Euphoria season 3 finale has a major problem with how Rue’s ending plays out

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Euphoria season three episode eight*

After three seasons, seven years, and a lot of heartache, Euphoria as we know it is over. The finale sees Rue (Zendaya) meet her untimely end, and while it’s clear how she lost her life, there’s one major issue that’s raising a few eyebrows. 

Up until this point, Rue’s been caught between Laurie (Martha Kelly), Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and the DEA, but throughout all of it, she’s somehow managed to say California sober – not least thanks to her sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo). 

Somehow, she’d kept the plates spinning and survived by the skin of her teeth. But this all changed in last week’s episode, when she attempted to retrieve Alamo’s stolen goods from Laurie’s compound. 

Rather than cash, she discovered the stack of ID cards of the women Alamo presumably trafficked. Faye (Chloe Cherry) turned against Rue at the last minute and screamed, waking up her nazi SO Wayne. 

And if that weren’t enough, Maddy (Alexa Demie) unintentionally let slip to Alamo that Rue was working with the DEA. Both of these threads are picked up in the finale, which kicks off with Rue being chased down by Laurie’s men. 

So, how exactly does Rue die in the Euphoria season 3 finale?

It’s not Laurie’s gang who kill Rue, but rather the thing that’s been waiting for her since the start of Euphoria: A drug overdose. 

You see, Harley (James Landry Hébert) chases her down and manages to lasso her by the ankles. But G (Marshawn Lynch) shows up at the last minute and shoots Harley down, therefore saving Rue. 

He brings her back to Alamo, where he gives her a Percocet – a drug containing the opioid oxycodone – for the “pain” only. Despite being California sober (aka only drinking alcohol and smoking weed) for most of Euphoria season three, she takes it. 

Later, she heads to Ali’s house and we see a news report that Fez (Angus Cloud) has broken out of prison. Rue goes to pick him up before breaking into her family home and hugging her mum Leslie (Nika King). 

However, we soon learn that this was all just playing out in Rue’s head. Ali wakes up to find Rue dead from an overdose. 

He sees the bottle of Percocets on the table and runs a test on one, only to discover it was laced with Fentanyl – an opioid that’s said to be 50 times stronger than heroin. The truth is that Alamo purposely poisoned Rue after finding out that she’s working with the DEA.

If you’re wondering why Alamo got his guys to save her before giving her the drugs, it’s because he needed those IDs back before the police could get hold of them. 

The problem with Rue’s cruel ending

The problem with this is the way her death undermines her entire arc up until this point. Rue’s entire journey has been led by her desire to change and get better, and yet we barely hear about her internal fight with opioid addiction in season three. 

Her main struggle when it came to sobriety was in step three of the 12 step programme: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

Finding God was an ongoing quest, one that Rue seemingly solved in season three episode six when she came across the burning Joshua tree. 

Sure, her death by overdose is sadly realistic, but in this instance – and as someone who is in recovery myself – it just feels cruel. 

And it seems more like it’s been set up to kickstart the second half of the finale: Ali’s revenge. The episode culminates in a shootout at the Silver Slipper, where Ali kills Alamo. 

The whole thing is more like watching a Quentin Tarantino movie than Euphoria – even Rue’s signature narration is notably absent for episode eight’s 90-minute runtime. 

Again, you could argue it’s meant to represent the fact that Rue has died, but then the HBO series even had Rue narrating her own birth. 

Many fans feel the same way, with one writing on Reddit, “I think another reason Rue’s death was handled horribly is we didn’t have her narration like we have for EVERYTHING, even her birth. Like ugh what a horrible ending.”

Another viewer who’s in recovery themselves said, “While I get that Sam will say how addiction most of the time leads to someone’s end, and statistically that IS true, the fact that throughout three seasons Rue is constantly, crying, SCREAMING at us the audience she wants to get better, do better, start over, even her turning to religion – then only for her to die anyways – is just cruel. 

“And it gives the message that no you cannot get redemption, no your life will always be plagued with misery, and nothing can or will save you because as an addict you’re condemned to have a life of suffering.

“Used to love this show, and was open to these changes, but Sam you genuinely ruined this.”

WAIT… so Rue was already dead from the overdose this whole time? And her reuniting with her mom was just her imagining one final goodbye before dying???
nah this ending completely shattered me #Euphoria pic.twitter.com/R5lFbfh5ta

— sanmeyo (@oyemnassxo) June 1, 2026

A third added, “I thought the ending was well wrapped compared to most of the season. It was sad at moments that you were hoping for a better ending for Rue after she’d been doing so much better.”

“The second half should have happened right after Rue died. I like Ali a lot but why is the second half his show?” said a fourth, while a fifth agreed, “Yeah, after Rue’s death, it lost a lot of momentum.”

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Featured image credit: HBO