Lexi, You In Danger Girl

Spoilers ahead for Euphoria Season 2, Episode 7.

Of all the characters on Euphoria, Lexi Howard (Maude Apatow) is usually the one you can rely on for a reprieve from the drama. But in Episode 7 of the show’s second season, she’s the one instigating it — however innocently.

After weeks of writing, the opening of her play arrives. The audience is packed, and Lexi is nervous. She hasn’t told her friends and family that the show is about her life — or that they’re all in it. “Wait, is this f*cking play about us?” Maddy (Alexa Demie) asks Kat (Barbie Ferreira) disbelievingly as the characters are introduced.

In a flashback, Lexi explains to Fezco (Angus Cloud) that her play is centered around friendship, and that she wrote it with the best intentions. But Fezco seems unconvinced. “You’re really stroking the bees nest with that one,” he tells her. “If somebody invited me to a play and didn’t even tell me I was a character in it, I’d definitely have some questions.” Lexi asks if he’d actually be mad, and he responds that it would depend on the content of the play and whether or not the person truly meant well.

Lexi insists she does. Still, she agonizes that she’ll offend someone — in particular her sister Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). Though Lexi employs actors and uses fake names like Jade, Hallie, Marta, and Jake, it’s pretty obvious who the characters are stand-ins for, and the portrayals are honest but not always kind. She paints Cassie as hilariously self-absorbed and casually cruel, Maddy as scary yet vulnerable, and Rue as both gentle and deeply tragic.

For us as viewers and other students at the school, the play is messy and fun. But as the camera pans to the real subjects of Lexi’s production, it’s clear that they’re not exactly comfortable being depicted onstage in front of their parents and classmates. (The one exception is Lexi’s mom, who loves every second of it.) The scenes about Rue and her substance misuse are tender, but prompt Rue to repeatedly glance over at Jules, who she has yet to speak to after their disastrous intervention. Kat and Maddy seem upset about being portrayed as vapid, and Maddy doesn’t seem too enthused about being reminded how close she and Cassie used to be.

The people most affected by the play are Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie. While Lexi recounts for the audience how Maddy once moved in with them, Cassie goes to the bathroom to sob. At first, she seems overcome by her guilt over sleeping with Nate. But then she strokes her hair, laughs, and pretty ominously smiles at the mirror.

Afterward, a dreadful feeling that something bad is about to happen sets in. Cassie returns to her seat just as the play launches into its midway act: a gym performance featuring Ethan (Austin Abrams) as Nate dancing to Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” while a bunch of shirtless, oiled up men gyrate around him making innuendos about his sexuality. It’s a huge hit with the audience: People give a standing ovation, Jules and Rue laugh, and Maddy yells, “Lexi, you’re a f*cking G!” But Nate and Cassie are furious. They storm out of the auditorium, and Nate tells Cassie to grab her stuff and leave his house. Left alone — with no friends and a sister who has mocked her in front of the entire school — Cassie slowly walks back to the auditorium door. She breathes heavily and stares through the door with a wild, unblinking look. Lexi, you in danger girl.