Well, there we have it.
After over four years of waiting since the end of the second season, Euphoria season 3 has now finished its divisive and much-debated run of episodes.
The record-breaking season finale of the incendiary drama, titled In God We Trust, concluded the third run of episodes and followed hot on the heels of the horrifying penultimate instalment, which saw a major character killed off.
As the episode opened, Rue Bennett (Zendaya) had just been betrayed by Faye Valentine (Chloe Cherry) after Rue sought to double-cross both of her rival crime bosses, Laurie (Martha Kelly) and Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), as part of a deal with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Meanwhile, Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney) and Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) reel following last week’s events, but were now in more danger than ever…
So what happened to the cast of characters in the Euphoria season finale?
*Spoiler warning for Euphoria season 3 episode 8, In God We Trust.*
Euphoria season 3 ending explained
What happened to Rue Bennett?
Oh, Rue…
Rue managed to severely injure Wayne’s leg and knock out a screaming Faye before escaping, while a furious Wayne (Toby Wallace) pursued her with a shotgun.
Fleeing Laurie’s headquarters with evidence proving the crimes, Rue was ultimately recaptured with a lasso by Harley (James Landry Hébert) and dragged along by his horse until he was gunned down from a distance by G (Marshawn Lynch), who yelled at Rue to run, and she did, while an injured Harley called for Wayne to help. Rue made it to G’s car, and they fled ecstatic.
Alamo, now secretly aware of Rue’s working with the DEA, was delighted when the pair returned, and even kissed the injured Rue on the forehead for her success. Alamo declared the pair were fated to meet and offered Rue painkillers before explaining that he intended to offer Laurie a truce and continue their operation. Despite her previous addiction to painkillers, Rue took them for the pain.
Ordered to take time off, Alamo sent Rue away to rest with painkillers and money.
In a hospital, Rue had her injuries stitched up before going to visit her sponsor, Ali Muhammed (the ever-brilliant Colman Domingo), and asking to stay with him for a while, and he agreed. Rue listened to recordings of the bible as she was tempted to break her sobriety once again.
At Laurie’s, it dawned on Wayne as he reacted to their supply that Laurie’s gang were being set up, and so he and Faye fled on horseback as Laurie and Alamo’s van with trafficked drugs returned.
The DEA swooped in on Laurie’s headquarters and the van, with her entire crew being arrested.
Laurie, unable to cope with the thought of prison, climbed onto her roof and leapt from the roof with a cable tied to her neck, ending her own life.
However, the DEA found only a rat in the van that returned, with the real stash of drugs ending up in a different van returned to Alamo by his lieutenant Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson). This was never going to be good for Rue…
Alamo’s man at the scene, Big Eddy (Kadeem Hardison), meanwhile, told the DEA that he had now quit working for Alamo.
Meanwhile, Faye and Wayne were seen hitchhiking and stealing a car from the highway.
The next morning, we saw Ali awoke to find Rue eating breakfast when she saw on the news that her old friend Fezco O’Neill (the late Angus Cloud) had escaped from prison through the use of parkour.
Rue then left to find Fez, whom she was sure she knew where he would be hiding.
Arriving at Fezco’s old store and remembering old times with her friend, Rue kept driving and flashed back to the time she was driven home from rehab by her mother, Leslie (Nika King) and sister Gia (Storm Reid) and saw Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer) for the first time, riding her bicycle.
Rue arrived back at her old neighbourhood and broke through a police perimeter, shouting for Fez and pursued by police.
Arriving at her house, Rue explored before coming upon her mother, Leslie, who sat at the dining table reading the bible, before calling for her mother, who began weeping and held out her hand.
In reality, we then saw that Rue was instead sobbing while high and fantasising about the reunion, along with remembering being held by her late father. Her hand reached out before cutting to black.
Clear now that everything we had seen since Ali previously woke up had been a fantasy, we then saw Ali awaken once again at home before heading to the living room and finding her corpse, and breaking down in tears.
“Give her peace, God,” said an emotional Ali, before finding that she had taken pills.
Ali then tested the medication for fentanyl and found they were indeed laced with the powerful opioid.
Following this, Ali made the difficult phone call to Leslie to inform her that Rue had died.
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Finally, a weary Ali wrote Rue’s name in his book of the addicts he had supported and lost.
At a meeting, Ali revealed that Rue’s death and the futility surrounding the fentanyl crisis had left him weary and prompted him to relapse into drink. He announced to the meeting that he wanted to take firmer action to get rid of evil in the world.
At home, we saw him saw off a shotgun…
What happened to Cassie Howard, Maddy Perez, and Lexi Howard?
Cassie and Maddy were shown shellshocked and heartbroken while sitting in a diner following the events of Nate’s death and Maddy’s new debt to Alamo. Maddy asked Cassie what she was to do, and Cassie affirmed that they were in it together and leaned on her best friend, who kissed her on the head. The pair are fully reconciled.
We next saw Cassie fixing up her former home into a boarding house for female influencers, where they can also act as sex workers and rake in large amounts of cash.
Cassie asked Lexi to join them as a ‘storyteller’, while we saw Maddy leave the home with cash to be with Alamo, being picked up by Bishop.
Lexi was seen asking Cassie about Nate’s ‘disappearance’, and Cassie pretends she does not know what happened to her husband.
Asking about reading the Bible, Lexi revealed that she kept seeing the copy Rue had been reading while she was staying with her. After ignoring it for a while, Lexi reveals she began reading the Bible herself.
“It was kind of beautiful, a little confusing and fascinating,” Lexi concluded. Lexi also noted that while she has her faults, she is not at fault for what happened with Rue, nor how acrimonious their final encounter was.
Cassie compared Rue to their absent alcoholic father, with Lexi revealing that she always feared losing someone again like their father.
Lexi noted how everyone keeps going while “bad things happen”, noting that there is no point in having anxiety, as you need to keep going. Cassie then remembered how nice Rue’s smile was.
Despite their touching moment, Lexi turned down Cassie’s job offer before leaving the house.
Once Lexi had left, Cassie sat on her bed and looked at her wedding portrait with Nate and began crying alone on her bed in the home they had lived in together.
In Alamo’s club, we saw Maddy arrive and take Alamo’s hand as his own personal exploited sex worker. They head to his office, while Bishop stands guard outside.
We then saw Ali had arrived at the club in full military wear and barred the door as he walked through the club with a heavy bag (presumably with that big old shotgun) and then sat down at a table.
In Alamo’s office, he revealed his own doubts about his line of work.
“I’m just another slave with a little more money in my hand,” said Alamo. He then spoke to Maddy with thoughts of marriage between them, calling it “biblical” and saying he wanted the “American Dream” with her.
Kitty (Anna Van Patten) approached Ali and tried to dance for him, but he restrained her from touching him and sent her to find the manager.
G left the office with the gun he had fetched, and Ali asked to speak with the manager, saying he was a friend of Rue’s. Ali then got out his shotgun and forced G to sit down, and pointed the shotgun at his groin. Ali forced him to reveal that it was indeed Alamo Brown’s club and that he was there. Ali asked G who gave Rue the fentanyl, and when G lied, Ali shot him in the groin as screaming began.
A full shootout then began as Ali called for Alamo and forced all of the enforcers to back down, before Alamo threw his stuffed bull head through the two-way mirror.
As Ali pointed the shotgun at Alamo, he briefly used Maddy as a human shield before throwing her at Ali as Bishop passed Alamo a gun. As all of the dancers hid under tables, Alamo called out to Ali and forced him out to settle things “the old-fashioned way”.
Ali told Alamo that Rue had sent him, to Maddy’s shock, and it became clear he “had a score to settle”. Alamo made Kitty bring him a champagne bottle before he began swigging from it. Kitty rolled it down the bar to be the final countdown to shoot.
However, when Alamo went to fire the gun before it dropped, he found that the gun Bishop had given him wasn’t loaded before Ali blasted him with his remaining bullets, killing him.
Bishop then dropped the bullets he removed to the floor and said, “May God Have Mercy.” Ali then left.
Following this, Bishop offered Maddy a ride home and the pair departed with Kitty and Bishop’s pet poodle.
What happened to Jules Vaughn?
Following Rue’s death, we saw a heartbroken Jules Vaughn in the penthouse she lives in, owned by her ‘sugar daddy’, Ellis (Sam Trammell).
Jules began painting on a canvas once again while crying, and Ellis made coffee.
When done, Jules stood and surveyed her piece, and we saw that it was of Rue seemingly drowning in flame.
This was all we saw of Jules in the finale, grieving for Rue and clearly upset that her final interaction with Rue was so acrimonious.
In the end, Jules is alone with her choices but mourning a true love of her life.
What did the final scene of Euphoria season 3 mean?
We saw Ali arrive on the Millers’ ranch in the first episode of season 3, which Rue had called “the most peaceful place she had ever been”.
Revealing his “daughter” Rue had died to the family there, Ali gave an alias, and they all invited him in.
Daisy Miller (Jessica Treska) was saddened to learn of Rue’s death.
Ali said grace among the family before they enjoyed a meal. He said thanks to Rue and saw her sitting at the end of the table as they all said “Amen” together.
Finally, Rue’s voiceover said: “May God bless us all.”
The credits rolled over a shot of the American flag over the Millers’ homestead.
All in all, it seemed to be a message of peace and perseverance, with Rue shown at her peace, at least for Ali, anyway.
Overall, we ended on a much more idealised and religious view of America with that final image rather than the morally questionable version the series depicted so explicitly in its third run.
Who died in Euphoria season 3?
Of course, before the finale, the biggest death of the season was Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) after his debts ultimately cost him his life.
Having been buried alive by loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian), Nate was ultimately killed by the bite of a snake which had slithered into his coffin before Cassie and Maddy found the funds to free him.
Naz himself was shot dead by Alamo, who was aiding Maddy in freeing Nate and rescuing Cassie, until she realised Alamo had transferred Nate and Cassie’s debt with Naz onto Maddy, meaning she was now beholden to him.
The first major death to occur in the finale was drug kingpin Laurie, who ended her own life when faced with the prospect of prison for her crimes.
Then came the big one, the one many predicted but hoped would not be the case.
That’s right, Rue Bennett is dead.
Aware that Rue had been informing on him for the DEA, thanks to a slip of the tongue by Maddy, Alamo sent Rue away for time off with painkillers laced with fentanyl.
In the end, Rue was poisoned and imagined heading for a reunion with her friend Fezco, who had escaped prison, but was instead met with the embrace of her estranged mother and later father. We’re not crying, you’re crying.
Later, in the showdown at Alamo’s club, Ali shot G in the groin and killed him in his pursuit of Alamo.
In the end, thanks to a helpful play by Bishop, Ali violently dispatched Alamo Brown in revenge for Rue and to stop him from doing further damage.
Is that the end of Euphoria?
HBO has now confirmed that Euphoria ended with its third season.
Meanwhile, speaking to The New York Times’ podcast Popcast, showrunner Sam Levinson said: “In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me.”
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In a behind-the-scenes video from HBO (available above), Levinson explained: “I think in the end, I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction. I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil that it can create.”
In response to some of the characters’ fates, he added: “I’ve always been against utopian storytelling.”
Euphoria seasons 1 to 3 are available on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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