Euphoria Season 2 Premiere: Emmy winner Zendaya returns as Rue

Emmy-winning actress Zendaya makes her long-awaited return as Rue Bennett as HBO’s Euphoria returns for its second season… nearly two years after its first.

While the second season was delayed significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25-year-old actress returned in the first of two ‘special episodes’ in December 2020.

Her co-star Hunter Schafer returned as the apple of Rue’s eye, Jules, in the second special episode, debuting on HBO Max in January 2021.

The Season 2 premiere takes place just a few days later at an explosive New Year’s Eve party where drama and chaos await around every corner. 

Jules: Her co-star Hunter Schafer returned as the apple of Rue’s eye, Jules, in the second special episode, debuting on HBO Max in January 2021

Drama: The Season 2 premiere takes place just a few days later at an explosive New Year’s Eve party where drama and chaos await around every corner

The episode begins with Rue talking about Fezco’s (Angus Cloud) grandmother, who she says is, ‘a motherf***ing G,’ as we see a shot of a blonde woman walking into a bar while holding a handgun.

She walks through the bar as people start sending out warnings, walking through the backstage area with strippers before taking off her glasses and finding a fat man getting a blowjob.

She walks in and shoots in in both thighs, as we see his fully erect penis in the frame, while he screams in pain.

She walks back out to her car where a young Fezco is waiting with a black eye, as she tells him she spoke to his dad and he’s going to come live with her now.

Rue says in voice over that he might not have been the ‘best guardian’ but she taught him eerie thing to know about running drugs.

She tells him that his mother had a ‘kind heart’ but his father always exploited it, as Rue said FEzco always did good in school, ‘especially math.’

He comes home from school one day and finds a new baby while another shot shows a pre-teen Fezco at a drug deal.

Fezco’s grandmother says the kid was collateral as part of a drug deal and the mother never came to pick up him, as we see Fezco taking care of him.

The kid is seen taking a bath in the sink while Fezco’s grandmother tells her a story while the kid starts eating cigarette butts., which leads to the kid being named Ashtray.

We then see Fezco setting him at his usual spot at the convenience store as they find someone grandma needs to deal with.

She goes to the trunk and pulls out a tire iron and beats the crap out of a guy at the Family Donuts.

‘Fez doesn’t know why he did what he did,’ Rue says in voice over as he’s seen running towards grandma as she accidentally hits him with the tire iron on a back swing.

Fezco finds grandma collapsed, and Rue says, ‘the next thing you know, he has a business to run and a brother to take care of.’

‘He wondered how hiss grandma would handle someone like Nate, but he didn’t have his grandma… just Ash,’ Rue says in voice over.

Ashtray is seen sneaking up with a hammer before attacking two men in front of Fezco, who is stunned.

‘Dude, what the f**k?’ Fezco sayss before the title card hits.

The episode picks up with Rue in the back seat of a car with Fezco and Ashtray, singing to 2Pac’s Hit ‘Em Up as they are on their way to a drug deal.  

The deal goes wrong as Rue and his connect’s blonde girlfriend are dragged out of their car and into the apartment.  

Rue  notices the guy is called over by a woman as he goes and listens to her before coming back and putting on some music.  

He tells everyone to ‘get naked right f***ing now,’ except for Ashtray, who he gets shoved into a closet.

He slams the blonde’s head into the wall and demands everyone else get naked and they all slowly comply as the crazy bald dude dances around the room.

Fezco nods to Rue who still has her shirt and pants on as the bald dude shoves her into the bathroom and puts her in the shower and runs the water.  

He tells her again to take her shirt off which she does and he asks her to take her pants off next.  

‘See how f***ing easy that was? Now get dressed,’ the bald guy says as we learn the woman’s name is Laurie.

She asks where Mouse is and Fez asks if he can put his drawers on and talk to her, with Fez explaining that Mouse won’t come around anymore because he didn’t like the way he was doing business.

She asks why he brought a kid to a drug deal and Fez sasys that’s his partner, and she askss why he brought a young girl to a drug deal and she says that’s his family, adding he trusts her with his life. 

They fill up the roller bag suitcase with pill bottles.

They get back in the car as Rue starts laughing about everything that went down but it pisses Fezco off that she thinks it’s funny.

Rue asks show many female drug dealers he knows and he says just one, as Rue says, ‘s***’s gotta change.’ 

Rue then sneaks into a New Year’s party as Lexi (Maude Apatow) asks Maddy (Alexa Demie) where Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is, with Lexi saying she got out of the car in the middle of the road.

Lexi says she was drinking while she was driving and she got out.

Cassie is sitting on the curb at the gas station when she runs into Nate (Jacob Elordi), as she reveals she’s not with McKay anymore.  

He asks if she’s a ‘relationship girl’ and she says she’s ‘trying not to be’ becuase she’s just trying to focus on herself.  

Nathan offers her a ride to the party as they both keep drinking in the car, as Cassie keeps smiling and giggling at him.

He keeps going faster as Cassie starts to get a little worried as he goes past 100 MPH as she spills her beer.

She sits back and slides her panties off while sticking her head out of the window as Nate watches her.

Back at the party, Maddy tells Lexi that she’s sure Cassie is fine because there’s no way she will miss a New Year’s Eve Party.

Back at the party, Maddy goes to use the bathroom… where Nate and Cassie are having sex.

Maddy keeps pounding on the door saying she has to pee but Cassie starts crying saying Maddy is her best friend.

Maddy leans closer to the door and asks if she’s taking a s**t at a party.’  

Lexi walks around asking if anyone has seen Cassie but she no one has, when she sits down next to Fezco.

He tells her that’s a nice name and she smiles an awkward smile at her.

We see Rue outside before taking off while we go up on the roof and see Rue getting in the backseat of a car and lying down. 

She looks down and sees an Altoids tin before we go into the bathroom and find Cassie really scared as Nate asks her to trust him.

Rue opens the Altoids tin and finds drug paraphanelia while Maddy runs into a Black guy as she wonders who he is.

Rue comes out of the car, clearly high, as she walks back into the party.

Nate finally comes out of the bathroom as Maddy wonders if he washed his hands .

Nate walks out of the bathroom and finds Fezco (who last season threatened to kill him if he kept messing with Rue). 

Rue walks through the house and walks into the laundry room where she finds Elliot (Dominic Finke) doing drugs.

‘if you tell me what drugs you’re doing I’ll tell you what drugs I’m doing,’ Rue tells him as he agrees.

Back in the bathroom, Maddy sees there is no toilet paper and uses a towel to wipe herself, throwing it in the bathtub and landing on Casssie’s face, who is silently freaking out.

She comes out of the bathroom and the new guy offers her a smoke, but she says she doesn’t smoke random people’s weed.

Rue issn’t doing so well in the laundry room and says she thinks she’s going into cardiac arrest, asking him for some adderall.

The guy insists to Maddy that they’ve never met but Maddy says they have met and his name is Traviss and he’s a producer or a DJ or something.

Jules finds Fezco and asks if she’s seen Rue, and he says she’s somewhere around here, which surprises Lexi.

Jules goes off looking for Jules as she takes the adderall, which makes her feel better.

‘There’s my heart,’ she tells Elliott, before telling him he’s ‘my new favorite person.’

 ‘I thought I was gonna die for a second there,’ Rue tells her before laughing an awkward laugh. 

She thanks him and they each high five.

Lexi keeps talking with Fezco, who asks Lexi if she had a good Christmas, unless she’s Jewish or something.

She asks Fezco if he believes in God and he says, ‘Hell yeah,’ but she asks if he can justify selling drugs while believing in God.

He keeps a watchful eye on Nate who is lurking in the background, as Jules goes back to Kat.

Kat says when they started hanging out she though they’d be close but Jules says that’s her fault.

Cassie is still in the bathtub, trying to get to her phone, while Travis asks Maddy if he can kiss her.

McKay comes through to the party and gives Nate a hug, as Lexi says to let her know if he sees Cassie.

Lexi is still worried and keeps trying to call Cassie…. and while Maddy and Travis keep talking, as her phone vibrates. 

Travis goes back into the bathroom and finds Cassie ‘passed out’ but Maddy doesn’t care and takes him back to the party.

Kat sees Maddy dancing with Travis and she mouths, ‘Who is that?’ and she mouths back ,’I don’t know.’

Kat is surprised by Ethan, who are clearly still together as they get close, as Jules says they are ‘so gross.’

Lexi comes back to the couch to Fezo, who says he missed her and she asks why he’d miss her and he says she’s the ‘coolest person in here.’

She clearly likes that as she lays back on the couch.

McKay talks with Cassie privately in a bedroom and she says she shouldn’t be anyone’s girlfriend.’

When he asks why that is, she says, ‘I don’t know if I’m a good person.’

She says she’s sorry and he says she doesn’t have to say anything else to her and walks out.

Meanwhile, outside, Jules finally finds Rue, high in front of the camp fire. 

McKaye starts drinking when Nate asks if he f***ed Cassie in the room, as Nate keeps insisting he screwed her, asking where he came on her, which makes McKay uncomfortable.

‘Happy New Year motherf***er,’ Nate says to him and walkss a way while taking a drink.

Jules ask Rue to talk, asking when she relapsed right away.

‘You want me to be honest? The night you left,’ Rue tells Jules, which clearly hass an effect on her.

Fezco tells Lexi he has to ‘cut soon,’ but talking to her was one of the ‘best parts of my whole year.’

Lexi says, ‘Yeah right,’ and he asks why she does that and doubts herself and asks to get her phone number, which she gives to him.

‘Hope to see you soon, Lexi. Good night,’ Fezco says and leavess, calling Ashtray to get the car and get ready.

Ashtray runs sup to Rue and says now is the time as Rue tells Jules she has to go.

Fezco takes off his nice sweater as Lexi watches him while Ashtray heads back to the car as the new year countdown begins.

Suddenly bright lights flash on all the main characters briefly as Rue walks up to Jules and says, ‘I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to be mean.’

‘I dunno I’ve just had a tough time. I just really missed you,’ Rue says as Jules says she really misses her.

‘I don’t think I ever said it before but I really want to be with you,’ Rue says as Jules smiles and they start kissing with a bright light behind them.

Fezco walks through the party and grabs a drink next to Nate, asking if he’s shaving a good time.

He asks if he made any New Year’s resolutions and Nate says he didn’t and Fezco says he made a few.

Nate says, ‘Didn’t the last time you saw me you said you wanted to kill me?’ and Fezco says,’ It’s a new year playboy.’

They raise their glasses to toast when Fezco smashes his head with a bottle and starts pummeling him with constant blows to the face as Lexi watches in horror.

Eventually Fezco is dragged off of him and leaves the party, as Rue and Jules watch on, stunned, as Rue simply says, ‘Damn,’ as the episode comes to an end.

Trailer: 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

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.

Rue: 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’

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?’ 

Meeting: 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

Reuniting: 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

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’

Mother: 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

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. 

Returning: 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