If you’re a fan of Euphoria, you might want to clear your calendar for Memorial Day weekend — at least according to the show’s creator, Sam Levinson.
“If you’re not watching Episodes 7 and 8 live, the moment they drop, they will get spoiled,” he said during a Q&A with Jason Reitman, following a screening of Episode 6 of the hit HBO series. “There are some big, big things that happen.”
Following the Q&A, the audience was treated to a screening of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry, which Levinson said figures heavily into the final two episodes.
“I wanted to draw upon the spirit of this film,” he said. “The reason I say that is because it’s very much a counter-counterculture film — the hippie movement had completely imploded, crime was on the rise, drugs were on the rise, cops were pigs. It was a very sort of tumultuous time, political assassinations, Richard Nixon wins in an electoral landslide, and here comes Dirty Harry with his .44 Magnum to clean up the streets.”
While Levinson didn’t specify which Euphoria character embodies Dirty Harry specifically, he did say that the film’s power reflects a time when institutions break down in society, “and they’re unable to prevent horrific tragedy,” he said. “I think about that in relation to fentanyl, and what’s happened over the past five years, where we have had 75,000 people a year dying of fentanyl overdoses in this country. The toll is unimaginable, and at the same time we haven’t had films or shows that have run counter to the counterculture, which has become in many ways the establishment, so I’m excited to show this.”
Euphoria star Angus Cloud died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023.
Episode 6 ended with Rue (Zendaya) crashing her car and encountering a burning bush — yet another biblical sign in an episode filled with religious overtones. Levinson explained that his own personal exploration with religion began as part of his sobriety, at age 19, which then infused his writing for Euphoria — which plays out in the finale.
“I started thinking about it in terms believing in a power greater than yourselves, and I started to read these wild, violent, fascinating, meaningful stories in the Old Testament, and I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I just apply this to the characters and the world, and, and see what it reveals,'” he said.
“In going through it, and knowing where it goes in 7 and 8, I think this is hands-down our best season. Particularly Episode 8 reaches a level of poignancy that, I could only dream of when I was first working on this show, and so I think that there’s a lot to learn from religion, and on a purely graphic level, in terms of cinematography and imagery, it’s filled with such mythic images that it’s inspiring.”
