Euphoria Season 3 Episode 4 recap: Rue struggles with sobriety

Rue (Zendaya) puts her ‘genius’ drug plan into motion… and prays that Jules (Hunter Schaffer) doesn’t find out about it in Sunday night’s new episode of Euphoria.

During last week’s episode, Rue was fronted a whole suitcase full of drugs by Laurie (Martha Kelly), who warns her that she will sell her to some horrible people if she screws her over.

Meanwhile, Jules turns to the boy she said just last episode that she hated, Elliot (Dominic Fike) for some advice, while Maddy (Alexa Demie) celebrates her birthday.

The episode begins with Rue saying, ‘I don’t think you understand how much I love Jules’ as we see a number of shots of Jules and Rue together and Jules being depicted in pieces of art.

They’re seen reenacting scenes from movies like the pottery wheel scene in Ghost, the Leo and Kate scene at the bow of the ship in Titanic and even an animated version of Sleeping Beauty along with Brokeback Mountain.

‘This may be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me… but the only problem is I took so many narcos I can’t feel a thing,’ while Jules goes down on her.

‘Don’t tell anyone but she might as well be going down on my ankle,’ Rue says in her head, adding, ‘Please God don’t tell Jules what I’m about to do.’

Rue clearly fakes an orgasm while Jules climbs up and asks if she faked it, but she said she didn’t.

Jules tells Elliot that she faked and he says that maybe she just sucks at eating p***y as he shows her how to do it on her hand… before they start making out.

There is an awkward silence for a moment before they start kissing again before they stop when her phone buzzes and says Rue is outside and he goes to let her in.

Jules stays on the bed breathing heavily, and seemingly conflicted as the title card is shown.

The girls all gather to celebrate Maddy’s birthday, most of them recording while she blows out the candles on her cake.

Maddy gives Nate a tour of the house where she babysits while Cassie gives her a photo book for her birthday… as she’s still conflicted about being with Nate.

The girls all pose for photos on the stairs, and then back at the babysitting house, Nate tells Maddy he still loves her.

‘Did you know that I loved you?’ Maddy asks him. ‘Did you feel loved by me?’

Nate says he doesn’t know as they share a hug outside by the pool.

Nate is arguing with Cassie about him still being with Maddy, as Cassie says she wouldn’t have done this if she knew he would just go back to Maddy.

Nate asks if she’ll tell Maddy and Cassie says maybe she will and she says that they aren’t good enough for each other and she’ll do anything to prevent it.

Cassie tells her that she’s crazy and that she’s crazier than Maddy as Nate yells, ‘What the f**k is wrong with you?’

Cassie leaves as Nate tells her that he loves her, which causes her to stop briefly but she smiles and leaves.

Back home Lexi asks if she lost weight but she tells her to leave her alone, with the scene intercut with Lexi auditioning girls to play her sister for her play.

Cal (Eric Dane) makes a toast to his son, with a white bandage wrapped around his head from the beating.

Cal says he’ll be a part of him that he’ll never understand, before putting his drink down and saying he’s going out for a drive while he can’t stop laughing.

Rue is dancing with Elliot before going to the bathroom while Jules and Elliot start making out before Rue comes back.

Elliot blows the drugs off the counter and goes back and Rue starts kissing Elliot but says that wasn’t 10 seconds.

Elliot says that if they’re going to continue their, ‘lesbian power games’  they should steal some liquor.

Elliot drives  Rue and Jules while Maddy’s birthday party continues as Kat (Barbie Ferreira) sits outside by herself.

Maddy pulls Kat aside and Kat says she hates Ethan because she feels worse than she did before.

Maddy says she deserves to feel amazing and makes her feel better as they go off to dance.

Elliot pulls up to a convenience store and starts giving the clerk grief while saying he looks like Kramer from Seinfeld.

While he’s distracting him Jules goes in back and steals some White Claw as they make it out of the store with the booze, while the clerk runs out and smashes his window with a bat before they drive off.

Cal gets in his Jeep and takes off while still drinking as he drives very erratically, screaming and cheering.

Nate (Jacob Elordi) shows up at Cassie’s party as Elliot drives Rue and Jules back as Nate puts on the necklace he got Maddy for her birthday.

Cassie watches on incredibly sad while her mom asks how she’s doing while Cal continues his crazy drive.

Rue starts drinking, which alarms Jules as Rue says she wants to go home and when Jules asks why, Rue says she can’t stand her.

‘I’m sick of f***ing fighting and I’d rather be home,’ Rue tells her.

Nate tells Maddy she’s going to leave as she tries to get him to stay, but he says he’s gonna give her some girl time.

While he’s talking to her, Cassi comes down in a pink swimsuit, which Nate notices.

Cal pulls up to the same bar that he was at as a kid with his childhood  best friend, where they shared a kiss.

He sits at the bar and asks for a whiskey and bums a cigarette, saying he hasn’t been there in 25 years as he walks to the jukebox.

He puts on a song and starts dancing while back at the party, Cassie dances by herself while drinking a bottle of champagne, dancing to the same song.

A younger man walks up to Cal and starts dancing with him as he imagines he’s back with his old friend.

‘I thought I lost you,’ he says  to his ‘old friend’ while Maddy and Nate watches Cassie dancing.

Back in the car, Rue keeps begging to get dropped off as Elliot pulls over and stops as Rue gets out and starts walking home.

Elliot and Jules get back to his place as Jules asks if  she can take a shower, which she does.

Maddy asks Nate to get in the hot tub with them while Rue opens the suitcase of drugs and takes out four pills and swallows them.

Jules walks out covered in a towel ass she borrows a shirt from Elliot while Cassie gets in the hot tub with everyone.

Cassie says she’s glad they’re back together but they both say they’re not together as Maddy gets mad about his tone.

Maddy says Nate is always trying to gaslight her as she says all the things he tells her, but when she mentions having his babies Cassie throws up and starts tearfully apologizing.

Back at the bar, the young man asks Cal if he’s crying but Cal asks if he wants to wrestle.

He’s carried out of the bar and told he’ll never come back here again as Cal screams that they can’t do that to him.

Cal puts his shirt back on and tries to calm down as he gets back into his Jeep  and takes off.

Fezco (Angus Cloud), Ashtray (Javon Walton) and Faye (Chloe Cherry) are watching a movie when someone starts pounding on the door, in trouble.

Cal drives back home, driving without his hands on the wheel as Jules lays down next to Elliot as they kiss again.

Elliot says he really has to tell her something and he says he lied to her, saying Rue isn’t sober, saying she’s been doing a ton of drugs and he knows this because he was doing them with her.

‘I’m sorry I just didn’t want to keep lying to you,’ Elliot says as a tear runs down Jules’ cheek ass she walks away.

Rue is back in her room as she tries to stand up… but when she walks out, she’s in a church as she walks down the aisle past Jules and Elliot as a Black man sings a song.

The man gives a tearful Rue a hug as we see Rue is really hugging someone else… her dad, telling him that she’s not a good person and she misses him so much.

We get a glimpse at the outside of Rue’s house when we see she’s just hugging no one at all and she’s by herself.

Cal gets home safely somehow and still can’t stop laughing as he starts peeing on the living room floor.

His wife wakes up and asks what’s wrong with him and he tells her that he’s very lonely.

His wife says he’s not well and he needs to see a doctor when he asks his wife and kids how many men he’s f***ed.’

He says if he went to a strip club and picked up a girl and screwed her in his truck, they wouldn’t be ‘a tenth as appalled as you are now.’

‘I’ll f**k men, I’ll f**k women, I’ll f**k transsexualss and I’ll have a mighty fine time doing it,’ Cal says.

He says living a double life isn’t his biggest regret, his son Nate is his biggest regret.

He says they all live double lives as he mentions the boxes of letters she saved from her camp counselor who she still flirts on Facebook.

He then calls out Nate’s brother for the disgusting porn he has on his computer and says his son Nate is a mystery.

‘I’m so sorry I f***ed you up with my double life,’ Cal tells Nate, adding he has a problem because of his family.

‘I’m not allowed to form an emotional connection, and I’m an emotional guy. You f***ers backed me into a corner, but you know what, I think you set me free, so this is farewell,’ he tells his kids.

‘I’ll see you assholes later,’ Cal tells his sons before taking a family portrait and walking out of his home.

The episode winds down with a number of shots of varioiuos characters including Cassie surrounded by flowers and Rue hugging the Black man again.

The preview for next week’s episode teases some sort of shocking development with a number of characters seen looking stunned as Laurie talks about drugs.

Euphoria continues its second season with the fifth of eight episodes on Sunday, February 6 at 9 PM ET on HBO.

Both Rue and Jules reunited briefly at the end of the second special episode, which were both set over Christmas, with this season premiere described as, ‘Rue and Jules cross paths for the first time since Christmas as East Highland rings in the new year.’

Rue had relapsed after Jules left her at the train station in the Season 1 finale, with Rue revealing to her addict friend Ali (Colman Domingo) during a Christmas Eve dinner that she didn’t know if she wanted to be clean… and that she didn’t even know if she wanted to be alive anymore.

While she seemed like she was in a better head space by the time Ali took her home, she got quite emotional while seeing Jules at the end of the second special episode.

The latest trailer for the second season, though, showed that Rue does eventually dedicate herself to getting clean, seen walking into a meeting Ali is attending.

The trailer also shows Jules reuniting with Rue, seemingly at a New Year’s Eve party, asking her when she relapsed, but she doesn’t answer.

She’s seen dragging along a roller bag suitcase, with Ali asking her ‘the $64,000 question’: ‘What’s in the suitcase?’

The suitcase is shown later being loaded up with drugs while Rue tells Fezco (Angus Cloud) that she has ‘come up with an amazing plan.’

Rue is also seen meeting with a new character, Elliot (Dominic Finke), who at one point Rue says is her, ‘new favorite person.’

The trailer also teases some dramatic tension between Rue and her mother Leslie (Nika Bennett) and hints that the premiere takes place at a New Year’s Eve party.

The show also brings back returning regulars Eric Dane (Cal Jacobs), Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs), Algee Smith (Chris McKay), Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard), Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez), Barbie Ferreira (Kat Hernandez), Maude Apatow (Lexi Howard), Storm Reid (Gia Bennett), Austin Abrams (Ethan) and Javon Walton (Ashtray).

New characters aside from Dominic Fike’s Elliot, Minka Kelly is playing a ‘drugged out suburban housewife) while Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr. plays a new love interest for Maddy.

Euphoria’s eight-episode second season airs Sunday nights sat 9 PM ET on HBO.