After 'Euphoria' Episode 5, Rue's Life Hangs in the Balance
We all had a shitty job in college. Or at least most of us. Mine was literally shitty, as in I was under constant threat of being shat on. I worked at an aviary. Granted, I held down the gift shop, which had its own fun. A customer once cussed me out when she found out we had no snowy owls—lady, this isn't fucking Hogwarts, I wanted to scream—but I always stayed away from the birds. Not because of the airborne shit. It was the way they looked at you. Unblinking, knowing, cockeyed. Birds know things! Way smarter than they look.
I was thinking of my days wearing a safari-green Steve Irwin uniform during Euphoria this week when Rue was trapped inside Laurie's house—full of birds eyeing her in that Stephen King-looking way. Sam Levinson got it right, and while I wish this vignette I've painted would, it probably won't take your mind away from one of Euphoria's darkest episodes to date. Following what looked like Rue's near-overdose, Season Two, Episode Five of Euphoria, "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird," (hmmm) is the withdrawal episode. There's no other way to put it. Every single minute of this episode is painful to watch. Gone is the house music. Gone is the glitter. What's left is Rue going through one of the worst nights of her life. It's not just the physical purge of her body, either. But throughout this week's Euphoria, she loses just about everything, fights to find any meaning in her life, and reaches the rock bottom Zendaya has been talking about for so long.
I've always found the moments when Rue clashes with her mother and sister some of Euphoria's most depressing scenes to watch. Nika King and Storm Reid have always played Rue's mom and sister, respectively, with a sense of weariness and hurt that shows every single one of the fights and disappointments we haven't seen. After Leslie dumps Rue's suitcase of drugs down the toilet, we see Rue reach a new level of rage and fear—and Zendaya truly double down on her already-Emmy-winning performance—as she is both afraid of repercussions from Laurie and beyond livid with her family, Jules, and Elliot for staging an intervention. Rue says things to each one of them that I won't rehash here, but her words will surely leave a permanent mark on the series.
Then? The withdrawal really sets in. Rue runs away from her family, igniting a drawn-out thriller sequence that looks like the Safdie brothers directed this episode. Running away from the cops, Rue faces a pool party, at least three dogs, a garbage can, multiple fences, two bouts of heavy traffic, and much, much more. She crosses nearly every corner of Euphoria's world, from Fezco HQ ("You want some Pepto Bismol or something?"), to the Howard residence, ratting out Cassie's quasi-affair with Nate, which I still don't have the stamina to properly unpack. The final stop, the part when you started covering your eyes, is when she inexplicably shows up at Laurie's house to try to pay her back and get relief from her withdrawal symptoms.
In a somewhat surprising cross-off on the ol' Euphoria bingo card, we get a rather haunting origin story for Laurie, who tells Rue that she was a college athlete. When Laurie suffered an injury, she developed an Oxycontin addiction that derailed a life in education, and—we're led to believe—eventually drew her to what she does now. Over the course of their sit-down, Laurie talks about the horrors of cell death caused by drug addiction, seeming like she'll truly hurt Rue if she doesn't receive every last cent that she's owed. It's a masterful turn from Martha Kelly, who manages to maintain this flat, monotonous tone while alternating between moments of empathy and imposing threats on Rue's life. Hell, Laurie is five times the villain than Nate is at this point. (For the record? They're both bad.)
At the end of the episode, it looks like Rue makes it home, ready to work with her mom and recover. I hope that's the case. Jules seems to still love Rue and understands at least some level of her addiction, and seems like she'd still be willing to be in her life. Even with what Rue said to her. Elliot's aside, that he liked Rue "the way she was," is a little more than alarming, especially after he left her on the side of the road last week. Maybe Rue is best left going her separate ways with their friendship. And if Rue really is home, maybe the rest of the season will follow her recovery. If she's not? We're in for a painful final three episodes.
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