The Books on Lexi Howard’s Desk in Episode 7 are big Easter eggs. Is Euphoria Setting Up an “Atonement”-Style End?
Any book lover knows how to spot a Penguin Classic. Sam Levinson left one on Lexi Howard’s desk in last night’s episode of Euphoria, “Rain or Shine”. The subject wasn’t in focus, but that cover was already visible enough to track. This is Nella Larsen’s place Passing by. Beneath it, a copy of Jane Smiley Others are lucky. But one book is missing, Atonementthat may hold the key to an unexpected ending.
Rue keeps talking about that burning bush while Lexi tries to write, and something serious happens in the exchange. He questions Rue’s credibility as a narrator. It suggests religious revelation, sweet tales of Nazis, cowboys, and DEA agents as nothing more than Rue’s imagination after returning to drug use.
If we read the scene literally, Lexi is just writing the “LA Nights” story that her network fired Cassie from. His mistrust of Rue leads him to confide in Maddy, who then spills the beans on the Alamo leading us to an ending where Rue’s life is on the line again. The preview already shows us that he’s coming out of Wayne’s basement, someone has dragged him feet first into the desert.
But judging by the overlap of topics between the books on Lexi’s desk and the plot of the last seven episodes, it is possible that she has been authorizing the whole season, as some attempt to rewrite history, in the same way that Briony Tallis rewrites her sister’s life in the end Atonementthe missing link that explains all the cinematic choices and twists taken this season.
Others are lucky is the first book in a trilogy following the Langdon family of Iowa. Generational events such as births, deaths, and marriages take readers through historical periods including the Great Depression, WWII, the demise of rural life and the unfolding of the American dream. It’s about ordinary people growing up and going up against luck, fate, and their own choices. The novel ends abruptly with a sudden death that sets up a sequel, but leaves the main characters in emotional turmoil.
The thematic parallels with Euphoria Season 3 go back to the idealism of rural life, the American dream, religious undertones, and how different ages can look at people who grew up together. Rue tells Ali straight up that she’s going back to the ranch in Texas when she’s done with the DEA. Time jumps and proverbial arcs tie the two together nicely, and Levinson’s treatment of an indebted generation during the fentanyl epidemic is his attempt to deal with a historical moment as it unfolds.
We’ve been waiting for death all season, and Levinson alluded to Lexi and Gia’s conversations about killing off characters so people wouldn’t get bored. Sudden death before the credits rolls off the table here.
Passing by details the relationship between two light-skinned Black women in 1920s New York during the Harlem Renaissance. Irene lives ostensibly in a Black neighborhood in Harlem, while Clare passes as white for years, married to a rich, racist man who knows nothing of her true heritage.
Their toxic friendship is fueled by infatuation and jealousy with a strong subtext, and the story ends with an ambiguous betrayal and tragedy. Irene believes that Clare is seducing her husband, and Clare falls to her death from a window after being discovered by her husband as well. Whether she jumps, faints, or is pushed by Irene or her husband remains to be explained.
The links here are very strong. Rue’s biracial identity and management of race is less than season 3 strong. Cassie, Jules, Rue, Nate, and Maddy all live double lives of sorts, “passing” in their own ways as the things they most want to do: famous, talented, successful, rich, stable.
Queer underlines the map by learning about Maddy and Cassie’s toxicity, and the destruction of the relationship after Cassie steals Nate from Maddy. If another woman falls through the window at the end, we won’t be surprised.
Levinson loves a reference, and has made countless references this season. Tarantino, Westerns, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Everything was laid bare. Planting these books on Lexi’s desk is a direct exit OAwhich makes us doubt the truth. Is it all really happening, or have we been in one of Lexi’s plays this entire season?
The last time he wrote about the people he loves, he put Martha and Hallie in the same bed on stage in front of Maddy and Cassie. Is killing Nate his way of writing his sister and best friend the happy ending they never had? Is this season all his version Atonementto repair any damage he has caused or prevented in everyone’s life? Rue has escaped death more times than we can count. Could this all have been Lexi’s way of keeping a friend alive due to her drunkenness in previous seasons?
Returning to Lexi’s desk with the same books laid out and the same friend on her couch, the ghost of the friend she’s been imagining these conversations with all along, would be the most satisfying ending Euphoria and Levinson could give us.
