Euphoria brings back Angus Cloud’s Fez for heart-wrenching goodbye with nod to real life tragedy

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the Euphoria season 3 finale

After seven years and three seasons, Euphoria has finally concluded with a dramatic and emotional feature-length finale.

Starring the likes of Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, and Alexa Demie, the HBO TV show has had fans gripped with its latest and last series, which began airing last month.

The finale dropped on Sunday (31 May) in the US and a day later on Monday in the UK, rounding off each character’s storyline, with a tragic ending for Zendaya’s Rue, who heartbreakingly died of a fentanyl overdose after Alamo gave her painkillers that were laced.

During Rue’s emotional final scenes, Euphoria also paid tribute to the late Angus Cloud, who played Fezco for the first two seasons of the show until his tragic death in July 2023, aged just 25. The actor died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine, and other substances.

Sam Levinson used test footage from season one to pay tribute to Angus Cloud in Euphoria's finale (HBO)

Creator Sam Levinson has long said that this season of Euphoria and its storylines about the destructiveness of fentanyl are ‘a way of honoring Angus and saying a prayer for the future’.

And he did just that by including old unseen footage of Zendaya and Cloud together at the end of the final episode.

While dying after taking the pills, Rue hallucinates seeing a news report about Fezco escaping prison and dreams of herself dashing out to meet him.

The episode then cuts to footage of Rue and Fezco standing in a field together, drinking beers and smiling as they look out onto the horizon.

As reported by Esquire, Levinson shot the moment as a test reel while filming for season one, and never intended to do anything with it.

Speaking to the publication, he said: “It's footage that never made it into the show. I thought, oh, it'd be great to use that footage and just see him again - and see the two of them.”

Levinson discussed how Cloud’s tragic death, along with those of countless others who have battled with addiction, shaped the series.

The emotional footage showed the duo looking out onto the horizon (HBO)

He told the outlet, "Angus passed away in 2023 from a fentanyl overdose, and fentanyl is an issue that we have been dealing with since the first season. What I couldn't wrap my head around is the fact that 73,000 people in the United States were dying a year of fentanyl overdoses, and it seemed like no one was doing anything about it. Politicians weren't talking about it to the degree that you would think they would be, and it was just sort of an accepted reality.”

Reacting to the tear-jerking footage, one fan wrote on X: “I didn’t even realize at first, but this scene is basically Rue and Fez together in heaven. That’s actually heartbreaking. #euphoria.”

While a second penned: “Just realised they made Euphoria season 3 about fentanyl awareness because that's how Angus Cloud died.”

And a third quipped: “Euphoria finale almost had me sobbing, especially this scene. I love how they paid tribute to Angus Cloud throughout the season, every small mention of Fez's character hit hard.”