'Euphoria' Ep. 6: We Finally Got Our Fexi Moment
Don't you love when your favorite show simply gives into the meme of it all? After living in the darkest corner of Euphoria-world for two straight episodes—following Rue through every second of her fall to rock bottom—the fandom finally, finally got the heart-swelling moment it needed this week. (I am the fandom.)
Fez and Lexi. Lexi and Fez. Fexi. If you'll remember, Euphoria's Season Two premiere sent Fez (blossoming drug kingpin, master of the cable knit sweater) hurtling toward Lexi (loyal friend who is probably writing Euphoria as we speak) for a couch-bound New Year's conversation. The earnestness, flirtiness, and unlikeliness of their crossing inspired tears and awwwws from every corner of the Internet. Then? Lexi and Fez orbited each other for four episodes. Four episodes! Four hours. That's longer than The Fellowship of the Ring. Thankfully, Season Two, Episode Six of Euphoria put our collective is-this-a-thingicipation to rest with a truly great movie date put to screen: Fez and Lexi watching Stand By Me. They laugh. They cry. They sing the titular track, by Ben E. King. Euphoria could've queued up a kiss as the credits rolled, but no. That would be dishonest to the relationship. The two hold hands.
Again, after watching Zendaya give a heartbreaking portrayal of Rue's withdrawal? It was nice to simply feel the affection between Fez and Lexi—and remember that teenagedom has beauty to match the pain.
That said, we do have to touch on the aftermath of Rue's long night. Episode Six tracks the smallest step in Rue's journey towards recovery. It starts with Rue staring dead-eyed at an unopened Jolly Rancher unable to even somewhat conjure up the idea of opening it. An hour later, Rue's imagining the moment she returns from rehab, the one where she apologizes to each and every person she hurt. As Ali points out, it's perfectly OK to be skeptical of Rue. (Though, he suggests something else that's even more right: We're nothing without hope.)
If you thought Euphoria would leave us there, you should know better by now—we fade to black as Rue's mother struggles to find a place for Rue to rehab, shouting through the phone that her daughter will kill herself. Hopefully, that's not a harbinger of things to come. It was nice to see Gia get some much-needed attention from Ali in this episode, at least.
As for the rest of Episode Six? After, again, two fairly Rue-centric episodes, Euphoria needed to run a sweep of its other major players. Kat and Ethan finally break up. The Jacobs family basks in the absence of its patriarch. Nate has a signature Nate episode, ripping off a villainous act per minute: Sticking a gun in Maddy's face, taking Cassie away from her family, continuing his emotional manipulation of Jules. And honestly, watching Nate fuck around with a gun? Kat and Ethan bickering? The series' continued hot-messing of Cassie, to the point where she's unfairly becoming the most one-dimensional character on this show? It feels like we've landed back in the early days of Season One, where the gratuitous dicks were the biggest storyline. Sure, the version of Euphoria that's dicks-drugs-and-sex was plenty of fun. But we know that it's more than that by now. It's hard when Euphoria reverts back.
Regardless, this episode seemingly offers an idea of where we're heading into Euphoria's final two weeks. Of course, we'll likely (hopefully!) see some sort of culmination to Rue's story this season. Whether that means going to rehab in the finale, or another relapse a la the final moments of Season One, we'll see. (Though the resurfacing of Labrinth's "All For Us" this episode, which played during that finale, isn't the best sign.) Nate, Cassie, and Maddy? Who the hell knows. In a brief but probably important moment, we learn that the cops are after Fez and Ashtray for the death of Mouse.
For now, can we make a pact to pretend we didn't hear it, and instead listen to "Stand By Me" again? Ah. That's nice. Think I have something in my eye.
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