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The latest episode of Euphoria put Lexi and her not-so-ordinary life front and center, showing a completely different side to many of its characters.
Directed and written by Sam Levinson, the episode puts its side character in the limelight and lets her shine. It shifted its focus from drama for a bit and put Lexi's life at the center, showing things from her perspective.
Let's dive in and dissect the seventh episode of Euphoria season 2.
Note: This article contains spoilers.
Analyzing Euphoria season 2 episode 7
This week's episode of Euphoria centered around Lexi and her highly-anticipated play. Maude Apatow, who portrays Lexi, gave a killer performance while running her high school theater production, shedding light on each of the characters around her and also showing her mother supporting her to the fullest.
Somewhere Euphoria has always felt like two shows in one, as on one side, there's high school and relationship drama, and on the other, the world revolves around addiction. Lexi's character is someone who has never picked a side, which is why she considers herself an outcast, but she is also someone who has observed things from a corner. But in the episode The Theater And It’s Double, Lexi bridged the gap between the two worlds.
The workings of Lexi's mind
Viewers first got to take a glimpse inside Lexi's mind at the beginning of the season and now it has expanded into much more. Her play, Our Life, begins in the middle of the past after the funeral of Rue's father. The scene then sees cutaways between Rue's look-a-like and the audience watching the play.
Backstage, Lexi directs the play, makes demands and snaps at people working with her, showing a completely new and confident side of her. In between scenes, she delivers a monolog and tells the audience, in the theater and the the ones watching, how she felt during those moments. This allows viewers to get a first-hand account of situations, mainly things missing from Rue's narration, from a character who has been sidelined throughout the series.
Not a side character anymore
One of the highlights of a format like this is the holistic view it provides of Lexi. Before this, she was either Rue's friend or Cassie's sister, someone easily forgotten. Lexi's play allows viewers of Euphoria to see the toll all of it can take on someone when they are not heard or seen, unlike characters like Cassie and Kat, who are more vocal about their lives and interests. There are numerous scenes where Lexi watches Cassie and Maddy have the romantic relationship that she wants.
Lexi's point of view also showed a different side to Cassie and Maddy, where the former is seen as short-tempered, irritable, and dismissive, and the latter is the complete opposite. Maddy gave Lexi the love and advice she wished Cassie did along with Rue, who filled up the friendship gap for her, which shows why she never wanted to give up on Rue.
Things of the past
While it was fun to see things from Lexi's perspective, this episode of Euphoria did not fully commit to her play and showed more of what was going beyong the stage at school. It rehashed moments as Maddy confronted Cassie about Nate, Rue and her mom talking about her addiction, and the intimate scenes between Nate and Cassie. The episode surely would've been stronger if the boundaries of each story were made clearer.
Towards the end of this episode of Euphoria, viewers saw a big number where Ethan portrayed Nate as Jake. He reenacted the scene from season 1 where the football team worked out at the gym naked and Nate seemed visibly uncomfortable. Lexi brought homoeroticism onstage as Ethan and the background dancers danced inappropriately.
The same old Nate
Cheers from the audience made Nate leave with Cassie running after him. His reactions reflected the sadness viewers might have never seen before, but he also showed anger, vulnerability, and embarrassment. Nate's response shows how he may have been allowing himself to feel a bit more ever since Cal left, but not a lot, considering how he reacted to Cassie and how he treated Maddy in the previous episode.
One thing Euphoria lacks is not taking Cassie's loss seriously. She is also someone who lost her father, not to illness but to absence, and she too is working through her grief. She's a Gen Z teen trying to figure out her relationship, but instead, she is seen as someone who wreaks even more havoc.
The ordinary one
Overall, Euphoria set aside the objectification of these teens by turning the spotlight on Lexi, the "boring" theater kid. It showed how not everyone needs to have an outlandish and stressful life, and some can have a more ordinary one like Lexi's. This also proves how these characters can deliver the most compelling insights with ease.
Fans can catch the latest episodes of Euphoria season 2, now streaming on HBO Max.
