EUPHORIA SEASON 3 EPISODE 6 – “Stand Still and See”

Catch the new episodes of Euphoria on HBO Max on Sundays at 9pm est!

Catch up with the 5th episode of Euphoria’s season 3 here!

This is a recap, so spoilers ahead!

Into the sixth episode

Starting the sixth episode, we get a look into Alamo’s background. We see that Alamo has lived an interesting life thanks to his mother. She goes from man to man with one thing on her mind; money. When she meets a man who actually is kind, gentle, and loves her, she uses him for all he’s worth. The man, Preston, who truly cared for Alamo and his mom, spoiled the mother with whatever she wanted. The life of luxury just wasn’t enough for her. She set him up to be robbed blind while they were away, and the robber? Her new boyfriend. So, in short, Alamo’s mother was the toxic influence over him that shaped him into the person he is today.

Faye

Catching up with Rue, she survives the attack from Alamo, but with a twist. She has to find a way to rob Laurie and the only person who could help is Faye. Unfortunately, Faye is head over heels in love and is hesitant to rob her new love blind. In all honesty, Faye’s story makes no sense to me. Why does she have a Nazi tattoo? What was the point of that? It feels like there’s a huge need from the writer to have a shock factor constantly at play, but it isn’t needed if the story is solid. But, moving on, Faye has to take a picture of the key to the safe and send it to Rue so Alamo’s crew can 3D print a duplicate.

Faye gets off the phone and her boyfriend finds out she’s been doing drugs, even though they were trying to have a baby. The good news is that it’s the fake drugs that the feds switched out in the episode prior. The bad news is that Faye still tried to get high. So, Faye is living a messy double life.

Back to Alamo

Alamo gets a visit from his number one opps, Laurie. It’s crazy to me that someone as ruthless as Alamo is able to get pushed around by Laurie, but that’s neither here nor there. Laurie visits him with a new business deal, to have Alamo’s girls work as their drug mule. All the while, Rue is looking absolutely terrified while the feds are listening through her phone. Speaking of, Laurie wants Rue to be the one driving the drugs, but Alamo makes a comment that he has other people he trusts much more than Rue. It’s all very awkward for Rue to be in the room for.

Now that Rue delivered what she promised for the feds, she thinks she’s off the hook. But the feds never say she is, instead they say that the judge will look at her case with more care. I feel like that’ll come into play soon enough.

Maddy is hard at work with Alamo’s girls, making them into the stars she knows they have the potential to be. Even though Rue has warned Maddy to not to work with Alamo, Maddy is adamant that she can handle herself. Maddy is putting in the work, but Alamo isn’t exactly flexible. She says she thinks the girls should take some time off to socialize them in the Hollywood scene, but Alamo isn’t budging.

Jules and Rue

This part was the most frustrating scene of the episode for me. Rue is at Jules home, watching her paint. You can see the love on Rue’s face as she confides with Jules, but it’s a false sense of security. In all honesty, I cannot stand Jules this season. She is wildly selfish, and doesn’t mind who she hurts doing whatever she wants. Whether is be Lexie at her job, her sugar daddy’s family, or even Rue, she hurts whoever gets in her way. Rue calls her out on being a sugar baby to a married man, and that doesn’t go well. This is a wildly different tone from the last episode, when Rue and Jules got together, but now Jules seems like she has a massive chip on her shoulder. She blames Rue for almost ruining her “relationship”. Rue makes it clear that it’s not a relationship, that Jules is nothing more than an object, leading to Jules slapping the taste out of her mouth. I wish Rue would just cut Jules off entirely.

On to Cassie

Cassie is at her new job of being a side character in the show her sister works for. She only has a few lines, but she decides to take it in a completely different direction. Having a complete breakdown on set, she derails the entire scene. The crew is completely blindsided and silently freaking out but no one is more stressed than Lexie. Lexie has so much resentment towards Cassie and I think it shows the most in this episode.

Meeting with the director, it turns out that she finds Cassie compelling. The women think it’s an interesting story to have her working her way out of the pornographic content creating lifestyle. Instead of firing her for derailing their work, they make her a deal. They’ll write her into the show, but she has to give up on her OnlyFans lifestyle. Cassie agrees, and not once is it mentioned that she’s under contract with Maddy. Personally, I don’t see her giving up her current lifestyle because if there’s one thing Cassie can’t live without, it’s the attention she’s getting. Even without the OnlyFans account, her going legit just seems like a strange idea when the whole season has been her building up her career as a content creator. Plus, I’m very interested to see how the contract with Maddy comes into play. Will it be completely ignored and just a loose end or will Maddy react in the way a manager who gets screwed over reacts?

Of course, Cassie has trouble bringing herself to canceling her OnlyFans account. Praying to God asking for help, she still can’t do it. So she tries to call Nate, who isn’t answering the phone. Using all the courage she can muster, she deletes the account.

In the Church

Rue is in a church, and this scene proves just how talented Zendaya is as an actor. Finally getting a phone call from her mom, we see Rue telling her mom about her new life as someone seeking out redemption and salvation through God. While this scene was beautifully handled by Zendaya, there’s a looming feeling that this could mean the end of Rue. Will she end up going to prison? Will the feds screw her over? Will she actually die? Time will tell. But for now, she’s just happy her mom called and she’s happy to get all this off her chest.

And now for Nate

Nate has oddly been used as a sort of comedic relief of the show, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Every scene lately has been him getting beat up or losing body parts. Now he’s outside stomping on the flowers that caused his breakdown in the last episode. Screaming slurs for no reason whatsoever and causing his own scene, he doesn’t realize he’s being watched by who will deliver his next beat down. I just cannot understand this hard turn in his character arc. This was the guy that threatened Maddy with a gun in the past seasons. The guy who caused fear in anyone that got in his way. Now he’s taking beating after beating and just getting worse as a character. There’s only two episodes left, so there’s no telling how his story will end.

The key

Rue comes through with the 3D printed key, and she’s feeling pretty proud of herself. That is, until Alamo says that since this was her plan, she will be the one to see it through to the end. Seems like at this point, Alamo doesn’t care if she lives or dies. I feel like Alamo knows she’s a rat, but just completely prove it. So, he keeps her at a distance while dropping hint after hint that she’s a rat, even going as far as Bishop dangling a dead rat in front of her face telling her it’s dinner time for their pet snake.

Bishop makes mention that he met Rue’s mom, even spoke to her and told her how well Rue is doing. The stakes are now higher than ever, Rue is terrified, and now her mom is involved.

The burning bush

On her way home, Rue almost gets into a tragic accident driving. This causes her to pull over and get herself together. But she looks out her window and we see flames in the reflection. Rue gets out of the car and sees a burning tree, a burning Joshua tree to be precise. This is a very symbolic scene for Rue and how far she’s come in her journey to find redemption, and something bigger than herself. The burning bush is in reference to the story of Moses in the Book of Exodus with the burning tree. In the passage, Moses encounters a bush that is engulfed in flames but mysteriously isn’t burning up. God then speaks to Moses through the bush, telling him that he has been chosen to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. As such, the image is typically associated with divine revelation and purpose. It’s obviously the imagery Euphoria is portraying in Rue’s final scene. Throughout the episode, she’s desperately searching for redemption and some kind of sign that her suffering wasn’t for nothing and actually means something. After narrowly avoiding death, betraying dangerous people, and fearing for her mother’s safety, Rue sees the burning Joshua tree as a possible message from God that she’s finally on the “right” path.

Only two episodes left

We only have two episodes left of this season and I really can’t see how all this will end. Cassie’s story just took a hard right turn into professional acting. Maddy just started a new business venture with Alamo. Lexie is now a writer on her show. Nate is still getting the breaks beat off of him. Rue is now going through an entire personal journey after all she’s been through and is still at the most dangerous point of her arc. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and there’s no telling where we will end up by the end of the season.

This review was written by Megan from the Vigilante Vibes Podcast! If you liked my review, be sure to check out my other reviews! Find me on my socials, and check out my Marvel podcast, Vigilante Vibes, by clicking here!