What To Know

Euphoria stars Martha Kelly, Chloe Cherry, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and Marshawn Lynch break down the Season 3 premiere.
Learn more about how Rue and Faye’s drug mule moment came together.
Plus, inside the implications of Rue’s deal with Alamo.

Euphoria is back, and Rue’s (Zendaya) still up to trouble as the Season 3 premiere followed her over the border on a drug run for boss Laurie (Martha Kelly). Warning: Spoilers for the Euphoria Season 3 premiere ahead!

On her journey back to the United States through Texas, Rue is seduced by a religious family and begins to ponder her role in life and what she really wants from it, realizing there may be more to life than being Laurie’s drug mule. As for how she ended up in Laurie’s clutches once more, Rue revealed that the crime boss came searching for the suitcase of drugs she’d loaned in her back in Season 2, and in order to pay off the debt and interest that loss had accrued, Rue would have to work for her.

As to what makes Laurie believe it’s a good idea to employ Rue again, considering how the last job went, Kelly tells TV Insider, “I think that she probably thinks that, since she found Rue once, that Rue probably thinks she would find her again if she tried to get away again.” But as Kelly further explains, Laurie isn’t necessarily the sharpest tool in the shed. “Laurie herself is on drugs, and I think that is explicitly stated in Season 2, maybe not as explicit in Season 3, but as far as I know, she’s still high as a kite all the time, and making poor judgments.”

HBO

Tagging along with Rue for work for Laurie is Fezco’s (Angus Cloud) friend, Faye (Chloe Cherry). Convinced by Rue to share in drug mule duties, the girls swallow bags of fentanyl to smuggle over the border. Of filming the grotesque sequence, Cherry shares, “I had an amazing time filming that scene because my greatest joy in this lifetime is performing anything.” In other words, creating that moment onscreen wasn’t nearly as bad behind the scenes as it was to watch.

As the episode unfolds, Rue is sent out to deliver drugs to one of Laurie’s clients, Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), but when she gets a little too comfortable at his ranch, his man Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson) gets particularly suspicious. It turns out that Alamo runs several strip clubs, and the party she’s delivered drugs to is filled with his employees, which Rue is particularly entranced by.

Wondering if she’s been led to Alamo’s by God, she seeks to learn more about his business, but when one of his girls overdoses on fentanyl, due to a mistake made on Laurie’s side, Alamo seeks to keep Rue for himself as punishment to Laurie. The episode concludes with Rue seeking employment from Alamo, and he promises to consider it if god is on her side as she shoots an apple from off the top of her head.

“The apple has some kind of biblical connotation as well,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje points out. “Alamo represents the rude awakenings in Rue’s life. Here she is trying to make a go of herself as an adult in a treacherous world, and she stumbles into my world and ungracefully kills one of my top dancers…. And so that not only has she walked into my house unannounced, but she’s committed the most heinous crime and killed my highest-paid worker, so I think on the one hand, he sees in her something of himself in that she’s ambitious, she’s fearless, slightly foolish, but also smart, and so that intrigues him.”

Related

How Fezco Is Still Part of ‘Euphoria’ in Season 3

Rue survives the shot with the apple being flung off her head, but now that she’s working for Alamo and not Laurie, how will tensions flare between the two parties? Viewers will have to tune in to find out. As for other reveals in the premiere, fans discovered that Lexi (Maude Apatow) is working behind the scenes on a soap show, Maddy (Alexa Demie) works in entrainment management, Nate (Jacob Elordi) has taken over his dad’s business, and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is attempting to make it in the influencer game with an erotic angle. Meanwhile, mention of Jules (Hunter Schafer) hints at her line of work as a sugar baby.

While there’s still plenty to uncover this season, the premiere gave viewers a lot to consider. Catch the full interview with the cast above, and let us know what you thought of the premiere in the comments section below.

Euphoria, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and HBO Max