I vividly remember that one of the first things I picked up while watching Euphoria was the odd question that all the characters were asking: didn’t Rue die?
I pinned it on the fact that maybe Rue’s overdose was a tragic accident nobody followed up on because she wasn’t a popular person at school. Or, maybe kids here just spoke about death casually because of how dramatic their lives were anyway.
Still, I couldn’t shake off the uncanny feeling and when I dug deeper (thanks Internet!) I found that several folks agreed that a dead Rue narrating her tale could be a plausible theory.
A popular Euphoria theory suggests that Rue Bennet has been dead/is dying since the beginning of the show. This would explain how she is able to narrate intimate details of the other characters’ lives as well.
Since Rue’s narration has formed the base of this theory, let’s see whether it has any validity or not:
Rue’s Omnipresent Narration
I thoroughly enjoy Rue narrating the lives of her classmates, and admit it, you secretly want to hear how she would narrate your life too.
While this could just be a creative decision to provide one consistent narrator to the series, it’s also quite odd that Rue has all this information about characters like Kat or Nate, with whom she barely interacts (and latter, hates, to put it kindly.)
In S1 Ep 2, when Rue starts narrating Nate’s life, the show forces us to suspend our belief and accept that she just happens to be omnipresent, even subtly blaming it on her drugs — after all, they also do cause her to have all those aesthetic visions.
But in that very episode, Rue herself admits to being an unreliable narrator, which contradicts how she goes on to describes the other characters’ lives in intricate details.
From here, speculations arose that the reason Rue has any of this information is because she’s narrating from beyond the grave. There are also several instances where she narrates solely in past tense.
The last nail in the coffin is in Rue’s opening monologue:
I was once happy, content, sloshing around in my own private, primordial pool. Then one day, for reasons beyond my control, I was repeatedly crushed by the cruel cervix of my mother, Leslie. I put up a good fight, but I lost, for the first time, but not the last.
Rue Bennet
It’s possible that Rue is talking about other losses in life. But those who think Rue is already dead read this as “losing” to addiction, or losing the will to live. It also then makes sense why Rue would be narrating her own story from birth (as seen in the dialogue above) to death.
The Significance of Rue’s Death
It would be incredibly tragic if the above theory comes to fruition, or even if, Rue dies at the end of Euphoria. But her death and moreover her journey would serve as a crucial lesson to the viewers and society at large.
I find one such example in S2 episode 5, when Jules “rats” out Rue’s relapse to her mother. Many would find being in such a situation not just conflicting, but painful.
But it made me learn something very practical — Jules had to betray Rue because the best way to help an addict is not to cover up their relapses, as it can turn into something worse. Euphoria teaches its audiences how to deal with and prevent such tragedies.
While the whole show goes above and beyond its accurate portrayal of substance abuse, this episode in particular showed how people who are incredibly flawed, still deserve our love and help.
It also forces us to confront what society thinks about substance abuse and humanize the struggle and become more accepting. No one says it better than Zendaya herself:
Rue is Not Yet Dead, But Dying…
I’m not going to lie, purely from a storytelling stand point, Rue being dead the whole time would be kind of mind-blowing. But when we think about what the show is dealing with, drug abuse and all its repercussions, Rue being dead (or even getting killed off later) would just be cruel and hopeless.
I recently read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, where the depressed, suicidal protagonist dies by suicide coincidently at midnight and is then taken to a limbo in between life and death. In this “library” she gets the chance to re-examine her life and make the choice of whether she really wants to live or not.
I won’t spoil the book for you, but it made me realize that Rue already being dead is harsh theory. Plus, after this theory got popular, show creator Sam Levinson tried to pacify fans by saying Rue isn’t dead.
Levinson, who himself was an addict and recovered, wanted to use his experience to carve out a more hopeful future for Rue.
So it is possible that these visions and narrations are coursing through Rue’s mind when she’s overdosed and is on the brink of death, in a similar limbo as portrayed in The Midnight Library.
Rue is a protagonist who blatantly proclaims she does not want to live. So, when she reflects for one last time before the clock runs out, she might find that she truly does have reasons to not give up, to keep going.
It’s this very narration — the story we’re seeing that may convince Rue that life is worth living.
Euphoria is at the core of Rue’s desires. In both the seasons so far, we’re been seeing different versions of this euphoria, and perhaps not the good kinds.
With Levinson wanting to portray that there is hope even for those with the most wretched addictions, Rue almost dying may drive her to find the right kind of euphoria.
About Euphoria
Euphoria is a teen drama on HBO that is loosely based on the Israeli series of the same name. The series is written by Sam Levinson and stars Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow, Jacob Elordi, Alexa Demie, and others.
The show revolves around Rue, a teen drug addict who is also suffering from Bipolar disorder. She meets Jules, a transwoman, and falls in love with her. Euphoria deals with themes of sexual violence, addiction, trauma, and self-identity.
The series was renewed for season 3 in February 2022.
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