Euphoria season three finale: Provocative and controversial series bows out with mixed legacy

SPOILER WARNING FOR EUPHORIA FINALE

At the very end, Euphoria went down shooting — fitting for a series that was always controversial and always defiant.

With the conclusion of its third season on Monday, HBO confirmed what many have speculated since before it returned in April: that this would be the final chapter. A relief for many, including its fans and, one suspects, its cast.

With the likes of Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney now in-demand movie stars, it was always going to be a challenge to hold onto them for much longer, no matter what contracts they may have signed almost a decade ago.

You have to wonder if the deaths of two major characters, played by Zendaya and Elordi, were the result of creative choices or if they were driven by other factors. If there had been a fourth season, those two were definitely not coming back.

At every point along the way, Euphoria season three felt like it was on a kamikaze mission, as creator Sam Levinson placed the characters in increasingly perilous positions, enmeshing them in the anxieties of 2026, but taken to the extreme.

Rue (Zendaya) became a drug mule for a dangerous cartel, Jules (Hunter Schafer) a sugar baby, and Cassie (Sweeney) had turned to OnlyFans to pay for her extravagant wedding. Their bodies were used while their emotional states were abused. It was an exercise in constant humiliation.

It seemed as if each character was starring in their own movie, and that it was vastly different from what the others were going through. Rue was in a neo-western Coen brothers thriller via Tarantino, while Jules was off in some Paul Verhoeven fantasy.

Elordi’s character, Nate, was killed off in an almost comical way — buried alive in a coffin by a loan shark, only to have a rattlesnake slither in and bite him in the face.

Even its most ardent fans pointed to a significant shift in the show’s vibes in the jump from season two to three. It was nihilistic and tortured, with very few moments of reprieve let alone grace.

Euphoria wasn’t meant to realistically reflect the world, but if it did, then the kids are really not OK. Skins was a Sunday afternoon picnic in comparison.

A lot has changed since the teen-focused series stormed into the zeitgeist in 2019, catching headlines, attention and flak for its provocative portrayals of teen sex and drug addiction.

Its highly stylised aesthetic, audacious storylines and twisty character dynamics made for a seductive package to viewers young and old, although mostly young. It was, at times, like a waking dream in which making mistakes wasn’t a sin but an inevitability.

In those first two seasons, Euphoria’s relationship to traditional morality was always on uneven footing, punishing some of its characters for transgressions while ignoring others. To many, that made it all the more captivating because you could never really predict where it was going.

Zendaya, then mostly known for her Disney Channel work and a supporting role in The Greatest Showman, was catapulted to mega-stardom, as her Euphoria exposure coincided with her involvement in the Spider-Man movies.

She earnt two Emmys for playing Rue, a teen addict who struggled with her demons while she navigated the universally relatable challenges of growing up — family, school, friends, relationships and sex.

Euphoria was shocking at times — it became well known for featuring a scene with dozens of penises — but for its fans, it held them in its clutches with its onscreen stories.

But for as many people who tuned into the show — it became, in the US, HBO’s most popular series after Game of Thrones ­— even more were aware of all the off-screen dramas over the years.

Levinson was often at the centre of them.

The son of filmmaker Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog), Levinson adapted Euphoria from a Israeli series of the same name by Ron Lesham, while layering into it what he said were his own experiences growing up in Hollywood.

His vice-like control over Euphoria’s creative vision and production realities has led to many reported clashes. It also meant that whenever the series was accused of exploitation or glamorising violence and addiction, there was someone to point the finger at.

Guest stars Minka Kelly and Chloe Cherry both expressed unease about nude scenes, Sweeney has previously said she’s had to ask Levinson to tone down Cassie’s nudity, although he was receptive to such requests. Levinson also said that in season three, Sweeney fought to keep Cassie’s nude scenes when he had suggested some edits.

Barbie Ferreira left the show after the second season and later said that she felt Levinson just didn’t know what to do with her character, Kat, a camgirl, anymore. Her storyline and screentime had already been reduced in season two, and fans were annoyed that Levinson had done dirty by Kat and Ferreira.

It didn’t help his reputation that in the four-year break between seasons two and three, Levinson had spent his energy shepherding another controversial series for HBO, The Idol, which was, at best, a vanity project for The Weeknd.

The Idol was plagued from the get-go by reports of on-set dramas and an alleged toxic workplace, including the ousting of the female filmmaker, Amy Seimetz.

Seimetz had originally been hired to direct all the episodes and was pushed out after The Weeknd reportedly complained the show was leaning too much into a female perspective (the title character was a female pop singer played by Lily-Rose Depp).

Levinson, who had co-created and written the show, was brought on as replacement director, and some crew members alleged in a Rolling Stone expose that he took it in a creative direction that was akin to “sexual torture porn”.

The resulting series was widely panned, and was booed by some attendees at its Cannes premiere. Some media outlets called it the worst TV show of the year. It was promptly cancelled by HBO.

The Idol may have played a part in a reported rift between Levinson and Zendaya, who had been thick as thieves during the production of the first two seasons, even going on to collaborate on the pandemic-era film, Malcolm and Marie.

In 2024, The Hollywood Reporter alleged that Zendaya and Levinson’s relationship had considerably cooled, and there had been conflicting reports over whose schedule was responsible for the long gap between seasons two and three.

The Hollywood Reporter detailed that Zendaya had allegedly been frustrated by Levinson not delivering Euphoria scripts and had opted instead to devote more time to The Idol. She went so far as to take her concerns to HBO.

Levinson, who is known for being a volatile but impressive talent, hasn’t been able to shake off all the ick that was sticking to him.

It didn’t help that before the start of season three, the show’s composer, Labrinth, who provided Euphoria’s signature sound, publicly revealed he wasn’t returning due to conflict with the show’s team.

He didn’t explicitly name Levinson, but after Levinson said in an interview he didn’t know why the composer had left the series, Labrinth responded on his social media.

“People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people. So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in it. I spoke to HBO, as far as I know, we are cool,” he wrote.

“I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me. But I don’t let people treat me like shit.”

If Euphoria had ended at its second season in 2022, this would be a different conversation in considering the show’s popularity and legacy, despite its earlier on-screen provocations.

It had, then, been a series that young people were watching and meme-ing, speaking to a generation that entertainment executives weren’t sure would ever engage with Hollywood productions the same way their forebears had.

But when its off-screen dramas became just as well-known as its onscreen ones, it diluted its own cultural power. In the internet age, audiences, especially young women, aren’t as forgiving of “troubled geniuses” as they once were.

If there’s one thing Euphoria can point to as its legacy, it’s that it helped mint three proper breakout stars in Zendaya, Elordi and Sweeney.

All three actors became mainstream household names because of other projects such as, between them, Saltburn, Spider-Man, Dune, The White Lotus and Anyone But You, but there is a world in which they wouldn’t have landed those opportunities if not for the buzziness of Euphoria.