Euphoria Season 3 Episode 8 Recap: How Does Rue’s Story End?

Euphoria Season 3, Episode 8, titled “In God We Trust,” continues the season’s trend of delivering uber-long episodes. The season (or series?) finale is feature-length, clocking in at a whopping 93-minutes. This gives the writers plenty of time to wrap up storylines, but also to create new ones? What we do know is that this explosive finale will satisfy diehard fans.

There are plenty of detractors of Euphoria’s third season, but for this critic, this episode perfectly encapsulates why this chapter is sharp, funny, and impossible to look away from. The first forty minutes of the finale’s script are expertly plotted, shocking, and beautifully moving, including a storyline that serves as a tribute to the late Angus Cloud.

Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 8, “In God We Trust,” about thirty-five minutes into the finale, Rue (Zendaya) sees on television that Fez escaped from prison. She is excited, as she knows where Fez is going to hide. The young woman promised Fez he would pick her up if he ever escaped. So, she gets in a car, and it looks like she’s going to her mother’s home.

Rue leaves against Ali’s (Colman Domingo) objections. However, what actually happens is easily one of the most shocking moments in the series’ history. To understand what, we need to turn back the clock to the episode’s beginning. Take a moment and read our complete review and spoiler-filled recap of Euphoria‘s “In God We Trust” below!

HBO Max’s Euphoria Season 3 Episode 8: How Does Alamo Mule the Drugs Across the Border?

Alamo Brown (Lost’s Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) had Big Eddy (Kadeem Hardison) drive an ambulance with one of Laurie’s men across the border to pick up two of Alamo’s dancers who had undergone plastic surgery. When Laurie’s man went inside, Eddy switched the vehicle with another. We know this because Eddy’s companion’s Coke was missing.

Moments later, we see the soda bottle in the ambulance Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson) is driving to Alamo’s compound. They pry open the floorboards and discover bricks of drugs marked with “CNN” and a scorpion brand. Meanwhile, Big Eddy and Laurie’s man drive their ambulance to her ranch as the DEA closes in. That takes us back to Rue as she escapes.

She steals the bag containing the identifications of Alamo’s strippers. This comes after Faye screams, waking Wayne (Toby Wallace), who injures his leg while chasing her. As Rue runs down the road. Harley (James Landry Hébert) catches her, lassoing her from horseback. G (Marshawn Lynch) shoots him with a rifle, allowing Rue a reprieve.

At Laurie’s house, Faye (Chloe Cherry) tells Wayne the drugs were laxatives, so they leave as the ambulance arrives. The DEA comes, arresting everyone. Laurie kills herself, jumping off the roof, with a noose around her neck. Harley doesn’t have the stones to do it; he surrenders. The DEA finds a rat under the ambulance’s floorboards. Big Eddy quits his job.

HBO Max’s Euphoria Season 3 Episode 8: How Does Rue Die?

If you thought last week’s episode was shocking when we saw that Nate (Jacob Elordi) had died, hold your hats. Rue is given a whole bottle of Percocet as a reward for her fine work at Alamo. However, what she did not know was that Alamo gave her fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent. This is confirmed by Ali, who uses a home-based test.

In what we interpret as Rue’s dream, Ali wakes up to find Rue telling him that Fez has escaped from prison. We think she is actually driving to pick up Fez. When she arrives at her home, she sees her mother reading Psalm 15. We also see Rue on the ground, reaching out her hand. Moments later, Ali wakes up and gets out of bed.

Ali checks on Rue, who has overdosed on his couch. He writes down the date of her death. We then see Jules (Hunter Schafer) paint a picture. I can only assume she heard of Rue’s death, and it is of her, a young woman lying on the ground dead. We then dig into Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) storyline as she deals with the fallout from Nate.

Maddy and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) owe money to Alamo. Cassie gives Maddy an envelope of money. Maddy then gets into a car with Bishop. Cassie and her sister, Lexi (Maude Apatow), talk, with the issue of Nate still a secret apparently, as Lexi doesn’t know he is dead. Later, Lexi leaves, leaving Cassie in the home that Nate built for her.

HBO Max’s Euphoria Season 3 Episode 8 Ending Explained: How Does Euphoria End?

Ali enters Alamo’s club, dressed in a full military uniform. He kills G, who lied to him about who gave Rue the fentanyl. Alamo comes out, given his trusted gold-plated .44 Magnum revolver. Alamo requests a duel, and when Kitty drops the champagne bottle, they draw. Of course, Alamo cheats, but when he pulls the trigger, there are no bullets in the gun.

Ali shoots Alamo with his last three bullets in his shotgun. It is a graphic scene, as the final blasts spray blood all over him. Euphoria Season 3, Episode 8, “In God We Trust,” then ends with Ali visiting the Texas home that took Rue in after crossing the border. Ali sits at their dinner table, gives a final blessing, and sees Rue sitting at the kitchen table.

Clearly, this was in Ali’s head, but we can imagine this brings him peace. The final scene shows the home with an American flag blowing in the wind, and Rue says in the narration, “May God bless us all.”

You can stream Euphoria season 3 episode 8, titled “In God We Trust,” exclusively on HBO Max on May 31st!

Euphoria Season 3 Episode 8 Recap: How Does Rue’s Story End?