Everything to remember about the first two seasons of 'Euphoria' to prepare for season 3

• HBO's "Euphoria" returns for its third season on Sunday.
• Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Hunter Schafer, and more will reprise their roles.
• Here's a recap of "Euphoria" seasons one and two before the season three premiere on April 12.

It's been a long time since the high schoolers of "Euphoria" were on HBO.

Four years after the series' second season became HBO's most-watched show since "Game of Thrones," the hit drama series will return on Sunday, April 12 for its much-anticipated third season, which is rumored to be its last.

Sam Levinson's series originally followed a group of teenagers as they struggled with addiction, sexuality, body image, grief, love, and generational trauma. But "Euphoria" season three's introduction of a multi-year-time jump means those characters are now out of high school and navigating their relationships and new lives as young adults.

What that means for Rue (Zendaya), Jules (Hunter Schafer), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Nate (Jacob Elordi), Maddy (Alexa Demie), and Lexi (Maude Apatow) will unfold over eight episodes. It may or may not be the last we see of the group.

HBO has stopped short of confirming that "Euphoria" will end with season three, but Zendaya said "closure is coming" for her and her castmates.

"'Euphoria,' it cracked my heart open," she said on "The Drew Barrymore Show." "Rue taught me so much about life. I mean, that crew also has seen me grow up. I owe so much to that show."

HBO head of drama Francesca Orsi told Deadline that fans will be "satisfied" with season three.

"I don't think anything is over until it's over, but it's been discussed that this is the end," Orsi said. "I think you will be very satisfied with this season and how we bring each of the characters' whole narrative."

Below, a recap of everything to remember about "Euphoria" seasons one and two.

In season two, Rue falls deeper into addiction and repeatedly puts herself in danger.

In season one, we learn that Rue became addicted to pills when her father was dying of cancer. She accidentally overdosed and was sent to an inpatient rehab facility in the summer before her junior year of high school.

Rue relapses almost immediately after returning home, but is briefly inspired to embrace sobriety after falling in love with Jules, a new student at her school.

However, Jules cracks under the pressure of keeping Rue sober and impulsively runs away. Feeling betrayed and abandoned, Rue relapses again in the season one finale.

In a special episode released in 2020, titled "Trouble Don't Last Always," Rue reveals to her friend and fellow Narcotics Anonymous attendee, Ali (Colman Domingo), that she doesn't see the point in getting clean anymore. "I don't really plan on being here that long," she says.

Much of season two focuses on Rue's continued drug abuse and her ongoing search for hope. Even after reuniting with Jules, she descends deeper into addiction, partially spurred by her new friendship with Elliot (Dominic Fike), who's also an addict. They first meet at a New Year's Eve party where Elliot gives Rue drugs and then watches her go into cardiac arrest.

The pair continues doing drugs together at Elliot's house, but before long, Rue decides to escalate.

Remember Laurie? She's coming back to collect.

In season two, episode three, "Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys," Rue seeks out Laurie (Martha Kelly), a drug dealer who recently started supplying her friend Fezco (Angus Cloud).

Rue proposes a business plan — the details of which aren't important, since she has no intention of actually executing it — and Laurie agrees to front Rue a suitcase full of drugs worth $10,000. The general idea is for Rue to sell the drugs for double the price and split the profit with Laurie. Rue thinks she's found a clever way to "do drugs for free."

As Rue is leaving Laurie's house with the suitcase, agreeing to "pay up and re-up in a month," Laurie deadpans, "Rue, if you screw me, I'll have you kidnapped and sold to some real sick people. I always find a way to make my money back. I'm serious."

The two cross paths again in episode five, when Rue is experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. Increasingly desperate, Rue steals $2,000 in cash from a stranger's house and brings it to Laurie, looking for a quick fix. Laurie injects Rue with liquid morphine.

"You know what's funny, Rue? When I first saw you, I thought, this girl's going to be in my life for a long time," Laurie says.

Rue has never done intravenous drugs before, so this is a new rock bottom. She returns home and manages to get clean, suffering through withdrawal with the help of her mom and sister. But the question of her outstanding debt to Laurie remains unaddressed through the end of the season.

Laurie reappears in the teaser trailer for season three, delivering the line, "Hello, Rue. You owe me money."

Lexi spends season two writing a play about her life, stirring up drama among her sister and friends.

Amid all the chaos, the show's perennial wallflower Lexi (Maude Apatow) decides to put her observational skills to good use. She writes and stars in a play called "Our Life," which debuts in the penultimate episode of season two.

Lexi casts lookalike actors to portray her sister, Cassie; Cassie's best friend, Maddy; Maddy's best friend, Kat (Barbie Ferreira); and Lexi's own best friend, Rue.

Lexi delights in the creativity and vulnerability of theater, although she frets about upsetting her sister and friends — especially after she observes that Cassie is experiencing some kind of nervous breakdown. She ultimately decides to go through with the play after consulting her new friend, Fezco, who sagely observes, "Some people need to get their feelings hurt sometimes."

The play revisits significant moments in the fivesome's life through Lexi's personal lens, revealing her envy toward Cassie, her admiration of Maddy, and how she feels powerless in the face of Rue's addiction. Multiple scenes also depict the close bond between Cassie and Maddy.

Unfortunately, in the show's actual timeline, Maddy just found out that Cassie has been having sex with her ex-boyfriend, Nate, whom Maddy still loves — so the play stirs up some strong emotions.

Cassie tries to stop the play and undermine Lexi by running up onstage, and Maddy follows, leading to a physical fight.

Luckily, Rue says she loved her onstage portrayal, though she may be the only one. She even tells Lexi, "I think your play was the first time I was able to look at my life and not hate myself… Seeing it meant the world to me." The lifelong friends end season two on good terms.

In the season two finale, Nate turns his father in to the police.

Nate's troubled relationship with his father, Cal Jacobs (Eric Dane), is a recurring theme throughout seasons one and two of "Euphoria." As a child, Nate found self-filmed videos of Cal having encounters with gay men, queer women, and sex workers. In season one, we learn at least one person Cal filmed without her consent — Jules — was underage.

Cal finally opens up about his double life in season two, continuing to wreak emotional havoc on his wife and sons. Nate is particularly affected, living with constant fear that he takes after his father.

In the season two finale, Nate's fears and self-hatred are triggered by Lexi's play, which includes a homoerotic sequence mocking the male athletes at their school. He leaves to find his father, who moved out of their family home, and turns him in to the police — along with a USB drive, presumably containing evidence of Cal's wrongdoing. (It's unclear whether the USB includes the video of Cal's encounter with Jules, since Jules destroyed the only known copy. Nate told Jules he didn't make extra copies, though he could be lying.)

Hopefully, season three will reveal whether Cal was charged with any crimes; actor Eric Dane is listed among the series regulars. (Season three was filmed in 2025, before Dane died after suffering from ALS.)

Nate also breaks up with Cassie in a fit of rage, but it's clear their relationship isn't over.

After Cassie and Maddy's fight, they quietly lick their wounds in the school bathroom.

"You know what's funny?" Cassie says. "Nate broke up with me before I even went on that stage."

"Don't worry," Maddy replies, a mix of smugness and pity on her face. "This is just the beginning."

Maddy had spent years stuck in her own toxic cycle with Nate, breaking up and reconciling despite his violent outbursts. She knows better than anyone what Cassie is signing up for — and judging by the season three trailers, it looks like Maddy was right. Just a few years after they graduated from high school, Nate and Cassie are engaged.

Meanwhile, Rue and Jules part ways.

Rue and Jules click immediately upon meeting in season one. In the season two premiere, Rue finally confesses to Jules that she wants to be in a committed relationship. They kiss, but the tender moment is tinged with tragedy; Rue is deep into her relapse, and Jules has no idea how serious her drug use has become.

Rue is also dealing with residual anger and resentment toward Jules, who ran away from home in the season one finale, leaving Rue behind. (At the time, Jules was being blackmailed by Nate and dealing with her mom's addiction issues, not to mention feeling wholly responsible for Rue's sobriety, so she freaked out.) All these simmering, unspoken emotions make navigating their relationship difficult. Rue retreats deeper into her addiction, while Jules seeks validation and affection from Elliot.

When Jules discovers that Rue is still doing drugs — and not only opiates anymore, but heroin and fentanyl, too — she goes to Rue's mom for help. They decide to flush all of the drugs they find in Rue's room (the ones she got from Laurie) down the toilet.

In season two, episode five, "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird," Rue's loved ones stage an intervention. Rue has a breakdown and cruelly tells Jules that their relationship is over. Actually, she says, "You are fucking dead to me."

They barely interact for the rest of the season, even after Rue gets clean, except for a brief scene in the finale.

After watching Lexi's play, Jules tells Rue that she loves and misses her. But Rue isn't ready to confront all the hurt they've caused each other. Instead of saying anything back, she kisses Jules on the head and walks away.

"Jules was my first love," Rue says in a voiceover. "I'd like to remember it that way. I don't know if that's actually true, though. I think I was high for too much of it. I know it wasn't easy for her, and I hope she forgives me."

The last time we see her, Rue is sober.

In her final voiceover of season two, Rue reveals that she managed to stay clean for the rest of the school year.

"I wish I could say that was a decision I made," Rue says. "In some ways, it was just easier. I don't know if this feeling will last forever, but I am trying."

However, we have plenty of evidence that Rue's sobriety is a tenuous thing, and trailers for season three seem to imply that another relapse is imminent.

Rue's mom, Leslie (Nika King), even acknowledges that once Rue enters adulthood, there's little more she can do.

"You broke me. Completely broke me," she tells Rue in season two, episode seven, "The Theater and Its Double."

"I give up. You wanna kill yourself doing drugs? Go ahead," she continues. "I can't convince you that your life is important. You're going to have to make that decision on your own. You'll be 18 soon and outta my house. And you're gonna make whatever decisions you're gonna make."

Ashtray is killed when his and Fezco's house is raided by a SWAT team.

In the season two premiere, Fez's adopted brother Ashtray (Javon Walton) impulsively murders the drug dealer Mouse because he senses that Fez is in danger.

Eventually, the police grow suspicious and enlist Custer, another dealer, to cooperate with their investigation. He goes to Fez's house hoping to record a confession, but again, Ash jumps into protective mode and stabs Custer to death.

Shortly after, a SWAT team storms into their house. Fez begs Ash to save himself, but the young boy locks himself in the bathroom with an arsenal of guns, determined to make a final stand.

Ash is killed in the ensuing shootout, while Fez gets shot in the side. His fate at the end of the episode remains ambiguous.

In real life, the actor who portrayed Fez, Angus Cloud, died of an accidental overdose in 2023.

Other characters won't return for season three either, including Gia, Ethan, and Kat.

In addition to Ash and Fez, several other recurring characters won't return for season three. These include Rue's sister Gia (Storm Reid) and Ethan (Austin Abrams), whose run in the show included a memorable lip-sync performance of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" in season two.

In 2022, Ferreira announced she would not reprise her role as Kat for season three amid speculation of a rift between her and Levinson.

Ferreira later said that rumors of behind-the-scenes drama were "not rooted in the truth," though she also implied she was disappointed in Kat's season-two arc.

"I don't think there was a place for her to go," Ferreira said. "I think there were places she could have gone. I just don't think it would have fit into the show. I don't know if it was going to do her justice, and I think both parties knew that I really wanted to be able to not be the fat best friend. I don't want to play that, and I think they didn't want that either."

"Euphoria" season three premieres Sunday, April 12 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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