Euphoria’s game-changing play was messier than we could have dreamed – but sparks fears for fan fave

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“Lexi, we’re ready,” a voice announces in the opening scene of the penultimate episode of Euphoria season two. But were we?

Truth be told, even after an entire season of build-up and anticipation, we’re not sure anything could have prepared us for Lexi Howard’s autobiographical play. After weeks of rehearsals, the students of Euphoria High and viewers at home were finally able to enjoy the fruits of the wallflower Howard sister’s labour. Thankfully, the finished product was more transparently about Lexi’s peers than we could have ever hoped for.

As well as being a ludicrously high budget High School Musical-esque romp, the play, aptly titled Our Life, also served a very important function of fleshing out the origin stories of many of our main characters to help us better understand how many of them got to where they found themselves when we first met the group in season one.

Lexi writing her play pic.twitter.com/9FYSRUO36t

— bussy phillips (@adamkraftlol) February 21, 2022

Lexi Spike Lee Howard.

— The Great Negro (@jiggyjayy2) February 21, 2022

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At Our Life‘s beginning, we are reintroduced to all of our main characters, reimagined by Lexi and played by their classmates. While she gets the privilege of not just controlling the entire narrative but also playing herself (renamed Grace here), Cassie, Maddy, Rue, Kat and Nate must watch themselves be mimicked by a cast of students actors they probably sit next to in algebra.

Lexi/Grace starts by explaining that the most significant moment in her life to date was her sister going through puberty. What follows are some very gratuitous descriptions of Cassie’s 14-year-old pubescent body, including a quip from their parodied mother in the play commenting on the size of her “knockers”. Luckily the sisters’ actual mother is lapping it up from the audience, doing her best Amy Poehler in Mean Girls impression as she cheers and throws her head back laughing with knee-slapping reverie.

#Euphoria Lexi's mom in the audience be like pic.twitter.com/wPk5b8V4hf

— Mali (@Malachi23455) February 21, 2022

When the play’s playwright is not reducing Cassie to her most shallow and unflattering qualities, she manages to paint a clearer picture of her complicated family life than we’ve ever seen before – an alcoholic father who eventually walks out on them, a mother who is similarly fond of a drink, and a sister whose shadow she feels destined to always live in.

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In one particularly poignant scene, Lexi remembers finding her parents and young teenage sister dancing jovially around their living room, beckoning her to join them. It would be typically sweet family moment if everyone involved weren’t clutching bottles of beer.

We also learn that at some point since beginning high school, Maddy all but moved in with the Howards due to her own parents’ constant fighting. Despite being one of the show’s best known and most-frequently memed characters, we rarely get much time quality time with Maddy – it’s never really explained why she is the way she is, so this morsel of character development helps us see where she may have learned to fight so ferociously, and also highlights how Cassie’s betrayal would have cut even deeper than we previously realised.

cassie is just a horrible fucking person and before delusional cassie hive pull up i understand her issues with her dad and love and all that shit but there is no excuse for her being that big of a downright LOSER #Euphoria #EuphoriaHBO pic.twitter.com/FQ0tVkkfb0

— maddy perez defense squad (@negroes4life) February 14, 2022

Through masterful set design and camera work the episode traverses from Our Life to flashback scenes set in the same locations. In one instance, the camera pans back on a shot of Grace and Hallie’s bedroom to show us what happened next after we saw Maddy chase Cassie up the stairs post Rue-veal of her secret dalliance with Nate.

She locks herself into her en-suite bathroom as an enraged Maddy furiously bangs on the door, demanding she show her face. Watching Cassie with her back against the door, tears slowly trickling down her face in terror is the perfect mirror image to the now-iconic season opener when Maddy almost catches her and Nate in the act. How differently things might have turned out for both girls had Maddy thought to peek into the bathtub that fateful night.

Maddy’s fury quickly turns to sorrow as she continues to bang on the door, telling her supposed best friend: “This isn’t about Nate. It’s about you and me and our friendship.” The exchange is a lot more heartfelt and emotional than the catfight we might have expected from Maddy’s primal reaction a couple of episodes ago. It does a great job at softening this character and making you realise that although she wears a tough exterior and can look after herself, Maddy really is the victim in Nate and Cassie’s game.

this broke my heart #euphoria pic.twitter.com/tQejheyX4B

— liv ꨄ (@petersphoria) February 21, 2022

Eventually the mortification of her entire school watching her own sister depict her as a vapid, self-absorbed airhead whose only concern is validation from men reduces Cassie to tears. Lexi watches from the stage as her sister scurries out of the auditorium to compose herself.

Sydney Sweeney delivers another killer performance as we watch Cassie examine her tear-stricken face in the mirror before plastering a million dollar smile over it, ready to once again face the music like a pro. (Sidebar – Cassie’s styling was really off in this episode. We assume she’s now supposed to be looking the part of some sort of sexed-up Barbie doll who only exists for Nate’s pleasure, but this Anna Nicole Smith meets the Cock Destroyers look was quite distracting).

Nate really went through the whole five stages of grief while watching Lexi’s play