Euphoria Season 2 Episode 3 recap: Cal’s childhood past is uncovered

The childhood and past of the Cal Jacobs (Eric Dane) is revealed that helps better inform this controversial character in the third episode of Euphoria Season 2.

The episode features flashbacks to Cal’s past, while, in present day, Jules (Hunter Vaughn) confronts Rue’s (Zendaya) new friend Elliot (Dominic Fike), who Rue has been doing drugs with since New Year’s Eve.

Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) also must come to grips with Nate (Jacob Elordi) ignoring her after they had sex, while Rue comes up with a ‘business opportunity. 

Childhood: The childhood and past of the Cal Jacobs (Eric Dane) is revealed that helps better inform this controversial character in the third episode of Euphoria Season 2

Jules:  The episode features flashbacks to Cal's past, while, in present day, Jules (Hunter Vaughn) confronts Rue's (Zendaya) new friend Elliot (Dominic Fike), who Rue has been doing drugs with since New Year's Eve

Jules:  The episode features flashbacks to Cal’s past, while, in present day, Jules (Hunter Vaughn) confronts Rue’s (Zendaya) new friend Elliot (Dominic Fike), who Rue has been doing drugs with since New Year’s Eve

Ignored: Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) also must come to grips with Nate (Jacob Elordi) ignoring her after they had sex, while Rue comes up with a 'business opportunity

Ignored: Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) also must come to grips with Nate (Jacob Elordi) ignoring her after they had sex, while Rue comes up with a ‘business opportunity

The episode begins with Rue talking in voice over about Cal, who, when he was in high school, ‘spent every day with his best friend Derek.’

The young Cal is seen driving his Jeep and picking up his friend as they’re seen in wrestling practice.

They go get a milkshake after wrestling practice, with Rue adding in voice over that they could, ‘talk for hours’ or they could ‘just sit in silence.’

Milkshakes: They go get a milkshake after wrestling practice, with Rue adding in voice over that they could, 'talk for hours' or they could 'just sit in silence'

Milkshakes: They go get a milkshake after wrestling practice, with Rue adding in voice over that they could, ‘talk for hours’ or they could ‘just sit in silence’

During his junior year of high school he met Marsha, whose seen teasing him with her feet while he drives his Jeep.

‘Marsha was way more forward than any girl he met before, and even though he was uncomfortable, he’s glad she pushed him… and he couldn’t wait to tell Derek,’ Rue said.

He tells Derek the story and when he says he came in her mouth, Derek said he was a keeper before Cal’s angry father comes into the room.

He tells Cal that his dinner is on the table in an awkward conversation before we see his family at dinner and he tells them he met a girl.

Derek met a girl too and they’re both seen making out with their girls before they all get naked and jump in the pool.

We see the first time Derek and his girl Marsha have sex, which ‘became a regular thing’  and she would tell him what he was good at.

He really liked going down on her but when he tells Derek he says he loves women but he’d never ‘eat p***y.’

Cal was heading to Duke and Derek was going to a ‘state school out west,’ as they’re seen celebrating their graduation.

Derek insisted they go celebrate just the two of them as they head to a bar where they know they’d get served.

They head inside – soaking wet from the rain – when they start doing shots, seemingly unaware that it’s a gay bar.

Derek puts a song on the jukebox as they start dancing in the bar and getting close when they share a kiss… and then another… and then another, each longer than the last.

The next morning Cal wakes up to his phone ringing and it’s his girlfriend Marsha, and he asks her what’s wrong.

He asks if the test is accurate and tells her to take another one but she said she took three, but it seems Cal is quite conflicted about this news that he’s about to have a kid.

He hangs up the phone and starts crying in his bed as the title card is shown.

The episode comes back to present day with a seemingly-high Rue dancing along to some song in her head… when she goes out to her kitchen and her sister Gia (Storm Reid) sees her and asks if she’s high.

We see her giving a weird slide presentation as sort of a meta aside, where she admits that she had no intention of staying clean.

She then tells the audience how to get away with being a drug addict, the first step of which is to get a ‘cover drug.’

She tells her sister that she’s gonna start smoking weed because it helps with her panic attacks but Gia freaks out and says she’s so selfish.

Selfish: She tells her sister that she's gonna start smoking weed because it helps with her panic attacks but Gia freaks out and says she's so selfish

Selfish: She tells her sister that she’s gonna start smoking weed because it helps with her panic attacks but Gia freaks out and says she’s so selfish

She insists it was just an idea and she isn’t actually smoking weed and storms off and Rue tells Gia that she thinks about suicide when she’s not on drugs. 

A tearful Gia asks Rue to promise her it’s just gonna be weed and nothing more, which Rue agrees to.

Rue is talking to Jules who still thinks that her new friend Elliot wants to have sex with her but Rue insists she doesn’t.

Rue and Jules: Rue is talking to Jules who still thinks that her new friend Elliot wants to have sex with her but Rue insists she doesn't

Rue and Jules: Rue is talking to Jules who still thinks that her new friend Elliot wants to have sex with her but Rue insists she doesn’t

She starts interrogating Elliot and says she doesn’t like him because he’s sarcastic but Elliot wants to be friends.

Rue and Jules are riding their bikes when they go past Cal in his truck, but Rue loses Jules briefly before she finds her and they start kissing.

‘The beautiful thing about getting high is time ceases to exist,’ Rue says in voice over.

Interrogating: She starts interrogating Elliot and says she doesn't like him because he's sarcastic but Elliot wants to be friends

Interrogating: She starts interrogating Elliot and says she doesn’t like him because he’s sarcastic but Elliot wants to be friends

Back at school, Lexi asks the vice principal if the school could put on a play she wrote.

Rue says in voice over that Lexi is an ‘observer’ and everything in her life was a movie she’s writing, as we see Lexi taking over as creator/director of her own movie ‘This Is Life.’

Lexi and Rue are seen being ‘interviewed’ about her movie as we see Lexi starting to write her play as life unfolds around her.

Cassie wakes up at 4 AM to get ready for school and spent three hours getting ready, thinking about Nate, who completely ignores her in school.

She tries a number of different looks to try and get Nate’s attention, and one day he actually looks, which cheers her up immensely… until she runs into Maddy (Alexa Demie).

The vice principal says she can put the play on as we see Elliot and Rue and Jules all becoming friends.

Rue says in voice over that if she was a genius she’d figure out a way to do drugs for free as she comes up with a plan.

She tells Fezco (Angus Cloud) that she has a plan that starts with him fronting her like $5,000 worth of drugs.

She leaves and tells Elliot the plan and he says it’s a ‘good f***ing plan’ while Lexi starts promoting her play, but she didn’t tell Cassie abou tit.

Cassie and Maddy are at the house she babysits for as Cassie says Maddy just needs someone to ‘really truly love you.’

Maddy tells the boy that when he grows up he shouldn’t be an ‘a**hole to girls you like’ and he agrees.

Cassie and Nate continue their torrid affair behind Maddy’s back, while Cal and Cassie having sex while her parents are home.

‘What I would give to be back in high school again,’ Cal’s wife says as they listen to their son have sex.

Kat (Barbie Ferreira) has dinner with Ethan’s parents and she gives an awkward answer  which ruins the dinner.

Cal hasn’t been able to sleep since Nate told him about the recording that Maddy still has.

Rue gets dressed up and goes over to the Lori, the lady drug dealer from the premiere, to present her plan for selling drugs without getting caught.

She tells her it’s an amazing plan and she’s a genius and she fronts him a $50K suitcase, but she wants to go smaller so she goes with $10K.

Lori tells her that if she screws her she’ll sell her to some really terrible people and tells her she’s serious.

Meanwhile, Ashtray (Javon Walton) comes out of their place and aims a shotgun at him and brings him inside.

Ashtray starts beating him up with the butt of his shotgun and Ashtray tells him to call the cops but he won’t as Ash keeps beating him up.

Cal tells him that he had sex with Jules and he’s trying to get back the tape of them together but Fezco has no idea about any tape.

Fezco says that Nate is in love with Jules and Fezco and Cal are both very confused and Cal asks to just leave and promise he won’t say anything. 

Fezco agrees to let him go if he gets his son Nate to leave Rue and Jules alone for the end of time.

Elliot and Jules are talking at his place while Rue goes to a meeting with her suitcase full of drugs.

Elliot tells her she’s ‘very f***able’ and gives her tons of compliments before saying, ‘I’m sure Rue told you all that’ and said they’re in love.

Rue comes out of the meeting ass Ali asks what’s in the suitcase and she says school books but he clearly doesn’t believe her.

She tells him to ‘shut the f**k up’ and he tells her to knock it off and he’s not some kind of parent’ and she tells him that it’s a good thing no one is asking hi to be a parent.

That sets him off and he says if she says one more disrespectful thing they’re done and she just says, ‘What are you gonna do, hit me?’

A distraught and confused Ali just walks back up the stairs as Rue drags her drug suitcase down the stairs.

Cassie goes to meet up with Nate but he texts her that something has come up… as he shows up at Maddy’s house with flowers, as the episode comes to a close.

The preview for next week’s episode shows Rue praying to God that Jules never finds out what she’s about to do. 

Ali: A distraught and confused Ali just walks back up the stairs as Rue drags her drug suitcase down the stairs

Ali: A distraught and confused Ali just walks back up the stairs as Rue drags her drug suitcase down the stairs

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.

Reunited: 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'

Reunited: 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’

Head space: 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

Head space: 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?’ 

Ali: 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

Ali: 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

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

Suitcase: 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.

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

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

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. 

Kat: 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)

Kat: 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 season: Euphoria's eight-episode second season airs Sunday nights sat 9 PM ET on HBO

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

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