Diksha Sundriyal
The final episode of HBO’s ‘Euphoria‘ Season 3 puts Rue through the wringer as all her wild decisions culminate in an explosive finale. The season started with Laurie finding her, reminding her of the debt that had now compounded to millions, and turning her into a drug mule. And then, Alamo came along, and while, at first, she thought it was God’s plan to bring them together, she started to wonder pretty soon if she’d gotten in bed with the devil. And then, the DEA came into the picture, and things kept getting messier and messier. Still, Rue had hope that perhaps things would turn out in her favor. Sadly, that’s not how her story ends. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Rue’s Fate was Sealed the Moment She Opened Up to Lexi
Rue gets involved in so many messes in the third season that it becomes impossible for her to explain them to other people. It was actually better for her that way because not only would her friends not have understood her situation and likely have judged her for it, but they might also not have been able to keep her secret. It would only have gotten her killed much earlier. But at the time, she was still unsure whether the plan to have Laurie and Alamo arrested by the DEA would work out, and that uncertainty kept her from spilling the beans to everyone. It was when she got a confirmation from her handlers that she allowed herself to breathe a little easier, and that’s when she slipped.
Rue knew she couldn’t tell anyone in her professional circles about the DEA because she knew the danger she’d be in if even a whisper of her involvement with the Feds came out. She didn’t think that the same could apply to her friends as well. Had her personal and professional lives remained completely separate, things would have worked out as planned, and she would have lived to see another day. But then, Maddy gets into business with Alamo, and things get messed up. While trying to open up to Lexi, Rue tells her about working with Nazis, a Black cowboy, and the DEA. Lexi finds it hard to believe, thinking that Rue has relapsed and is saying anything because she is on drugs.
Perhaps if Lexi had kept things to herself, Rue would still be alive, but she had nothing but concern for her friend when she mentioned it to Maddy. However, Lexi’s mistake of passing on the information is nothing compared to Maddy’s. She doesn’t circulate the revelation among her friends; she takes it to Alamo. Of course, Maddy didn’t do it to sabotage Rue, but perhaps she could have thought twice before letting a criminal boss know that her friend had been talking about the feds. In her defense, Maddy did have a lot on her mind with Nate and Cassie’s lives on the line. She also believed that Alamo liked her and would help her without asking for anything in return. She turned out to be wrong on both fronts.
Alamo Kills Rue Under the Guise of Kindness
When Maddy jokingly mentions that Rue had been talking about the Nazis and the DEA, Alamo realizes that Rue had been undercover all along. Previously, he thought she was working with Laurie, for which he was ready to bash her head in while she was buried underground from the neck down. He would have killed her violently if she were working for Laurie or some other competitor. But the fact that she is with the cops means he has to be more careful. First things first, he knows that if Rue is with the DEA, the new shipment is in danger, and Laurie is definitely going down for it. So, he lets it happen, only to get the drugs for himself while the feds raid Laurie’s place. The wheels are already in motion; he just has to get out of the way.
Then comes the problem with Rue. Instead of confronting her and killing her in cold blood, he decides to be more subtle about it. Everyone knows Rue is an addict, so if she dies of an overdose, no one would think twice about it, including her handlers in the DEA. So, when she returns from Laurie’s place, having brought back the stuff, bar the money, that they’d stolen from the Silver Slipper, he is kind to her. Seeing that she is in pain from the injuries sustained during the mission he assigned her to, he offers her Percocet. To show her it’s okay to take it, he takes one himself, saying it’s for his back pain.
He tells her to get patched up, offering to pay for it (which should’ve been her sign since he said the same thing when offering to help Angel with her addiction). He hands her a bottle of Percocet and warns her not to take too much lest she relapse. Rue is too tired to think twice about it all and doesn’t realize that the pill that Alamo downed in front of her and the ones in the box are different. The latter is laced with fentanyl and was given to her with the express intention to kill her. Alamo knew that Rue would take it eventually. Sure enough, she takes one pill to ease the pain in her hand. It wasn’t exactly a relapse because she really was in a lot of physical pain at the time. But, in any case, it did kill her.
As the drug kicks in, she dreams about Fez escaping from prison. She thinks about finding him and then returning home to her mother. There is a point when it seems she realizes that she is dying. Her breath gets shaky, and she seems surprised. In her final moments, she sees her dad, and then the last breath escapes her, and she dies on Ali’s couch. Tragically, everyone would think she died of an overdose, which is what Alamo wanted. It would be the last image everyone would have of her, not the one who got sober, found religion, and was looking forward to her life once her mission for the DEA was done. Only Ali seems to have made the connection between Rue’s death and her cowboy boss, even if he doesn’t know why Alamo had Rue killed.
Read More: Euphoria Season 4: Why was It Canceled?
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