Old habits die hard in Euphoria as characters revert to old tendencies and relationship dynamics in a tense but uneven fourth episode. Lexi is back to playing the role of observer, passing judgment on her sister’s and friend’s behavior that she will undoubtedly try to turn into a screenplay. It is hard to escape high school comparisons with Cassie entering the Hollywood playground in a bid for influencer fame and fortune, with former BFF Maddy shaping this career path. And despite not imbibing in hard drugs, Rue finds herself scrambling to score in a bid to stay out of prison. Having to vamp on the spot is a skill Rue still hasn’t quite perfected, despite years of telling lies in an attempt to hide previous relapses throughout the first two seasons. Feelings of desperation have always been a baseline for Sam Levinson’s HBO drama, but “Kitty Likes To Dance” dials up the sex, drugs, and money horrors as it continues to unpack the American dream with bleak, stirring, and often heavy-handed results.
Zendaya continues to do terrific work this season in capturing Rue’s constantly evolving circumstances. After the DEA reveals how much damning evidence they have against her, Rue is understandably skittish in her new role as a confidential source, a.k.a., a snitch. Blaming her reactions on being hungover buys Rue some time before admitting to a relapse that hasn’t happened to explain her behavior. It is a layered performance that sees Zendaya deftly hit different notes of nervousness, from the manic laughter when Alamo tells her to smile to trying to argue her way out of Magick’s accusations that Rue is asking probing questions that suggest she is a rat. The latter isn’t even about what the DEA has tasked her with, and the situation quickly escalates when Laurie’s crew hits the Silver Slipper for some good old-fashioned revenge that ends with bloodshed and an empty safe.
After the previous episode brought the former high school classmates together for the first time since they graduated, Levinson’s plotting can’t completely overcome its disjointed tendencies. Rue’s storyline continues to feel separate from everything else, even if cutting between the Silver Slipper and the influencer party in Hollywood draws on the similar themes of exploitation dressed up as different businesses. Both venues have provocative dancing, barely there outfits, copious amounts of illicit substances, and the desire to get noticed for a huge payday. Cassie likes to dance as much as the Silver Slipper’s latest hire, Kitty, but only one of them is getting gangbanged by a group of drunk men who are paying money for the experience.
Given the increasing dread levels at the Silver Slipper, it is hard not to worry for Cassie when she is locked in a bedroom with influencer Brandon—who has 20 million followers—and Maddy’s former client, Katelyn. The latter mentions that she doesn’t test her drugs for fentanyl because they come from a trusted source, and yet she still pukes her guts up (calling it now that Katelyn not testing her supply will come back to bite her later this season). Cassie’s endless “woo girl” screaming and eagerness to have coke snorted from near her vagina indicate that little has changed from the teenager who took MDMA at the carnival in the first season and put on a very public erotic display on the carousel. Despite signs that something bad might happen, everything goes according to Maddy’s plan; Cassie doesn’t sleep with Brandon, and she ends up featuring on his socials. If only Kitty had a similar story to share.
Earlier in “Kitty Likes to Dance,” Cassie tells Nate that the fairy tale is over. Still, she is undoubtedly happier in her new environment than languishing in what she thought was suburban paradise. She is excited about whatever makeover Maddy decides, leaning into the pinup mold Maddy crafts through hair, makeup, and skin-tight attire. When they drive past the Cinerama Dome, Cassie’s blonder hair is leaning into Sharon Tate territory, and the retro Hollywood aesthetic is impossible to ignore—even if the movie theater is still shuttered in the present day. Whether Marilyn Monroe, Tate, or any other previous starlet, this season has done little to explore who Cassie is beyond these superficial goals.
When Cassie poses for a photo shoot with Maddy, she points out that her hair is not the selling point; her body is. The intermittent blowing from the leafblower (held by the underused Gideon Adlon) that drowns out the dialogue and the crosstalk escalates when Rue shows up to ask Maddy about where she scores drugs. Lexi’s irritation with everything unfolding is warranted (damn, that leaf blower is annoying). Lexi’s outburst could double as an audience reaction to the different threads. “What is wrong with you people? You’re looking for drugs, you’re selling your body on your porn site, and you’re like some internet pimp?” Lexi asks. Rue, Cassie, and Maddy offer little more than a shrug in response, which is equally telling and feels like Levinson responding to critiques.
So far this season. Apatow has had minimal development beyond coming across as more judgmental than she was in high school. Equally underserved is Jules, so having the two characters overlap in a storyline about artistic expression is a potentially fruitful avenue that fails to deliver. What follows is bad communication from Lexi (she tells Jules to “do whatever you feel”) that leads to 14 penises in a Georges Seurat-inspired picnic painting commissioned for network TV. Jules is listless in her fancy apartment, watching reality TV instead of working. She is excited about this huge opportunity Lexi is giving her (L.A. Nights gets seven million viewers per week), but responds to the request to ditch the dicks by destroying the whole painting instead. Unbeknownst to Jules, a meek Lexi tells showrunner Patty (Sharon Stone) that Jules is trans as the reason for the penises. Lexi has reverted to avoidance patterns (including not calling Fez in prison), but the outcome of this storyline is more vague than the brief Lexi gave Jules.
What is fundamentally more successful is the heightened tension whenever Rue is on screen at the Silver Slipper. The DEA has made it clear to Rue that she will go to jail for 20-plus years if she doesn’t come through with taking down the significant drug-dealing network, whether it is Laurie or someone else. They mention the fentanyl deaths that can be directly linked back to Rue, and that doesn’t even include Tish, because her body has been disposed of. Rue doesn’t have many options for hero moves, which is why scenes like Rue watching Kitty getting gangbanged on CCTV are so gut-wrenching because Rue has very few options to intervene. Despite knowing this, Rue can’t let the horror of this image go, and asks Kitty if she is being forced into this work. Kitty’s “I like to dance” is the heartbreaking sentiment that gives the episode its title and a heavy dose of denial that keeps the cogs of this machine moving.
Rue ends up in a sticky situation with her loyalty being questioned, thanks to Magick, who immediately tells Big Eddy what she heard. However, the ongoing feud between Laurie and Alamo also ups the stakes, as the violence escalates to physical attacks on key personnel, and Rue is likely spared during the robbery because Laurie has a vested interest in her. Unlike Nate’s beating last week, there is nothing cartoonish about the assault as the masked men move through the club into Big Eddy’s office.
Big Eddy takes a bullet to the gut before sharing how to get into the safe, and this heist is another sequence where you can see Tarantino’s influence. That Bishop is more concerned with identifying the people who dared to steal from Alamo than getting Big Eddy medical attention speaks volumes about their priorities. Rue quickly identifies Faye as the getaway driver by her distinctive lips, and this event might have bought Rue some time regarding the accusations leveled at her. Being able to talk her way out of any tricky situation was a Rue specialty in the past and continues in the current season, but how long before her luck runs out?
Stray observations
- • Jacob Elordi is doing some big-time emoting as he pleads his case to the board for new planning permission, but as with Nate’s assault in the previous episode, this scene lands like an absurd comedy.
- • Jules wearing a white Acne designer dress for a painting gig is as outlandish as Nate wearing a Bottega Veneta jacket to the permit board appeal, but at least Jules has access to oodles of cash and high-end attire to justify her closet. Whereas Nate owes a million-ish dollars to a loan shark who is not against cutting off body parts.
- • When Big Eddy flips up his aviator shades, it is very much a nod to Kadeem Hardison’s iconic role as Dwayne Wayne on A Different World.
- • The symbolism of the two tween girls who look like young Maddy and Cassie, watching as a very glam Maddy whisks Cassie away from suburbia to Hollywood, is incredibly on the nose, pointing back to more innocent times between the pair. It also reads like the little girls seeing a fairy-tale version of what their lives could be. If only they knew.
- • Nepo baby casting updates include the aforementioned Gideon Adlon, who I hope has more to do than serve as Cassie’s makeshift wind machine via a leaf blower; Anna Van Patten (sister of Grace and daughter of prolific TV director Tim Van Patten); and Brandon Wahlberg (nephew of Donnie and Mark Wahlberg).
- • Patty explains that the painting blunder costs the studio $56,000 (for the day lost), followed by an additional $191,000 to hold the studio, and tells Lexi not to be a “net negative. But I have to ask: Why didn’t they have a backup painting lined up?
- • Labrinth pulling his score from the third season has made headlines, and his music is certainly missed. There are several scenes this week that sound Labrinth-esque (including the opening and when Maddy picks up Cassie before the party), and it is a shame we will never get to hear what Labrinth had intended for this season.
- • One area that is impossible to fault is the show’s look, and cinematographer Marcell Rév continues to blow me away with his use of light. The image of Rue standing outside the Silver Slipper at nighttime as she realizes she left her phone in Big Eddy’s office is another stunner.
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