We’re getting down to it with HBO‘s Euphoria Season 3, Episode 7 “Rain or Shine,” as there may only be one episode left in the series after this week’s hour. And as show creator Sam Levinson recently teased, “If you’re not watching episodes seven and eight live — the moment they drop — they will get spoiled. There’s some big things that happen.” So what are the big things that happen? Friend, that’s what this recap is all about.
And we will recap all of it, from the big moments to potential character deaths. But first, let’s talk a bit about how we got here by pre-capping the recap with a brief breakdown of everything through Episode, “Stand Still and See.”
Normally we leave Rue (Zendaya) for last since there’s so much going on with her, but the biggest thing here you need to know is that she thinks she’s found god in the form of a burning tree. Mind you, it was her car crashing while she fiddled with the radio that caused the fire, but given her sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo) sent her down the road to enlightenment at the beginning of the season, this is somewhat inevitable for someone with an addictive personality. This time instead of drugs, she’s all in on the intoxication of salvation.
Beyond that, she’s working as a sort of triple agent. While her main job is for the increasingly unhinged strip club magnate Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), she’s also been tasked by the DEA to help take down both Alamo and her former employer, Laurie (Martha Kelly). And at the same time, she’s convinced Faye (Chloe Cherry) to help her rob Laurie’s safe at the behest of Alamo, though Faye is busy dealing with her white supremacist boyfriend Wayne (Toby Wallace), who would really like to get her pregnant. And the war between Alamo and Laurie has already claimed several victims, including a pig, a bird, and the manager of the Silver Slipper strip club, Big Eddy (Kadeem Hardison)… Who mind you is okay, but did get shot in the gut.
Also? Rue is really trying to rekindle a relationship with Jules (Hunter Schafer), who angrily rejected Rue, leading to the religious awakening mentioned earlier. Why did Jules literally push Rue away? Not just because it hasn’t worked out in the past, but also because she’s being kept by a possessive plastic surgeon named Ellis (Sam Trammell), who is married and sugar daddy-ing Jules on the side.
While all this is going on with Rue, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) has ditched her OnlyFans profile to try and make it in Hollywood… Specifically after a breakdown on the set of nighttime soap LA Nights, Cassie entranced the mercurial showrunner Patty Lance (Sharon Stone), who offered her a bigger role — and her sister Lexi (Maude Apatow) the chance to write the part. Cassie also entranced the star of the show, Dylan Reid (Homer Gere)… And perhaps more importantly is ostensibly doing this to get money back to Nate (Jacob Elordi), who is slowly getting pieces cut off of him by the loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian) because Nate has been sinking all his money into a retirement community that has basically zero chance of being built.
Last but not least, Maddy (Alexa Demie) has been managing Cassie, and taken on two of Alamo’s girls: Kitty (Anna Van Patten) and Magick (Rosalía); though Alamo has been a little persnickety about the latter two, and Cassie hasn’t told Maddy about ditching OnlyFans as of yet.
Okay, precap over. Let’s get into spoilers for Euphoria Season 3, Episode 7 “Rain or Shine” past this point.
Ali, Ali Oxen Free
“There’s a beginning. There must be an end,” Rue says in her opening narration, which certainly, ominously teases that this show might be wrapping up for good. But what we actually begin with is Ali smoking up — something we thus far have never seen on the show.
This younger Ali is on vacation in a room with a sex worker. He’s married, and has kids. “I hope they don’t turn out like us,” he says as he lures her over with the pipe. Rue explains that he wasn’t always religious, and “short term desires become long time patterns.” Back at home, Ali is checked out, much to the consternation of his wife. And as soon as she leaves, he beats her within hearing range of the kids.
The depths keep on coming as he watches boxing on TV, then practices fighting in his hotel room with the sex worker… Who, it should be noted, has a cast, and should really hang out with Magick, who has a neck brace. They would have a lot to talk about!
In any case, this Ali isn’t s much of a fighter as the boxer, and he ends up in the hospital. If I recall correctly, this is exactly the story he told Rue at one point earlier in the series, or something close; but now we’re seeing it for the first time. When a nurse offers him morphine, he says “I don’t want that shit in my body,” and starts crying. Which is when he goes to an addicts group. And from that moment on, he tried to change his habits, and therefore change his past. He explains to a fellow addict that hope is inside him. “All your struggles prepared you for now,” he says, and seeing how far he fell — and how far he’s come — does help explain why he’s worked so hard for Rue for three seasons and change.
It also shows how he can fail, as a man who promised things would get better is next seen in a coffin. “Even though he lost some battles, Ali knew he was doing some good in this world,” Rue continues, explaining that during the pandemic he made sure to check in with his sponsees every day. Yet still, he lost another one; and perhaps more than that. With no place to gather, Ali’s only way of reaching out was the phone.
“Trust me, the future will be bright,” he says to another one, who he finds hanging by their neck in a garage. And Ali doesn’t forget, he writes down the name and the date they died in his “book of the dead… A reminder of how the story of addiction often ends.”
Is that how things will end for Rue? Well, not Rue… So stay tuned.
Bag Eddy
Back in the present, Big Eddy is back with some scars and a colostomy bag, as Alamo pokes at him and tells him he needs to go to Mexico as his “road to redemption.” Big Eddy’s crime, if you don’t recall, was giving up Alamo’s safe after getting shot nearly to death.
Anyway, Eddy agrees, of course, and gets in the van with Wayne — which is being bugged by the DEA, listening to the whole thing after they got control of his phone in the previous episode.
While Laurie’s men prep the van, Rue is talking about how she found god to Lexi. Of note, Cassie’s sissy is barely paying attention as she makes tea and types on her laptop… Up until Rue blatantly says that she saw god. This is perhaps a little too much for Lexi, who has work to do, so Rue bops over to the couch to read her bible.
Rue, though, can’t stop, and talks about the “Joshua tree” she saw burst into flame. “So he set an endangered tree on fire just to talk to you?” Lexi says sarcastically. Rue is un-phased, and also doesn’t stop talking, mentioning she’s recently realized how much “evil” she’s done. Lexi thinks she’s done bad shit, but it’s not evil… Or Lexi doesn’t think she’s evil until Rue reveals she’s been working with Nazis. Or, “almost Nazis.” Lexi is confused, and thought she was working with a “Black cowboy,” which definitely makes me think we need to have Lexi just react to the previously on to each week’s episode, because that would be fun.
Rue, who really should change her name to Ruecap, continues to explain what’s going on, telling Lexi she’s working with the DEA. And Lexi doesn’t believe her, thinking that what’s actually going on is Rue is using again. “No wonder your mom doesn’t talk to you anymore,” Lexi says, to which Rue says, “we speak,” and angrily storms out.
Cassie In Some Deep Molassie
Looking across the way at Cassie’s apartment, as ominous music begins to play, Rue notices the shades are drawn and the apartment is dark. She knocks, and announces herself, but we see a gun with a silencer on the other side of the door pointing at the peephole. The trigger gets pulled — almost — but Rue leaves first.
Oh, I forgot to mention: Naz sent Cassie Nate’s finger in the mail. So a few days earlier, Cassie called Naz, and we watch him picking apart the model of Nate’s retirement home, while demanding the money from Cassie. She desperately tries to restart her OnlyFans, but it’s too late — it’s already deleted. And to make matters worse, the network loved Lexi’s storyline for the show, but doesn’t want the complications of having a sex worker on the series. So they cut the storyline.
Oh, and things get even worse… Maddy gets chewed out by her boss, Ms. Penzler (Rebecca Pidgeon), and fired, then discovers Cassie shut down her OnlyFans, so storms over to her apartment to find the sobbing Cassie on the floor. “When someone shows you who they are, believe ’em,” Maddy says, cracking her knuckles.
“I feel like you’re going to hit me,” Cassie says, and so Maddy hits her and tells her that she’s going to listen to every word she says. Not only that, she’s not her manager — she’s her boss. Clearly, Maddy has learned a few lessons from Alamo. And the first one she puts into play is sending Cassie out to dinner with Dylan, and alerting TMZ.
While Maddy cleans Cassie’s apartment, Cassie works the camera for the paparazzi with Dylan, and by the time she gets home things are ready with candles, vodka, and Marcy Playground on the stereo. Cassie is working hard, and Dylan apologizes about how things went down at LA Nights. “It’s okay, I’m used to being judged,” Cassie says, explaining that it’s “since I got these,” referring to her breasts. If you weren’t clear.
Cassie takes a picture with Dylan because “I’m going to want to remember this moment,” but really she seems to be memorizing the passcode on his phone. They think they look cute in the picture — and then it’s a hard cut to Cassie fucking the hell out of Dylan as she yells about cumming, and he begs her “please stop cumming.” She does — and while he gets something to drink from the kitchen, she breaks into his phone in order to post the picture of them on his Instagram.
“You might be the world’s greatest fuck, Dylan says as he drinks a big glass that, uh, has Nate’s finger in it. Somehow, he doesn’t notice, and instead comes back to bed to cuddle her.
Nate Gets Fingered
The next morning, Maddy comes in while Dylan is still asleep to celebrate the good news that the picture has been trending for like “seven hours.” And when Cassie sees her subscriber numbers, she starts crying… Which is when Maddy sees the finger sitting in a glass in the sink. Maddy guesses it’s Dylan’s finger first, then Nate’s, and Cassie starts to explain.
As she does, we cut over to Nate being held hostage by Naz, who asks how tall he is: he’s 6’5″, and that’s “unfortunate” because a “standard coffin” holds a man 6’4″, tops. Naz thinks Cassie needs a little more motivation to get the money for Nate, because she hasn’t gotten anything to him thus far. Nate begs Naz, explains she’ll get him the money he needs. But Naz muses about whether Cassie is enjoying her freedom a little too much.
And Nate gets taken out the room, and probably gets more fingers taken off. Or beaten. Or both. Yikes!
Ali, Round Two: Fight
While Nate gets cut down to size, Rue is visiting Ali and tells him everything that’s going down… And he’s ready to grab his shotgun and get Rue’s mom — who Alamo threatened last episode through his lieutenant Bishop (Darrell Britt-Gibson) — out of town. But Rue assures him this is her “last run.” And furthermore, she talked to god.
Unlike Lexi, Ali of course hears her out. She repeats the words she heard, which were coincidentally what god said to Moses. And whether he’s dubious or not doesn’t matter because his job is to listen to her. Also, fun note: they usually meet in a diner; this time they’re at his house and eating pancakes, an iconic diner food.
And the last part of import? They’re going to Jerusalem Road for the DEA arrest/drug deal, which Rue takes as a sign.
As Ali cleans up their breakfast for dinner, he laments fentanyl and its death rate, and how it’s “only in America.” Then he pauses, and asks Rue whether she worries if the fentanyl she smuggled killed people.
“You want to undo the evil you’ve done?” Ali asks. “Start by changing yourself.”
And he makes a promise to and with her, as she cries… For her to make it home, so they can pick up her mom in the morning. “If there’s a beginning, there must be an end,” Ali says, reiterating what we heard in the beginning — and again, really doubling down on the idea that we’re heading towards a conclusive ending. Ali notes that Moses doesn’t make it to the promised land… So perhaps Rue isn’t headed for the glorious redemption she expects, after all.
The Road To Redemption
And so it begins. Big Eddy drives the medical vehicle while the DEA downloads everyone on how it’s all going to go down. And complicating things, Kitty and another girl are in the back of the van, too. In another vehicle, G (Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch) takes Rue to Laurie’s to rob her safe. He’s scoping things out with a rifle, while she explains her plan: telling Laurie she got hit in the face.
G is confused, so Rue slams her head into the dashboard, saying, “Alamo beat me up.” She heads over to Laurie’s, and all the pieces are in place. As Rue explains, Alamo had to think she was on his side so that the DEA can arrest them when they get back.
Rue, nose possibly broken, comes in and tells Laurie that Alamo tried to kill her and will do the same to her.
Oh, and while Rue is dealing with that, an enormous man breaks into Cassie’s place, slams her through a glass table, and ties her up and gags her, throwing her on the bed. It’s Naz’s guy, of course, and Naz takes out the gag once Cassie promises not to scream. I do have questions about this timeline here, given Rue checked out Cassie’s pre-nose job earlier in the episode. But we’re about to explain that, so hold up a sec.
Back to the matter at hand, for the second time this season someone has been buried in the ground. In this case, it’s Nate, who has been buried beneath his own retirement community in a coffin with only an air tube and 72 hours before he dies of dehydration. Even with his brother (?) showing up to try to find Nate, he’s still stuck in the coffin deep below the ground, possibly about to die while being buried alive. Oh, also a rattlesnake is headed his way.
That’s where we loop back to Rue entering and checking for Cassie — so clearly the Cassie scenes are taking place a day or two before Rue gets to Laurie’s house with her nose busted. In this case we see Cassie’s side of things as she doesn’t yell for help. Naz brushes her hair with his hand, telling her everything is going to be alright. Over at Lexi’s, she’s woken from a nap by Maddy calling to see where Cassie is, and Lexi is losing it, calling everything everyone is doing “insane.” And you know what: she’s not wrong, though her refusing to help find Cassie or Nate is kind of a dick move, Lexi.
By the way, if you thought that rattlesnake was a metaphor? You’re watching the wrong show. Nate’s screaming and pounding attracts the snake to the airtube and it slithers its way down. As Nate says “thank you god,” thinking someone has come to save him, the snake comes down the coffin. Nate panics as the snake winds its way around him, working its way up to his face. The bound Nate looks at the snake… And it pounces, biting him on the neck. RIP Nate?
Burning Man
A lot starts happening at once. Over at Laurie’s the probably Nazis are shooting guns in the air and dancing in front of a burning tree. Again, not a metaphor, they’re burning the tree for fun. Laurie’s guys question why Rue is back, and why now. Rue explains that when she was working for Laurie, she just wanted the drugs. She was lying then, she explains… And of course, she’s lying now.
And then Naz has Cassie call Maddy, telling her she needs a million dollars or they’re going to start cutting pieces off her. So Maddy heads to the club, puts on a swimsuit Alamo got her, and Magick tells her not to think about it too much. “Trade a thousand bad days for a good life,” Magick says.
While Laurie’s men question Rue, they begin to threaten her, suggesting they do what Alamo does, force her to get breast surgery, or hold her against her will. Or perhaps they should just stuff her full of fentanyl. Instead, they merely cut her palm… Which still sucks.
Then we ping pong over to Maddy, who is at the hot tub with Alamo, asking for the money to save Cassie. He coerces her into the tub, and he explains that nobody asks how he feels. He’s “pent up” and needs to relax, which is when he mentions Rue — and Maddy makes a pretty horrible error, telling him about how Rue has been complaining about Nazis and the DEA. Unphased, he asks to see her feet instead, and encourages her to come over to him and tell him about this “problem of yours.”
Next we see Maddy, she’s standing next to a wall under three animal trophy heads while Alamo gets dressed in his cowboy gear. “Thank you,” Maddy says. “You’re welcome,” Alamo answers, putting her money in a bag (or maybe not). What Maddy had to do and how much she had to get it, perhaps we’ll find out in another Lexi recap. As is, it was clearly more of a price than she was expecting to pay.
Alamo isn’t sure Cassie is worth it, but Maddy calls her a “money tree” and explains that “this one’s special” when he throws out there are plenty of girls out there. Naz pulls up, and Maddy goes to make the deal, carrying the bag. Alamo, for his part, sits in the truck and clicks his rings, while Maddy passes by Nate’s breathing hole, not knowing a snake has already taken care of her ex-boyfriend.
Maddy throws down the bag of money, and as classic Western music plays, Alamo and Naz both exit their cars. Cassie, breathing hard, is with Naz, who brings her to Maddy. “You must really love this girl,” Naz says, mirroring Alamo, as she sends Cassie to get his money.
Alamo licks his thumb and tests the wind, and when Naz opens the bag, he asks “is this a fucking joke?” So Alamo shoots him. Naz lays bleeding on the ground, while the large man who threw Cassie through the table throws his own gun down on the ground. Clearly, this was a trap, and there was no money in the bag. Alamo shoots Naz again, killing him.
The Death Of Nate Jacobs
Back with Wayne, who has a full on Nazi flag on the wall now, he’s getting yelled at by Faye, who is bummed out about what he did to Rue (cut her hand). And he lays out what the Nazis would do to others, and what they’re planning to do to Rue: put her down like a dog. To Rue, Wayne says “sweet dreams” and tells her it’s a big day tomorrow, as he locks her in the room.
As for Nate? Well, Cassie screams down the tube they’re coming to get him while one of Alamo’s men digs using construction equipment. And we find out the deal Maddy made: Alamo gets one million dollars of future earnings from Cassie. Did Maddy think he did all this for free because he’s sweet on her? “About time you wised up,” Alamo says, brushing her cheek.
And Maddy and Cassie get the coffin open, looking in. Cassie screams. The rattler is on Nate’s chest, and Nate is lying there. Dead, his tongue purple and bursting from his mouth. They’re too late. Nate Jacobs is dead. Respectfully, I’ve been harping on for weeks that Nate would die buried under his own retirement community, they disrespectfully (to me) I didn’t call him dying via rattlesnake. It’s a great callback, though, to Season 1 of the series when Nate just kidding it’s not a callback. This show is bananas!
Rue Robs
If you can believe it, that’s not the end of the episode. Faye enters Rue’s room and tells her they need to get the money, now, as Wayne is going to kill her. They slowly work their way to the basement, and once they get there, the key doesn’t work. Faye slowly takes Wayne’s keys from where he’s sleeping, and brings it to Rue, the sounds of machinery helpfully covering the extremely loud opening of the safe.
Rue gets the safe open just as the machine noise shuts of, and they see a huge stack of IDs and photos… All of the strippers from the Silver Slipper, including Magick. There’s no money in the safe, and Faye desperately needs the money. Without money, and only IDs and photos, Faye is losing it. She accuses Rue of lying to her, and while Rue explains that Faye knows her and can trust her… It’s too late.
“Waaaaayne,” Faye screams, presumably waking her Nazi boyfriend up; and kicking us into the final episode of the season, and potentially the series as a whole.
So where does that leave us going into the season/series finale? Well, Nate is dead (see above). Cassie and Maddy are now working for Alamo Brown, who essentially owns them. Rue is possibly about to be killed by Nazis, while G is waiting in the wings, and the DEA doesn’t know any of this is going down as their schedule has it happening a few hours later. And same with Alamo’s folks, who are busy mostly elsewhere.
Lexi, meanwhile, would like to be somewhere else entirely and not have anything to do with any of this. So how will it all end? And more importantly, will the rattlesnake start an OnlyFans? We just know that Nate Jacobs — and Jacob Elordi — won’t be there to find out.
Euphoria Season 3 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Euphoria premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Euphoria Season 3 with premiere dates.
- Sunday, April 12, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 1 – “Ándale”
- Sunday, April 19, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 2 – “America My Dream”
- Sunday, April 26, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 3 – “The Ballad of Paladin”
- Sunday, May 3, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 4 – “Kitty Likes to Dance”
- Sunday, May 10, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 5 – “This Little Piggy”
- Sunday, May 17, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 6 – “Stand Still and See”
- Sunday, May 24, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 7 – “Rain or Shine”
- Sunday, May 31, 2026: Euphoria, Season 3, Episode 8 – “In God We Trust” *Season Finale*
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