'Euphoria'Season 1 finale's Kat and Ethan kiss was the only happy ending in the entire episode, giving us the hope we needed
A lot went down in the 'Euphoria' season 1 finale. There were bittersweet goodbyes and admission of defeat, with a terrifying Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) breakdown, a teasing Fezco and Mouse face-off that we don't know the result of yet, and the artsy, confusing cliffhanger which left us wondering if narrator Rue Bennet (Zendaya) was dead. And amidst all that pain, despair, loss, and relapse the only element that served as a bleak ray of sunshine in the cloud of gloom was the final big kiss between Kat Hernandez (Barbie Ferreira) and Ethan (Austin Abrams). That's right, our boy Ethan finally came through and the two are definitely a thing going into season 2!
Pregaming before the high school students attended their prom night worked wonders for our entire gang of girls. And even though Kat's mom was slightly skeptical about her daughter's dominatrix in red look for prom night, Kat seemed to have the most fun amongst all of them. While Maddy (Alexa Demie) had to admit to Nate that the two of them should never ever be together, Cassie was reeling under the aftermath of her recent abortion and Rue was busy being strung along by Jules who was also flirting with Anna, Kat managed to come clean about her feelings for Ethan.
The last time we saw the Kat and Ethan together was at her ex-boyfriend from middle school, Daniel's Halloween party. After days of being ghosted by Kat which started when she caught him speaking to a hot blonde at the carnival, a drunk Ethan finally mustered up the courage to confront Kat about it. She tried ignoring him, also implying that he's a clueless virgin, but Ethan wasn't taking her unnecessary coldness for an answer. The two made out, and Ethan went down on her sure, but the end was pretty anti-climactic with the two parting ways.
But in the big prom finale, it was our femme fatale Kitten Kween who went on her prowl for Ethan. Kat finally telling Ethan that she was jealous and just hurt him back in a way she imagined he wanted to hurt her. The two made up and Ethan said what has probably been the only and extremely cheesy line on the disturbing show about sex, drugs, violence, and addiction. Ethan told Kat, "Is one of us gonna get hurt? Yeah, probably. But I'll do my best to make sure that it's me," and that right there was what gave us hope and made us cry happy tears, thanks to the tone of despair that the finale was saturated with.
As Kat cried and the two of them kiss with BTS' Jungkook's song 'Euphoria' playing in the background, suddenly the HBO show seemed not as dark and disturbing as it has been from the initiation of its debut season. For that brief second, it wasn't the high school girl who resorts to sex-cams for money and the only boy who has loved her from the get-go; it was Kat without any of her facades and the good friend who just adores her for who she is in real life. For the first time, despite her appearance, Kat wasn't putting up a performance-persona, she was uninhibited and the two of them treasured that. It only made their signature rom-com couple trope announcement of "Let’s get out of here” at the dance all that more special. For a split second, 'Euphoria' wasn't about the harrowing instances high school students go through, there was love, compassion, success, and most importantly, hope for the next year. Until then we have their neon-lit euphoric kiss to be content with.