Sober TV review: Euphoria, Season 3 finaleSober TV review: Euphoria, Season 3 finale
LOL Sober
Nelson H. from LOL Sober reviews Euphoria’s season 3 finale, questioning its dark portrayal of addiction and 12-step recovery. He contrasts the finale with the earlier diner episode "Trouble Don’t Last Always", which he praises as a powerful depiction of what sobriety gives and risks.
13:12•2 Jun 2026
LOL Sober Takes on Euphoria’s Season 3 Finale and Its Bleak View of Recovery
Episode Overview
- Nelson questions Euphoria’s season 3 finale for presenting an extremely dark and confusing picture of addiction and 12-step recovery.
- Rue’s relapse, fentanyl overdose, and death on her sponsor’s couch are highlighted as a particularly bleak storyline.
- Ali’s notebook of people who have died from drugs and alcohol underlines the heavy emotional toll sponsors can face.
- Ali’s own relapse and subsequent armed confrontation at the strip club raise concerns about what message this sends about recovery.
- Nelson strongly recommends the earlier episode "Trouble Don’t Last Always" as a powerful, more hopeful portrayal of sobriety and its stakes.
“I thought it was a beautiful bottle episode that captures the essence of what we gain in sobriety and also what we have to lose.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? LOL Sober host Nelson H., an "alcoholic addict" using a pen name, takes a sharp and funny look at the season 3 finale of HBO's Euphoria, focusing squarely on how addiction and recovery are shown on screen. Nelson admits he’s been hooked on the show partly because Rue, played by Zendaya, has a storyline clearly shaped by creator Sam Levinson’s own long-term sobriety.
Yet he isn’t shy about saying the latest season left him uneasy. He jokes about being “aged out” of watching chaotic twenty-somethings do “wild shit,” but his real concern is how bleak the show’s message about recovery becomes. He walks through the major spoiler: Rue relapses, overdoses on fentanyl-laced drugs, and dies on her sponsor Ali’s couch.
Ali, who keeps a long notebook of people lost to drugs and alcohol, is shattered, relapses himself, then storms a strip club with a sawed-off shotgun to confront the dealer who supplied Rue.
Nelson questions what this says about 12-step recovery, especially for Euphoria’s young audience, saying he’s “not sure how you could feel good about 12-step recovery and be like, this is what I want to say to the world.” He also pokes fun at the show’s production issues, from A-list actors scattered around the globe to oddly staged FaceTime scenes and increasingly sleazy strip-club set pieces that feel like Levinson doubling down on past criticism.
Yet Nelson doesn’t write Euphoria off entirely. He passionately recommends the earlier bridge episode "Trouble Don’t Last Always"—“a beautiful bottle episode that captures the essence of what we gain in sobriety and also what we have to lose.” For anyone sober or sober-curious who cares how TV shapes public ideas about addiction, this breakdown might have you asking: how should recovery really look on screen?
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