Inside the Euphoria Season 3 Scenes That Sparked Offscreen Backlash

Euphoria finally came back and, shocker, it lit a match under the internet. The show has always been a lot, but season 3 goes even harder — older characters, bigger messes, and scenes that had people yelling at their TVs for entirely different reasons than usual.

Quick refresher: HBO launched Euphoria in 2019 with Zendaya as Rue, a teen trying (and often failing) to stay sober after addiction. The first two seasons lived in the high school bubble. Season 3 jumps ahead five years to check in on everyone as adults — but not necessarily wiser ones. The new batch dives into drug smuggling, sexual assault, and several choices that feel like the show daring you to look away.

Viewers have not been subtle about their frustration, calling out the series for stacking explicit, sometimes triggering moments week to week. Creator Sam Levinson, for his part, is not backing down.

"We have a motto of: Evolve or die," he told The Hollywood Reporter in April. "We wanted to make sure we were changing things up."

"We’re seeing them out in the world, in the wider world, and allowing the actors to communicate emotionally through the performance as opposed to in the past, when we did it moreso through camera. We wanted to see them fending for themselves."

What people are mad about this season

• The drug smuggling opener — The season 3 premiere reintroduces Rue after a five-year jump with a new side hustle: drug mule. Minutes in, she and Faye (Chloe Cherry) lube up and swallow a lot of drug-filled balloons, then haul them from Mexico to the U.S. without getting nabbed. Rue makes it home and passes the balloons just in time. Faye does not. There is an on-screen accident, feces down the leg, and a dog trying to lick it. Yes, that happened.
• Cassie joins OnlyFans — Cassie spends her plotline chasing OnlyFans success via increasingly sexual photo shoots. We’re talking topless sets and role-play bits where she pretends to be a baby or a dog. A chunk of viewers found it beyond cringe, and actual OnlyFans creators were unhappy with how their work came off.
• The Nazi memorabilia — Faye’s love interest Wayne (Toby Wallace) is clearly not meant to be a catch, but the scenes loaded with Nazi flags and assorted memorabilia threw people off anyway. It’s a lot of imagery, and not the kind that fades from your brain.
• Kitty’s first impression — Anna Van Patten shows up as Kitty, a new dancer at a strip club. The show fast-tracks her storyline with a graphic group sex scene that Rue watches. Kitty agrees to it but takes ketamine beforehand, and she’s visibly shaken after. The sequence also strongly hints at painful champagne-bottle penetration. It’s intense, and it rattled viewers for a reason.

So, where does that leave season 3?

Euphoria is not mellowing with age. The characters got older; the show doubled down. If you thought graduating them out of high school would take the heat off, nope. The backlash is loud, the scenes are deliberately extreme, and Levinson is clearly comfortable riding the line — or hopping right over it.