Euphoria S2 Ep 6: A Thousand Little Trees of Blood

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

Euphoria S2 Ep 6:
A Thousand Little Trees of Blood

from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2022/02/15/euphoria-season-2-episode-6-recap-mother-knows-best/?sh=46c30bb84a6e

Dani Di Placido
Feb 15, 2022,09:23am EST


After last week’s deep dive into Rue’s addiction, this episode gives us a meaty chunk of plot, split between several of the characters, some of whom have been a little underserved this season.

“A Thousand Little Trees of Blood” sees the moms of Euphoria shine, dispensing some life advice and tough love, as well as offering a glimpse into the home lives of these characters.

First, we watch Rue wallow in despair, coming down hard, to the point where she struggles to open a single candy by herself. Rue is a jittery mess, dripping with tears and mucus, but she's really committed to getting clean - again.

Her family has already seen her worst self, and that memory will never fade - the best Rue can do is make sure it stays a memory. Wracked with guilt, Rue feels particularly bad about what she said to Ali - as she says, reducing someone to their worst moment is the stuff of cops. So she gives him a call, and all is forgiven.

Ali drops by to give the family some normality, reassurance, even a little laughter, and pays attention to Gia, silently suffering in the shadow of Rue’s addiction. Ali validates Gia’s rage, confirming that she is correct, or at least justified, not to believe Rue’s latest promise to sober up; well-intentioned or not, it’s still just another promise.

Maddy and Cassie remain fractured by the fallout of Rue’s big reveal, with Maddy venting her psychotic revenge fantasies to an amusingly sympathetic Kat, while Cassie spends the entire episode having a full-blown tantrum, trying desperately to convince her family that she isn’t a bad friend. Thankfully, her mom doesn’t even pretend to buy it.

Instead of catering to Cassie’s crocodile tears (and awkward attempt to cut herself with a corkscrew), Lexi and Fez decide to watch Stand By Me - always a good decision. As the movie ends, the two hold hands, for the very first time; their slow-burning romance proves surprisingly sweet, especially in contrast to the insane sex lives of their peers. Although, as we later find out through Faye, the cops are circling in on Fez, for Mouse’s murder; Ash’s spontaneous acts of extreme violence are starting to spark serious consequences.

Nate is still basking in the glow of his victory over Cal, who has left the family to pursue his sexapades; Ash, it seems, hit Cal hard enough to come out of the closet. This proves to be a Nate-centric episode, which are always the best; the guy is coldly calculating, yet wildly unpredictable.

The second he looks at his phone, Nate knows exactly what happened yesterday, because Cassie has been frantically calling every second she can, while Maddy hasn’t contacted him at all. He knows it’s over between him and Maddy, so Nate drowns his sorrows with his mother, Marsha.

We rarely spend much time with Marsha in the show, but the scene proves pretty revealing, as the two immediately bond over their shared dislike of Cal, but it doesn’t take much playful prodding from her to spark Nate’s temper, which is always swimming under the surface, ready to emerge at the slightest provocation.

Nate doesn’t like to acknowledge this aspect of himself, and he despises it when others do, but Marsha (as we saw in Cal’s flashbacks) is a pretty frank person who enjoys pushing boundaries. She casually reminds Nate that he choked Maddy - which didn't bother Marsha at all - but the mere mention of this infuriates Nate, who reiterates that the charges were dropped, as though the law aligns with reality itself. For Nate and Cal, reputation is everything.

Marsha goes on to accuse Nate of inheriting all the worst traits from his father, and even speculates on what went wrong, pinpointing the moment he “darkened” at around nine years old. We know that’s the moment when Nate first found his dad’s meticulously organized collection of sex tapes, but I’m not sure that explains Nate’s issues - it is implied that Cal was violent with Nate, at the very least.

Nate’s parents seem to be frightened of their own son, and for good reason; upon understanding that he and Maddy’s relationship is over, Nate goes straight for his dad’s gun, seeking to retrieve the sex tape from Maddy. At this time, Maddy is in the pool with Samantha, who seems to have a bit of an infatuation for the teenager, or at least an interest.

But she emphasizes with Maddy and explains that she was once the treacherous cheater too, back in her day; important words of wisdom, especially coming from Maddy’s role model, and ideally, Maddy would redirect her anger away from Cassie and towards Nate. Of course, that might prove dangerous, seeing as the boy managed to sneak into her room with a pistol.

Nate threatens Maddy, in his casual, understated way, before realizing that he’ll get better results if he turns the pistol on himself. What follows is a remarkably disturbing scene, completely absent of violence - it’s all implication. Nate pretends to play Russian Roulette, pulling the trigger over and over until Maddy screams the location of the disc; Nate has tortured Maddy without laying a finger on her.

Of course, he never had a bullet in the gun (Nate would never risk his own life like that, although he’s crazy enough to leave the possibility open, I guess). It seems as though Nate deliberately intended to leave a mental scar, so deep that Maddy might never want to discuss this incident again. The existence of the tape must be kept a secret, to preserve the value of Cal’s business, which Nate believes he will inherit.

Nate, however, remains an intriguingly unpredictable villain, as his next move is not to destroy the disc, but to simply … hand it to Jules. This doesn’t appear to be a calculated move at all - Jules could do anything with that recording - but Nate seems to believe that it’s the “right” thing to do. The oddly intimate relationship between him and Jules is one of the most intriguing of the show. We’re never shown why Jules means so much to him, or what they talked about when he took the time to catfish her - it’s Nate’s big secret, and all evidence points to his feelings for her being sincere.

It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that every single problem in the Jacobs household can be traced back to the fact that the men in the family aren’t comfortable acknowledging the complications of their sexuality - that intense repression has distorted their entire lives, and the lives of everyone they encounter.

In hindsight, it was pretty amusing that Marsha was so concerned that Maddy would get pregnant out of spite, seeing as Marsha did something similar to Cal, all those years ago.

Kat also appears in a scene, after several episodes spent hiding in the background. She and Ethan are out on a date, and she finally breaks up with him, in the most cowardly way possible. Kat lies, unconvincingly, about having a terminal illness, then becomes annoyed when Ethan doesn’t believe her. Kat sputters out misguided justifications for their breakup, peppered with social justice buzzwords, in a desperate attempt to look like the bigger person - it doesn’t work, but at least she’s single now.

The episode ends with Rue and Gia snuggling up in bed together, Gia’s silent suffering acknowledged by Ali, allowing her to show some affection for her sister again. But we can’t have Rue head to rehab right now, not while Laurie is looking for her - it would be a little too convenient, plot-wise, to whisk Rue to safety.

Hence, Rue’s mother can’t secure a place for her daughter in rehab, which makes sense - the crumbling healthcare system, held together with duct tape and string, isn’t there for Rue. All she has is her family, which is a lot. But will it be enough against Laurie?

This was a great episode, one of the strongest of the season thus far, showing Nate’s depravity and vulnerability. Plus, it was nice to see the moms spend some time in the spotlight, to show how parenting should (or shouldn’t) be accomplished.