'Euphoria' Season 1, Episode 7 Recap: Cassie's Backstory, Jules' Adventure, Rue's Obsession

In season 1, episode 7 of HBO's "Euphoria" ("The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed"), the cracks that started to emerge in last week's episode firmly dig their heels in and fracture the character's lives even more than they previously had. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) attempts to sort out the aftermath of her actions, Rue (Zendaya) struggles with depression on her own, and Jules (Hunter Schafer) flees in at attempt to forget what transpired between her and Nate (Jacob Elordi).

The episode opens with a young Cassie. We are brought into her former life as a girl whose father tried to persuade her to be a professional ice skater. Cassie, who naturally took to the sport, received skates for a present and went to lessons, until her dad couldn't afford them any longer. Once she reached puberty, not only did her and her mom become closer, but she also began receiving unwanted attention from older men due to her appearance.

While her father struggled with money, and her mother faced her own difficulties grasping their reality, they began to fight. Ultimately, this encouraged her dad to leave. Her mom blamed it on the fact that he didn't want the responsibility of being a father, but Cassie heard from kids at school that he left due to her mom having an affair.

Gradually, over time, he stopped seeing the girls and developed a drinking problem, which landed him in the hospital after a car accident. Due to his pain, he was prescribed heavy medication, and eventually, he developed a drug habit. The last time she saw him was outside of their house one night when he stopped by to take plates and other things he would need for his new life on his own.

We are then transported into a daydream of sorts as Rue imagines herself as a sort of obsessive detective. We follow her as she solves the mystery of what truly happened between Jules and Nate. Rue's mom also begins dating again, which brings about an additional set of inner turmoil for Rue, who has since become depressed and thrown herself into reality television as a way of escapism.

Elsewhere, Cassie asks her friends, including Maddy (Alexa Demie) and Kat (Barbie Ferreira), for advice about whether or not she should tell McKay (Algee Smith) about kissing Daniel (Keean Johnson). All of them advise her that it's a bad idea. At this meeting, Maddy also attacks Kat and her new personality. The clash ends with Kat walking down the street in tears.

Eventually, Cassie tells McKay that she's pregnant and he expresses his unhappiness with the situation. The last time we see her in this episode is waking her mom up as she sleeps on the couch to tell her that she needs her help.

Meanwhile, Nate returns home to face his waiting father (Eric Dane). He tells Nate he's not sure how he got out of everything, but he's hoping that it didn't teach him the wrong lessons.

Eventually, Rue goes to visit Fez (Angus Cloud) and asks him if they can scare Nate with a gun, to which he says no. Her reasoning, she says, is that she knows what happened and why it happened and what she's going to do about it.

"Word," Fez says to all of that.

"Word," Rue replies.

However, this conversation is interrupted by Fez's drug dealer stopping by to pressure him to sell more than he wants to. Rue eventually sneaks out into the daylight and stares up at the sky as birds pass overhead. Is she thinking of some sort of freedom? Is she wondering where Jules is? We have an idea of her state of mine due to her voiceover saying, "The other thing about depression is it kind of collapses time."

As Jules ventures away from her new life and back to her old one, she meets up with a friend from her past to try to forget everything in her current life. We also get a look into her first experiences buying heels and her belief that if she can "conquer men" then she can "conquer femininity."

She eventually goes to a party and does drugs, which makes her hallucinate that Nate is there to apologize and that she's then lying next to Rue, when, in fact, it's instead a stranger that she just met. Ultimately, she cheats on Rue while high and lies awake afterward seemingly thinking about what she did.

One of the few times we see Maddy in this episode she is waiting in Nate's truck while he goes into Fez's gas station to buy a few things. During this interaction, Nate attempts to assert his dominance per usual, but Fez says that if he continues, he will kill him. Nate's expression before he leaves seems to convey that he believes this to be true.

After leaving, we see Nate on the phone saying he'd like to report a crime, followed by police storming Fez's house. As he spies on them via an outside camera, he attempts to flush all of the pills that he was previously pressured into selling. Will he have to repay his dealer? Will the cops break the door down? As of this now, we are left to see how that turns out.

As the episode wraps, we see Rue's mom (Nika King) help her begin to exit her depressive state by washing her clothes and getting her out of bed. Jules is also seen texting Rue to tell her she has missed her a lot. The message lights up Rue's phone as she finally comes to a place of peace and sleeps next to her mom. Where all of these relationships will go remains to be seen.

"Euphoria" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on HBO.