'Euphoria' season 3 premiere recap: What happens after time jump? - Entertainment Weekly

Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and more return, but temporary cast absences rocked the surprising premiere episode.

Patrick Wymore/HBO; Courtesy of HBO; Eddy Chen/HBO

This article contains spoilers for Euphoria season 3, episode 1.

- Euphoria season 3 returned Sunday, featuring a five-year time jump from 2022's season 2 finale.

- Rue (Zendaya) now works as a drug mule for Laurie (Martha Kelly), while her story intersects with characters both new and familiar.

- Though they'll return in future episodes, the season 3 premiere doesn't feature Jules (Hunter Schafer) or Cal (the late Eric Dane).

Euphoria 's major season 3 time jump has given its central characters about five years to process the eternal mystery: " Is this f---ing play about us? "

While Lexi's ( Maude Apatow ) infamous season 2 stage production chronicling Our Life was very much about the explosive dynamic of her central friend group ( Zendaya 's Rue, Alexa Demie 's Maddy, Sydney Sweeney 's Cassie), season 3 picks up in even more dramatic fashion — and in an entirely new locale, far removed from the hazy, suburban California hamlet of East Highland.

Sunday's premiere opened "somewhere in Chihuahua" Mexico, with Rue admitting that she's been up to "nothing good" since high school. It's a point driven home by the fact that we also see her literally driving a beat-up station wagon over the border between the United States and Mexico, as she smuggles drugs for charming queenpin Laurie (Martha Kelly). Following the events of season 2, Laurie tracked Rue down and forced her to become a personal mule after informing Rue that, with interest accrued, her former $10,000 debt now stood at $43,887,000.

Rue and Faye (Chloe Cherry) now live with Laurie back in California, in a run-down home where Laurie's operation has grown to include drug manufacturing with assistance from her cousin, Harley, and his son, Wayne (whom Rue suspects is inbred).

Between gigs swallowing drugs and smuggling them south for Laurie, Rue often travels to Los Angeles to visit Lexi, who now lives in an apartment of her own while holding down a steady job working as an assistant to an Emmy-winning TV executive ( Sharon Stone ) on the set of a popular TV show, L.A. Nights, that stars a young heartthrob actor named Dylan (Toby Wallace).

Concealing her real source of income from Lexi, Rue tells her longtime friend that, when she leaves the city for extended periods of time, she's actually visiting her sister, Gia ( Storm Reid, who didn't return to the cast for season 3), who's at the "top of her class" in college. She also urges Lexi to call her former romantic interest, Fezco (the late Angus Cloud, who died in 2023), who's still alive in the world of the show, despite serving 30 years in prison after the emotional SWAT showdown that led to the death of his adopted brother, 12-year-old Ashtray (Javon Walton) in the season 2 finale.

Meanwhile, despite ex-friend Maddy's ominous season 2 warning about abuse she'd likely endure at the hands of Nate ( Jacob Elordi ), Cassie and her now-fiancé live in a mansion in a conservative suburb of the city. Nate — who drives a Tesla Cybertruck — has taken over his father Cal's (the late Eric Dane ) building business, while Cassie is a stay-at-home aspiring tradwife who quells her daytime boredom by filming scantily clad videos for social media (naturally, Nate disapproves).

Listless yet in love, Cassie recognizes her stagnant existence at home, and wants to prove to everyone back home that she's made something of herself. The only way she can do that now is to have a lavish, expensive wedding — something she's inspired to do after seeing on social media the professional success her estranged pal Maddy has found as a celebrity manager in Hollywood.

Cassie pressures Nate to spend $50,000 on a floral arrangement she wants for their upcoming nuptials, though Nate — who desperately seeks investors to construct a major senior living facility as his milestone project for his business — balks at the price. Cassie proposes becoming an OnlyFans model to pay for the flowers, and, after she threatens to leave him if he doesn't comply, Nate reluctantly agrees to the endeavor.

Despite Cassie's jealousy over Maddy's success, the show also teases that Maddy's professional life isn't as glamorous as it seems. Still, we're told that Maddy is working for a high-profile talent agency, managing influencers and actors — including the aforementioned Dylan.