The hit hbo series, Euphoria, consists of eight episodes, with an additional two special character episodes. Set in a boring suburban town in America the show follows the lives of multiple high school students through a school year, giving insights on many current themes in the lives of many young adults, like teen pregnancy, substance abuse and relationships. The variety of relationships on the show stretch from healthy to unhealthy relations. The relationship between lead characters, Rue and Jules, is blindy read as healthy and desirable by many viewers. I will be arguing that it is in fact an unhealthy relationship for both partners. Impacting both characters' mental health negatively, based on their pasts, their desires and wants and their current mental health status. Proving they aren't compatible, and their relationship has led to unhealthy dependence.
Rue and Jules meet in the first episode of Euphoria, starting off as friends, we watch them slowly become more. But before we talk about their interactions during the series we need to take a step back and look at the path they took to get here. Starting with Rue, a teenage girl, who suffers from bipolar disorder and substance abuse, she lives with her widowed mother and younger sister. Rue starts the series fresh out of rehab after a nearly fatal overdose. We are given a brief insight into Rue's childhood filled with confusion, sadness and struggle, we learn about her drifting best friend, Lexi and her continuous use of drugs upon return from rehab. Rue's substance abuse teaches us she has struggled with mental health for many years and is no stranger to deception and lies. Leaving her with many unstable relationships. This provides the first red flag in this relationship, for Rue, who is still struggling with substance abuse, is not in a place for any new or serious relationships that may affect her emotional wellbeing and overall stability, this is reinforced when Rue's mother warns Rue to take it slow "baby just take your time, you've come a long way". However, to really understand how Rue's past affects the relationship we must look into Jules's past.
Jules's character is built on trust issues and trauma and for an understandable reason. Jules's storyline is also faced with themes of substance abuse and deception, however not by her own creation. The new girl at school, Jules, lives with her dad in their new suburban house, a huge change in dynamic from the city life left behind. The storyline of Jules and her mother is all too familiar to that of Jules and Rue. Jules's mother is the location of substance abuse in Jules's story. In the series special episode 'F*ck Anyone Who's Not A Sea Blob', we dive further into Jules's past as we observe a therapy session for Jules. This therapy session provides new perspectives on Jules's characters, featuring her struggles with gender identity, throughout her transition from male to female. During the session Jules reveals "Without The Self-Criticism, I'd Be Lost." Showing us that Jules is exhausting herself with her self-representation, and is often very hard on herself. However it doesn't end here, the story of Jules's mother is revealed, opening up themes of abandonment as her mother's substance abuse removed her from Jules's life. We learn that Jules's mother is still alive and trying to get sober, but her parents divorce and Jules's overall mistrust for her mother has kept her out of her life. This brings us to the biggest problem with Jules's and Rue's relationship, dependence. During Jules's therapy session she says (in reference to Rue) "I feel like her sobriety is completely dependent on how available I am to her." bringing to light the instability of their relationship. In reference to this quote the therapist lightly suggests that Jules feels the same way about Rue as she does about her mother: "The same person who saw you, who truly saw you, the same way your mom did when you were a baby, was also incapable of seeing how her addictions affected you." Linking Rue and Jules's mother's position is Jules's life, showing Jules's and the audience how Rue is negatively affecting Jules's mental health, bringing up past trauma. We also begin to understand the burden placed on Jules of constantly feeling responsible for Rue's life, making them the most unhealthy couple on the show.
Now that we have dove into the past it's time to resurface to the present. During the show, it's made clear that Rue and Jules's desires in life at the present time are very different. The two meet at a party, at first the shallow start to their friendship seems pretty compatible and their interests spark a strong connection. However as they themselves and their relationship grow we see their paths start to separate and struggle to hold on each other, creating a dependence. The first big shift in their relationship occurs pretty soon after they meet. After a near second overdose by Rue, Jules urges Rue to get sober, unknowingly creating an ultimatum for Rue and starting Rue's dependence on her. At this same time Jules is faced with a new online love interest, shyguy118/Tyler/Nate, who grabs her attention like a moth to a light. Bringing to attention Jules's unawareness of Rue's dependence. We watch as Rue's mental health deteriorates as she craves attention from Jules that she doesn't get. When Jules's new love interest doesn't work out her attention is drawn back to Rue. This is when their friendship progresses to something more and they become a couple. This sequence of events makes the audience wonder, was Rue just a rebound? Would Rue and Jules never have gotten together if Jules's other relationship had worked out? Did Jules just turn to Rue for validation? Questions left unanswered and even though later Jules expresses how much she loves Rue, it is always clear it'll never be as much as Rue loves her.
This is proven again when Jules's visits the city to see old friends in the episode 'The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed'. In this episode, we see the two characters separate from each other. During this episode, Rue faces a serious depressive episode, in which case she doesn't pee for so long she has to go to hospital and is severely ill. In the next episode, Jules's ask Rue if this happened because she left, to which Rue answers no. However, we are left wondering what would've happened differently if Jules was around. Either way, this makes it clear once again how much responsibility Jules's feels is put on her regarding Rue's mental health. On the contrary to Rue, during this episode, Jules is happy for the first time in a while as she visits her friends in the city. She gets close with her friend's new roommate, introducing a new love interest, Anna. This storyline is a great representation of where Jules is at compared to Rue. Jules wants to dress up, go clubbing, and live a city life. She wants to love other people. In comparison to Rue who wants to stay home, get sober and just be with Jules. These two completely different desires can't be worked into one relationship. Leaving an unstable and unbeneficial relationship between these characters. This problematic dynamic causes a massive crash in the relationship in the series finale 'And Salt the Earth Behind You'. During this episode Rue finds out about Jules's new love interest. We see it crush Rue's soul as she asks the burning question "Jules, are you in love with Anna?", "Yeah", "Are you um..are you in love with me?" "Yeah". This makes the audience question, how can Jules be in love with two people at once? How could Jules ever love Rue as much as Rue loved Jules? Especially now? This conversation sparks Rue with desperation to win Jules's whole heart, Causing Rue to suggest they leave and run away to the city right then and there. Jules's daring, spontaneous personality jumps at this idea and they get ready to leave. We see the crash of their relationship as Rue changes her mind right before boarding the train, and Jules's leaves without her. This scene shows without a doubt that they are at completely different times in their lives and only pain will come from them chasing each other's paths. Proving even if they could erase their pasts they are not compatible at the current time, and honestly, maybe they never were.
Finally, the mental health of each character. Both Rue and Jules's are incredibly emotionally unavailable. Therefore their relationship has caused further inflammation of mental health issues. Jules has been forced to confront her own abandonment issues left by her mother, while also having to take care of Rue during her own mental deterioration. During the show, Jules is catfished and blackmailed by character Nate Jacobs. This caused severe emotional drainage and her inability or unwillingness to talk to Rue about what happened was an early sign of the lack of supportiveness in the relationship. Showing us neither are fit to carry each other's weight. Leading us to the concern of Rue's mental health, we see through conversations between Rue and her mother, she was the advancer of the relationship, which is strange as we know she has never been in a relationship before, so her conclusion that she is in love with Jules so early on in the relationship may be her mistaking love for support. She loves the support she gets from Jules, she loves how dependent she can be on Jules, but she doesn't actually love Jules. This reflects on Rue's concerning mental health as she constantly craves support and attention. Overall, both Rue and Jules crave support but are unable to support others. They both need a sort of dominance from each other, but neither can comply, so something feels missing in their relationship. This could possibly be because they both are missing a parent. So they are left searching for a protective, caring figure in each other. However, this will never be found and leads to a never-ending hole. This is the most problematic part of their relationship as they destroy each other's mental health looking in each other for someone they will never find, but acting as if they did anyway, holding on to the few weak strings of hope left.
In conclusion, Rue and Jules were doomed from the start, from the collection of their personalities, past experiences and desires. They are extremely incompatible and the formation of their relationship has put a strain on their own personal paths and is better described as an unhealthy codependency, than a relationship.