No one abided by the Marvel rule of allowing everyone to see the show or movie before we started to spoil what was in it, so I did run across a few spoilers before my best friend and I got to see one of our favorite, cringe worthy shows end. Although I knew how it would end, in so many ways, I still didn’t know how it would end. To be honest, the season was a little dry for us. It didn’t have that cringey edge that “Euphoria” always has. Whenever I watch this show, I am always asking myself, “Were we like this at their age? Did I miss something or someone who was like this?” I’m still not sure, but here’s what I thought about the finale episode specifically.
I saw a lot of you online say that it was a lackluster ending, and for me as a viewer, I think it did just enough. This season leaned heavily (for some odd reason) into Westerns, and this episode felt very showdown-y. Everything felt like a heightened version of those black and white Westerns my best friends’ dads are always watching. (Please, someone tell me is watching Westerns an old person thing? What’s that about?) This gave that last showdown between Ali and Alamo that extra tension it needed to make that ending…well, Alamo’s ending that much more punchier.
Now, I did see a lot of discourse (or maybe it was just my friends) about the Christianity in the episode. Some felt it was too heavy handed, but hear me out. At this time in a lot of people’s lives, the only thing that is constant and near is their God, whoever that may be for that person. Throughout this series, Rue has never known who she was outside of drugs and chaos. This was the first time her or us have seen her as who she actually is for an extended period of time. The only way Rue knew how to discover herself or start that journey was through reading the Bible. People around her seemed to have found themselves that way. Why not her? Once she passed, we see that scene with Cassie and Lexi where Lexi laments to her sister about the Bible Rue left on her couch. She mentions that it seemed to kind of taunt her in a way. So much so that she moved it and later decided to read it. Now, based on what she read, she’s questioning who she is as a person and her actually purpose. I don’t think that had anything to do with religion or the Bible. I think Lexi was terrible to Rue at a time where she wanted to share this new journey she was on with a friend, and Lexi felt horrible that that was the last time she got to see and talk to her friend. That Bible was the last thing she had left of Rue, and reading it and moving it around was her way of being closer to her since she didn’t do it when she had the chance. Her longing for Rue and that connection is what led her to take that journey with Rue into who she really is. It just so happened that she also decided to read the Bible.
Rue was Ali’s baby. That was his girl and I loved to see him sawing that shotgun off to go get Alamo. I saw that his framing as he was walking into the club was kind of done in the same way Sterling K. Brown was framed in “Is God Is.” It set the tone for what was to come. Once Ali had come to the club and executed what he needed to have done, he, like Lexi, wanted to be closer to the last one of his kids, so to speak, that was lost to drugs. Rue told him that when she was done with all of that that she would go to the only place where she felt peace. Ali has only really known Rue to be in chaos. It was only fitting that he go to the place where she felt most at peace so he can feel how she felt when she died on his couch. She was so happy when she went. Fez had broken out of prison and she was dying to see him. She got to see and hug her mom, and she was resting with one of the only people who believed she could get to where she was at that very moment. To see him sit at that table and walk around that farmland was beautiful to me. Ali, or Martin, had already found himself, but he needed to find Rue. That house is where she started that journey of discovery. If you recall, she was so fascinated by the fact that these people had their land, their house, their animals, and each other, and were happy with just that. Her and her friends had the world, or so they thought, and we fighting for a moment of peace and normalcy.
Say what you want about the ending, I believe it was brilliant. Was the season the greatest? Absolutely not, but I was entertained. I would have loved to see what became of the club and the girls. I know we saw Cassie’s plan for the girls, but I wanted to see her and Cassie run it. We did not need Jules. I do agree with the masses. She got on all of my nerves, and she didn’t seem as sad when the girl died. She painted her in Hell. Who does that?!
Any who, what did you think about the episode? What didn’t you see? What did you enjoy? Sound off!
