We Should Have Known About Cassie

By Kayanna Welch

HBO’s Euphoria is a show based around the struggles of high school students and their families. It delves into the traumatic experiences these characters have had that led them to who they are in the show’s present day. Many of these characters have become one to now create traumatic experiences for the other characters. Since airing the pilot episode in 2019, each character has been growing their own fan bases, though none of the characters have lost such a significant portion of their fans as the star of season two, Cassie Howard. Because of her daring choice to sleep with her best friend Maddy’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Cassie Howard has just become number one on viewers’ “disappointing characters” list.

Season one episode seven opens with a cold read about Cassie. Rue begins talking about Cassie’s dad rather than Cassie herself. Rue tells the audience that Cassie’s father was very handsome, was often hit on, and, because of this, would often get accused of flirting back by Cassie’s mother. We are then told that Cassie was a naturally gifted figure skater. At one point she was contemplating going pro, but because her dad stopped supporting this dream (due to financial reasons), Cassie stopped having the dream. Rue then also mentions the arguments Cassie’s parents would get into because of her dad’s [alcoholism] inability to keep a job. After this, Cassie hears rumors her mother cheated on her father and grows angry towards her before coming to the conclusion her parents just weren’t “right” for each other.

Unknown to the audience at the time, but this choice to speak about Cassie’s dad, and her experiences through puberty would be the biggest clues to Cassie’s decline later on in both the episode and the show all together. We are told from the very beginning that Cassie has a body that had rapidly changed in ways that men found desirable. Men now desiring her body brought a lot of attention which she longed for but was not getting from her father. We’ll see later on in season two through the foil of Cassie’s sister Lexi, just how much the excessive male attention damaged Cassie’s sense of self. We also see the origins of Cassie’s romanticized idea of there being a “right one”.

It is after this point where Rue tells the audience that Cassie’s dad became injured in a terrible accident, and through his recovery process became addicted to heavy drugs. Once released from the hospital, her father became more heavily addicted, and his involvement with his family dwindled slowly until it just stopped altogether. It is only after her father completely disappears from her family’s life, that Rue then mentions how Cassie fell in love with every boy she ever dated.

In this initial season we meet Cassie through Nate, who is talking to Cassie’s future, though short-lived boyfriend, McKay. In this brief interaction Nate describes Cassie as a “hoe” before showing McKay a video of Cassie and another guy having sex. From this interaction we are able to see just how little Nate thinks of Cassie and how promiscuous Cassie has become. Following the words of Rue, we see Cassie devoting herself to different guys, falling in love with them and the attention they present her with. But because they are high school students, we also see that each one of these guys is only in order to have sex with her. Cassie, unfortunately, was truthfully in love. When the illusion is finally broken, we are shown just how devastated Cassie becomes. Though she is devastated, as shown to us by Nate, she still ends up complying with their wishes, only to be left in the dust afterwards. Even in her relationship with McKay (the only college student in the show), Cassie finds herself completely in love with him. When she falls pregnant however, we, the audience, are shown that Cassie only choses what to do after McKay says he doesn’t want to be a father. She then has an abortion in the season one finale  which is shown to take a great emotional toll on her. After the procedure, she tells her mother she feels much better, though is shown to be feeling the exact opposite. She is effectively shown as this sad, pathetic character. This known, why did it come as such a surprise to audiences when season two showed Cassie falling dangerously “in love” with her best friend Maddy’s boyfriend-not-boyfriend, Nate Jacobs?

Simple answer: we thought her meant more to her than a romantic relationship with a man. Sadly enough, Maddy was also under the same impression. When the relationship between Cassie and Nate first began, audiences [viewers of the show on Twitter] were upset but felt there was still a possibility of redemption for Cassie. By the third episode of the season, that possibility was gone. With each new episode we see Cassie fall lower, and lower, completely abandoning her solidified relationship with Maddy, for the possible relationship with Nate despite how abusive and dangerous he has proven himself.

We as an audience know that Nate has seen, and spread Cassie’s sex tape, and views her as nothing more than someone to have sex with, and Maddy’s best friend. We are under the impression that Cassie only knows about the latter. Because of this, Nate doesn’t really want Cassie, and makes no efforts to pursue her after their initial , but Cassie thinks he’s simply playing hard-to-get. She now is determined to make him love her. We see through the season’s episodes Cassie accepting the bare minimum from him, while putting in her maximum effort, only to get a glance from him in the halls. Once she finally achieves this, Cassie is content with “ruining her life” to be Nate’s “dirty little secret”. The two of them sneak around every second Friday to hook up, meanwhile both of them  lying to Maddy, pretending that everything was as it was before New Year’s (the night they hooked up for the first time). When the dirty secret is revealed by Rue, we are told by Lexi that Nate has made fun of her for years, making Cassie’s obsession with him just a bit more pathetic.

In the finale of the second season, we are shown  Maddy’s reaction after the truth was revealed, and Cassie’s reaction to it. It was unanimously agreed that, from this reaction, Cassie no longer cared about her friendship with Maddy. All the crying we had seen her do in earlier episodes was now known to be her mourning this loss in preparation for her relationship with Nate. Many audience members are bewildered by this development, and for good reason. No one knew just how deeply Cassie craves male attention and validation. But from the details about her provided by the show we should have known.