'Euphoria' Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Rue makes risky deal as Cassie reinvents herself
'Euphoria's episode 4 reaches Season 3's midway point and finds the characters taking charge of their not-so-great circumstances. Titled 'Kitty Likes to Dance,' the episode is written and directed by the showrunner, Sam Levinson. It aired on Sunday, May 3, on HBO Max and depicts the fallout from Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate's (Jacob Elordi) wedding amidst their debilitating financial issues. Cassie takes matters into her hands and sets off with a new makeover. Rue (Zendaya) is forced to make a difficult decision that can change the course of her life. Moreover, the escalating drama between Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Laurie (Martha Kelly) takes a new turn, setting the stage for an epic showdown as the season heads to its second half.
Episode 4 of 'Euphoria' starts with Rue getting arrested by the DEA for carrying drugs in her car. Despite her best attempts to lie her way out of the situation, she knows that she's a bad liar and is cooked. The agents give her two options: either face 20 years in prison or work undercover with them to expose Alamo's crimes. Rue has no choice but to accept, as she states in her voiceover, "That is how I became a snitch." She heads back to the Silver Slipper strip club with her bugged phone, with the officers listening in as she tries to get Alamo to sign off on a big drug deal. However, her boss picks up on her shady behavior, telling her, "See, you got that look in your eye. Like a rat trying to figure out where it’s gonna go next." However, he assumed that she had started taking drugs again, and Rue plays along with it for now. Later, Rue catches a new stripper, Kitty, having sex with multiple men in a room and rescues her.
Elsewhere, Laurie holds a funeral for her pet cockatoo, Paladin, who was poisoned by Alamo’s henchman, Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson), in episode 3. She bids farewell to her little 'perfect little guy' and vows vengeance on Alamo. At the end of the episode, gunmen break into Alamo's club and clean out the safe stashed with drugs. They hold Rue, Magick, and Big Eddy at gunpoint and shoot the latter in the stomach before driving off. As Bishop looks through the CCTV footage, Rue identifies the getaway driver as Faye and informs him that Laurie was behind the attack.
Cassie and Nate’s fairytale wedding ended with the latter getting beaten up badly by the loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian) in last week's episode. This week, Cassie decides to take charge of Nate's debt of nearly $1 million by reviving her OnlyFans account. She calls Maddy (Alexa Demie), who is happy to give her friend a makeover. "Let’s do something about your look," she tells Cassie, and a montage shows her transforming Cassie's looks from the suburbs to the city, replete with a blonde wig and a leopard-print jumpsuit. They head to the influencer Brandon Fontaine's house party, hoping he will share their picture with his millions of followers. Cassie makes out with another girl to catch his attention, and it works. Cassie's people pleasing gets the better of her, and she starts doing cocaine from the girl's belly button, but Maddy stops her before things get out of hand. Meanwhile, Nate, all bruised and battered, goes to court to restart his stalled real estate project. However, the court denies his motion as the land is the site for endangered flowers, forcing Nate to get down on his hands and plead for help. How far he has fallen!
Additionally, Lexi (Maude Apatow) calls Jules (Hunter Schafer)with an offer to show off her artwork on the series 'LA Nights.' Not known for her subtlety, Jules paints 14 male genitals to parody Georges Seurat's famous painting, 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.' A shocked Patty Lance (Lexi's boss) scraps the nude painting, which delays the shoot and costs them thousands of dollars. The incident leaves Lexi embarrassed as it was supposed to be her moment to shine, but it turned into an utter disaster. Follow the gang's antics as 'Euphoria' Season 3 returns with brand new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.