Warning: This article contains spoilers for season three of Euphoria
Euphoria fans were hit with a major cliffhanger as Rue’s past and present finally collided.
Zendaya’s character has been pushed to the brink throughout season three, and little has come easily for her this time around.
The new season jumps ahead five years, picking up with the characters after high school as they try (and largely fail) to settle into adulthood and figure out who they are outside of the bubble they grew up in.
Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) has been caught up in divisive OnlyFans storylines, while Rue’s situation has spiralled into something even more dangerous: smuggling drugs inside her own body and helping to run a strip club.
Everything Rue does is driven by one goal — clearing debts owed to people you wouldn’t want chasing you for even the smallest amount, never mind a serious sum.
By the end of the most recent episode, Rue’s efforts to stay ahead of the fallout weren’t enough, and the consequences caught her anyway.
The closing moments take a grim turn: Rue is dragged to an isolated location and buried upright in sand, with only her head left exposed.
The screen cuts to black as one of her captors charges toward her, seemingly ready to bring a polo mallet down on her unprotected head — leaving viewers with no clear answer about whether she survives.
The setup strongly echoes a notorious Stephen King horror story.
Creepshow is a horror anthology film written by King, told through a series of short segments.
One of the most unsettling entries is titled Something to Tide You Over, which follows a story of jealousy that escalates into murder — and then twists back on the killer in an even more terrifying way.
If you’re unfamiliar with it and want to avoid further plot details, consider this another spoiler warning.
In the segment, a vengeful ex-husband kidnaps his former wife’s new partner and forces him to dig a grave-like pit before burying himself up to his neck in sand on a beach — a visual that’s hard not to connect to Rue’s ending.
The ex-husband then sets a television in front of the man, showing the ex-wife and the kidnapped man’s partner also buried to her neck while the tide creeps closer, telling him he’ll have to “hold his breath for a long time”.
When he later comes back, the buried man’s body is gone, and he assumes the ocean did the rest.
That night, however, he’s confronted by the drowned apparitions of the couple, before blacking out and waking to find himself buried up to his own neck.
He screams that he can hold his breath for a long time — and the story ends on that chilling note.
Rue’s predicament is disturbingly similar, but the official tease for the next episode offers no clarity on what happens to her.
It reads: “She would never say it out loud, but Nate (Jacob Elordi) going broke finally granted Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) permission to follow her dreams.”
With three episodes left — and the finale set to air on May 31 — viewers desperate for answers about Rue will have to wait, and, for now, do exactly what the show is daring them to do: hold their breath.