The following contains spoilers for Euphoria season 2 episode 3.
Following Episode 3, Euphoria fans are wildly speculating over the preview teaser for episode 4. The dominant fan theory, based on liturgical images, crying, hugging: a beloved character is about to go six feet under.
Episode 3 ended on a cliff’s edge for Rue, who had just convinced laconic Laurie to lend her $10,000 worth of drugs, namely so that Rue could make money to buy herself drugs (makes sense?) —but, really, so that Rue could get high on her own supply. Because no way Laurie saw that one coming. (Some suggest that Laurie is doing this knowing that Rue will fail in order to get leverage over Fez.)
In the final image, Rue, after alienating every piece of her support system throughout the episode, including Ali, Gia, and Jules, takes a fentanyl patch, the drug that literally almost killed her last season.
The episode 4 preview then shows a church congregation with a crying Rue. She also voices over the scene with “I love you” spoken multiple times as various characters are shown. We then return to Rue’s bedroom where she’s just poured herself a handful of pills.
Since Euphoria often leans into extended dream and fantasy sequences, it’s difficult to know if the funeral is real. Some fans are theorising that the funeral is Ali’s—that he died after an overdose. One suggested that his death would be the ultimate character challenge for Rue: “it would be a huge character arc for Rue as she would have to really turn things around at this point. Rue also dealing with an OD would make her feel even worse. It would set her character off for a very interesting way to finish off the season.”
Rue hit rock bottom when she used Ali’s pain to hurt him. In one of Euphoria’s two special episodes, Ali told Rue that his daughter was estranged from him given previous episodes of domestic violence. Rue’s taunt of “are you going to hit me?” seemed to shatter Ali, who may have then been in danger of relapse.
Others are pointing out that the funeral is a Christian funeral, which might not make sense because Ali is Muslim. Also, Ali has been sober for over a decade and has likely dealt with worse than Rue’s insults. (Still, we can’t presume to know what might shatter Ali’s sobriety.)
Some think the funeral might be Rue’s mother, or sister, Gia—anyone whose death might finally give Rue a moment of clarity.
The most likely scenario, however, would be some kind of drug-induced nightmare. We can imagine Rue visiting the future consequences of her drug usage à la Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Maybe the funeral is her own.
