20 Shocking Euphoria Scenes That Almost Went Too Far

Euphoria is back and more gratuitous than ever in its long-awaited third season. Before even the first ad break of the season 3 premiere, a dog was licking diarrhea off Faye’s leg and Rue was being carried to the bathroom to poop heroin balloons into a colander. Since then, we’ve had multiple sequences of Nate being beaten to a pulp and irreparably maimed by the loan sharks he ripped off, and plenty of excessive nudity as a result of Cassie’s budding OnlyFans career.

But Euphoria’s always been like this. If there’s one thing creator Sam Levinson is really good at (and there might only be one thing), it’s shocking his audience. Whether it’s a sudden outburst of violence or more nudity than you’ve ever seen on television before, Euphoria is jam-packed with shocking scenes that nearly went too far.

20 Cassie Pukes At Maddy's Party

A Previously Strong Character Becomes Uncomfortably Vulnerable

It's not surprising that many of the most shocking Euphoria moments contain violence, a character death, or a scene of an obviously sexual nature. Euphoria is, after all, a show that exists to push boundaries. However, one especially disturbing scene comes in Euphoria season 2, episode 4, "You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can" that is incredibly difficult to watch despite it containing no sex or violence. There's a sequence in the hot tub at Maddy's party when Cassie, overcome with emotion, promptly stands up and vomits over the other occupants.

This Euphoria scene is shocking on two levels, the most obvious being that seeing anybody get puked on is all-but-guaranteed to prompt a strong emotional response. However, at a deeper level, it's shocking because it showed just how much Cassie's feeling for Nate (and her guilt at sleeping with her friend's former partner) had disrupted Cassie's mental health. She appeared truly broken in this moment, and Sydney Sweeney's performance made it especially jarring to witness.

19 Ashtray Kills Custer

A Child Displays A Disturbing Capacity For Violence

Ashtray is the youngest character in Euphoria, and given what the rest of the characters get up to around him, it's no surprise he's a central figure in many of the show's most shocking scenes. While Ashtray killing Custer in Euphoria season 2, episode 8, "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name," wasn't the most jaw-dropping scene for young Javon Walton's character (or even the most shocking murder Ashtray committed), it was still an incredibly brutal moment.

While the violence of this shocking Euphoria scene is enough to raise eyebrows in its own right, it's everything it reveals about Ashtray which makes it truly harrowing. Ashtray was raised by Fez, and so his understanding of morality was always clearly skewed. However, walking up to Custer and coldly planting a knife into his neck showed viewers just how far gone Ashtray truly was.

18 Fez Gets Shot By The Police

An Overshadowed Moment

The Euphoria season 2 finale, "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name," had no shortage of shocking moments. However, due to events both before the scene and after, a particularly jaw-dropping Fez moment is often overlooked. When viewing for the first time, the sequence that Fez gets shot in the stomach by a SWAT team while screaming desperately at them not to harm Ashtray is incredibly jarring.

Ultimately, it's a moment many viewers forget because of everything still to come in the episode. However, had Fez being shot been the final scene in the sequence, it would still be renowned as an incredibly shocking Euphoria moment. It's also worth noting that it was so harrowing not because of the gunshot necessarily, but because of the phenomenal performance of the late Angus Cloud as Fez.

17 A Dog Licks Diarrhea Off Faye's Leg

A Jarring Grossout Gag In The Season 3 Premiere

After four years of anticipation, Euphoria’s season 3 premiere was pretty demoralizing. Before the first ad break, Rue and Faye were being carried into the bathroom with a colander to collect the dozens of heroin balloons they swallowed on the other side of the border. As Faye stumbles into the hallway with diarrhea dribbling down her leg, Laurie’s dog comes over and starts licking it.

This level of grossout gag would be a bit much for a movie like Norbit, let alone a prestige Sunday-night drama on HBO. And it wouldn’t be the last time the show would dedicate a gratuitous amount of screen time to Faye’s diarrhea.

16 Kaiju Cassie

Cassie Becomes A Big Star (Literally)

In a bit of on-the-nose symbolism to show that Cassie is becoming a bigger and bigger star on OnlyFans, Cassie grows into a giant and charges through an old-school miniature city set like Godzilla. Euphoria beat Tim Burton’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman remake to the punch.

This was a fun, campy, if unnecessary addition to Cassie’s OnlyFans arc, but it takes a ludicrous turn when Cassie presses her bare breasts into the window of a skyscraper and suffocates a man inside. It feels more like softcore porn than an HBO drama.

15 The Police Want To Investigate Maddy’s Bruises

Maddy Doesn’t Cooperate

After the show has already made it clear that Nate has been physically abusive to Maddy in the past, it goes one step further to pile the trauma onto Maddy. After attending a carnival where Nate grabs her neck, Maddy hides the bruises with a turtleneck instead of makeup, and still reeling from the incident, she doesn’t eat. With the air conditioning not working at school, Maddy still feeling upset about the incident, and no food to give her energy, Maddy faints at school, which prompts paramedics being called in.

Because the bruises are seen by the paramedics and school staff following her fainting, the school has to report the bruises to the police. Instead of treating Maddy like a survivor of abuse with any kind of compassion or care, when Maddy refuses to cooperate with the police because she doesn’t want to relive the incident, they hold her down and forcibly cut away her clothing to get a look at the bruises. It’s a scene that’s uncalled for and hard for the viewers to watch, but it also gives a window into how survivors of abuse can be treated and blamed for what happens to them.

14 Mouse Gives Rue Fentanyl

The Scene Implies Mouse Could Have Done More Than That

Though Rue is presented as an addict who will try anything when she relapses in Euphoria, that isn’t entirely the case. She’s stayed away from fentanyl, and even Fezco doesn’t sell it because he considers it too dangerous. When Rue, however, happens to be at Fezco’s house when Mouse is there, the other dealer uses the opportunity to try to take advantage of her. Not only does he force Rue to take a dose of fentanyl, but he also implies she can use her body instead of money to pay him for it.

The scene stops short of Mouse actually physically assaulting Rue, but it’s certainly implied that he could have if Fez wasn’t there to pay for the drug on Rue’s behalf. In fact, Rue spends days there, so out of it from the drug, that Fez has to call Jules to come get her. The show could have crossed even worse of a line than it did.

13 Cassie’s Carousel Ride

Cassie’s Drug-Fueled Freedom Is Cut Short

In one episode of Euphoria, Cassie and Maddy decide to avoid how their boyfriends have made them feel by taking MDMA and allowing the high to entertain them instead. Unfortunately, a stimulant and hallucinogen like that can actually enhance feelings, leading Maddy to attempt to leave Cassie behind to go confront Nate. Cassie spends her time on a carousel with another classmate, but her feelings get the better of her.

Initially, what Cassie loves about using the MDMA while on the carousel is that she feels completely free. Eventually, however, she starts to use the carousel for some self pleasure, and her moaning draws the attention of those around her. Before the scene can go too far, Cassie gets embarrassed and seeks Maddy out to leave, but the scene is awkward enough without taking anything further.

12 Cal And Nate Fight

Nate’s Reaction Implies Past Abuse

Nate and his father have a complicated relationship as is evident in Nate having a nightmare about him, but it’s also reflected in the way Nate treats other people. The abuse Nate has suffered, however, is only implied for much of the first season of Euphoria.

It’s not until Nate and his father get into an argument in the Euphoria season 1 finale that becomes physical that it’s clear how bad the abuse might have actually been in the past. Cal throws Nate to the ground, and when he does, Nate nearly immediately begins sobbing and banging his own head on the floor. It’s an incredibly traumatic response to the fight and leaves the viewers knowing that much worse has likely happened to Nate in the past. While Nate is a morally flawed and nearly irredeemable character, the audience feels for him in the moment.

11 Chris McKay’s Hazing

The Way The Scene Is Shot Implies More

As McKay feels the pressure to be a collegiate-level athlete, he and Cassie grow distant. He also, however, has more trauma in his life as he starts college than simply pushing his girlfriend away from him. While his father continues to push him to be his best, his future fraternity brothers violently assault him.

When McKay is attacked by a group of young men, the scene is chaotic and shot in a way that implies not just physical violence, but sexual violence as well. That implication wasn’t something that actor Algee Smith was aware of until after he saw the completed scene. According to Smith’s interview following the airing of the episode with The Hollywood Reporter, “It looks really graphic in the scene, the way they edited and chopped it up, which is scary as hell, but they’re play-humping… I was surprised by the editing.”