‘Euphoria’ Season 3 finale, Zendaya’s death scene explained

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Euphoria

It’s the end of the road for Rue Bennett. One week after Euphoria killed off Jacob Elordi, the HBO drama bid farewell to its leading lady, Zendaya. The Emmy-winning star’s troubled alter ego perished midway through the Season 3 finale — and the series finale — “In God We Trust,” an end brought about by a bottle of fentanyl-laced painkillers.

“It felt like the honest ending,” Euphoria creator Sam Levinson said in post-finale behind the scenes featurette. “The honest ending is that people like Rue don’t make it.”

“People relapse, they f–k up, they’re not ready to get clean,” Levinson added, drawing a connection between Rue’s tragic farewell and his own experience with addition. “I could say with absolute certainty that if was going through what I went through when I was younger now, then I wouldn’t be here either.”

Levinson subsequently announced on The New York Times‘ Popcast podcast that this was indeed the end for the series, confirming what fans had long expected.

While Zendaya notably didn’t participate in the exit interviews, footage of her farewell to the crew opened the 12-minute featurette. “I just want to say thank you,” the actress said as she prepared to exit the show. “I’m incredibly grateful for every single one of you, and many of you have been here from the beginning and watched me grow up. It’s been such a pleasure and an honor — thank you so much.”

It should be noted that Rue didn’t suspect the painkillers had a fatal added ingredient when she took them. That was a parting “gift” from crime kingpin Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who learned via Maddy (Alexa Demie) that Rue was collaborating with the DEA to gather intel on his operations. While staying with her sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo), Rue takes one of those pills, and seemingly wakes up refreshed.

Turning on the news, she receives an unexpected status update on an old friend. Fezco O’Neill — played by the late Angus Cloud — has broken out of a Los Angeles-area prison in an improbable escape. Cloud passed away in 2023, but Levinson kept his character alive in the Euphoria universe. Season 3’s first episode revealed that Rue’s close friend was in lock-up, and still pining for Lexie (Maude Apatow) who he seemed to be starting a love connection with last season.

“When Angus died, it was tough,” Levinson said last month at the Los Angeles premiere, while visibly holding back tears. “I loved him deeply and I fought hard to keep him clean. The year he died, he was one of 73,000 people in America who died of a fentanyl overdose.”

Fez’s escape spurs Rue to follow through on their long-ago plan for her to pick him up whenever he exited prison. Hopping into her car, she drives to her childhood home, passing mental projections of her younger self along the way. When a police barricade blocks her path, she races away from the cops and finds a way into her house. Once inside, she wanders through the empty hallways until she discovers her mother reading the Bible. Weeping, Rue reaches out to her mother, overcome by this long-awaited moment of reconnection.

But it turns out to be a death dream. As she and her mother embrace, the real Rue is seen gasping for breath while the fentanyl drains her life. When Ali emerges from his bedroom, he finds Rue’s body and wishes for her to be at peace before calling her mother. The news spreads quickly to her friends after that; Jules (Hunter Schafer) is shown mournfully completing a portrait of her ex-lover, while Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Lexi remember her fondly for her smile before going their separate ways. Our last glimpse of Cassie is her alone in the house she briefly shared with Elordi’s Nate, uncertain of what life might hold for her next.

Ali, on the other hand, decides to take vengeance into his own hands. Dressed in army duds and armed with a shotgun, he enters Alamo’s strip club and faces off with Rue’s cowboy-hatted killer in an old-fashioned Western duel that ends with a bullet-ridden Brown down for the count. Ali then visits the farm where Rue found peace — and a renewed sense of faith — back in the season premiere and bids farewell to his friend through prayer.

“Let her memory be a blessing,” he says, looking up to see a beaming Rue at the other end of the table. “Amen,” she replies. Just as the credits role, Zendaya is heard in voiceover uttering what is likely to be Euphoria‘s final line: “May God bless us all.”

“Zendaya’s performance has been so wonderful and layered over the course of these seasons,” Levinson raved of his star in the post-finale featurette. “We fell in love with this character, this girl who is flawed and f–ked up, but has a good heart.”

“I feel so lucky my first major scene partner ended up being a soulmate,” Schafer echoed. “Z is somebody I’m going to be talking to when I’m old; I love her to the moon and back.”

For his part, Akinnuoye-Agbaje observed how Rue’s passing reflected where the character started way back in Season 1. “Rue’s character has voiced many of this younger generation’s aspirations, concerns, tribulations,” the actor said. “I thought Sam was really responsible in portraying the consequences of that. Many, many fans will be devastated by the way she does end, and that Alamo would kill her with the sword that she used.”

“In the end, I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction,” Levinson said matter-of-factly of how Rue’s death represents the closing of a tragic circle. “I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil it can create. I’ve always been against utopian storytelling. What we’ve been known for on this show is not pulling any punches.”

Despite divisive reviews, Euphoria‘s third season has been a ratings hit for HBO and Zendaya’s emotional exit could propel her back into Emmy contention. The star is currently sitting at No. 3 on Gold Derby’s experts-only leaderboard behind The Diplomat‘s Keri Russell and Pluribus‘ Rhea Seehorn. Zendaya already has two Emmys from Euphoria‘s first two seasons, and a win for her farewell year would make her the second contending actress seeking a perfect score. Hacks star Jean Smart is also expected to go 5-for-5 for the show’s just-concluded fifth and final season.