The Girls Of ‘Euphoria’ As Harry Styles Songs
Samantha Colleran, June 2022
Author’s Note: Euphoria is a show that deals with a number of heavy topics that some people may not be comfortable with, and some of those aspects will be touched on in this post. If topics such as drug addiction/abuse, violence/gore, sexual content (rape, sex trafficking, sex in general, etc.), and intense language makes you uncomfortable, please avoid watching Euphoria and reading this post. There’s also major plot spoilers so if you haven’t watched and plan to catch up, wait until you’re finished with Season 2 to read this!
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Euphoria has become one of the most talked about shows of my generation. Topics of drug abuse, toxic relationships, friendships, falling in and out of love, and more are covered on the show, and it’s quickly become a favorite of mine. Another one of my favorite things, as you all know, is Harry! I love thinking of my favorite characters and how they relate to songs I listen to, so I thought why not combine two things I thoroughly enjoy into one post? For today’s post, I’ve assigned each main girl of Euphoria a song from each of Harry’s three albums, with explanations of course. Keep scrolling to see my song selections for each Euphoria girl, and feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments!
Rue Bennett
Harry Styles, “Meet Me In The Hallway”: We’re kicking this post off with our leading lady, Rue Bennett. This was the easiest song to character pairing, it’s actually the one that inspired this entire post. The focal point of Euphoria is Rue’s battle with her drug addiction, which all began when her dad passed away at a young age due to cancer. The lyrics of “Meet Me In The Hallway” describe Rue’s situation perfectly. In Season 2 we see more of Rue’s backstory; how she watched her father suffer through his battle with cancer and the quiet moments they shared together before he passed. The first verse of “Meet Me In The Hallway” describes Rue losing her dad, “I just left your bedroom/ Give me some morphine/ Is there anymore to do?”. Rue was with her father when he died, and dealing with a heavy loss like that at such a young age is no easy feat. She turned to drugs to cope with the pain, there was nothing more for her to do to help her father’s suffering, and that began her spiral into drug addiction.
The chorus is a cry for help as Rue fights with her own thoughts because she wants to get better (“Gotta get better”) but throughout the two seasons of the show, she finds herself hitting lower and lower points. She has to get better to make her dad proud, but when you’re that deep into addiction finding a way out can be challenging. The line “I walk the streets all day/ Running with the thieves” reminded me of Season 2, Episode 5, where we see Rue at her lowest. After getting into some trouble with a drug dealer, Rue manages to find her way home after being trapped at the drug dealer’s house, where it’s revealed her mom got rid of her entire stash of drugs and she wants Rue to go back to rehab. This causes Rue to spiral, lashing out at her family and friends, and she ends up outrunning the cops during her not so smooth escape plan. It’s gut wrenching to watch someone struggle as deeply as Rue, because all she wants is to have her pain taken away.
Fine Line, “Falling”: This song can relate to a number of relationships and personal aspects that make up Rue’s life. During Rue’s breakdown in Season 2, Episode 5, she gets into a screaming match with her mother and ex-girlfriend Jules. Rue tells her mom that she’s not a good mother, screams at her sister, and ultimately breaks down and says she wishes she were different (“Forget what I said/ It’s not what I meant/ And I can’t take it back”). The chorus visits this further; Rue sees herself struggling, she knows she needs help, she’s turning into someone even she doesn’t want to be around, she’s falling into old habits and she’s falling harder than she did before going into recovery her first time. The line in the final chorus “What if you’re someone I just want around?” reminds me of the happier moments of Rue’s life; the moments she shared with her father, the beginning of her relationship with Jules where everything was new and exciting, even her friendship with Lexi, one of the few positive relationships in her life. There’s a number of layers to the song and so many ways Rue relates to “Falling”.
Harry’s House, “Keep Driving”: This one may seem like an odd choice, but hear me out. The way the lyrics of this song flow are like a stream of consciousness, as if the events of the song are being narrated to us. Rue is the narrator of Euphoria; most events that occur throughout the show are through Rue’s perspective or are told by Rue based on how she heard the events happening from other people. Despite the fact Rue and Jules couldn’t work out their problems and ‘keep driving’ together, we watch the events of their relationship roll out from the sweeter beginnings (Verse 1, where Rue feels the initial euphoria of falling for Jules) all the way to the resolution at the end of Season 2 where Jules tells Rue she loves and misses her at the end of Lexi’s play (more on that later) and Rue kisses Jules on the forehead, leaving her alone in the auditorium (answering the question “Should we just keep driving?”). “Jules was my first love, I’d like to remember it that way” Rue begins her ending monologue (“I will always love you”). Small concerns in their relationship eventually evolved into something larger as Rue’s addiction got worse and she was too deep in to realize she needed help. The bridge symbolizes Rue’s slow spiral in Season 2; life events kept piling on which caused her drug abuse to worsen, ultimately leading to her hitting rock bottom (the conscious stream of thought Harry shares that doesn’t make sense at first but the more you listen, the more you understand). “Toothache, bad move/ Just act normal” is the lyric that truly symbolizes this final fall into the deep end as Rue tries to convince everyone in her life she’s okay when in reality, she’s falling into a dark place. It’s revealed in Rue’s final monologue that she stayed clean for the rest of the school year, “It’s all good”, or presumably so. I’m hoping to see more of this Rue; healthier, happier, on the path of recovery.
Jules Vaughn
Harry Styles, “Carolina”: Up next is Jules, the mysterious new girl who comes to town right in the beginning of Season 1! “Carolina” immediately reminded me of Jules for a number of reasons. Jules is the new girl at school in Season 1, she and Rue immediately connect, “She’s got a family in Carolina/ So far away but she says I remind her of home/ Feeling oh so far from home”. Immediately asserting herself as a fearless, don’t-mess-with-me type of girl at Nate Jacobs’ house party in the first episode of Season 1 (“Gets into parties without invitations/ How could you ever turn her down?”) with an outgoing “good girl” persona, Jules is someone who has some sort of effect on everyone she encounters in her life (“How would I tell her that she’s all I think about?”), especially Rue. Jules embodies “Carolina” perfectly, her bright personality reflects the upbeat instrumentals and lyrically she exudes “Carolina” energy.
Fine Line, “Lights Up”: In her special episode and throughout Season 2, we see a new side of Jules that is more accepting of herself as she continues her journey of self discovery. “Lights Up” is all about coming to terms with important aspects of yourself and your identity, which is what we see with Jules. She no longer feels the desire to appeal to the male gaze (“Shine, step into the light/ Shine, so bright sometimes/ Shine, I’m not ever going back”), something that took her a long time to come to terms with as she learned more about herself and what femininity means to her as a trans woman. “Lights Up” is about inner reflection, and Jules is learning to let go of people’s perceptions of who she is and instead focuses on who she wants to be to the world (“Lights up and they know who you are/ Know who you are/ Do you know who you are?”). Harry was very open about Fine Line being an album regarding honesty with yourself, and as the lead single, “Lights Up” perfectly sums up that message. Jules’ special episode was pivotal for her character development; we see more of her outside of her relationship with Rue and it gives us a better understanding of why she may have made certain decisions throughout Season 1, the biggest one being leaving Rue at the train station after their school formal in order to find herself (“Can’t you see?/ I could but wouldn’t stay”).
Harry’s House, “Matilda”: This one may be a glaringly obvious choice, but Jules is “Matilda” through and through. We learn a lot about Jules’ background early on in Season 1, such as the way her mother reacted to Jules coming out as trans by forcing her to go to a psychiatric hospital at the age of eleven which worsened her depression and other mental health issues, and strained Jules’ relationship with her mom. Not feeling acceptance from someone important in life like a mother/mother figure who is supposed to love you unconditionally is a feeling too many LGBTQ+ people can unfortunately relate to, and Jules is a heartbreakingly accurate representation of that lack of acceptance (“Nothing ’bout the way that you were treated ever seemed especially alarming till now/ So you tie up your hair and you smile like it’s no big deal”).
Despite experiencing the neglect from her mother (“I don’t believe that time will change your mind/ In other words, I know they won’t hurt you anymore/ As long as you can let them go”), Jules has a good relationship with her father, and finding friends like the girls featured on this list allowed Jules to truly find herself (“You can let it go/ You can throw a party full of everyone you know/ You can start a family who will always show you love”). In Jules’ special episode, we see her coming to terms with a number of aspects of her identity, and it’s a comfort to many to see her finding her place in the world and not conforming to anyone’s standards about what makes someone a woman.
Maddy Perez
Harry Styles, “Woman”: Up next is Miss Maddy Perez, the confidence queen of Euphoria. “Woman” is a song that seethes with jealousy and resentment, and that perfectly describes the drama that took place between Maddy, Nate, and Maddy’s best friend Cassie Howard during Season 2. Of course Maddy shows her anger towards Nate for getting with her best friend, but looking at “Woman” through Maddy’s perspective, we actually see more of her hurt is geared towards Cassie, who watched her suffer through Nate’s abuse and still wanted to be with him. Maddy “never wants to see” Cassie with Nate because he hurt her so deeply and she doesn’t want to see someone she cares about being hurt the way she was, but she knows Cassie “will never listen” because Nate gives her the attention she craves so deeply (more on that in Cassie’s section). Cassie essentially stabbed Maddy in the back, “making [her] bleed” as she’s forced to watch Nate and Cassie parade their relationship in the school hallways. “Apologies are never gonna fix this/ I’m empty, I know/ But promises are broken like a stitch is” perfectly fits the scene where Maddy finds out about Cassie and Nate. She begs Cassie to tell her it was worth throwing their friendship away to be with someone as toxic as Nate, and the scene ends with Maddy sobbing and saying she would have never done something like this to Cassie and ending their friendship. It’s heartbreaking to watch someone who cares so much about her friends be knocked down over and over and be stuck in a vicious cycle of abuse, and I truly hope we see Maddy get a happier ending in Season 3.
Fine Line, “She”: Mysterious and alluring but beyond interesting to analyze, Maddy and “She” have these traits in common. A lot of Maddy’s character is built around her relationship with Nate, the star football player who behind closed doors is extremely abusive toward Maddy. Nate was Maddy’s first love, so it’s hard for her to get out of the relationship, and she does whatever she can to please him. “Lives for the memory/ A woman who’s just in his head (Just in his head)/ And she sleeps in his bed (His bed)/ While he plays pretend (Pretend)” can be interpreted as Maddy trying to fit the ideal image Nate has of her in his head; a delicate girl who obeys his every command. In Season 2 when it’s revealed Cassie has secretly been hooking up with Nate, we see Maddy start to come into her own and slowly begin to heal herself from the trauma Nate caused her. Maddy babysits for a woman named Samantha, who seemed to serve as some sort of mentor to Maddy as she coped with her breakup and losing her best friend. There’s a small hint to Maddy possibly leaving at the end of Season 2 in a conversation with Samantha, but the decision is never finalized (“He takes a boat out, imagines just sailing away (Away, away)/ And not telling his mates (Not telling his mates)/ He wouldn’t know what to say (Wouldn’t know what to say)”. A tough exterior to analyze but so complex and beautiful once you listen harder, Maddy is the perfect match for this track.
Harry’s House, “Boyfriends”: This song was introduced to the world by Harry with the following statement, “To boyfriends everywhere, fuck you”. That perfectly sums up how it felt watching Maddy and Nate’s relationship continue to get messier and messier, and all I did was root for Maddy. Nate thought she was easy and took her love for granted, he constantly got under her skin, but Maddy was caught in a vicious cycle of abuse so she saw her only option was to continue “open[ing] the door” for him. Never telling Maddy his true thoughts about their relationship and continuously ruining her life with his poor actions (“It gets hard to know what he’s thinking”, “They don’t tell you where it’s heading/ And you know the game’s never ending”), we watch Maddy slowly lose herself in this loop of Nate telling her how much he loves her only to hurt her a few scenes later. Maddy “stays in a daydream” with him for the majority of the show, unable to let go of her first true love because of the few good moments they shared together. She eventually pulls herself out of it, which was a powerful moment of the show, but that still doesn’t change the fact that boyfriends suck.
Lexi Howard
Harry Styles, “Two Ghosts”: Lexi Howard, my beloved! Season 2 was a pivotal one for Lexi, where we really see her coming into her own and learning to navigate life as an independent person and not living in the shadow of other people. The two season finale delves deeper into Lexi’s traumas; how she’s felt like a side character in everyone else’s stories, her family struggles, how she always puts on a brave face to ensure others are okay, but there’s more to the shy, quiet girl than you’d expect. She cares deeply about people; we see that especially in her relationships with Rue and Fezco. The entirety of Lexi’s self directed school play, Our Life, which is the subject of the final two Season 2 episodes, highlights the fact that everyone around her has grown up and grown apart (“We’re not who we used to be/ We’re not who we used to be”), and we see how she’s dealt with losing the closeness and security those relationships brought her, especially as Rue’s closest friend watching Rue lose herself to her drug addiction.
We also get to see a romantic side of Lexi during Season 2. Our self proclaimed side character finally gets to experience some sweet flirty scenes with fan favorite Fezco. They establish a connection at a New Years Eve party where the two sit and talk all night (“Tongue tied like we’ve never known”), and they have other small encounters at Fez’s family owned convenience store (“The fridge light washes this room white/ Moon dances over your good side”) and eventually at Fez’s house where they bond over their shared love for the classic movie Stand By Me. We’re left with a cliffhanger at the end of the most recent season; Fez doesn’t make it to Lexi’s play due to a drug deal incident gone wrong, and they don’t get to confess their true feelings for each other (“We don’t say what we really mean”).
Fine Line, “Canyon Moon”: Following a theme of yearning for the past, “Canyon Moon” highlights more hopeful moments for Lexi. One of the big ideas of Lexi’s character arc is longing for the past while looking to the future and learning to overcome change, and “Canyon Moon” is a bittersweet call to that. Lexi often thinks of the past, when her family was together and happy, when she had Rue as a best friend, when she wasn’t living in other people’s shadows and carrying their traumas as well as her own. Our Life highlights memories of nights where her parents would dance around the living room and seem so in love (“she plays songs I’ve never heard/ An old lover’s hippie music, pretends not to know the words”) and late night deep talks with Rue as the sun set as the two sat on the roof (“I keep thinking back to the time under the canyon moon”). “I’ve been gone too long from you” followed by the repetition of “I’m going, oh I’m going/ I’m going, oh, I’m going/ I’m going, oh, I’m going home” reflect one of the final scenes of the final episode of Season 2 where Rue and Lexi reconnect and check in with each other after the events surrounding Lexi’s play, and it feels like a homecoming for Lexi as she gains one of her best friends back. It’s a bittersweet song but ends on a hopeful note; although we don’t know if Lexi knows about what happened to Fez at this point, it’s comforting to know Lexi has Rue in her life again.
Harry’s House, “As It Was”: People and things change and are never the same as they once were, and that holds true for Lexi. Lexi watched her father lose himself to a drug addiction which led to her mother Suze divorcing him (“Your daddy lives by himself/ He just wants to know that you’re well”, “two kids follow her”), and she later saw Rue fall down a similar path as her dad. Through Our Life, we see what once was a happy Howard family slowly fall apart as drugs and alcohol enter the picture. Lexi grasps at straws trying to hold onto her relationship with her sister Cassie (“In this world, it’s just us”), and Rue. She sees the people who once were a comfort to her changing and following different life paths, it seems as if she’s being left behind as she tries to figure out where she fits in their lives (“Gravity’s holding me back/ I want you to hold out the palm of your hand/ … Seems you cannot be replaced/ And I’m the one who will stay”). Our Life gives Lexi the opportunity to cope with the events of her past (“I don’t want to talk about the way that it was”, she always serves as a sounding board for her friends and sister and never has the room to talk about her feelings, so she acts them out instead) while coming to accept the fact that things will inevitably change and it won’t always be in the way she expects them to (“You know it’s not the same as it was”).
Kat Hernandez
Harry Styles, “Only Angel” : Nearing the end of our list is Kat Hernandez. Kat perfectly exemplifies “Only Angel”; when we’re first introduced to her she’s quiet and timid, much like the angelic intro to the song. However, after a video gets leaked of Kat and a boy from another school partaking in Adult Activities, we see Kat taking the power into her own hands and flipping the script. She reinvents herself and gains a new level of confidence (“Open up your eyes, shut your mouth and see/ That I’m still the only one who’s been in love with me”) changing her wardrobe (“Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short”), which leads her to a number of sexual encounters that momentarily give her a feeling of power (“When it turns out she’s a devil in between the sheets/ And there’s nothing she can do about it”). There are moments where we see Kat’s confidence falter, such as when a classmate Ethan who had shown interest in her is seen talking to another girl at the school carnival (“Wanna die, wanna die, wanna die tonight”), but it’s refreshing and empowering to see Kat becoming more confident in herself.
Fine Line, “To Be So Lonely”: Season 2 Kat unfortunately took a weird turn due to behind the scenes drama with director Sam Levinson. However, we see a new side of Kat I don’t think anyone expected to see from her this most recent season. Kat is a lost soul, unsure of where she fits into her friend group, in society, and she struggles with trying to find her identity in this world. She wants to be loved and accepted, “I just hope you see me in a little better light”, but oftentimes she’s left to wallow in her own self doubt and confusion about who she wants to be in the world, “it’s hard for me to go home/ Be so lonely”. In a later Season 2 episode, Kat begins to self sabotage her relationship with her boyfriend from the end of Season 1, Ethan. She gaslights him into breaking up with her, and when he calls her out on it, she seems to feel no remorse (“I’m just an arrogant son of a bitch/ Who can’t admit when he’s sorry”). Although frustrating to see such a strong character like Kat lose all of the development she built up in Season 1, at least she gets to relate to one of the best and most underrated songs off of Fine Line, so maybe that makes up for some of the damage?
Harry’s House, “Little Freak”: This one was a bit of a challenge to figure out because Kat didn’t have much screen time during the second season, but I ultimately ended up giving her “Little Freak”. In Season 1 we see Kat gaining this newfound confidence and beginning to embody a cool attitude. However, that softens a bit when she finally gets with Ethan at the end of Season 1 (“Stay green a little while/ You bring blue lights to dreams”) and we see some of the false confidence fade into genuine happiness with where she is in life. Like I said before, Kat’s character takes this really weird turn that sucks to see because so much could have been done with her character, but back to the main point at hand; the chorus to me symbolizes Kat’s feelings towards Ethan after their breakup. Although she broke up with him in one of the most uncool ways ever, it’s clear that on some level they had a deeper connection and he’s a person she’ll think about often in her other relationships. The bridge reminds me of the way Kat broke it off with Ethan, “I disrespected you/ Jumped in feet first and I landed too hard”. The way she treated him towards the end of their relationship wasn’t the best, and as we see some of Kat’s insecurities come to light once again in the beginning of Season 2, it’s clear she’s struggling with her self image and perhaps jumping feet first into a relationship wasn’t what she needed at the time. Kat is a great fit for “Little Freak”, you have to really think about it, but it works for her character!
Cassie Howard
Harry Styles, “Kiwi”: Last but not least is Cassie Howard. Cassie has been through a major character transition throughout the two seasons the show’s been running; it’s messy, it’s chaotic, it’s perfectly “Kiwi”. “Kiwi” lyrically doesn’t make much sense when you first listen to it, which is an excellent way to describe Cassie’s downward spiral as Season 2 progresses. From a young age Cassie had been objectified by the people in her life because of her looks (“And all the boys were saying they were into it/ Such a pretty face on a pretty neck”), and those comments made a lasting impression. Cassie craves male validation, and we see this need for validation lead her down a path of self sabotage as she further pursues a relationship with Nate while leaving her friends behind. She’s ultimately “losing it”, and she feels as though no one understands what she’s going through. In Season 3, she’ll have to “pay for” her behavior and actions, which already began when she and Maddy fought in front of the entire school in the middle of Our Life.
Fine Line, “Cherry”: Cassie is a tough character to pin songs to due to her ever evolving spiral into a deep, dark place. I see Cassie relating to “Cherry” through multiple lenses, so let’s break it down. “Don’t you call him ‘baby’/ We’re not talking lately” to me feels as Cassie thinking of Maddy’s feelings towards her and Nate’s newfound relationship, Maddy feeling heartbroken that her friend would choose to call her abuser her boyfriend, which resulted in the two parting ways as friends. “I just miss your accent and your friends” could be Cassie missing her and Maddy’s friendship. Maddy doesn’t have an accent, she still hangs out with the same group of friends Cassie abandoned to be with Nate, and although it seems that Cassie doesn’t have any remorse for being with Nate there are clear underlying feelings of missing the friendships she once had. The line that convinced me of pairing this song with Cassie is “I noticed that there’s a piece of you in how I dress/ Take it as a compliment”. Prior to getting with Nate, Cassie tries to find ways to get his attention in the school hallways. She begins waking up early each morning and spending hours putting effort into her look for the day, and it’s only when she dresses exactly like Maddy that Nate glances her way. “Cherry” is heartbreaking in its own way, but Harry has described this track as “pathetic in a way”, and a lot of Euphoria fans saw Cassie’s behavior as desperate and pathetic as harsh as it may seem.
Harry’s House, “Satellite”: Coming in as our final song for Cassie and for this entire post is “Satellite”. The first verse sets us up for Season 2’s introduction to Cassie and Nate’s relationship forming. Nate has a “new life” as a single man, while Cassie is lost in her own world after breaking up with her now ex-boyfriend McKay after having an abortion. Nate is not one to be open or vulnerable with his emotions face to face unless he’s under the influence (“we drink the wall till we wanna talk”). Cassie is someone who needs attention and validation, so when Nate gives her affection in her time of need, she immediately sees it as an opportunity to make something out of their brief connection. She goes “round and round” in her own mind trying to find ways to get Nate to notice her and continue giving her attention, she spins out of control in her own head as she waits for him to pull her in and love her the way she wants to be loved. All she wants in life is to be there for someone, to give love and receive the same amount back; and “Satellite” is a song about wanting to be with someone but also trying to give them space as they figure things out. Cassie doesn’t really give Nate much time to figure things out, and Nate doesn’t take that time and instead cheats on Maddy with Cassie, but the general theme of wanting to be around someone and be there for them fits Cassie’s development through the first few episodes of Season 2.
I know this post was different from my usual content, but I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did putting it together! Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with my song selections for each character, and if you’d like to see more posts like this in the future for different shows or movies let me know!