After breaking HBO Max’s all-time viewer record, the hit TV drama “Euphoria” has taken over the screens of teenagers and young adults across the globe. 

With notable celebrities such as Emmy award-winning actress Zendaya, fashion model Hunter Schafer, and Jacob Elordi from “The Kissing Booth”, the intriguing series has captivated audiences since it’s premiere in 2019. 

The high school series was originally based on a 2012 Israeli series about troubled middle-class teens, sex, and drugs. Similarly, the American adaptation we have come to know follows a handful of teens and their experiences as ever-growing humans, but in an insanely dramatic way. 

While the HBO series does touch upon a heavy amount of drugs, lust, and mental traumas, “Euphoria” has done an impeccable job with keeping viewers hooked.

Regardless of having a two-year gap between the first two seasons, the Season 2 pilot racked up a whopping 8.3 million viewers on HBO and HBO Max, giving more than five million more viewers than Season 1’s premiere.

The first episode of Season 2, “Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door,” starts off with the upbringing of the lovable character Fezco, (Angus Cloud), who serves as a local drug dealer and close friend to main character Rue, (Zendaya). 

The episode spotlights Fezco’s grandmother specifically, and her experiences as a drug dealer and passing her “hustler” antics onto her grandson.

Fezco is hands down my favorite character, so I thoroughly enjoyed watching his upbringing and a little bit of his grandmother’s life story as well.

Cloud’s humbleness and chill energy on and off set is something very admirable, especially as a first-time actor. With zero acting experience prior to “Euphoria”, he isn’t very different from Fezco, and that’s something that viewers have become content with.

A majority of live watchers on Twitter appreciated that show creator Sam Levinson chose to highlight Fezco’s story, especially since he is a fan favorite. 

Another thing that “Euphoria” does an excellent job of is thoroughly explaining every prime character and their introspective emotions. This is true for everyone except McKay.

The biggest turn off in the first season of “Euphoria found its way back to the Season 2 premiere: McKay’s still-underdeveloped character. McKay (Algee Smith) is the only other prevalent Black character in the show besides Rue. 

McKay’s character was written very poorly in Season One, and it is really upsetting to see that things haven’t changed. With just a few basic lines exchanged with Nate, it seems that McKay has been completely written off after the first episode.

In the second episode, “Out of Touch,” the show begins to balance a handful of messy relationships. With a love triangle between Maddy (Alexa Demie), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate. The plethora of failed relationships never seem to end in this show, and the repetitive issue of immaturity when it comes to dating in high school is very accurate.

The third episode is easily my favorite. I was not expecting much after finding out the episode would bring attention to Nate’s unlikable father, Cal Jacobs (Eric Dane from “Grey’s Anatomy”) and his story about being a closeted gay man. Despite being a bottom-tier character like his son, his personal episode included a beautiful back story and amazing cinematography.

With the recent release of the fourth episode, “You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can,” the series of events that occurred in the span of one hour was very… questionable. 

Blossoming a new love triangle with Jules and Elliot (Dominic Fike), it’s evident that Rue’s sobriety journey won’t continue anytime soon. 

The writing of the episode wasn’t the easiest to follow and it touched on basically every character in a very jam-packed way. It definitely wasn’t terrible, but it may have missed the mark compared to the previous episodes that held the bar high.

Regardless, fans have already taken it to Twitter to make their predictions for what’s to come this season, especially for Rue.

Twitter user st1gm44’s tweet with more than 100,000 likes wrote, “me realizing that the [episode] was so chaotic and messy [because] Rue wasn’t narrating.” 

Many replies under the main tweet guess that Rue may have overdosed again or eventually dies after her absence in narrating and a heartfelt scene with her late father, which would be an entirely huge turning point in the show. 

But killing off the character that brings in mega views for HBO wouldn’t necessarily be the smartest idea. Yet knowing Levinson and his jaw-dropping storylines, this might be acceptable compared to what he actually ends up doing.

Now that viewers are halfway through Season 2, it’s a guarantee that the plot will only get messier from this point on, and I’m here for it all.