'Euphoria' Season 1 totally ignored Lexi and Fezco's individual backstories despite them deserving it the most
This article contains spoilers on 'Euphoria' finale.
HBO's 'Euphoria' not only managed to showcase a wide array of issues plaguing today's high school teens but also presented them via layered characters, whose journeys were explored through episodes replete with their backstories. However, that wasn't the case with the two most wholesome, precious characters on the show - Lexi Howard (Maude Apatow) and Fezco (Angus Cloud.)
Granted, Fezco got his fair share of attention throughout the debut season that culminated on Sunday, August 4, with an ever so teasing finale, but when a character like Christopher McKay (Algee Smith) gets more prominence even though he's just a toned-down version of the show's big boy, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) Fezco deserved more than just the tag of a drug dealer working along the sidelines. And Lexi deserved more than being an insecure shadow of her blonde bombshell older sister, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney.)
We first meet Lexi as the former best friend of the show's narrator, Rue (Zendaya.) Lexi and Rue used to be close friends, we are told, but they grew apart over the years, like most friendships in high school apparently do as Rue tells us. But that doesn't stop Lexi from being a good friend to Rue even in the current timeline of the show; she pees in a plastic cup for Rue whenever the latter needs to pass her drug test, and is the only one who promptly goes to check up on her in the school washroom, after Rue rushes out of the classroom, reeling under withdrawal symptoms. And as if not getting her own episode wasn't awful enough, Rue is a sh*tty friend to Lexi too. Not once does she say thank you to the wonderfully charming, pure, innocent teen who is one of the only characters on the show that's not beyond redemption.
Moreover, Lexi is the only person on the show, who for the first time in the entire season, actually tells Rue she is not a burden, despite her mental instability and volatility owing to her history with addiction. And things get worse because, in most of the scenes that Lexi is in, she is just a drifting shadow to highlight the other characters' prominence. Around her older sister Cassie, Lexi is seen as the awkward, lesser attractive sibling, who is only there to make Cassie feel good about herself. Cassie doesn't intentionally put her down, but it comes off that way more or less, thanks to the absolute sidelining the story does to the character. And when Lexi is not saving Cassie from being busted by her boyfriend in the middle of making out with another guy, she is cast in the shadow of Rue's harrowing life experiences.
Even in the finale when Lexi pregames before attending the prom and is visibly intoxicated, asking Cassie about her high school escapades, suddenly a smidge of hope rises as we think that maybe something significant will happen with her after all. But nothing happens, and as sad as it sounds, 'Euphoria' does its only relateable teen-character so dirty that Apatow's charm is wasted on the character which had extreme potential.
The problem persists with Fezco, the drug dealer's plot too. Considering the chemistry he shares with his long-time client Rue, it's evident that they both truly care for each other. Between growing apart from Lexi and meeting Jules, the only person Rue has been close to is Fezco. She confides in him, reaches out to him, appreciates his concern and as problematic as it might sound to have a brother-sister thing going with your drug dealer, especially with her history, it is Fezcco who is actually able to get through to her to get clean after he just refuses to sell her drugs.
Also, all it takes it one manic episode from Rue where she complains about Nate troubling her friends, and Fezco literally threatens to kill Nate in person if he doesn't stop that. To say Fez has been the guiding male figure to Rue would be an understatement because of the number of times he has saved her, and let's not even mention the extent he goes to save Rue from Mouse, the druglord's rapey advances. And after all this, 'Euphoria' decides to give SoftNate aka McKay an episode explaining his mindset, and not explore our precious Fezco.
Here's hoping the greenlit season 2 will do more justice to the two of them.
