Euphoria’s third (and possibly final) season is nearing its end.
Over the last six weeks, we’ve seen Sam Levinson’s mega-hit HBO drama trade teen angst and high school rivalries for the crushing demands of adulthood and neo-Western hijinks in the desert, and all signs point to the series pacing itself for a bloody crescendo.
This has been the case so far for its third outing, where Levinson now seems most interested in building a quasi-religious narrative about the sacrifice it takes to grow up and mature in a world that’s built to tear you down.
In the next two weeks, we’ll finally discover how Levinson chooses to end Euphoria – and there’s no end of theories online about how its central character may or may not (and, for some of them, probably will not) survive the end game.
So, here are our six best theories as to how Euphoria is going to end. Spoilers: It’s probably not going to be a happy ending.
Who will die in Euphoria season 3?
Here are our top six theories about who will die in Euphoria season 3, taking into account the ending of the most recent episode, Stand Still and See.
Theory 1: Rue Bennett
Euphoria’s most recent episode made one thing abundantly clear: this season is, at its heart, about finding a way for Rue Bennett to redeem herself. Just how this redemption will manifest itself, however, is a question still waiting to be answered.
Watching the most recent episode, Stand Still and See, and its (let’s be honest, a bit on the nose) religious undertones, maybe the final season of Euphoria has been about Zendaya’s Rue being bruised and broken, over and over again, but still getting back up to fight. To survive.
Euphoria went out of its way this week to portray Rue, sat in a church, silently hoping for redemption, when she receives a phone call from her estranged mother (played by Nika King with a superb amount of fragile grace), with whom she pleads for forgiveness.
If there was any character in Euphoria who would benefit from this redemption, it’s Rue. She’s pushed away almost every single positive personal relationship in her life in an effort to protect both them and herself.
This budding relationship with God and Rue’s search for forgiveness may be far too little, far too late, but it does also speak to the larger themes Levinson has always tried to weave into his work.
Then, there’s the burning bush of it all. Rue may have taken it as a sign of divine providence – that there is, after all, hope – but maybe it’s also meant to signal that God is about to pull something really Old Testament out of his hat.
In her death – whether that comes at the hands of Alamo, or Laurie or even, perhaps, the ghost of her addiction – what if Rue becomes the Christ-like figure who redeems every other person in Euphoria by way of her sacrifice? It would certainly play to Zendaya’s strengths for mining the emotional depths of Rue and bringing back diamonds. That Emmy would be automatically hers, and give Euphoria’s central character the complicated, uncomfortable ending she deserves.
However, as this compelling Reddit theory by user JealousHovercraft768 also suggests, killing Rue may be too obvious of a ploy. What if the ultimate twist was Rue surviving, and that voiceover we’ve been hearing the entire time was actually her giving evidence on the stand? It would certainly be a big swing for Levinson to take – something he’s proved, time and time again, he’s not afraid of doing.
Theory 2: Nate Jacobs (obviously)
Look what they’ve done to my boy. As things stand, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) seems like the most obvious candidate to meet a grisly end in the finale. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, given that he’s currently said goodbye to a fair few bodily appendages over the last few weeks.
The trajectory of Nate’s story is one of the most interesting aspects of Euphoria, given that it seems the furthest away from the storyline the series was trying to give him in its debut year. Then, it seemed fairly prescient to predict that Nate was struggling big-time with his sexuality, and that his illicit, secret relationship with Jules, mostly taking place anonymously through a gay hook-up app, would help him find the light.
But that is, uh, definitely not how Nate’s story is going to go. His debt to Naz is reaching almost comic levels of ‘a situation going from bad to worse.’ How many more limbs, exactly, can one man lose?
Unless some Hail Mary is coming in the next two episodes – a nice twist would be Nate divorcing Cassie and reconnecting with Jules, given their relationship is one of the most nuanced and intriguing that Euphoria, for some reason, has never fully explored – Nate’s card seems marked.
As Reddit user uwill1der points out, Nate’s death would be of significant importance to Cassie’s arc, since it would play into her ultimate fear: being alone.
Theory 3: Cassie Howard (or is it Jacobs?)
Speaking of Cassie… this would be less of a physical death and more the death of Cassie’s ego, of her ambition. Despite the show trying various ways to degrade her, over and over again, somehow, Sydney Sweeney keeps Cass just on the right side of delusion. From her burgeoning OnlyFans career, her flatlining marriage to Nate and her movie star ambitions, you can’t say she hasn’t been hustling to try and make her way to the top.
As fulfilling as her much-coveted role of ‘Job Applicant’ on LA Nights will surely be, a hallmark of Cassie’s character from season 2 onwards has been her willingness to hurt the people she claims to love to get what she wants.
Nate may well be the exception to this, but Cassie has burnt a lot of bridges in the last three seasons. Her dogged attempts to become famous, no matter the cost or the course, may not come to fruition in the way she thinks.
One of the hallmarks of Maddy’s character in Euphoria has been that she doesn’t forgive and she doesn’t forget. And why would her former best friend, who stole her boyfriend, be any exception? As Tonydorigo11 points out on Reddit, Maddy getting into business with Alamo and his girls could spell disaster for Cass if her Hollywood dreams end up in tatters and she still has Nate’s inherited debt to Naz to pay.
Theory 4: Alamo Brown and/or Laurie
The concept of a Big Bad in the world of Euphoria has never really been a thing. For its first two seasons, the characters were less battling against an antagonistic figure and more their own addictions, fears and anxieties.
Alamo and Laurie have placed Rue directly in the centre of their proxy war, and her flip-flopping between the two sides of the dangerous drug kingpins as a DEA mole strongly suggests that, sooner rather than later, the jig will be up and there will be hell to pay.
From a storytelling perspective, the neatest ending would be for Euphoria to take both Alamo and Laurie out – preferably at the same time and probably by law enforcement – and clear the way for Rue to, finally, be free.
But, then again, wouldn’t that almost be too neat? The point of both Alamo and Laurie’s presence in the story is that they’re physical manifestations of the mistakes Rue has made and the temptation she’s given in to, time and time again. If only she hadn’t taken that suitcase. If only she hadn’t stayed at Alamo’s apartment.
This week, Euphoria went out of its way to show viewers a compelling, dramatic backstory for new player Alamo (portrayed with vindictive glee by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and this effort to humanise him, to show us how he became the way he is, smells strongly of setting him up for an important presence in the last two episodes. But will it end with him taking Laurie out… or Laurie taking him out?
Theory 5: Maddy Perez
Just kidding. My girl is way too committed to serving to ever let this happen.
Theory 6: Actually, no one dies
Wouldn’t this be the biggest gag of all? So much of the controversy and conversation around Euphoria has always been about how the show so willingly puts its characters through the emotional and physical meat grinder or trauma, over and over again.
Season 3 has been no exception – as you’ve seen above, many of the show’s key characters, Rue and Nate especially, have been boxed into a corner for its final two episodes. In such extreme cases, actually, that death doesn’t just seem obvious, it reads like a foregone conclusion.
But if Euphoria season 3 is one big moral lesson in forgiveness and redemption, why shouldn’t it be the case that even its most desperate, depraved characters be given that grace too?
Euphoria season 3 is airing weekly on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and NOW. Catch up on seasons 1-2 on HBO Max and NOW.
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