At this point, Sam Levinson is just messing with us.
Episode four of season two of HBO's Euphoria was just as stressful as any other, if not more. It seemed like everyone was drunk and on the brink of destroying their lives in the blink of an eye.
The episode opens with Jules (Hunter Schafer) going down on Rue (Zendaya), likely as an effort to validate their romance after Elliot (Dominic Fike) previously questioned their sexual chemistry. But Elliot may be onto something. Rue delivers one of the fakest orgasms known to man and half-heartedly moans, "I think I'm coming," unable to actually finish since she is high.
Jules later brings up the lackluster sex to Elliot, who takes advantage of her vulnerability and makes his move. Unsurprisingly, they begin kissing but are interrupted when Rue shows up.
Now that Elliot has feelings for Jules though, he starts to feel guilty about getting high with Rue, who is very clearly out of her mind.
But apparently, it's not so obvious for Jules to notice. So far, she's still under the illusion that Rue is only smoking pot, which puts Elliot in an uncomfortable position. He feels obligated to tell her after Rue starts drinking with them—even though she's on narcotics.
Scenes of the trio drinking in a car are intercut with shots of Cal (Eric Dane) drunkenly weaving in and out of lanes in his white Jeep. These moments alternate with increasing tension, making us brace for an inevitable crash—which doesn't happen because this is only episode four and HBO promised viewers 10 episodes.
Instead, Cal heads to the gay bar where he and Derek shared their first kiss many years ago. This moment is a bitter reminder of the person Cal used to be: a sweet, naive kid who has the whole world in front of him. Now, he's just a father of two getting thrown out of a gay bar after he tried to wrestle the bouncers.
On the other side of town, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Lexi (Maude Apatow), Kat (Barbie Ferreira) and BB (Sophia Rose Wilson) celebrate Maddy's birthday at the Howard residence, where Lexi and Cassie's mom, Suze (Alanna Ubach), lets them drink to their heart's content. But she also warns, "Any of you snitch to your parents about this, your days at the Howard house are finito burrito."
As Cassie mixes her liquor, she becomes increasingly belligerent and unpredictable as the night goes on. Nate (Jacob Elordi) wearily watches, concerned about what might happen if he leaves her with Maddy. You see, the night before, Cassie brazenly told Nate that she's "crazier" than Maddy.
Nate reminded her that isn't something to be proud of and she replied, "No, but it is something you should be scared of."
She then calmly left his house, making us wonder where the f--k Nate's parents were when this shouting match was going down.
But at the party, any of the confidence Cassie had is gone. All she can think to do is get drunk and tease Nate with her bikini-clad body. And yes, it works for a minute, but it's not so cute when she begins vomiting in the hot tub.
As per usual, Nate proves where his loyalties lie by helping Maddy clean the puke off of her body instead of comforting Cassie, who is loudly sobbing at this point.
With the party effectively shut down, Nate returns to the Jacob residence just in time to see Cal come clean about being gay. It seems that Cal has lost all will to continue living a double life and the only way forward is to be honest about everything. So, he tells Marsha (Paula Marshall) and Nate's brother Aaron (Zak Steiner) about his hookups, albeit while his d--k is out.
Obviously, Marsha and Aaron are shocked but Cal replies, "Here's the thing: If I told you tonight that I went to a strip club and I picked up a real grade-A piece of ass... You wouldn't be one-tenth as appalled as you are right now. You wouldn't be standing here saying, 'Dad, what are you talking about?' You'd be like, 'Dad, don't say that in front of mom.'"
And he's not necessarily wrong. But he loses any sympathy when he says he doesn't regret sleeping around. Instead, he tells Nate, "You wanna know my biggest regret? You are."
It's a heartbreaking admission that you barely have the time to process, because Cal immediately calls out Marsha for saving letters from other lovers. He then drags Aaron for watching snuff porn, among other extreme adult content. "The porn on your f--king computer made my jaw drop," he tells an ashamed Aaron. "Don't talk to me about secrets."
He chooses to leave out Nate's wrongdoings, showing that not all love is lost between them.
As Cal leaves the house with a family portrait in hand, he tells Nate and Aaron, "You f--kers backed me into a corner. But you know what? I think you set me free, so this is farewell."
With everything that went down, we barely remembered that Fez (Angus Cloud) found out about Rue's business arrangement with the drug dealers.
There's also a number of symbolic scenes that feel important but we can't entirely determine the meaning of. In a series of beautifully shot but very confusing moments, Rue hallucinates that she's with her father and goes to church. We're inclined to believe she overdosed again but that just feels too obvious.
Euphoria airs on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m.