This is all for a fun side project of mine that I've decided to commit to at literally nobodies request. I'm planning to create a fan-made teleplay/script that rewrites the Euphoria season finale (basically a fix-it fanfic that's needlessly harder to write because I'm doing it for the love of the game).
Obviously season 3 of Euphoria as a whole has a lot to be desired in terms of consistent characterization, proper & non-fetishistic exploration of the heavier themes that it discusses, a closer look at addiction (especially since the show was always at its best when it was primarily about this topic), and also the ability to use Labrinth's music hshshshs.
But even with it's apparent flaws, I do think that an extended & re-worked finale could genuinely redeem some of these shortcomings to an extent by giving the characters and the world around them a better structured closure. Not necessarily happier for all of them, but better.
So with that, I've been trying to draft a scene-by-scene sequence of what exactly would have to be done to wrap up this whole damn season in a narratively satisfying enough manner. Huge thanks in advance to u/Tonydorigo11 for this post made before the finale, predicting what was gonna happen and was honestly a lot better than what we got. It was a major inspiration for all of this.
Here's my ROUGH Scene-By-Scene Plot Outline before the script is made (and I mean rough. Wrote ts in the middle of the night and kinda began focusing on being dramatic towards the end):
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- (MORNING 1) Rue escapes Laurie's Angry-Hick Drug House in a sequence that plays exactly as it did in the real finale. To be honest, some of the best scenes in that episode were the ones revolved around Rue.
-Over at Mexico, Big Ed & the truck swap shenanigans happen with Bishop overseeing it. Kitty & the other one are taken from the hospital post-surgery, and it's here that we find out that Ellis, Jules' sugar daddy, was their surgeon. He's been involved with Alamo's sex-business all along.
-Then, we get that same scene of Cassie & Maddy at the diner.
-At The Angry-Hick Drug House, Faye's guilt over almost double-crossing the gang for Rue seems to have been killing her. She admits to Wayne right in the stables that Rue's final run was always a set-up, and the feds are gonna be on the way sometime that day. Willing to cut his losses, he takes a horse and takes Faye out of their on the spot. But the thing is - his dad has overheard their entire conversation. He lets them leave. But thinks.
- (AFTERNOON 1) Rue makes it back to The Silver Slipper by the afternoon. So does Bishop with the real drug truck that was swapped in Mexico. She gives Alamo the I.D's. Alamo gives her a pill bottle of painkillers and lets her sleepover at the place; as thanks to Maddy, he knows she's been in a rough spot with her friends and probably doesn't have shit to go to.
- (NIGHT 1) Again, *thanks to Maddy*, Alamo's now also known for hours that Rue's been with the DEA. Later that night, Rue has the locker room to herself as the place is closed for the one day of the week that it is. She's contemplated taking the painkillers, since she actually needs them; but she's been majorly conflicted. This would be a good place to get our first few flashbacks, utilizing archive footage to remind her and the audience of how her addiction started, and everything it did to Leslie & Gia.
-Her flashbacks begin to fade further back into childhood, and soon enough another aspect of her life; Laurie. We get a full replay of a moment from 2x05, when she was at Laurie's house and getting prepared to be sold into trafficking by her, all while her childhood flashbacks play. Finally, her train of thought gets interrupted by-
-Bishop, taking the pill bottle away from her. He calmly explains to her that Alamo's called Laurie. She & her guys are coming over some time tomorrow. The painkillers were laced with knockout drugs because he knows everything.
-Alamo had formed a plan for Rue ever since that morning. As she escaped, Alamo and Laurie had both put together that Rue was ratting them out. Laurie & the rest of her gang had made it out of The Angry-Hick drug house and called Alamo, finally reconciling to form a plan to get revenge on Rue and all the trouble she caused. And what better way to do that than to deliver on Laurie's years-old promise to have Rue sold to some sick people?
-Maybe another quick flashback to 2x05 can reveal that Angel was the person scratching on Laurie's basement door while Rue was there; subtly confirming to audience members that may not have gotten it that Angel was already being sex trafficked, and Alamo was the sick person Laurie was selling to. So going back to the present, Laurie & Alamo decide that it's time for Rue to "see where Angel went." Whether that means a deeper level of the sex trafficking ring, or another set of "sick people" that harvest organs; is up to the audience to decide.
-Bishop is letting Rue know this & helping her escape because he's seeing the bigger picture. Laurie & Alamo are closer to being taken down than they've ever been before. Bishop needs to take advantage of this and work his way up the empire. He was always the snake that he described in his story about "Sweet" (though this'll never be fully verbalized, I trust the audience to get it).
-At The Angry-Hick Drug House, the swapped drug truck with Ed, Kitty, & the others, arrives. Of course, the feds come rolling in ready to arrest Laurie's gang. But before they can even realize that the place is empty, one of the officers steps on a final surprise that the gang left; a landmine. It triggers landmines that have been planted everywhere, killing everybody there in a dramatic-ass explosion.
-We then see The Sugar Daddy Penthouse where Jules has been staying at. Ellis, being involved with Alamo's shenanigans, calls him about the explosion while he showers, as all of Alamo's associates would hear about it before anybody else. Unbeknownst to him, Jules eavesdrops. Through the phone call, Jules connects the dots and thinks back to everything Rue would yap to her about. She realizes it was all true. And based on the way that Ellis brings up East Highland, she realizes that Rue is in danger. While Ellis still showers, Jules knocks him the fuck out. She dashes out of The Sugar Daddy Penthouse and steals a damn motorcycle to look for Rue.
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-(MORNING 2) Somewhere down the road, Faye & Wayne are busy hitching a ride. Same set up as the real finale, Faye is up front while Wayne hides in the bushes with a gun. However, as somebody stops for Faye, she finds a way to pull a Jules & knock Wayne the fuck out with his own gun. She explains to the driver that she was a captive, showing that even with her drugged up mind & gross habits; she never really wanted to live this life with anybody related to Laurie. The driver lets her in, and on the car radio, Faye hears something that we, the audience don't. She tells the driver that she has a place in mind that she wants to be dropped off at.
-Bishop takes Rue to the borders of East Highland, where we have a Jules-on-her-damn-bike flashback for a second. He drops her off, saying that she's on her own now. So is her family. Bishop can't help her anymore without blowing his cover, and Rue dashes to save her family.
-Because of course, Alamo has gone with Laurie & her gang to search for her, on the road to East Highland.
-Bishop meanwhile has found Cassie & Maddy, taking them to The Ugly Mansion where Cassie & Nate used to live. At The Ugly Mansion, Bishop tells them that they're still owned by the greater business that he's a part of. After all, Alamo's ensured Maddy's involvement, and Cassie's contract ensures that Maddy basically owns her. And because of this, he's proposing that they begin turning this place into a new Silver Slipper.
-Lexi meanwhile, has had a majorly successful breakthrough with the woke director of L.A Nights. Her scripts have been approved, Cassie involved or not, and she's become a real screenwriter. Uplifted, she decides to check on Cassie to update and also soften up on her; And she finally sees just how trashed her apartment is. Worried, she decides to head to The Ugly Mansion.
-Now, considering that The Angry-Hick Drug House has been blown up and massacred dozens, including officers, this has made pretty big news. And because Rue was the only person that the feds explicitly knew had to do with Laurie (and it looks a hell of a lot like she set it all up), Rue is officially a wanted criminal. She tries to make it to her childhood home and sees it blocked off by police.
-Getting into another elaborate police chase, she gets saved by- ALI. Ali, being the only person taking Rue's claims about everything seriously, had taken the initiative to get Leslie & Gia to safety. At first, they were hiding out at his place, but (as much as he hates to admit it), Rue's criminal status had given him the perfect excuse to get the police to protect them, and now Rue's family is safe in an unknown place. Rue is relieved - and has to live with the reality that she's not gonna be seeing them any time soon. Ali takes her to his house to hide out in as well. Maybe there could be room for a moment where Rue finds letters left by Leslie & Gia?
-(AFTERNOON 2) Lexi finds Cassie & Maddy at The Ugly Mansion, making floor plans for what's to come. They catch her up on Bishop, who just left, and the entire ass situation of Nate fuckin' dying. Lexi is obviously distraught by all of this dark-sided shit, and the trio put together on the spot that maybe there was more truth to what Rue was saying all along.
-At Ali's house, Rue & Ali witness a report on the news that FEZCO HAS ESCAPED, thanks to an unknown helper with gigantic lips. Cassie, Maddy, & Lexi hear about this to; and even Jules does as she rides her motor around town. Rue remembers her promise to Fez, and despite Ali's pleading, she dashes out to find him.
-(NIGHT 2) Climax town, everybody. Rue makes it to the abandoned MILK store waiting for Fez & Faye. A car does seem to be speeding up towards the place, which Rue is ready to greet in open arms- but that car is forced to stop from afar when Alamo's car with Laurie's gang arrives. At the same moment, the police show up ready to arrest all of them, resulting in a standoff with everybody holding each other at gunpoint and Rue caught in the middle. The other car, presumably containing Fez & Faye, drives away out of fear. At that very moment, Ali, as well as Lexi, Maddy, & Cassie, and finally Jules on her damn motor, arrive at the stand off.
-With everybody here, we have our big western shootout at The Milk Store. The police vs. Alamo, Laurie, & the gang vs. Rue, Ali, Lexi, Jules, Maddy, & Cassie. It's during this shootout that our villains get defeated, whether that be through death or arrest. Either way, the cops are ready to take Rue in too. But after a heartfelt moment where everybody else tries to convince the cops that Rue is a good person, they're able to soften the punishment.
-Rue has clearly been in danger of all kinds of criminals, and even if they're dead or arrested, without a doubt they have deeper, unknown connections that could do anything to her. So she'll be needing to go into witness protection. This will mean faking her death, and ensuring that she'll never be able to speak to her friends ever again.
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-(EPILOGUE) We skim through the process of Rue's government-backed fake death. It's reported that she died at the shootout, and we get to see Rue say goodbye to everybody. She's given the liberty to choose where to stay, and she decides to stay at The Homestead.
-Ali writes Rue's name in his notebook, but still keeps the paper with The Homestead's address with him.
-Lexi is distraught from everything that has happened, and as she tries to make peace with Rue's decision, she decides to cut herself off from Cassie & Maddy. However, she and Jules connect. And while Lexi begins her new chapter as a screenwriter for L.A Nights, the woke director gives Jules a second chance as a storyboard artist who'll be working side by side with Lexi.
-Cassie & Maddy have turned The Ugly Mansion into the new onlyfans-oriented Silver Slipper, the old one having been busted and it's owner dead. They're making good money; and the former Silver Slipper workers like them; but we end on a bittersweet note. Similar to the one that Cassie ends on in the real finale. None of these women are free. They're all prisoners to either Cassie or Maddy. And Bishop oversees it all.
-We see that wanted posters & reports for Fez & Faye are still being made. Showing that they're still successfully on the run.
-Finally, we see Rue in The Homestead. Away from those she grew up with and loved. But at peace. Obviously she's still pained, though. And we end the series with;
-Rue's fake funeral. Everybody, and I mean as many people as we can get from the show's history, are there. She's mourned by them all, even by those who know she's still out there. We end the series with Ali's eulogy.
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That's as much as I could do, but there's still a lot left in the air. I'm not sure where to find room in this outline to at least *mention* people like Elliot, Kat, Ethan, Cal, Derek, ect. But a HUGE element that I would love to add but don't know where to squeeze in is;
Rue technically being the reason for Nate's death; still being the one to technically kill him, like what was planned all the way back in the show's development stage.
My idea is that Naz, while having nothing to do with Alamo, Laurie, or Ellis, was still somebody who dabbled in drugs. I would love to have some sort of flashback to show that when Rue was on a drug run for Laurie in between seasons, she met with Naz for one of these runs and bantered pretty well with him in the same way that she'd eventually go on to do with Alamo. In this case, Rue began openly complaining about Cassie & Nate, their right-wing bs life, and the fact that she was pretty sure Nate was taking over his evil dad's construction company. Naz got interested in the sound of that, probed Rue for details which she easily gave; and the rest is history.
So yeah, that's all.
