We are living in a chaotic world where every action is taken to survive. It doesn’t matter whether you make the right or wrong move; it must lead you to make more money so that you can survive this cruel world. I understand the gist of this tormenting season, but Episode 5 of Euphoria Season 3 pushes these self-destructive characters further into the pit that is only filled with chaos, showing how fame, money, and desperation can completely change people.
The episode moves between disturbing dark humour, emotional confrontations, and surreal imagery without ever slowing down. The latest episode of the series shows us how Cassie is becoming obsessed with the attention and success she is suddenly receiving online. Without saying much, Rue continues to dig her own hole, while Maddy finally understands that she is actually the MVP and that something needs to be done about it.
In this article, I will break down Euphoria (Season 3) Episode 5, explaining how these characters only bring more havoc into their lives with their messy life choices. Please note that there are major spoilers throughout the article.
Euphoria (Season 3) Episode 5 ‘This Little Piggy’ Recap:
Is Maddy controlling Cassie’s career?
The episode begins with Cassie fully embracing her new online life. Just 24 hours after Brandon Fontaine tagged Cassie online, she had already gained 17,000 new subscribers, and the number keeps rising. Maddy has now become her full-time manager and is working with Cassie nonstop. A long montage shows how intense Cassie’s new routine is, including Maddy waking the “star” in the making to create more content for her subscribers. The content includes ASMR videos and personalized clips for specific requests. While the work is non-stop, the pay keeps getting bigger and faster for Cassie. Maddy continues to work behind the scenes, packaging and mailing Cassie’s used underwear, “fart in a jar” requests, etc.
Cassie is enjoying the attention and the fat paychecks, and it seems like things are finally aligning for her, as she always wanted to become rich and famous. But in a way, this is also helping Nate pay off his massive debts. In spite of Maddy’s warnings about Nate being a “bread loser,” Cassie wires Nate thousands of dollars to solve his financial problems. She believes that Nate is supportive of her new online career. The toxicity of their relationship is mind-numbing, honestly, especially when we see Nate encouraging her to continue making explicit content online while also reminding her about when to wire him more money.
Soon, Cassie’s life lifts off as she starts getting noticed more and more online, leading different podcasters to invite her onto their shows, where she says controversial things in order to build more attention around herself. The entire thing feels performative, like she is constantly saying whatever will get people angry enough to keep watching her. Maddy even coaches Cassie, telling her that the angrier people become online, the more money Cassie will make from them. Since Maddy understands how internet fame works and how controversy is good business, she wants Cassie to stop being emotional about Nate because he could end up taking half of everything she earns.
What happened to Big Eddy?
As Maddy pushes Cassie to dream big, a surreal sequence, or rather Cassie’s manifestation of dreaming big, shows us Cassie as a giant woman towering over Los Angeles, much like an ode to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, taking over Hollywood. It seems like Sam Levinson and Euphoria cannot get enough of Sydney Sweeney, her giant bosom, and this time, completely bare. Anyway, we understand that Cassie is simply imagining herself conquering the world and becoming the shining star she always imagined herself to be. May the force be with her!
The episode then goes back to Alamo’s, where we find out that Big Eddy is still in the hospital due to Laurie’s crew attack. Alamo is clearly furious and threatened that people may see him as a small, miserable man who cannot defeat his enemy. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He even plans to take revenge on Laurie by raiding her farm and taking back everything she has. Clearly, the crew is also feeling Alamo’s wrath, as one of the members, Kidd, gets nearly killed by Alamo when he loses his temper over a pair of pants.
We then see Rue watching Bishop in what feels like a scene from American Psycho with a plastic suit, duct tape, and an electric handsaw. In this moment, Bishop tells Rue that there are some people who are cursed in life, and ever since she arrived, nothing good has happened. Rue thinks her time is up, and maybe Bishop is getting ready to chop her up, but instead, he informs her that Alamo is ready to speak to her privately. As Rue leaves the room, we see Bishop entering a bathroom covered in plastic sheets, with Big Eddy tied up, gagged, and screaming for his life. Rue then meets Alamo, who tells her that he is not Laurie’s puppet and asks her to draw him a map of the property. Upon asking, Rue shares that the stolen money must be in the basement, but Alamo is more interested in anything more valuable than the money.
Meanwhile, the DEA meets with Rue at a secret rendezvous where they want her to get Laurie to incriminate herself over the phone so they can officially begin a wiretap investigation. However, she fails. So she dials Wayne, and when he takes her call, he addresses Rue as their drug mule, which is sufficient for the DEA to move forward with their plan. On the other hand, when Brandon convinces Cassie to leave Maddy and join his influencer house and management team, things become unnecessarily sour. Brandon shares that Maddy is just another Hollywood leech who preys on successful artists but is actually only an assistant doing a desk job. A phone call to Maddy’s office leads Cassie to demand a meeting at Maddy’s place, where she plans to tell her that she wants to join Brandon. However, Maddy doesn’t care and knows Cassie better. She fake-calls someone to cancel Cassie’s supposed audition for LA Nights, leading Cassie to panic immediately.
Does Cassie leave Maddy for Brandon?
Maddy then hands over a contract to Cassie to sign, which she quickly signs because she cannot risk losing her chance at fame. Maddy then pressures Lexi into getting Cassie a shot at appearing in an LA Nights audition. Cassie appears for the audition as a bubbly blonde starlet, prepared with a monologue from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra that somehow gets in front of Lexi’s boss, Patty, and the director. It turns out that the studio people do not even care because the role Cassie has applied for is only that of an assistant in LA Nights. However, this makes Lexi really mad because Cassie used her name to get ahead. While Cassie is really happy about getting the part, Lexi, on the other hand, is sick and tired of the fact that, despite working nonstop, she never gets ahead in life.
What happens to Nate?
The episode then shifts to Rue and Jules as we see them spending time together. It seems Jules is back to trying her little tricks on Rue as she slowly opens up in front of Jules. We see Jules bringing up Rue’s old intimacy issues and pointing out that Rue always hesitates to say something important. She even challenges Rue to kiss her like earlier when they were in high school. The scene then cuts to Jules having sex with Ellis again. However, when Ellis notices Rue’s shirt lying around, he becomes angry, blaming Jules and telling her not to infect him with any STDs because he is a family man and will always prioritize his life over Jules, leaving her completely cold, alone, and broken again.
We then see Nate jumping in joy and dancing when he receives another $30,000 from Cassie. It seems like he cannot move forward in life, even with a little push. Instead of paying his debt despite being on the brink of getting murdered on his wedding night, he goes ahead and drinks and parties by himself. However, the little joyous moment is cut short when one of Nas’s men breaks into his house again, carrying a golf club. The man chases Nate upstairs to his room, only to rip off another toe and cut off one of his fingers. I think it is much deserved!
Back at Alamo’s club, Magick discovers a bag of cocaine inside her locker and rushes to Alamo, accusing Rue of planting it there on the night of the robbery. She repeats everything that happened in Spanish to him, and he picks up on the fact that it is odd that Rue did not recognise the robbers’ voices despite living with them for so long. Later, we see Rue and Maddy hanging out at a diner where Maddy explains that she is emotionally distant and now sees everything as a business. Claiming to have reached a “peaceful state of harmony,” she connects her ongoing mantra about life to the Bible and Jesus. This is when Alamo comes in and introduces himself to Maddy as Rue freezes, trying to wrap her head around his sudden appearance out of nowhere.
Euphoria (Season 3) Episode 5 ‘This Little Piggy’ Ending Explained:
Is Rue dead?
As Alamo and Maddy chat, Rue finds out that she needs to join Bishop and the crew to attend to some errands. As Rue leaves with the crew, Maddy and Alamo learn more about one another while continuing to talk business. Maddy shares that she plans to expand her management company for online adult content creators, as she points out that OnlyFans now makes nearly as much money as Hollywood itself. Alamo agrees, and when Maddy shares the recent success Cassie has garnered, he becomes even more interested in the idea. The two then drive to Alamo’s club, where she examines the dancers. Eventually, she chooses Kitty and Magick.
Meanwhile, in the car en route, Bishop asks for Rue’s phone. After arriving at the ranch, Bishop, G, and Kidd force Rue to dig a deep hole. Once she finishes, the trio buries her all the way up to her neck. Confused and scared, Rue desperately screams for help, asking what she did wrong. The following morning, Rue is still trapped in the ground, begging to be let go. We then see Alamo appearing from a distance on a horse, carrying a riding crop with a heavy mallet. As he gallops toward Rue, he swings the weapon toward her as Rue screams in terror.
Did Alamo kill Rue? Is Maddy really going to do business with Alamo? Is Cassie going to become big in Hollywood? What will happen to Nate now that he has not kept his word to Nas? Is Jules going to leave her sugar daddy? Will Lexi stand up for herself or continue blaming others for not making it big in her career despite working really hard?
It seems that as much as we want the next episode to surprise us with new developments, we already know one thing for sure: Rue, of all people, will somehow outshine everyone with her sheer luck. While it seems everyone in the series is purely unlucky, I personally feel Rue is the luckiest of the lot because of her profound dumbness and inability to understand that it is not wise to continuously play with fire.
However, let us wait for Episode 6 of Euphoria Season 3 to find out what takes place in the lives of these characters.
