Euphoria Season 3: Every Main Character's Ending, Ranked

"Euphoria" went from must-see TV to basically an afterthought on Sunday evenings. The show's third-season finale, "In God We Trust," aired on May 31, and shortly thereafter, HBO announced that the episode was, in fact, the series finale. Honestly, it's something that needed to happen, and /Film even said weeks before the finale that "Euphoria" needed to end with Season 3. 

Most of the reactions to "Euphoria" Season 3 were negative, and there are plenty of reasons why the show stumbled over the finish line. The four-year gap between Seasons 2 and 3 meant many fans moved on from "Euphoria," including the cast members. Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, and Sydney Sweeney, in particular, have all gone on to bigger and better things. Elordi is an Oscar nominee now! And honestly, you can see that tiredness in a lot of the performances and how certain characters feel completely superfluous to the larger story being told. 

The "Euphoria" finale isn't so much a goodbye as it is a "Thank God it's over." So let's look at all of the "Euphoria" main character endings to examine the good, the bad, and the tragic. Once you look at where everyone wound up, it's clear that "Euphoria" Season 4 simply could never happen. 

Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) pretty much solely exists in "Euphoria" Season 3 to get knocked around. Nate was trying to get his father's construction business back on its feet while planning his wedding to Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). However, he borrows a little too much money from the wrong people and spends much of the season getting beaten up. Like, he'll pretty much have one scene per episode, and it's him getting pounded to a pulp. His arc culminates in Episode 7, "Rain or Shine," when Naz (Jack Topalian) has him buried alive, but a snake gets inside the coffin. When Cassie and Maddy (Alexa Demie) finally dig him out, he's already dead, succumbed to the snake's poison.

It's a sad, pathetic end but one that feels anticlimactic. Nate was a straight-up villain in the first two seasons of "Euphoria," embodying toxic masculinity and manipulating everyone around him to get his way. He was the pinnacle of a privileged white boy. We're not sad that he got a comeuppance, but that it came from a loan shark; he just stuck him in the ground, and then a snake happened to kill him off.

Or even if Nate didn't die, he could've grown as a character. How much potential was lost because an awful teenager never really had a chance to grow into a full-fledged adult? To make matters even worse, the finale sees Cassie tell her sister, Lexi (Maude Apatow), that Nate disappeared. Not even her sister knows the truth of what happened. Maybe it's just us, but a monster like Nate needed something with more impact, even if it wasn't a redemption arc, to feel like that character was done justice. 

Rue (Zendaya) fails to pay Laurie (Martha Kelly) for drugs in Season 2, and that decision comes back to haunt her in Season 3. Laurie returns to get Rue to pay off her debt, but Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) gets Rue working for him instead, further deepening the rift between two drug dealers. In the Season 3 finale, Alamo sets Laurie up by switching out ambulances doing a drug run in Mexico. The DEA descends upon Laurie's house, and rather than get taken to prison, Laurie ends her own life. 

The (not so) funny thing is that Laurie probably didn't need to do that. Since Alamo switched ambulances, the one that arrived at her house was free of fentanyl. The DEA could probably do a sweep of her home for more illicit substances, but Laurie died for pretty much no reason.

Alamo and Laurie have been engaged in their own personal war all season. Alamo strikes Laurie's operation, and Laurie strikes back. She's been a cold, chilling presence throughout her tenure on "Euphoria," and then she just dies. It could've been more satisfying if Rue had helped take down Laurie, since she still owed her a debt. Or maybe we could've seen Laurie adopt a cold, Hannibal Lecter-esque persona after being taken in by the authorities. Instead, it's an abrupt ending to get rid of a character because it's not like we're going to see her again anyway. 

Faye (Chloe Cherry) gets drawn into Laurie's drug operation when Rue needs help smuggling substances into the United States from Mexico. She then gets into a relationship with Wayne (Toby Wallace), one of Laurie's Nazi associates. As the DEA raid goes down, the two make a break for it, and the last we see of them is on the side of the road. A car pulls over for Faye hitchhiking, but we see Wayne pull out a gun and emerge from the bushes. 

They'll likely commit a carjacking, and then ... become an incompetent Bonnie and Clyde-like duo? Given how dumb the two characters are, we can't exactly see them getting far. We can't imagine them operating their own drug business, so maybe they'd start working for someone else. But this is an ending that's just sort of there. They get away and circumvent any consequences for their actions, but we can honestly say we'll never think of them again. 

After years of constantly craving male attention, Cassie finally has it at the end of "Euphoria" Season 3, but at what cost? She and Maddy have transformed Nate's tacky yellow house into what will inevitably become an influencer house. She's her own woman, making her own money, but it's clear what she really wants is Nate to still be her husband. As Lexi leaves, we follow Cassie, crying, all alone in this big house.

It's a tragic end for a character who's existed this entire season as a joke. Cassie's OnlyFans storyline was handled incredibly poorly (and you can see a much better version of this story with Elle Fanning's "Margo's Got Money Troubles"). If there was any character on "Euphoria" Season 3 you wanted to get that happy ending, it's Cassie, but even that eludes her. 

The best you can say about Cassie's ending on "Euphoria" is that it finally gives her agency. She's been living for the whims of others all season, but she and Maddy seem to have a more collaborative partnership by the conclusion. She can make her adult content on her own terms without needing to send money to a loan shark, but it's still clear this isn't the life she wants. 

Talk about a persona non grata. Jules was absolutely wasted on "Euphoria" Season 3. After being such a well-thought-out character in the last two seasons, we just see her paint and become a sugar baby for Season 3. None of her storylines matter, and even her relationship with Rue, which was, again, a great part of her character previously, is almost non-existent. We see Jules hit Rue earlier in the season after Rue criticizes her sugar baby lifestyle, and then when Rue dies, we get a final shot of Jules painting what's clearly Rue surrounded by ... hellfire? Not sure what's going on there.

You could cut Jules entirely out of "Euphoria" Season 3, and nothing would change. And her ending doesn't really provide any solace. It's nice to see she's still passionate about painting, but then what? She could've at least had something of an arc if she refused to be a sugar baby any longer and moved into maybe a worse apartment, but one where she could truly be herself. 

That would've been something where Jules learns that pursuing artistic endeavors is better than pure monetary gain. But Jules exists in "Euphoria" Season 3 to stay in a high-rise apartment and paint all the time. Like most women in the third season of "Euphoria," she exists as an object to be controlled and does little to break out of that by the end. 

Maddy got put through the wringer in the final season of "Euphoria," but actually comes out the other side better. Throughout the season, we see Maddy basically faking it until she makes it. She wants to be a boss and manage clients rather than working for someone else. When she reunites with Cassie by the pool, she presents herself as being a bigger deal than she actually is. But that facade came back to bite her when she makes a deal with Alamo to free Cassie from her loans to Naz. Nate's already dead, and Maddy owes Alamo big time. 

The final episode sees Maddy visit Alamo as Ali (Colman Domingo) goes to the strip club to exact revenge. Alamo briefly uses Maddy as a human shield before getting into a stand-off with Ali, where Alamo gets shot dead. Maddy looks relieved that Alamo's gone and for good reason. Her overconfidence almost made her indebted to a madman, but now, she's free. 

We like to think Maddy learned something through this ordeal: That it's okay to know when you're out of your depth. Maddy always exuded confidence throughout "Euphoria," but by the finale, she's still in her early 20s. It's natural for her not to know what she's doing! Hopefully, she learned a lesson and knows when (and who) to ask for help moving forward. 

If there was one saving grace to the "Euphoria" series finale, it was Ali's arc. He's been Rue's mentor throughout "Euphoria," but when she overdoses, he questions how much good he can do as a sponsor. He takes matters into his own hands and goes into Alamo's club with a gun, ready to kill him for giving Rue the fentanyl that ended her life. He succeeds in that endeavor and proceeds to go to the house Rue was at in the very first episode of Season 3 to seek closure. 

Ali's arc in the final season isn't one of redemption. He's already attained that through his sobriety and trying to help others stay the same. But in the penultimate episode, we get a montage of all the people Ali has tried to help who have lost their lives over the years. Rue is but another name in his diary of someone who couldn't be saved. And even though Rue wished to visit the promised land, like Moses, she never got there. 

Instead, Ali is out for pure revenge. He helps turn the finale into what's basically a Quentin Tarantino movie to make sure Alamo never hurts anyone again. It allows him to take on a more active role and realize that there's only so much you can do through AA meetings. 

Lexi has one of the better endings on "Euphoria" for the simple fact that she knows to stay in her lane. Lexi has the unsexiest storyline in "Euphoria" Season 3, as she works as a production assistant on a TV show called "LA Nights." She's trying to stay out of trouble to work her way up, and eventually gets a big break when Cassie lands a role (though she's later fired). But it looks like Lexi will become a writer soon enough, so things are looking up for her. 

In the finale, Cassie offers Lexi a job writing storylines for her new content creator house, but Lexi turns it down. It is the single sanest decision anyone in the history of "Euphoria" has ever made. Lexi could probably make more money writing for the girls in Cassie's new influencer house, but it's clear that's not where her interests lie. She wants to be a TV writer; she wants that legitimacy and doesn't want to risk jeopardizing that for Cassie's offer. After all, Cassie lost her acting gig because of her background as a sex worker, so Lexi is familiar with the repercussions (not that such discrimination is good, but it's a reality Lexi is aware of). 

Lexi is choosing art over immediate fortune. She's pursuing her passions rather than a quick buck. She's the one character who has the best shot of true happiness on "Euphoria," and we're only bummed she didn't get more screen time on the final season. 

Did Rue get the ending she deserved? Once Alamo knows Rue's working on behalf of the DEA, he provides her with painkillers he's laced with fentanyl. Despite Rue struggling with addiction throughout the show, she was actually clean at this point and trying to do better. When crashing on Ali's couch, she takes some of the painkillers and enters into a drug-induced state where she's trying to meet up with Fezco (Angus Cloud, who passed away before Season 3 filmed) but winds up back at her childhood home. Her final moments are filled with bliss, as she dies halfway through the finale.

It's a dark ending for Rue, but sadly, it's one that's all too common for addicts. There's another world where Rue gets a happy ending. One where she gets clean and maybe helps other addicts like what Ali has done. But she dies from a source she least suspected. And it came right after she got into a fight with Jules and hadn't seen her family in so long. It makes her death all the more tragic, as there was so much left unsaid. Living with addiction can cut any life far too short, but this ending furthers the stigma.

You didn't need to hear HBO's announcement that "Euphoria" Season 3 would be the final outing for the show. Rue's death cemented that because there is no "Euphoria" without her. And her death isn't in vain. With Ali killing Alamo, who would've sold more drugs laced with fentanyl, he potentially saved the lives of hundreds if not thousands more people. Rue's "Euphoria" ending will hopefully serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who needs to hear it. 

Rather than flesh out characterizations for Nate, Jules, or Lexi, "Euphoria" Season 3 was more interested in new characters, notably Alamo Brown and his right-hand man, Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson). Bishop is one of the more fascinating characters in the final season. Whereas Alamo's other workers are delighted to partake in booze and women, Bishop seems more stand-offish. He keeps to himself and is the more stoic of the bunch, leading to a surprise betrayal.

When Ali demands Alamo's attention, Bishop hands his boss a gun. Alamo wants a shootout with Ali as soon as a bottle rolls off the counter and breaks on the floor, but before that happens, Alamo fires his gun at Ali. But there aren't any bullets since Bishop removed them, allowing Ali to kill Alamo. It's a surprising move that all circles back to Alamo providing Rue with the fatal fentanyl. 

Britt-Gibson spoke with Variety about the twist, and the actor explained, "Bishop didn't agree with a lot of what Alamo did, but it was a job for him. I think what Alamo did to Rue was the final straw for Bishop." There's a lot going on with Bishop we've only scratched the surface of, like him suddenly having a poodle in the last episode. Honestly, Bishop is the only reason we'd go back to rewatch "Euphoria" just to examine all of the hints that he's been secretly plotting against Alamo this entire time. Bishop was definitely a bright spot in a lackluster season.