is that funny? How is that entertaining? If there’s a joke, I’m just not getting it I guess.
Demonizing Cassie
Here’s another big issue I had with this play. Lexi is committing herself to the role of ‘victim’. Granted, she hasn’t had the easiest life, and I’m sure that there were difficult moments living in Cassie’s shadow; but at some point, you have to grow up and take responsibility for your life. If you’re tired of living in Cassie’s shadow, make yourself distinct and noticeable outside of her. This doesn’t give you a free pass to air all of her dirty laundry to her classmates and then make fun of how she’s this huge-titted idiot blonde. What was the point? Lexi knew Cassie would be in that audience, there to support her sister’s art, and instead, Cassie is met with a disgusting caricature of her worst qualities. All the while, Lexi is pretending that she is totally innocent and a victim of Cassie being ‘cool and hot’ I guess? There’s no reason to put Cassie on blast like that. It was malicious. And the worst part? When Cassie gets up on that stage, and tries to confront Lexi, she commits herself to being a victim again, running away from Cassie. So she can hide behind a skewed and disrespectful narrative, but when she’s confronted with the reality of how she hurt Cassie and how she’s not really the victim, Lexi runs away. That’s not an icon, that’s a coward.
The Whole Play, Honestly
Here’s my thing; why in the world would you ever think that airing all of this dirty laundry in front of the people its about is a good idea? Lexi must have been smoking some serious chronic if she thought this was just going to go over fine and no one was going to cause a scene; especially when it comes to Nate and Cassie. And honestly, the portrayal of her mom as a messy drunk wasn’t funny, it was pathetic, and Suze was too drunk (go figure) to notice that it wasn’t funny, it was embarrassing. Also, why would you include the real monologue from your best friend’s dad’s funeral? That’s not just weird, that’s distasteful. I really can’t believe Rue was alive for it, when Lexi is basically publicizing one of Rue’s worst and most traumatic memories to a room full of her peers.
To Sum This Up
Notice I didn’t say anything about Maddy coming for Cassie, because honestly, I was living for it. It’d been coming down the pipeline for a minute. That was warranted. Here’s my thing, Lexi wrote this entire narrative to make her look like a victim and everyone else look like the villains. For some reason, she thought it was ok to air out secrets that only she knows to (what we are led to believe) a large portion of their classmates and peers. No matter the situation, putting all of this personal stuff out there without any consent or even warning to the people it was about, is wrong. What Lexi did was wrong; whether you want to believe that or not. It wasn’t just wrong, it was destructive and malicious. There’s no other explanation for it. I love Lexi as much as the next gal, but after those two episodes, I can’t support her decisions. The final straw? When she said she had ‘good intentions’. Where are the good intentions? What were they supposed to be? How was this supposed to help anyone? She made fun of very intimate and personal issues in front of a crowd of their classmates. She’s not ‘a total G’, she’s a coward who was too afraid to confront these problems head-on and in real life. She hid behind this ‘play’ so that she could bully the people she felt wronged by; and then thought that everyone was just going to be cool with it. Sorry, Lexi, no sympathies here.
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