A Thousand Little Trees of Blood
Episode 6 of Euphoria Season 2 starts with Rue back home, handling a jolly rancher and breathing deeply. She’s got withdrawal symptoms, but Leslie is there to help for the time being. At least until a bed is available at the rehab center. Unfortunately, there’s a solid week before that happens, meaning Rue is going to have to try and weather the storm back home. While Gia and Leslie both take it in turns to try and be there for her, Rue reflects on the mistakes she’s made. Specifically, she hovers over lashing out at Ali, and eventually she rings him to apologize. It’s a deep, profuse sorry and one that sees him forgive her, and even head over with a bag full of groceries later on. In confidence, he encourages Gia to channel her anger, believing it would be good for her. Meanwhile, things are a roller-coaster ride of emotion over at Nate’s place. With Cal now gone and Nate having won the “dick swinging contest”, Nate’s concerns turn to Maddy. With no messages or calls from her on his phone, he’s worried over what she may have planned. Well, according to Maddy it’s murder. The girl on the other end of the phone happens to be Kat, who heads out on a date with Ethan. Well, date may be a bit of a stretch. He’s not happy he’s had to cancel band practice for this but shows up all the same. The outcome of their meet sees Ethan and Kat break up, although Kat is pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Between the Maddy and Cassie drama, Lexie turns to Fezco for comfort. The pair bond well, with the former wondering whether to even continue putting on her play or not. She’s stuck right in the middle of this conflict too, eventually calling out Cassie’s melodramatic rant. Holding a corkscrew, she bemoans that she doesn’t want to live anymore. Cassie’s “pity-me” attitude is something that she likens to Rue, although her mum is quick to dispel that comparison. Rue has had a hard life, Cassie meanwhile, has not. At least not in her eyes anyway. Maddy heads over to her babysitting gig and winds up talking and drinking with Samantha, the woman whose house this belongs to. She admits she’s done the same thing to one of her girlfriends, allowing Maddy to see things from a slightly different perspective. Still, it’s not going to change her depression, which continues to swell. Over at the Jacobs household, Nate finds himself in a whirlwind of emotion too. That tornado happens to be his mother, who’s completely spinning out of control. She discusses how Nate’s personality changed and how he darkened when he turned 8 or 9. For Nate though, he realizes he needs to take action and that comes from stealing Cal’s gun and getting back the disk no matter what. After all, if it gets out that Cal is a paedo, that too would reflect badly on Nate and potentially destroy the integrity of the business. With the gun in hand, Nate heads over to Maddy’s place, hiding in her room and waiting for her to return. He’s not there for an apology though, he wants the disk. After a particularly tense game of Russian roulette, Maddy breaks and admits it’s in her purse. It turns out this was all one big bluff, given there were no bullets in the gun to begin with. However, Nate leaves Maddy in a broken mess on the bed, takes the disk and rocks up at Jules’ house. He hands it over to her. With this situation resolved, Nate finally rings Cassie back and decides to pick her up. With her mum watching from the living room, Cassie packs up her things and decides to stay at Nate’s. Meanwhile, the episode closes at Rue’s house. Rue wants to get clean but Gia is not so sure she’ll follow through with this. She’s heard it numerous times and by now, it’s falling on deaf ears. With the chances slim that she’ll succeed, Ali tells them all that Rue needs to find that hope for herself. While Gia and Rue sleep, Leslie learns that Rue isn’t going to rehab. Leslie gives a teary confession on the phone, urging them to reconsider and believing Rue is going to kill herself.
The Episode Review
After last week’s explosive chapter, following Rue’s downward spiral, episode 6 depicts the fall-out from Rue’s rampage. The drama between Maddy and Cassie hasn’t quite exploded the way many may have predicted and I’m not going to lie, that’s a bit disappointing. It would have been good to see Maddy actually lash out against her friend, but alas instead we get depressive Maddy who finds Samantha is actually in the same position of Cassie, minus trying to kill herself with a corkscrew. Whether Rue will actually get clean or not remains a point of contention but given the show has already been renewed for a third season, I think it’s unlikely this will stick. The drama involving Kat and Elliot has been, to be frank, pointless. There’s no substance to their relationship or drama and it feels like unnecessary padding. It’s especially evident given they could have used that extra time on the more interesting characters. Despite all that, the episode does well to start simmering things out, leaning into more of the reflective drama. But will Rue actually get clean? We’ll have to wait and see.
