‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Premiere: Leap of Faith

20:01Joanna Robinson:Dev, one of our great producers on the show, we were talking, before you had done your watch, we were talking about, like, the people who broke out. And we were agreeing that Alexa Demme, who plays Maddie, is like, I don't know why she hasn't hit. What happened? Like, how is she not a massive star? I don't really know. Press TV at Spotify.com if you have some theories on this. But, like, I, it's not too late for the world to catch up. No. And make Alexa Demme. She should be, I think, on the level of the Lordies and Sweeney's and Zendaya's and Hunter Schaefer of the show. For me, yeah. I just think if the moment when Maddie is running up on stage to beat Cassie's ass and in the process throws off her heels wasn't going to make her a star, like, I don't know what else I can show you.

20:45You know, like, that's really it for me.

20:46Joanna Robinson:There's a moment when the whole confrontation happens, when, like, Rue outs Cassie, you know, at her house and Maddie's there and she, like, gets up on Cassie and she clacks her nails at her in a way that I'm just like, I could literally see Maddie just like slitting her throat open. I am like terrified of her. I love her. How did you feel about your pal, your personal friend Minka Kelly showing up to be part of Maddie's storyline in season two? Wonderful. What a pleasant surprise. And I gotta say, as somebody who's well versed in the Friday Night Lights experience, I mean, she's doing great now.

21:20And I thought this was better than anything we ever got from Minka on FNL.

21:23Joanna Robinson:I agree. I agree. For me, I think, I think Coleman Domingo, and this is also, you know, Coleman Domingo had been on Fear the Walking Dead and had had a long career before this, but this is, you know, won an Emmy for this. This is really the thing that, like, launched him into another level. And I think even though he is an infrequent appearance on the show, I think he lends something so soulful and poetic to it. There's also something, Euphoria is such a tough hang sometimes that for me, it really matters that there are these moments of sweetness. So like Ali really trying with Rue or coming over and cooking dinner with the family and enlisting Gia to help and all that sort of stuff like that.

22:08Joanna Robinson:Like that really matters. The Lexi and Fez connection in season two really matters to me. The I Love Austin Abrams, the Ethan cat stuff in season one, like that there's like something kind of like something sweet and pure happening inside of all of this. I feel matters and is necessary. It doesn't have to go well. It didn't go well with Lexi and Fez, but that like people are trying. Or for Ethan and Kat while we're at it. Or for Ethan and Kat, yeah, fair enough. That's part of the show. And I'm very curious to see how they manage that type of stuff if this is going to be a more hopeful season three.

22:41Joanna Robinson:A question I posed, you know, I sent you over some questions beforehand. I don't know if you have a great answer to this. Are the kids all right, Rob? Any big picture thoughts on this? Obviously not. Like they've got suitcases full of drugs. Like what are they supposed to be doing? They're threatening. Everyone is threatening everyone else with child pornography charges. This is a wild show. Do you think it matters? Like, I was thinking about, you know, like, so much of Euphoria's edge in the first two seasons was like, okay, people are going to be doing, like, sexual, you know, drugs, like, all this sort of stuff.

23:13Joanna Robinson:And they're in high school. They're underage. The fact that we're now, I'm not saying I would like to go back to the underage era, but do you think Euphoria is like, now that we're telling stories with like, you know, in the season three premiere, we've got Cassie on her OnlyFans journey or whatever the case may be. But like, these are early 20-somethings. Like, does Euphoria need that forbidden edge of these kids are underage? Or are you like, I don't need it, I'm fine, thank you so much. I don't know that it needs the forbidden edge, but I do feel like I really enjoyed the high school drama parts of Euphoria.

23:51And so I'm wondering how I'm going to be missing that. I'm wondering how much these characters are going to be interacting. Like, is this going to be Rue on her journey? Jules, who we don't even see in this season three premiere? You know, like, obviously Cassie and Nate are doing their thing, but are people mostly siloed off? I would hope we get some intersections at some point. And that's where high school is just like an easy forum, right? Like, when you need to get everyone together, you can do it at a prom, at a bathroom, whatever. And I hope there are like mechanisms to do that because I love seeing these actors bounce off each other.

24:20Joanna Robinson:Yeah, we do at least have like Rue stays with Lexi. Lexi and Maddie work in industries that are very closely connected. We'll see how Cassie ties back into all of that. And yeah, Jules is not even here. But there's also people missing, you know, like Kat's not going to be here. Yep. Because Angus passed away, Fez is not in the show, although alive and in prison in this universe, but the character's not gonna be able to show up. Yeah. It did mean something to me, just that he and Lexi still have a relationship, even if she's not calling him as much as either would like. She's not calling him at all.

24:55Joanna Robinson:I don't know that they do, you know? But even that there's a possibility warms my heart to a very small requisite euphoria degree. I am really curious. I liked this first episode. We'll talk about it, of course, in a second. And honestly, we will get to the first episode of season three. But yeah, we're not in high school anymore. Kat's not here. Fez isn't here. A lot of like, you know, Mallory and I were talking about this a lot when we were doing our Buffy season four coverage. When you move out of high school into college or with Friday Night Lights when you move characters out of the high school setting or whatever the case may be.

25:30Joanna Robinson:Yeah, those organic like we're all hanging out in the library moments are harder to come by. the parents, you know, like, you know, Eric Dane, who is in this season, but has since passed away, but he will be in this season. Paula Marshall is listed for this season, who plays Nate's mom. Alana Yubak, who I think is outstanding on this show. Honestly made a stealth run in MVP. Season two is very much her season. Queen of the heavy pour, queen of the basket full of knives. Like, I love Suze. Queen of the reaction shots in the audience of the play, you know, just like having a great time. But yeah, a lot of key characters are gone.

26:12Joanna Robinson:We'll have new, you know, Sharon Stone is here, as you mentioned. We'll have some new additions to the cast. But I'm very curious, like, how much this show still feels like Euphoria, or does all it need is, like, Rue and Zendaya's voiceover to make it feel like Euphoria? We'll find out together. It does feel early on, like this is going to be kind of a soft reboot. And I'm open to that. and I'm open to where these characters can go. And so long as you have some of these attachments, and as you said, Rue is kind of a driving force of it, I think there's a lot of cool and interesting stuff Euphoria can do.

26:41But I suspect it's going to feel and look very different from what we know.

26:45Joanna Robinson:Final two retrospective questions for you before we get into this premiere. Was there a standout episode for you of your rewatch? I think it's definitely the one crazy night intervention episode that you described. That feels like a cut above almost everything else that happens in Euphoria, which is already, as we've said, quite a good show. But when I think of Euphoria, I think what I'm going to think of most is the carnival in season one. That feels like the most distilled version of what this show was. And we're going to see what it becomes. But that was a version of the show that really, really clicked for me.

27:20Joanna Robinson:They've told a lot of stories about how hellacious that shoot was. I can only imagine. It was like, you know, he had to build this whole thing. It took so long. Zendaya had to hit the inhaler a lot because there was a lot of dust around. But when you watch that episode, it is such a feat because it's like an episode of The Pit. You're just following one storyline. There's one shot where I'm like, Jacob Elordi was just standing there on his cue having to wait until the camera got to him and then it's just go. But it's just a really long sweep through the entire carnival. Not even a cheat, seemed one-er, but just really were moving around.

27:58Joanna Robinson:I like that was that was just like a meticulously choreographed again like Sam Levinson is such a fascinating character because like I'm so grossed out by so many things that he does and then I cannot deny that a lot of what he accomplishes is incredibly impressive so you know both of these things could be true he's got a lot of juice in terms of the way he puts this stuff together does he also need people in his life who will tell him no for many reasons I suspect so the The idol tells us yes. Okay, last but not least, what was the moment that became a meme that hit the hardest during your watch?

28:31Honestly, this one is also very easy for me. It's also Maddie-centric. It's all of the girls convening in the bathroom trying to figure out why Cassie is dressed up like she's in Oklahoma. And the whole sequence is wonderful. I had already seen it going into the show. I knew what I was getting in for. It was even better in context. And the moment for me that really seals it is the bitch, you better be joking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, Maddie is just on another level consistently on like a line for line basis. Even in season two when she's like barely in it. She's so great.

29:01Joanna Robinson:My favorite moment from that scene is when Rue is like, has everyone but me read Oklahoma? You don't read Oklahoma. Oklahoma is not like a home or home movie you read. All right. So speaking of Oklahoma and the West, let's go into season three, episode one of Euphoria. the western vibe of the opening including like the whip crack sound on the title card uh and the music uh reminded me a lot this reminded me a lot of poker face i don't know if it's just like the yellow font of the card but like more i think it was like the pastiche of a genre that we're engaging with something that we enjoyed in our coverage of poker face is just like ryan johnson is just like i'm making this kind of movie in this episode of of, of poker face.

29:47Joanna Robinson:To be fair, Sam Levinson has done that before. The season two opener is very much like a stylized, like seventies sort of exploitation crime, um, vibe. But this opening, which is both like engaging in the Western genre and very breaking bad coded, um, with the like mishap hijinks, incredible, uh, visual in the desert of a car teetering on top of the border wall. Uh, what did you think of our introduction back to euphoria? I mean, the tipping car is so Breaking Bad in a really great way, honestly. I feel like euphoria takes a lot of those familiar elements, whether it's things it's paying homage to, whether it's riffs on existing ideas or like frameworks of stories you know and finds like new and exciting ways to make them both interesting and also terrible to experience and watch.

30:34Like the anxiety of the tipping car as Ru is trying to extricate herself from it, that's just great TV. Like it's such an awesome way to start us into something that feels as new as this.

30:45Joanna Robinson:We should mention some new people, creative people involved in this season. Hans Zimmer on the score. This one I feel kind of mixed about because obviously Hans Zimmer, like absolute genius. Do you think Zendaya was like, hey Hans, we've worked together so well and come over and do Euphoria. But Labyrinth, Labyrinth's music is so iconic to the experience of Euphoria to me. And I just like listen to those tracks often. I think they're incredible. And so in terms of like a soft reboot, having this Hans Zimmer score over, they were supposed to collaborate, but I don't know if you saw that Labyrinth put this like post up on Instagram like a week ago that said, quote, I'm done with this industry.

31:29Joanna Robinson:Fuck Columbia. Double fuck euphoria. So I don't know the whole story there. If there was indeed a collaboration between Hans Zimmer and Labyrinth this season, or if it was just a Zimmer joint, I don't know. But I do miss the very recognizable Euphoria musical sound. With love and respect, Hans Zimmer. Colleen Atwood is involved in the production, but I'm very confused. Legendary costume designer Colleen Atwood. But she's listed as a co-producer, and there's a different costume designer, which is Natasha Newman-Thompson, Thomas, who worked on The Idol, which I will say, the costumes of Victoria, again, so iconic, like especially Maddie's looks that Cassie then copies and stuff like that.

32:16Joanna Robinson:But I did think that what Rue is wearing in that opening, like I'm missing the iconic maroon hoodie and what she's wearing in the opening, even though she's got the converse on, struck me as a little, a bit more costumey than I feel I feel like they did such a good job with Rue. And even with Jules, even though Jules is a much more fashion-forward version of this, but I could see a high schooler. Which is very performative in terms of the way she dresses. But I could see a high schooler, a very specific high schooler, but a high schooler wearing those things. We're not in high school anymore, but what Rue is wearing in the opening, I don't know, just struck me as a little different.

32:56What if the real costume, Joe, is adulthood? You know, what if we're all just children underneath putting on our dress up clothes?

33:02Joanna Robinson:Great question. Great question, Rob. I think it's important and great that we start with like the rude charm offensive, like right off the bat. She's made friends with these guys who are like helping her get the car started. Right. And then she's doing something physically dangerous by the way she's driving across the desert by the like the car teetering is dangerous. But her navigating it the way she her head smashes into the back window. so you're like this is funny and wacky and then there's just like real like holy shit rue uh moment to it and then like lying to and charming the farm family getting a whole bus to chance you chant usa like all of that is just like rue navigating the world and despite her self-described anxiety she just is an incredibly charming yes uh and and that's the lubricant that she uses to get lubricant will come up again later, but that's a lubricant she uses.

33:56Joanna Robinson:It always does. Yeah. I mean, I just think you have to start with Rue for a bunch of different reasons. And I think you nailed that part of it, Joe. Honestly, she is the part of this show for me so far that just like slips right back in to familiar patterns, right? It is that energy. It is that appeal. Like this is a character who, even though she's not in the exact same place she was at the end of season two, I get the jump of how she would have gone through these steps and also hit the roadblocks that she's hit. and also kind of been in this state of life where she is scrambling to try to make good on the suitcase full of drugs that we can't just forget about.

34:30And apparently Sam Levinson can't just forget about. Part of me wishes maybe we could have just like left that in the past. But if you want a through line and a reckoning, this is the place to start. And this is the character to start it with.

34:41Joanna Robinson:I have to say though, I'm a Lori fan. So Martha Kelly - I mean, Lori's great. That part of it is showing up. The way that like, I don't think that I had checked whether or not Martha Kelly was coming back this season. So the way when Rue, you know, walks up to this house in the middle of nowhere and then you see the birds and I'm like, oh, no, it's Lori's house. Are you fucking kidding me? And then we get the rewind. And that's the other thing about Euphoria is like for, you know, all of its flaws or whatever. It the way it zooms through time and just like cuts back and forth while just respecting that the audience will will keep up.

35:18Joanna Robinson:Yeah, I really appreciate. I love that about it. Zooming through time, zooming through perspective. There's a lot of like Rashomon-ing of various like secrets and who knows what. Like it really does trust you to be along for the ride. Our girl Faye is also back. I'm a big fan. I was so happy about this. I'm a big fan. I did not know she would be returning for the show. Yeah. And frankly, like with Fez not being in the series for obvious reasons, I was curious if they were even going to try to involve her. Yeah. But showing up in the capacity she did, Joe, and like the sequence of the two of them trying to choke down these balloons full of fentanyl is one of the funniest things and also one of the worst things I've seen all year on TV.

35:58Just horrendous and also amazing.

36:00Joanna Robinson:Really tough. When Rue's like decided to bring a friend and then it cuts to Faye, to Chloe Cherry. That's one of the best like jokes. I actually think the best joke belongs to Lexi this episode, but like that cut to, oh, of course it's Faye is like extremely good. And then their whole crossing the border, try not to shit themselves sequence is also incredibly, incredibly good. Anything else you want to say about that? Not good, but the strainer cut of using the strainer to sift the drugs into using the strainer for pasta. That is the work of a madman. Can we, is this a good time to float some ideas for bespoke emails for this show?

36:41I would love nothing more. What do you have in mind?

36:44Joanna Robinson:I did wonder if forbidden strainer. I like forbidden strainer. Could be a possibility. I also had failure to clench was another option. Any thoughts that you have? And just for those not as familiar with this part of our process, we're creating an original email address to have a conversation with all of you all season about Euphoria season three. I gotta say, Joe, I was kind of at a loss with this one. I mean, I have some episode specific, like justcreatincontentatgmail.com in salute to our girl, Cassie. Also, I don't know if I want to be on here every week saying kingofpussy at gmail.com, but it is a thing we could in theory do.

37:25Joanna Robinson:I know. If Slice of Heaven wasn't probably clearly taken, I thought of that. Yeah. I don't know about kingofpussy at gmail.com, but I definitely did consider it. I don't know. A lot of the episode-specific ones, like Little Green Apples or Slice of Heaven or whatever, are all obviously taken out there in the world. Should we ask our listeners if they have any suggestions? I would love that. You can email us at prestigetv at spotify.com for now if you have any ideas on what our email address should be. And I don't know about you, Joe. I'm open to historical examples too. Like if you want to pull from memes of seasons past, like I think that could be a great avenue too.

38:04Joanna Robinson:Is this fucking play about us at gmail.com? Is that - Never been happier at gmail.com. I think there's options out there. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains Terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines.

38:47Joanna Robinson:It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills.

39:22Joanna Robinson:Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods Market Peach Apricot Rose Italian Soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack.

40:07That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sales signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. If you thought HBO's Euphoria was intense in high school, saddle up. Season three of Euphoria picks up five years later and life looks very different. Hello, Rue. You owe me money. No matter what they're chasing, money, love, or redemption, no one can escape their fate. The problem is, if you make a deal with the devil, there's no turning back. Don't miss the third season of Euphoria, starring two-time Emmy winners in Dave, premiering April 12th on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes every Sunday.

40:51Joanna Robinson:Here's the thing I didn't need to know about, which is how one beheads a chicken on a farm. I didn't need to know. I'm so glad you brought this up. I'm upset that I know. I looked this up, apparently called manual cervical dislocation, which is somehow not what Dr. Langdon did on the pit this week. How is this a real thing? How is this the method that we have devised to accomplish this particular task? I mean, it seems very practical, like an apple core or something like that. I just didn't, I didn't need to see it. I don't, I don't like, I don't want an apple core process to kill a chicken. I just don't want that.

41:26Listen, well, I mean, I always thought you did it manually.

41:31Joanna Robinson:Like, I thought there was like a whole sort of like, sorry for vegetarians, you can skip ahead. But like, I thought there was a whole like grab by the neck, sort of swing it around sort of maneuver that I had seen. Like a lasso? Yeah, you like grab the chicken by the neck and then you sort of like swing it to break the neck. And then that's like a merciful way. It seems more merciful than the ripping off thing that we saw. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's all the same like biological process in terms of like you're snapping this chicken's neck. There is something, though, that is violent and kind of crude about doing it through this weird metal hook.

42:00Joanna Robinson:I was so—and it was all rusted. I was so upset by it, and I was watching with a friend, and she's like, where the fuck do you think your rotisserie chicken comes from? And I was like, I don't want to confront that. Thank you so much. That's why I live in America. All right, Lexi and L.A. Nights. There's a real—we're in a real moment, and Chris and I were talking about this on The Watch last week. We were in a real moment of TV shows about Hollywood, right? We've got this—Hacks is back. Reggie Jenkins, the studio, et cetera, et cetera. So LA Nights, how did you feel about this? Lexi, the storyteller, is working in television.

42:36Joanna Robinson:She's on the WB lot. Sharon Stone is here. Welcome to LA Nights. How do you feel? Mostly getting coffees, which I think checks out for this stage of life. Where did you place LA Nights? Like what kind of show is it? Because I couldn't quite tell if it was like pure soap or more like teen drama. I placed it in 1998. Like, the font is crazy. This is like some silk stockings, USA up all night, like kind of stuff. Or like, it looked very like Melrose Placey, 90210, like something like that. I don't think that show exists right now. So I think Sam Levinson is using a sort of we're outside time and space.

43:17Joanna Robinson:Because when you first see, the way you first see LA Nights is like fanny pack swag that's on Lexi's table as the camera pans past. And like that, again, that font is very like Baywatch nights. And so I was just sort of like, what are we, when are we? What are we doing here? But I'm excited. No one knows. I'm excited to find out. It's a question I ask with this show all the time, Joe, in terms of like, Cassie as a character is like obsessed enough with true romance to dress up as Alabama for Halloween. Characters are constantly like singing and referencing things. And I'm like, I just don't believe that you like that thing.

43:51Joanna Robinson:Thank you so much. the Halloween episode of Euphoria. It's wild. Where Cassie is, I mean, the only one I can get on board with is Jules dressed as Claire Danes from Romeo and Juliet. That I'm like, I can see it. I mean, look, I'm an easy mark for all of these things. Jules is a great character, Romeo and Juliet, one of my favorite movies of all time. Like, I'm here for it. But like, culturally, I get it. But like, Maddie with love and respect dresses Jodie Foster from Taxi. Like, there's just like all of these like, costumes where I'm like, simply no. And this is what I mean. And this is coming out after our Pitt episode this week, but we haven't recorded that yet.

44:25Joanna Robinson:But we're going to talk about it again when we talk about it. Oh, we sure are. Because the way in which these Gen X or older writers put their cultural references on the younger generation, that Halloween episode is insane in terms of what people are wearing. But yeah, when are we is a great question. This is kind of a Hollywood story now, though. How do you feel about this? I guess we were in the California suburbs. I never thought too long and deep about where Euphoria was set. Any town, suburbia, where you could get to a city quite easily because Jules went there. But we get Johnny Cash's Sunset and Vine.

45:04Joanna Robinson:We're driving around the Chinese theater Batman in an Uber. How do you feel about this being a Hollywood story now? As a Hollywood boy yourself. Well, and soon to be one yourself too. We are going to be of this world doing some boots on the ground reporting as far as the Hollywood experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it works because Lexi and Maddie work in that world. You know, as far as, again, these transition jumps from season two, Maddie becoming an agent to like a very specific kind of like Instagram famous influencer actor, like that completely tracks for me. And obviously Lexi wanting something both creative, but like creative working for people who also profess to care about things, that's about as Lexi as it gets.

45:47Joanna Robinson:um what did you make of the sharon stone writer's room uh moment where she gets not only like snaps in response from her from her younger writers but also talking about how the stories we make on television uh impact the ballot box here's i'll tell you i'll give you my take which is this uh sam levinson lexi rue is sam levinson's like self insert but lexi in season two as the sort of the writer, the observer is also like, and they're like, the Xander. Sometimes people have to get their feelings hurt. Art should be challenging. Art should make people upset. You know, all this sort of stuff like that.

46:23Joanna Robinson:Like that's very self-insert Sam Levinson. This is what story should be. This is what art should be. He's making a television show about his own experience as an addict and what he did to his family. So I'm sure he has family members or friends who recognize themselves in euphoria and are pissed and are like, is this fucking play about us? I'm sure that happened to Sam Levinson. So that was his sort of take on why writing and art matters and should be confrontational in season two. In season three, I will give him the credit, he seems to have decided to poke fun at himself about how important TV writing is in 2024 or any other time.

46:59Joanna Robinson:What did you think? Especially the quick transition to these are why all these things are important and that's why we have to break the plot on episode 12. It's a great moment. minute. And the writer's room in terms of composition does look like something like so meticulously curated in terms of representation and types of like, it just is, I think, a really great snapshot of an entry point into this world. Anything else you want to say about Maddie and her talent revving plotline? Not a lot to it as of yet. Although I will say if LA Nights is a thing that doesn't exist, an indie called If I May, I Might, that's a thing that 100 % exists.

47:36And I've Probably watched it on a plane at some point.

47:38Joanna Robinson:Rebecca Pidgeon is here as Maddie's boss, and this is an actress who I love, so I'm interested to see how they use her. And then that brings us to Cassie and TikTok in their right-wing suburban bubble. I will say, here's a couple things I will say. The fact that Nate Jacobs, one of the vilest people to ever exist on television. Yeah. And here's the thing about Nate Jacobs, horrible human being. I both hate him and I'm rooting for his like absolute demise and downfall and like when Fezco beats his face to a pulp I'm like great do it some more um I'm sensing a but there's a way in which especially in season one Nate is like a psychological assassin of people the way in which he like psychologically devastates Jules and then later Rue he's so smart I'm not sure that's as present in season two, and it certainly doesn't seem as present here, though he is, you know, running a real estate scam.

48:37Joanna Robinson:Running. Yeah. Maybe it's like smart for a high school jock, but maybe it doesn't translate to the real world, or not so easy to be your father, or all these other things. But love that he drives a Cybertruck, one of my most hated objects in the world. It's perfect for Nate. And do you know this thing about the shirt that he's wearing on the job site? No. This is one of my favorite facts. So Jacob Elordi has a contract with Bottega Veneta. So when you see Jacob Elordi - I mean, of course he does. When you see Jacob Elordi with like a leather woven tote bag, which he is always carrying, that's like a branded sort of thing.

49:14Joanna Robinson:In the work trailer and then later on the job site sort of scenes, he is wearing what looks like a flannel shirt, but is in fact a leather shirt that has been crafted to look like a flannel shirt that is a Bottega Veneta, like the sort of star of their spring collection or something like that. So a friend sent me this GQ article about it the other day, and I was like, but why? But genuinely, why? No one watching the show can tell that that is a leather shirt made to look like a flannel shirt. It just looks like a flannel shirt. But this is like, so clearly, you know, in terms of like, how did we get all of this talent back?

49:59Joanna Robinson:Clearly part of Jacob Elordi's contract is I have to be able to rep Pateka Veneta as much as possible, which is just like, I want to hear all of the writers and all of the strings and all of the contracts that got everyone back here. Any thoughts on this? Well, and the gratuitous shot of the bag in particular, it's like in frame as a main character for a full beat. So clearly, yeah, this is contractual. I would say that exists only for this exact purpose. For like, I think the larger Nate conversation is not so dissimilar from the larger Sidney Sweeney conversation for me of the show clearly figured out over time what it had in Jacob Elordi.

50:38And what it has right now is like a full-on star, a full-on like style icon and sex symbol. And there will be people Googling, what is this shirt that Nate is wearing? And they're going to find out that it's a leather woven faux flannel shirt that costs more than their rent.

50:52Joanna Robinson:Yeah, I believe it is like$6 ,000. For the finale, we will both be appearing in the leather flannel shirt expensed by Spotify. Thank you so much. How excited do you... Well, should our Gmail be leather flannel shirt at gmail.com? It's just a confusing garment in many different ways. How do you think... How excited do you think they were to slap the Academy Award nominee, Jacob Lorty, on the ad campaign? And Academy Award nominee, Coleman Domingo. I mean... It's true. Listen. It's a loaded cast. It is what it is. Anything you want to say about Cassie's introduction? How much is that dog in the window?

51:31Joanna Robinson:Their candle at dinner, her wedding plans, anything like that. Yet again, I'm just not super compelled by the Cassie stuff that's happening so far. So I hope that it takes a turn. I hope we see some wrinkles in that character that show us something new. She seems almost fundamentally dumber in this episode than she was in previous seasons. And I'm not saying Cassie was ever the most intellectual character, but I don't even know what this is or what it's supposed to be or what we're supposed to be taking from Cassie's beginning of this particular journey. She gets some great lines. I don't want to be arguing about ice luches.

52:08It's definitely something that really jumped out to me. Her larger premise of, I am willing to sell my body to pay for floral arrangements, I guess is certainly a premise you could use for a TV show, But between her not being that interesting and Nate being, I would say, like straight up unrecognizable from the character that we know him to be, I just don't know what to make of any of this.

52:30Joanna Robinson:I don't have any confirmation on this, but I have heard some things about potentially part of Jacob Elordi's contract negotiation was like, I don't want to play as much of a psychopath anymore. So like. Well, I got bad news, guy. Your character is a psychopath. half but like he's a softer more reasonable nate jacobs i don't know anyway um but still driving a cyber truck um yeah i'm wildly disinterested in the spotlight though i do i do enjoy you know they've got this huge house the pool with the blow up like all this sort of stuff like that uh and even though they haven't been able to remodel everything it's just so tacky it's just like the tackiest shit you've ever seen.

53:11Joanna Robinson:And that seems exactly right for a Cassie-led decision. Maybe it was a Lordi striding through the door too, but there's something very Priscilla about some of the set design, like the very colored, almost carpeted walls, the scheming. It's like, it is very like - When are we again? Exactly. Of a certain time that is certainly not this one, but creates a vivid world for Euphoria all the same. Let's go to a plot line I'm much more interested, which is Ali is here. I don't know how much Coleman Domingo is going to be in the season. It'll just be like a couple of diner scenes or something like that.

53:42Joanna Robinson:But we get this like just a great, fun conversation about faith and like thoughts throughout history of gay sex inside the Bible. Worry at the time for butt sex at GMA.com is also another potential that we could go for. That's a great flag. Like, here's what I want to say about the audio book of the Bible that Rue is listening to and the poor man in the backseat of her car is being subjected to. And his chihuahua, we should say. And his chihuahua and his mesh shirt. Immediately recognizable dulcet tones of the actor Michael York narrating this. And I was like, huh, did Michael York narrate an audio book of the Bible?

54:20Joanna Robinson:He did. This is called the World of Promise Audio Bible. It is a full cast recording narrated by Michael York. Jim Caviezel reprising his role as Jesus.

54:33Joanna Robinson:I mean, of course. Richard Dreyfuss as Moses, Gary Sinise as David, Jason Alexander as Joseph, Marissa Tomei as Mary Magdalene, Marissa. Stacey Keech as Paul, Louis Gossett Jr. as John, John Boyd as Abraham, and Malcolm McDowell as Solomon, among many other stars in the firmament. Wow. Is this an audiobook you're going to be downloading and trying out for yourself, Rob? I mean, if it's good enough for Rue, maybe it should be good enough for me. I think we're all looking for change in our lives. Maybe this is exactly what I need is Marissa Tomei voicing. Sorry, who was she playing? Mary Magdalene.

55:08I mean, naturally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe that is what I need.

55:11Joanna Robinson:But she's using her Mona Lisa voice from My Cousin Vinny as Mary Magdalene. That's how Mary Magdalene sounded. I don't know if you're up on that. And also, as you know, Joseph sounded like George from Seinfeld. Anyway, I'm fascinated by this project. I hope we get more audience. I really do hope we get a Marissa Tome. I like, and I really want a Gary Sinise. Like, I love, I love listening to Gary Sinise. As David, sure, let's find out. Anything you want to say about this? Like the way in which this sort of faith theme is introduced, both in her sort of reaction to this family she meets in Texas and then talking to Aaliyah about it and then listening to Michael York narrate Genesis.

55:49I like this kind of chain of events of that it's something like ultimately very small, which is on one of her drug runs. And we should say, Ru is turned out to be a great mule. Just top of her class, really appreciate it. Our girl is showing some sense of ambition and accomplishment, and we're here for her.

56:05Joanna Robinson:And she's clean, right? She appears to be. I mean, she's on step three. She seems to be clean. We have every suggestion that she is, despite being so intertwined and involved in this world. But just this one intersection with this homesteading, homeschooling, culty Christian family, which in their defense, I do think we'd probably all be happier if we weren't on the internet. but here we are on the internet talking to all of you, sharing this beautiful time together, that that could set her on a journey of like, I'm just going to choose to accept this as fact and faith because I'm making that conscious choice.

56:40Not because like I've been pitched or sold, although kind of inadvertently she has, but just like I need to believe in something and this step says I need to believe in something and I'm going to make the decision to do it wholeheartedly. I kind of like that turn for her character, to be honest.

56:54Joanna Robinson:I'm really interested in the storyline. Two things I want to say about this. Number one, the eldest daughter who drives her to the bus station from the family. If this is like a culty sort of we don't have the internet, I have some questions about her eyebrow game and like her skincare routine. Her general styling. This is a real Instagram face for a culty sort of middle of nowhere young girl. And then. She is a trad wife influencer with like 500 ,000 followers. And then Lexi's joke. And Maude Apatow, I should say. I think Maude Apatow is really good on the show. And I think I thought like the increased use of Lexi in season two was something that I really liked about season two.

57:35Joanna Robinson:But when Rue was talking about Christianity and Lexi's like, I would never be friends with a Christian. And Maude Apatow's delivery of because they're judgmental was my joke of the episode. I thought it was really funny. It's a beautiful moment. All right. We're here at the end and we haven't even touched on the Alamo. So let's talk about Rue's entrance into this entire other world. We have a whole new cast of characters in this new world. Adewale Akanoe Akbaje from Lost is here as Alamo. Well, from Oz is here. He's always Mr. Echo to me, sorry. He's always out of BC to me, although Mr. Echo also.

58:13Joanna Robinson:But he's here. I mean, well, this reminds me of like, I mean, Breaking Bad or just like any of that era of show where it's like, here's your new flamboyantly something big bad of the of the season you know like textbook stuff yeah exactly this is very like fx of a certain era or whatever um but he shows up the hats here uh you know we meet him in the hot tub he's got a bunch of hedge people played by actors we recognize and also marshawn lynch um that's an actor we recognize that's an beast mode is an accomplished performer at this point we respect bottoms on this podcast show and ruse just like very sort of like, look at all these half naked babes or I can help you fix your bikini or like all of these moments for Rue, her dancing with all the girls on the dance floor.

59:01Joanna Robinson:Great, great shit. And then we, and then we wind up with this, uh, shooting the apple off the head moment. What's interesting to me about Rue's whole faith, uh, journey inside of this season is, uh, if you, you know, if you go back and watch the first two seasons, there's so many moments where Rue goes, please, God, let me survive this. Please, God, let this not happen. And of course, all the church musical numbers that you hate and I love and stuff like that. So it's big here. Oh, you mean the one that was like a fantasy sequence on top of a fantasy sequence in which she's having a double delusion?

59:34What are we doing?

59:35Joanna Robinson:Why are we doing this? Just like Inception delusion layers all the way down. I loved it. But yeah, tell me about your experience with the Alamo here. A great introduction to this character. And yeah, like Adewale in particular, and if you've seen Oz, you are very familiar with this. Honestly, if you've seen Lost, you're very familiar with this, where he has this like underlying menace on first glance, but also in a way that's completely captivating. And there is like a gravitational pull to him where you not only want to see him on screen, but you want like more characters dragged into his immediate orbit.

1:00:07I love this addition, especially in contrast to someone like Laurie, right? Who is so cool, so calm. We could do with a little flamboyance by contrast, and we could do with somebody who is going to put Rue in situations that she doesn't know how to deal with. And it seems on first blush that the way she's going to deal with them is just by leaning even harder into her faith. And if you choose to believe in God, if you choose to believe in predestination or a divine power, everything happens for a reason. Even if you're getting taken out to a ditch to be William Tell down there. William Told?

1:00:41Joanna Robinson:WilliamTold at gmail.com. I don't know honestly I don't know Fesco as we already mentioned gets mentioned Jules gets mentioned she's a sugar baby allegedly we'll see and then Gia gets mentioned Gia doing very well in school I think Ru is lying about where she was but not lying about the fact that Gia is doing well in school where Gia is yeah anything else that we didn't get to that you want to mention well no mention of Elliot so far in this show but we've seen that he will appear at some time in the series. I'm eager for that. I actually really liked, I like that character too. And of the musical moments that worked for me, his performance of the song for Rue.

1:01:22Joanna Robinson:Rob, no. You don't like that song? Little Star. Rob, you were not here and alive on, on, in the Euphoria fandom when that happened, but that was like one of the most controversial things that happened in that finale because we didn't know what was going to happen to Fez. We're on the, like the edge of our seat and we're like, is Fez going to be okay? And it's like, Like, pause. You now have to listen to Elliot sing a song for Rue. Yep. Everyone hated it. But I'm glad you loved it. I was moved. I loved it. I certainly loved it a lot more than, like, again, just prancing around your various homes, lip syncing to various songs that Sam Levinson likes.

1:01:55You know, I just think we could do differently.

1:01:58Joanna Robinson:Honestly, how dare you? I love all the prancing that Zidane does. But real talk, like, we're going to need a lot of Hunter Schafer on this show. I think this was a problem with season two. We kind of talked around it. but season two felt like Hunter Schaefer is very popular and hard to schedule and thus we're going to shoehorn her into like scenes with one person at a time, Arrested Development season four style, but she was rarely like part of the action. Yeah. And I don't know how you get her into the mix with these other characters, but I love what she brings to this show. I love Jules. Like there is a bracing vulnerability to what Hunter Schaefer does that makes that character so vivid and so interesting to watch in all these situations.

1:02:37So like season two, I guess is going to need to be a Jules episode for me.

1:02:41Joanna Robinson:And I mean, as we talk about the legacy of euphoria, it's impossible to talk about like to not talk about Jules as a character 2019. This like trans girl who like, yes, her transness is part of, you know, Nate's issue with her and all these other things. But like her main story is not really about her trans identity. It's this like, it is and it isn't, but it's about this. It informs these other aspects of her. But it's like, in 2019, I think having a trans character where like that is not the only, you know, aspect of this person was a huge, huge deal at the time. And like Hunter Schaefer, who had been a model but not acted before, this is just like a huge moment for her.

1:03:27Joanna Robinson:And so, yeah, I just, I love Jules. I was also sort of bummed not to see her. But I think, you know, what I anticipate is, you know, we'll get a very Jules-centric episode. We'll dedicate a lot of time to her. You know, I like all the things that Euphoria did in season one with, like, showing the childhood of— and in season two of, like, Cassie or Maddie or Nate or all the sorts. Like, how did we get here? The Cal flashback episode of season two absolutely demolished me. I thought that was an incredibly good episode. So I'm excited to see what we get for Jules this season. Anything else you want to mention?

1:04:09I have one question for you, Joe. Do you think that I, like Alamo, could pull off Scorpion Boots?

1:04:19Joanna Robinson:Do you really want me to tell you the answer to that? I want your honest opinion. RobScorpionBoots at gmail.com. Yeah, hit us up at PrestigeTV at Spotify.com. It's a very busy time on the feed right now. We've got Wrapping of the Pit, Euphoria launching, and we're going to have a couple episodes on the Netflix binge drop of Beef Season 2. So, like, stay tuned. There's a lot going on. But I hope you'll join us for this Euphoria run because I think no matter what, like, people are going to be talking about it, and that's always fun. Thank you to both Devin Rinaldo and to Kai Grady for their work on the show today, and we'll see you soon.

1:04:55Joanna Robinson:Bye.

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