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Sam Levinson, writer and creator of Euphoria, did us dirty in season 2.
In the very first episode following a nearly 3-year-long Euphoria drought, Levinson plants the seeds of romance between two characters we've yet to see cross paths: Fez (Angus Cloud), the local drug dealer, and Lexi Howard (Maude Apatow), the nerdy younger sister of Euphoria high's very own Barbie girl, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney).
The show opens with Fezco's backstory (he's a sweet kid abused by his father before he's taken in by his well-meaning but ultimately irresponsible drug-dealing grandma), then pivots to the present day: A New Year's Eve party where Lexi and Fez serendipitously find themselves sitting next to one another on the couch. The two mismatched teens, we begin to realize, are maybe not so different after all.
#FexiHive is born.
But is it too good to be true? Levinson paints a picture of Fez as this warm, cuddly, teddy bear of a human, one whose circumstance is created not by any fault of his own, but by the life he was born into. He allows us to empathize with Fez, to see that he didn't want any part of the violence, the drug dealing, the shady characters. Like most kids — even like most of the characters on Euphoria — he just wants a normal life; someone to love him, to listen to him. Our affection for Fez grows, as he and Lexi get to know each other at the New Year's Eve party. Fez is paraded before our eyes as a possible love interest, the only other character who seems to exist on Lexi's deeply introspective plane, to care deeply. And then, Levinson turns him into a beast.
After Fez and Lexi exchange numbers, sweet, adorable Fez gets up and pummels the absolute shit out of Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi).
Cloud himself told InStyle he sees his character (and himself) as a lover and a fighter, "You gotta fight for love sometimes. Can't just be one or the other, kind of got to be both."
The Fexi Hive will say that he did what he did out of love and loyalty and self-respect. And all of those things might be true! But that doesn't negate that he almost killed a man in cold blood. This wasn't just a parking lot scuffle between two kids. This was a premeditated attack, planned step-by-step down to the getaway car. And afterwards we're just supposed … continue to root for this man?
Levinson makes it hard for us not to. Fez is clearly the good guy when Nate's dad comes to confront him. He's continuously looking out for Rue, who falls deeper and deeper into the throes of her addiction. And to top it off, Lexi and Fez have an undeniable chemistry. Relative to their classmates' X-rated escapades, their interactions are delightfully wholesome. They pass hours chatting on the phone; they hold hands while sitting on the couch; they cry open and unabashed tears while watching, of all things, Stand By Me. What is this, a John Hughes movie?
All the while, Lexi keeps her budding feelings for Fez a secret from her sister and her friends. Honestly, I can't blame her. If I had seen someone nearly kill a man in front of 100 witnesses (albeit, drunken ones) and then later learned that my best friend was trying to date him, I would lose my shit. Lexi's very decision to keep him a secret in her life shows that she knows just how dangerous he is. And that's not nothing.
My heart wants so deeply for Lexi to finally get her love story, to end up with this man who listens to her, who is impressed by her intellect and who just wants to "look handsome" for her. But my gut says Fez is dangerous. At the very least, his occupation is dangerous, a fact at the center of the penultimate episode. Going into the season 2 finale, Fexi fans are waiting for him to come running to her with a very good explanation about what went down while he wasn't at her play, before they skip off to the after party as he symbolically if not literally leaves the criminal life behind. Is it too much to ask for Fez to get the redemption arc he deserves?
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