Zendaya’s Rue Dying in Euphoria S3 Invalidates Her Journey Despite Sam Levinson Defending It

After a gruellingly controversial run,  has finally come to an end after 3 seasons. Although people had expected that going a season beyond the latest would pose a problem, considering how eagerly Zendaya and Jacob Elordi wanted to detach themselves from the project, there was no confirmation.

That has changed with the final episode airing. HBO has confirmed that the series has since concluded and no new seasons will be made. However, it is Rue’s death that is rubbing people the wrong way.

Sam Levinson Defends Rue Death

© HBOIn a post-show interview with HBO. Euphoria showrunner opened up about Rue’s death. Both HBO and Levinson confirmed that the show is officially over and that season 3’s finale was, in fact, the series finale.

“It felt like an honest ending. The honest ending is people like Rue don’t make it. I think in the end, I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction. I also wanted to tell a story about grief and the emotional turmoil that it can create.”

People were very upset with the direction that character had taken this season. Instead of focusing on her sobriety and hoping to see a future, she was getting roped into one bad situation after another.

It felt odd that Zendaya wasn’t promoting the show as enthusiastically as she does with her other projects. Moreover, it also brought out the impression that she wasn’t happy with the way her character ended. Rue Bennett’s death invalidates a lot of what her journey was about.

© HBOA girl who was so hell-bent on proving to herself and everyone else that she could grow outside of her flaws was haunted by a past she could not escape. The show very quickly went from being hyper-realistic to downright fiction.

Rue was given ‘painkillers’ that turned out to be fentanyl. This was, she started and ended the show with an overdose. This trickery completely invalidates her journey as a survivor of addiction and substance abuse.

She never got the happy ending that she deserved. In fact, now everyone knows didn’t know what happened and will think that she relapsed, overdosed and went back into the same patterns. Her efforts were completely invalidated and while Rue is at peace after her struggles, she deserved better.

Many fans also thought the same way.

This would be one of the only Zendaya characters to have died on screen. She was a rare representation of a queer woman of colour. Seeing her death be so sudden and unsatisfactory, it cannot help but disappoint those who truly connected with the show.

Giving Rue a happy ending mattered because it proved that even if you were flawed and mentally struggling, you could still grow.