![]() At some point, there are hints that by telling us this story, Rue is actually telling us something else - something she never speaks out loud. Why Does ‘Euphoria’ Insist on Sexualizing Teen Girls?Įxcept, not quite, when you realize that there might be a subtext: Is this Cal-Derek story an inverse of Rue’s and Jules’ relationship, and is that why Rue takes the time to show us this love that never-was? There must be a reason beyond exposition for all of these backstories. Teenagers are the most unreliable of narrators because they dare you to challenge the validity of their stories and musings. It feels a bit like being in Rue’s head, where thoughts don’t need a reason to exist. Rue might be an unreliable narrator because of her unreliable memories: her teen years spent in a crack haze mean that she isn’t entirely sure why certain stories are relevant and to whose plot, exactly, except that they’re there.Īnd so we see Cal’s backstory because it’s there. Why? Is it to make the point that the innocence of youth has always been fleeting and lost to the darkness? Is it to make us sympathize with the worst person on TV right now? Nobody is quite sure, except everyone can grudgingly agree that the scene in the gay bar with his best friend Derek was undeniably beautiful and heartbreaking.Īt some point we’re left to wonder: is Rue, the narrator, different from Rue, the character? How does the narrator know so much about everyone? We can think of it, as one Reddit user hopefully imagined, as a scene from the distant future where she narrates the pieces of this story to Ali, her Narcotics Anonymous mentor and parent figure, over a peaceful morning toast. We start, inexplicably, with Cal’s backstory - the first time an adult was given one, and the longest time the show has spent on this segment yet. Season 2, episode 3 takes us into the world of the narrator with surprising candor, pulling no punches about who it is who is weaving this thread of post-modern teenagedom together: someone who isn’t at peace with themselves, but doesn’t know it either. The question that Euphoria asks isn’t whether Rue is a reliable narrator for us, but whether she is one to herself. ![]() In a way, we confront the unreliable narrator as a version of ourselves (minus, in presumably most cases, the drug-addled part). Here, in Euphoria, we meet the unreliable narrator in a drug addled teenager who is at her most reliable to tell the truth when she is most vulnerable. Why do they exist? Is it to unravel the idea of one truth in a narrative? We usually meet unreliable narrators in some stage of sociopathy or madness, or both. The unreliable narrator is an enduring fascination in media and literature. This article contains spoilers for season 2, episode 3.
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