What's Going To Happen To Elliot At The End Of Euphoria Season 2?

Dominic Fike joined the cast of HBO’s Euphoria at the start of Season 2 as Elliot, a student who instantly bonded with Rue (Zendaya) at a New Year’s Eve party in the premiere episode after she caught him doing drugs and wanted to join. Their initial conversations seemed slightly flirtatious, but a lot has changed over the four following episodes that have aired so far, as Elliot’s since struck up a romantic friendship with Jules (Hunter Schafer). The character initially kept his and Rue’s drug use a secret from Jules, who was operating under the guise that Rue’s been sober. But as the pair was starting to hook up in Episode 4, Elliot told Jules everything he knew about Rue breaking her sobriety — which caused Rue’s life and relationship to explode in Episode 5.

The intense episode aired Feb. 6 and saw Jules — fully informed about her (maybe) ex’s relapse — tell Rue’s mom, Leslie (Nika King), about her daughter’s drug use and help her flush the contraband down the toilet. Once Rue found out her drugs were gone, she violently insulted her family members and Jules, destroyed her house looking for the drugs, and even physically struck Elliot for telling her secrets. Fike’s character later expressed regret toward sparking the fallout and said he missed the Rue he’d grown to know.

While it seems like Elliot ultimately did the right thing for Rue’s health and safety, Euphoria viewers predict the tables could turn on him by the end of Season 2. We still don’t know much about the character aside from his connections to Rue and Jules, but fans have spotted Easter eggs that seem to hint at where his storyline is headed. Here are the most interesting fan theories about Elliot’s fate in Euphoria Season 2 as well as Fike’s response to the rumors.

Could Elliot Be The Third Jacobs Brother?

Look, we know this theory is a bit far-fetched, but bear with us. In Season 1, eagle-eyed fans spotted a family photo in the Jacobs’ home featuring father Cal (Eric Dane), mother Marsha (Paula Marshall), eldest son Aaron (Zak Steiner), middle son Nate (Jacob Elordi), and a third son we’ve yet to meet onscreen. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly published after the Season 1 finale in August 2019, Elordi said he knows as little as viewers about the third Jacobs son. “We haven’t seen him,” he told the publication. “I don’t know where he went. I had the same questions when I got to work. I was like, ‘You do realize that there’s a different child in this picture?’ And everyone just didn’t really say anything.”

Considering we know so little about Elliot’s backstory and family life, fans theorize Fike’s character could be the third Jacobs son. Episode 4 saw Cal get kicked out of the gay bar he used to visit when he was a teenager and wasn’t out and return home to drunkenly tell his family about his secret sex life. In the process, he removed the family photo from the wall and said, “We all have secrets,” which led at least one TikTok user to think Elliot could be the third, perhaps abandoned Jacobs child.

According to Showbiz CheatSheet, another fan pointed out Rue’s description of Nate in Season 1 Episode 2. “He knew he had anger issues, he just couldn’t trace back to what caused it,” she said about the character while he walked past the family photo. It could be a coincidence, but creator and writer Sam Levinson is known to drop foreshadowing Easter eggs in the series, so anything is possible.

Other fans think the third Jacobs child is deceased, which could explain the family’s avoidance of the topic. “I agree with the theory that the youngest brother passed away. That’s why there is so much tension,” wrote one Reddit user. “The youngest died somehow when Nate was supposed to be watching him and he probably didn’t shed a tear at his funeral or something and that’s why Cal said ‘you’re my biggest regret.’”

Will Elliot Die At The End Of Season 2?

Whether Elliot’s the third Jacobs son or not, many fans think the series is setting up his character to die at the end of Season 2. The theory first came about during one of Rue and Elliot’s first conversations, in which he asks her to name a feeling stronger than love, and she responds with loss. Considering the two have bonded over drugs, Fike’s character dying of an overdose is a possibility — and fans have noticed a few Easter eggs pointing toward his passing.

For starters, one Season 2 sequence featuring Rue and Elliot dancing together was quite similar to a scene from Season 1, which saw Rue dancing with her late father, who passed away from cancer. In Episode 4, a drug hallucination led Rue to have a vision where she dances in a church and sees her father. As pointed out by TheCinemaholic, Elliot appears in a church in the same episode, leading fans on Reddit to believe the writer is hinting at Elliot’s imminent passing.

However, during a hangout with Jules in the same episode, Elliot and Rue hid drugs to secretly use in the bathroom — but after Rue snorted a line, Elliot entered the room and blew his powder off the sink without taking it. Combined with him telling Jules about Rue’s drug use, it seems he could be having a change of heart about his own habits. But if we’ve learned anything from Rue’s experience, it’s that those with a substance use disorder can relapse when they’re seemingly at their best. Perhaps seeing what his actions did to Rue and her family could lead him down a slippery slope of drug use, as he clearly blamed himself.

Another sign pointing to Elliot’s potential dark fate comes from a January 2022 interview Zendaya gave to Variety, in which she described Fike’s character’s role in the series. “In retrospect, and also as someone who understands where the show needs to go and what needs to happen for these characters,” she said, “it’s crucial that Elliot exist and that he be the person that is honestly the catalyst for a lot of things that just have to happen.”

Dominic Fike Says The Theories Are Untrue, But Convincing

Ahead of the Euphoria Season 2 finale airing Feb. 27, Fike appeared on The Tonight Show, where host Jimmy Fallon asked him about fan theories regarding his character. “I’m not even gonna lie, I saw this one online,” the actor and musician said of the idea Elliot’s part of the Jacobs family. “I looked at it for a while and there were so many things connecting and people talking about it through these Reddit threads,” he continued. “At the end of it, I was like, ‘Am I Nate’s brother?’” Unless Levinson has plans even the actors aren’t aware of, it seems Elliot has no blood relation to Elordi’s troubled jock character.

While they didn’t exactly touch on the theory of Elliot’s impending death, Fallon did press Fike on another theory claiming his character is a mere figment of Rue’s imagination. In response, the “3 Nights” performer exclaimed, “You wish!” He also confirmed he’ll “absolutely” be returning for Euphoria Season 3, which seemingly squashes the death rumor as well — barring any potential storylines taking place in the afterlife. It seems like in order to find out the exact fate of Fike’s character, fans will have to wait to see the Season 2 finale.