Jules seems to be doing alright, kinda
We finally get to see more of Jules in Season 3. A flashback tells the story of how a college-aged friend talks her into finding work as a high-class escort to make a bunch of money and become financially independent. The gig seems to have great results, albeit at a steep cost: After pairing up with a handful of well-heeled clients, she eventually meets a charismatic plastic surgeon, who in their first rendezvous looks over her body like she’s a rare specimen.
The surgeon eventually becomes Jules’ exclusive client, and his largesse gives her more income than she could possibly ask for, freeing her up to focus on her art. But as part of the deal, Jules is herself turned into a material object. In a creepy scene, Jules lets the surgeon bind her up in saran wrap like she’s a statue and fondle her as she helplessly looks on. “I just might keep you forever,” he says.
Rue spirals deeper into the darkness
Back in the Silver Slipper—the roadside strip club that Rue started working at in last week’s episode—it’s business as usual: the place is awash in women, money, and guns. Climbing the ladder of Alamo Brown’s empire, Rue is settling comfortably into a new role as a gun runner, selling AR-15s and other fancy weapons to Mexican drug cartel bosses.
But a war is brewing between Alamo Brown and Laurie, Rue’s old drug dealer. In what appears to be an act of malice, a hog raids the Silver Slipper, which Alamo dispatches with his trusty golden handgun. (The hog is a callback to last week’s episode, when Alamo is left seething after Laurie dismisses him as a pig.) For payback, Rue recommends that Alamo and his crew take out Laurie’s beloved pet bird, Paladin, who by the way is named after the main character from the late ’50s Wild West TV show Have Gun – Will Travel.
Cassie’s wedding day goes wrong, in the best way
Cassie finally gets her $50,000 flower arrangement! It’s wedding day for her and Nate, and everyone gathers in a lovely outdoor pavilion to see them tie the knot. Lexi walks down the hot pink aisle as Cassie’s maid of honor, while Cassie’s mom gives her a toxic little pep talk that fills her with anxiety before she meets Nate at the altar and they seal their vows with a big kiss.
The perfect day starts to go haywire, though, when a loanshark named Naz shows up and menaces Nate in front of all the dinner guests. Of course, Cassie is mostly concerned about how Nate’s mounting debts will impact their luxe lifestyle: “Downsize? I do not want to downsize!” When they get home at the end of the night, she sobs about her wedding day being ruined—all while the loanshark’s henchman beats Nate to a bloody pulp right in their palatial living room.
Nate finally gets his comeuppance
Considering all the horrible stuff Nate did as a violent and self-absorbed teenager over the course of the first two seasons of “Euphoria,” it’s satisfying to see this guy get the beatdown of a lifetime all these years later. First a drunken Cassie pops him in the eye with a champagne cork after confronting him about the money he owes to Naz.
Then there’s that beatdown back home after the wedding. Finally, Naz pulls out a pair of garden pruners and snips off Nate’s pinkie toe. Nate lets out an agonizing scream, making for the most satisfyingly bloody end-of-episode finale we’ve seen on this show yet.
Things get spooky in a late-night meeting
Alamo sends Rue and Bishop on a dangerous errand to Laurie’s house right after Cassie’s wedding, and Rue is rightly hesitant because Laurie’s drug-dealing nephew Wayne proposes a plan to kidnap her. “I do miss her,” Laurie says in her classic deadpan way.
Nothing bad actually goes down at the meeting, but there is some twanging Wild West music to add to the tension—and to the overall cowboy theme of this season. Things get weirder as Bishop surreptitiously drops an Alka-Seltzer (or a pill that looks like Alka-Seltzer) into Paladin’s water bowl. Everyone’s ready to pull their guns out, but Bishop dismisses them with a wad of cash and gunslinger’s flourish. He’s one of this season’s coolest and most fascinating characters, and of course his act of Alka-Seltzer sabotage means the bird later drops dead.
Some cliffhangers for the next episode
Maddy doesn’t get a whole lot of airtime in this episode, but after ditching the wedding festivities early, we see her making a mysterious stop on the way home. What could she be up to next? As for Rue, she gets pulled over by a DEA agent in the final moments of the episode. Here’s hoping the jig isn’t up for our hero just yet.
