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Euphoria is no stranger to controversy.
But the show’s third and final season is pushing the envelope like never before and stirring up at least one new debate each week.
Most of the controversies have had to do with Sydney Sweeney’s OnlyFans storyline, but on Sunday night, Cassie may have passed the baton to her estranged husband Nate, played by Jacob Elordi.
Nate, of course, is having a tough season, and last night’s episode saw him throwing a tantrum over his stalled real estate development project.
Said tantrum had Nate trampling endangered flowers, and — in a writing decision that left some viewers irritated and offended — shouting the f-slur.
“Jacob Elordi said the f slur with a little too much conviction,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).
“Why’d they make jacob elordi say the f slur?” another asked.
“We’re dropping F slurs on HBO, now? That’s them trying to see what they can get away with with Jacob Elordi. Buddy is lucky this is the the finale and he already has his Oscar nom,” a third chimed in.
(Last night’s episode was not the finale, but the user might have been referring to the fact that this is Euphoria’s final season. Elordi was recently nominated for an Oscar for his work in Frankenstein.)
We’re sure that showrunner Sam Levinson knew that the scene would ignite an online discourse, and that’s exactly what it did.
But is Euphoria resorting to cheap tricks in its effort to remain culturally relevant?
The Elordi controversy comes just one week after Sweeney used the r-slur in a scene that left viewers equally baffled.
Obviously, Euphoria is for mature audiences, and more than halfway through the show’s third season, fans certainly know what they’re in for.
But there’s a difference between envelope-pushing narratives and offensive language that’s shoehorned in to offer a cheap laugh or spark a debate online.
Euphoria is the kind of series that will always leave audiences divided, and its detractors are unlikely to remember it as anything more than an exercise in shock value.
But fans are surely hoping that the final episodes will showcase Levinson and company’s better impulses and remind us that amid all the controversy, this has always been a show with heart.