The Miseducation of Maddy and Cassie

Sam... put the pen down and no one (else) gets hurt...

The Miseducation of Maddy and Cassie 

Sam… put the pen down and no one (else) gets hurt… 

Trigger Warning: Mentions of abuse. Grammarly was acting weird so possible (almost guaranteed) grammatical errors.

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“Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob” is my favorite episode of Euphoria.

The first season of Euphoria came out in 2019, and I watched it all live. I was hooked to the timeline watching everyone react, completely fascinated with the story. I couldn’t believe how raw and real it was. It was truly a time in history. The last time I truly consumed something head empty, just vibes. 

But I have a secret. 

If you follow me on Twitter, you would probably never guess this. Especially with how much I defend her now… But I did not like Jules that much. 

Now I didn’t hate her and I thought that those “the REAL villain of Euphoria” tweets were ridiculous but I felt like she constantly disregarded and played with Rue’s feelings, and that was just something I couldn’t forgive. 

Naturally, because Rue was such a flight risk, I was more nervous about protecting her than I was considering anyone else or their feelings.

I saw all the tweets that were like “Jules is just a kid! Give her a break!” But at the time, Jules and I were the same age. And I just couldn’t fathom leaving a friend of mine, much less a partner, at a train station knowing they were an addict. I couldn’t imagine knowing that someone was in love with me and then throwing someone else that I was in love with in their faces— knowing that they were an addict. 

When Jules’ special episode came out and we saw things from her perspective– my opinion of her changed completely and she quickly became one of my favorite characters, because I understood her better. What she went through with her mom, the pressure she felt from being Rue’s lifeline, the feelings she still harbored for Tyler.. I didn’t even consider what she might’ve been going through because I just wanted to keep Rue sober. That was my main priority while watching Season 1. 

I will always credit that episode for making me start to reevaluate the way I see a lot of characters, and for making me value nuance in television. I had a very black-and-white outlook before. 

Learning that Hunter Schafer co-wrote the episode immediately made sense, everything about the episode was different and truthfully it’s a standout to me. Hunter’s personal connection to Jules and the story she told through her is obvious and I really love it, but also I just personally think it’s written better than any of the other episodes. 

Truth be told, I think Sam Levinson is a very mediocre writer. 

I think he has his moments. I think the way he’s been writing Rue is incredibly strong, and I think he has a very creative mind. But I think his ability to follow through is flawed, I don’t think he knows how to write experiences he can’t specifically relate to, and I don’t think he knows how to write women. 

Having a trans woman that has lived in (some of) Jules’ experiences and can specifically identify with and illustrate the things that Jules was feeling during the run of Season 1 was vital to the show. It helped me see her through a lens that I never would've considered before. This is why I think that as a white man who can only specifically identify with Rue’s experiences because of his own past, Sam Levinson should unlock those writers' room doors. 

There are a lot of things wrong with Season 2 of Euphoria. Jules’ entire character backtracks from her breakthrough in her special episode, Kat’s arc gets pushed to the side, Nate doesn’t get a satisfying conclusion, we spend way too much time with Cal when anyone with half a gnat’s brain could’ve guessed why he does the things he does, and where the hell is Gia’s episode? 

But the thing that grinds my gears the most is the complete mishandling of the arc between Maddy and Cassie. 

In my newsletter about ‘You’ on Netflix, we discussed how you can’t predict or control the audience's perception of your work. Your message could be clear as day and people will still miss the point of it. However, you have to be able to recognize if you as a creator are presenting something a certain way. 

Every couple of months I watch the Euphoria discourse resurface and there’s a certain topic that just fails to come up every time. It puzzles me because it’s such an important issue. But even when we do discuss Cassie and Maddy, we’re not really discussing Cassie and Maddy, because we’re not addressing the Nate-shaped hole in their friendship. 

There’s this quietness I notice when people discuss abuse. It’s a quietness that the show takes on as well. Throughout the entire thing, Nate is referred to as Maddy’s ex boyfriend. The thing that Cassie is focused on the most is that they were broken up when she and Nate got together. But the thing we don’t talk about at all is that Nate put his hands on Maddy. Nate abused her. Physically and emotionally. 

This happens a lot in real life when discussing real abusers. 

Back in November, when Chris Brown’s performance was pulled from the AMA’s, Kelly Rowland and others spoke out in defense of him. 

“I believe grace is very real, and we all need a dose of it,” Rowland told TMZ. “And before we point fingers at anybody, we should realize how grateful we are for every moment that we get, for even our own things that we have. [...] We all need to be forgiven for anything that we could be doing, anything that we’re thinking. We all come up short in some sort of way, and grace is real. And we are humans. Everybody deserved grace, period.” 

Don’t you feel like something is missing here? 

The fact that Kelly and seemingly everybody else that has taken on the unpaid job of defending Chris Brown conveniently fails to mention that he’s a serial abuser, perhaps? 

It’s always referred to as this mistake or compared to everyone else in their life and their hypothetical sins as if that could possibly measure up to him continuously putting his hands on women. 

Whenever the discussion of rehabilitation or forgiveness comes out of people’s mouths, there’s always this avoidance when it comes to saying the actual words. Abuse. Because they know they’re going to sound silly when they say “We need to forgive this person for being an abuser.” 

And the more people avoid saying the actual words, the more desensitized people become to people’s crimes. 

Which is why, when we discuss Maddy and Cassie it’s easy to defend Cassie because she’s just slept with Maddy’s ex. I’ve even seen some people try and make it this misogyny issue when people shame Cassie for sleeping with Maddy’s ex but not Nate for sleeping with McKay’s. 

But here’s the problem with that. 

Cassie didn’t just sleep with Maddy’s ex-boyfriend. She didn’t just betray girl code. 

She started a relationship with Maddy’s abuser. 

“Well I never trusted her. [..] Because she seems like the kind of girl who’d fuck your boyfriend.” — Kat Hernandez (Euphoria)

Cassie’s one desire all throughout the show was to be loved and accepted. It started with her father, when he left she felt like she wasn’t worth staying for, and that she had to work extra hard and do whatever he wanted to stay in his good graces — and even then, he left again. 

It wasn’t her fault, her dad was an addict. But this pattern of behavior repeated itself in her romantic life. 

I think people trivialize Daddy Issues™️ a lot. They get mentioned so much in such a casual manner that the trauma and pain isn’t real or real enough. But the deep desire for male approval has always been inside of Cassie and that alone isn’t inherently wrong. It’s what she decided to do with it. 

I say this, because I see a lot of people saying that who she became in Season 2 was “out of character” for her. I usually don’t take that kind of criticism seriously because it’s often used once a likable character becomes unlikable or unrelatable to the average viewer. Cassie’s character was sabotaged, but not in the way that everybody thinks. I think Cassie going after Nate was always on her path. Not because it was Nate specifically, but because someone was willing to love her and accept her at that moment. Even though it wasn’t good or kind, (it was barely even acceptance, it’s more like ‘here, damn’) if that was as good as she was going to get then she was okay with it. 

I think that’s the part of her that people connect with a lot. The deep desire for love no matter where it comes from. Which is a normal and human desire to have. 

I get the sense that people are trying too hard to convince themselves that her behavior in Season 2 is out of character because they feel like they can’t like her anymore, which is simply not true. There's no rule that says you can’t relate to aspects of a person’s character even if they’re a bad person or make bad choices. You can like her and empathize with her all you want. There’s a lot to empathize with. 

I am not #TeamCassie. Not even a little bit. I actually think the idea of teams in a situation this dire is a bit silly and insensitive. The fact that a storyline like this became a thing that people felt they needed to choose teams on kind of proves my point entirely. Yeah, it’s “just TV” but abuse is not just a storyline. Objectively, if you’re not on Maddy’s side, you’re wrong. 

But I think in the grand scheme of things, there’s a lot about Cassie that doesn’t get acknowledged this season. 

All throughout her life, the people in her life made Cassie feel like the only thing she had to offer was her body and her looks. The only way she knew she could be loved is if she could offer them something. 

In the Pilot of Euphoria, Nate shows Mckay dozens of videos of guys either secretly recording Cassie while having sex or shoving the camera in her face and asking her to let them record. There are videos of her trying to laugh it off saying no and of her crying saying she didn’t want to. Every guy she ever dated took advantage of her and manipulated her into doing things that she didn’t want to do. 

Nate spends a better half of their scenes together trying to convince Mckay that he doesn’t want to be with a girl “like that”. 

“You fuck her like the whore she is and kick her ass to the curb.” – Nate Jacobs about Cassie Howard (Euphoria, Season 1) 

It’s not acknowledged often because as we learned during the weeks following each and every Euphoria Sunday, if something isn’t directly shoved into this show’s audience’s face– they miss it or completely misinterpret it. But Cassie is also a victim of abuse, long before she gets with Nate. And she is actively, as are most of the teens on this show, being failed by the adults in her life. 

Siyyan, didn’t you just say you weren’t Team Cassie? All you’ve been doing so far is defending her. 

I’m not. 

But I think in order to really see a character, you have to break down what they’ve done and why they’ve done it. 

I bring this up a lot but when I read people’s interpretations of media on the internet – specifically movies and shows, because they’re surprisingly easy for people to misunderstand– there’s always a good and an evil. A person who’s justified in all their faults and wrongdoings and a person who’s taken it too far so nothing that happened to them in their life matters. 

I think Cassie made an active decision to sleep with her best friend’s abuser, but I also think the events that occurred in Cassie’s life led to her not even valuing herself enough to make good decisions. She just wanted to feel good. And that’s why I empathize with her, because it’s sad to see. 

Earlier I said I think that Cassie’s character was sabotaged, but not in the way that people think. 

The thing that I feel was out of character and honestly ridiculous was her descent into supervillain-hood. 

Like okay…. 

This is one of the many examples that can be used when discussing Sam Levinson’s inability to properly execute a plotline and his terrible perception of the women that he writes. 

But it’s not just him. So many writers have a hard time fully fleshing out their female characters, they don’t really see us as human beings with emotions, we’re girls with girly feelings. Which is why Cassie won’t be the first or last example you’ll ever see of a female character lashing out and it’s completely cartoon-ish. 

Not only is the “I am crazier” line nuts, it’s just untrue. Where did she get that from? Has she really become that delusional? There was no lead in, I felt like I had missed an episode. 

You can apply your own interpretation to just about any scene in Euphoria, because we’re never really gonna get the real reason behind anything. 

I interpreted this scene like Cassie trying to play tough even though she really did care what happened to her and Nate, and she really was scared about Maddy finding out. But it doesn’t work well because it’s too over the top. 

There’s so much wrong with the whole concept of Lexi’s play but the thing that had me ready to turn the TV off was watching Cassie get up on that stage and flounce around trying to have her Maddy moment. And maybe you could make the argument that that’s the point. She’s dressing like Maddy, wearing her repackaged Tiffany necklace, now she’s trying to channel her attitude. 

That could all be true. I’m just saying it was done badly. 

Cassie “losing her mind” was inevitable. Even though she did all that she did so that she could be loved, she ended up more lonely than she had ever been. Her own mother, who is a main contributor to her mess, wasn’t even on her side. Her younger sister exposed all of their dirty laundry to the entire school. And she lost Maddy, the one person she could turn to after McKay and after Daniel. 

But I think the way it was done was just odd. It felt like Sam didn’t even want us to take her seriously. Usually when I see a character – especially a female character – sinking to their lowest point I feel some type of sadness or pity. But Cassie getting on that stage and proudly proclaiming villain-hood didn’t make me feel anything but confused. Maybe it would’ve worked better if we saw her having that dark side to her before? But I didn’t understand how getting up early to look good for Nate turned into “I am crazier” which turned into “If that makes me the villain..” 

At this point, Cassie has been through an abortion at 16, she’s depressed and lonely, she was the laughing stock of the school long before Lexi’s play and she’s been nothing but objectified at every turn. 

There are many different ways that we could’ve seen Cassie lose it. But I think  a way that would’ve tied seamlessly into the story is numbness. 

She’s finally gotten everything she thought she wanted, but it doesn’t feel like she thought it would. After the scene where Maddy confronts her outside the bathroom and Cassie is just staring ahead while crying, I thought that was the path she was about to take. 

It would’ve made the “at least I’m loved” line hit harder. She doesn’t have anything left. No home, no family, no friends.. But at least she’s loved by a man.

“She fell in love with every guy she ever dated. Whether they were smart or stupid or sweet or cruel it didn’t matter. She didn’t like to be alone.” — Rue Bennett about Cassie Howard (Euphoria, Season 1 Episode 7) 

At the end of the day, Cassie does just want to be loved. She’s extremely depressed and there’s no one around her competent or capable of helping her fill the void that she has inside. 

But she still made the conscious choices that she made to fulfill her own needs, and ignore everybody else’s feelings in the process. 

Which is why Cassie defenders need to be serious.

“It wasn’t the violence that scared her. It was the fact that she knew that no matter what he did, she’d still love him.” — Rue Bennett about Maddy Perez and Nate Jacobs (Euphoria, Season 1 Episode 5) 

Maddy isn’t a character I see a lot of people discussing outside of how Nate treats her and what Cassie did to her. 

But if you think back to Season 1, it makes perfect sense that Nate was able to appeal to her the way that he did. 

Even though Maddy’s father was physically there, unlike Cassie’s, he was a ghost in that house– plopped up in front of the television and drinking all day. She spent all of her life watching her mother have to be the breadwinner, and basically be a single mother because her father couldn’t keep a job. 

Her parents lived in the same house but didn’t speak to each other. They never showed her an example of real and healthy love. So when Nate comes into her life, showering her with flowers everyday and walking her home from school, he opened her up to a world she’d never seen before. 

If you look past all the abuse –which victims often do– she was able to vent to him about the things that she went through in that house. He took care of her, he was willing to fight and kill for her, and the best way that he could… he loved her. 

And if she could have that kind of love, the kind that’s “difficult” and messy… passionate instead of passionless. She would choose that everyday if it meant that she never had to live a life that looked like her parents’.

“Love is a million things, sometimes it feels good, sometimes it doesn’t. The one thing I know is that Nate loves me no matter what. He’d fucking kill for me and I’d kill for him. It feels good to know that there’s one person in this whole fucked up world who has my back. You think I want this? You [her parents] live in the same house and you don’t even say one word to each other. That’s the difference between me and you.” — Maddy Perez  (Euphoria, Season 1 Episode 6)

In Season 2, Maddy becomes a background character in her own story. The season begins with hints of things that we might get but in the end amounts to nothing. I think it’s crazy that the only thing we ended up wanting from Maddy was to beat Cassie’s ass. 

She could’ve had an emotional breakthrough and beat Cassie’s ass, what happened to multitasking? 

It’s crazy that even though she’s one of the main characters, the most that we know about her outside of Nate is her 5 minute intro.

I feel like there are so many arcs that Maddy’s could’ve replaced. I think the missing pieces of this storyline is Maddy and Cassie’s friendship dynamic – how much they meant to each other and everything they’ve been through- and Maddy’s internal feelings when it comes to Nate. 

For a storyline that is about the breakup of a female friendship, we barely see the crumble. We don’t really see Cassie and Maddy interact on a level below the surface, which is why we’re able to be so detached from it. It’s easy to just root for Maddy to beat Cassie up because we were never made to care about their friendship. 

In Season 5 of Glee, Santana, Kurt and Rachel are all living together. They’re all working together and overall, have built a real friendship over the courses of Seasons 4 and 5. During Season 5, Santana auditions to be Rachel’s understudy for her dream role as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. 

They have a huge blow up argument which ends with Rachel slapping Santana across the face. Even now, I see so many people not understanding how a huge firecracker like Santana (who literally shoved her cheerleading coach) would allow Rachel to disrespect her that way. But I know that it’s because Santana really grew to care for Rachel and Kurt and the friendship that she built with both of them. Even if, at the time, Rachel didn’t feel the same. 

That is the kind of turmoil I expected to see from the Cassie and Maddy fight. The scene of Maddy outside the bathroom door seems to try to reflect that but the problem is, we don’t know enough about their friendship to feel bad for both sides. I feel awful for Maddy because I know that she’s been betrayed, but I don’t really feel for the demise of their friendship. 

To be fair, Glee had a lot more time to build on the dynamic between Santana and Rachel. But their friendship had been built in less than 2 seasons, so I don’t believe that it would be impossible to do the same for Cassie and Maddy. 

In the beginning of the season, Maddy is contemplating getting back with Nate. It’s not said, but the entire time Nate and Cassie are together before Maddy finds out about them– Maddy and Nate are texting. 

I think it would’ve been nice to see Maddy weigh why she shouldn’t get back together with him and grapple with the emotional baggage that she carried from his abusive moments. 

Because Nate didn’t just choke her that one time. 

The screaming, the yelling, and the arguing we saw in Season 1. That’s not normal for anyone’s relationship, but especially not for a sixteen year old girl’s. 

Something I’ve heard from people who defend Cassie is a question that gets under my skin a bit.

Does Maddy even know she’s a victim? 

There are plenty of quotes and moments in Season 1 that answer that question(the answer is yes). But I think people wonder that because she still goes back to him, but the thing is, a lot of victims of abuse go back. Most do.

Maybe people wonder if she knows she’s a victim because she argues with him and still fights back. 

Here’s where Season 2 fucks up. (Pardon my french) 

There are a lot of depictions of abuse victims in mainstream media, but they all kind of depict the same kind of victim. There are so many different kinds of ways that a victim of abuse reacts to their abuser, and there’s no such thing as a perfect victim or a right way to react to abuse. 

Euphoria has a responsibility as a mainstream show to tell this story with care and they failed. I wanted to see Maddy working through her relationship with Nate and realizing that even though she’s a person that always holds her ground and has a lot of confidence in herself, she’s still being abused and doesn’t believe that she could find anything healthy. And honestly, because they do have her recognize that Nate is abusive time and time again, it would be nice to see her make the decision to not accept that as a precaution to loving him and make it a dealbreaker for herself. 

“He put me through hell and now he’s with my fucking best friend? When is it gonna end?” – Maddy Perez (Euphoria, Season 2) 

Maybe it’s dramatic to say, but I think the things that teenage girls go through are downplayed to the highest extent by the general public. What Nate actually did to Maddy isn’t as compelling to viewers as his “scandalous” interest in Jules, Fez and Ashtray’s murderous escapades, or Maddy inevitably beating Cassie up. There’s a lot to be said about the audience that consumes Euphoria, and the way that it’s crystal clear that Season 2 was written the way it was based on how big the show became online, and what people focused on. Which then led to Season 2 feeling/being half done. 

But this isn’t the audience’s fault. 

It’s extremely insensitive to include an abuse storyline in your show and then treat it like it means nothing. To market a show like this to young people, mostly teens, who are more than likely feeling seen by Maddy because unfortunately a lot of young teens (specifically girls) have similar relationships to hers and Nate’s and then pretend like it’s not that big of a deal is irresponsible to say the least. 

It’s not just television, you’re telling a variation of someone’s real story. 

Something I have a really big problem with is the way a lot of writers present female characters to audiences, knowing that misogyny is alive and thriving everywhere. You can always tell when someone doesn’t think twice about how a woman thinks or feels if it doesn't affect them.  A lot of writers, specifically television writers, have this problem. The care that Nate and Cal and even Rue* are written with clearly stands out amongst the other characters. 

*I know that Rue assumedly identifies as a woman at this point in the show. But it is public knowledge that she is based on Sam Levinson and his past. So, she’s already put at a higher advantage because she’s written through his specific point of view. The empathy and care automatically extends to her from his own self. 

Showing a character like Cassie who is used and discarded by men, and treated like she’s nothing if she doesn’t use her looks and her body — a thing that a lot of teenage girls are taught by the people and adults around them – and making her into more of a villain than Nate or Cal ever were… is a choice. 

Cassie’s story isn’t being told with the actual intention of us sympathizing with her, she’s become a device for telling Nate’s story – which to be honest, for being the most intriguing character on the show next to Rue, isn’t being told right either. 

You can’t show someone as complex and dangerous as Nate and then half ass it. There are so many young men out there like him that need to be highlighted. 

Like I said, Nate didn’t just choke her that one time. The way that he objectifies women, the way that he spoke to Jules when he first met her.. He’s a vile and disgusting human being. Of course, we know that he’s a product of his environment but he’s already at a point where he’s making decisions and hurting people on his own. 

To show that side of him on screen and then turn around and pretend like it never happened is not helpful. It’s negligent. 

After he holds Maddy up at gunpoint for the disk of Jules, we don’t talk about it again. For the character that Maddy is, I don’t expect her to show up to school visibly breaking down but I didn’t expect to see no outcome. 

I am very anti Lexi’s play for a multitude of reasons. It was fun the night of but it ultimately hurt the storytelling, seeing as we could’ve spent so much time with Maddy, Gia, just… anyone else. 

Just dropping that Maddy’s leaving and going…. Where again? 

Her relationship with Minka Kelly benefited who? 

So much happened to her in that entire season, so much life altering, brain chemistry changing stuff.. And we barely saw it affect her. 

I’m about to make this about Bojack Horseman. 

Sorry. I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to avoid it but it’s the best example I could possibly think of. 

Something Bojack is stellar at is making us feel for him. Especially during the flashbacks of his truly dreadful childhood. For all six seasons we watch him make awful and damaging decisions, putting himself and the people around him at risk. But when we go back to his childhood home and watch his physically and emotionally abusive parents destroy him, it’s hard not to feel awful for him.

It’s easy to imagine how differently his life could’ve panned out if he had different parents. Everything about him can be drawn back to his childhood. Every. Single. Thing. 

BUT.  

Bojack Horseman is also stellar at telling us that even though he’s been through a lot – it doesn’t matter. He’s still abusive, he’s still dangerous, he’s still wrong. Even though his past is terrible, he’s still responsible for the things that he does. 

The show is very intentional about keeping the spotlight on Bojack’s victims. Constantly keeping their foot on his neck and reminding us what Bojack has done and what he’s capable of.

Euphoria focuses so much on making sure you leave the show still liking Nate and Cal. You can’t hate them because they’re human, and they’ve been through so much and they were sabotaged when they were young. 

But somehow with the framing of Cassie’s backstory, it doesn’t matter like that. 

Maddy’s story is so insignificant, you don’t even get a chance to think about it like that. 

That doesn’t seem weird to you? 

That two teenage girls who are actively being abused by the same man don’t even get the same amount of empathy or visibility as the two abusers on the show? 

Like we’ve already established, there’s no way to control the way an audience perceives your work. All you can do is put your best foot forward and hope your message comes across. But if you have a storyline where a victim of abuse isn’t even at the forefront of her own story… What could your message possibly be? 

I remember seeing a video on Youtube by KennieJD about Euphoria and why she didn’t like it. One of her main points of the video was, “who is Euphoria for?”.. Apparently it was made for adults, which is disturbing. But obviously, when you make a show about teens… teens are going to watch it. 

Her larger points were mainly about the amount of nudity (which is a whole other thing), but it also fits in the way that they depict the abuse. 

Even if they made this show for adults (again…. disturbing), they know that teenagers are going to watch it. After Season 1, there’s no way that they weren’t made aware that their largest audience was made up of teenagers. If you know very well that you’re covering real topics that teenagers will see and relate to. Then why are you acting like the topics that you’re covering are no big thing?

Topics like hypersexuality, depression, loneliness, addiction, parental issues, and abuse. These are things that people do go through, things that teenagers go through. 

These teens, who are not only going through it but some may be learning about these topics for the first time, are watching a lazy depiction of abuse and regurgitating these storylines to other people. Deciding who’s right and wrong. Being taught to downplay these storylines and making Maddy and Cassie’s biggest issue about catfighting over an ex. 

“Then you have teenagers who are struggling in very palpable ways that would’ve been hard even if you were an adult but they’re harder because you don’t really understand anything yet and you’re dealing with this. [...] And they feel represented and understood by a show and therefore will defend it – despite the very troubling aspect of essentially their own sexualization, their own predation.” — Kennie JD on Youtube. 

The way that people talk about Cassie and Maddy now proves my point. Cassie just stole her man. Maddy just lost a friend. But there’s nothing in the discourse about how devastating it truly is to watch someone you loved and trusted walk hand in hand with the man who damaged you beyond repair. There’s nothing in the discourse about how hard it is to trust after that. The inner turmoil that you suffer from and the way that it changes you. 

People can take bits and pieces from the show that they identify with and be satisfied but in the grand scheme of things… what is the story?

What was the point?