Euphoria: What makes Zendaya's Rue unfathomable? Character arc explained

Euphoria, a teen drama, rose to recognition in the eyes of critics and fans as somewhat of a whirlwind. It hauntingly depicts elements of addiction and mental health issues, covering the gravity of these elements with heightened fantasy sequences, unique usage of makeup, a 12-year-old drug dealer, moments of respite and laughter, a gangster grandmother, and mesmerizing music.

Rue (Zendaya) is the main character and is also the narrator of the show, however unreliable she may be. She is a high school student at East Highland High and is a drug addict.

Euphoria's first season began with Rue fresh out of rehab and at the door of her drug dealer friend Fez (Angus Cloud) to buy some drugs for herself. Rue later confessed that she never intended to stay clean.

Rue and her struggles in Euphoria

Attempts have been made to establish a plausible connection between Rue’s addiction and her past in Euphoria, but in a rare honest and vulnerable conversation with her friend Elliot (Dominic Fike), Rue admits that there is no one specific reason for her addiction, it's just how it is. She can't help herself but feel that drugs are the only way that she can honestly be herself.

The second ongoing season of Euphoria focuses on Rue's journey of ups and downs of addiction, which has been a source of thrill, shock, and concern for the viewers. After successfully hiding her relapse from her family, she is exposed by Jules (Hunter Schafer) and Elliot, which leads to an intervention.

A run for her life

In the episode “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird” of Euphoria, when Rue's mother confronts her about her relapse and clears out the drug-filled suitcase, Rue shows her ugly side; she yells and cries for her life, begs for the suitcase, tries to manipulate her mother, and even pushes her sister, just to get her hands on the suitcase that she bought from Laurie (Martha Kelly), the druglord.

Upon realizing the roles Jules and Elliot play in this intervention, all her love for them vanishes in an instant. All that she is left with is resentment towards Jules for leaving her when she needed her the most, something that they never explicitly talked about.

Still from HBO Max's Euphoria Season 2 Episode 5 - On the run (Image via HBO Max)

In a desperate attempt to avoid rehab, Rue gets out of her mother’s car in the middle of traffic and just runs to her friends’ houses, to a stranger’s house where she steals and then gets chased by cops on the street. Before heading into oncoming traffic while being chased by cops, Rue prays for herself:

“Please, God, don’t let me die.”

This is a rare instance in which the character shows concern about her life. She is desperately running away from her unbearable withdrawal symptoms. By the end of the episode, she reaches Laurie's house, who injects her with morphine to deal with the withdrawal.

Rue and Jules' complicated love story

When Rue's friend and then love interest, Jules, runs away from home at the end of the first season of Euphoria, leaving Rue behind, it leads to her relapse. After a long wait and two special episodes focusing solely on Rue and Jules, the second season premiered in January of this year. When the two meet each other again, everything is forgiven, and they decide to be together.

However, the aftermath of the intervention leaves Rue feeling hurt and betrayed. In the episode “The Theater and It's Double,” Rue avoids eye contact and amuses herself by remembering that she thought they were meant for each other. Much love is lost.

The hourglass is running out for Rue

On many occasions throughout Euphoria, Rue has been confronted with near-death situations. She overdoses for the first time and is admitted to the hospital. She then gets a kidney infection because she is too depressed to get up and go to the restroom. At a party, she almost overdoses with Elliot but is saved by Adderall.

After a fight with Jules, she takes some drugs and imagines embracing her father in the middle of a church, which leaves the viewers on the edge of their seat, making them wonder about Rue's imminent death. It also establishes a clear connection between Rue’s addiction and the sudden demise of her father due to cancer.

Rue is not a character who is afraid of death or hospitals; in fact, she admits on several occasions that she enjoys being in a hospital and wishes she could spend her entire life there because there she has no responsibilities. She says that she likes hospitals because they don’t judge the character and mental space of the patient before helping them.

According to Rue, her mother is also like that - a good Christian who has faith in forgiveness and helping others despite their flaws. And so is her sponsor Ali (played by Colman Domingo), whom she insulted by picking at his vulnerabilities in her addictive rage - something she regrets the most.

Rue is at her most vulnerable in the sixth episode of Euphoria, "A Thousand Little Trees of Blood," when she gathers the courage to confront Ali and ask for his forgiveness, and the redemption she receives brings tears to her eyes.

All is yet to be forgiven, though Ali wants Rue to find hope for herself, which is the only path to getting clean. The two have had numerous conversations wherein she claims that it is inevitable that she will die soon and that the world would be a better place without her because she is not a good person.

Zendaya as Rue in Euphoria (Image via HBO Max)

Throughout the show, Rue sticks to the claim of dying soon, except for the seconds when she is on the verge of death and clings to the hope of survival.

Euphoria makes the viewers care for this teenager whose general disregard for her life should make them angry; instead, they are also holding out hope that Rue might just survive.

Edited by Rhythm Bhatia