_*Warning: Major spoilers ahead_*

Euphoria season 3 picks up five years since we last saw the central friendship group. Since graduating high school, they have mostly scattered away from East Highland, though keep loose contact thanks to social media and a few enduring friendships.

But that doesn’t mean they’re particularly doing well. Here’s how we find each character as they make their way in the big, bad world of adulthood.

We pick up with Rue right in the middle of the desert, speeding her car across the sand to the Christopher Cross track ‘Ride Like the Wind’. When she reaches the US-Mexico border, she pays a fee and an accomplice sets up a makeshift ramp for her to drive over Trump’s wall. Making it to the top, the car does not entirely clear the spikes and the car is left teetering precariously on the top. Carefully, she grabs her bag, and exits the vehicle, heading down the ramp back to American soil. With the car stuck on top of the wall, she heads into the Texan desert.

She finds sanctuary in a God-fearing family on a farm. Posing as a student reporter working on a story about the fentanyl epidemic, they take her in, give her a place in their barn to rest, and feed her before giving her a ride and coach fare to California.

When we last saw Rue, she was in major trouble with drug dealer Laurie, after her plan to sell a suitcase of her merchandise went south. Rue’s mother flushed the drugs and left her $10,000 in the dangerous drug lord’s debt.

Rue evaded Laurie for four years before being tracked down. By that point, the “interest” accrued from the money she owed comes in at $43million – but Laurie cuts her losses and demands $100,000. To work off this debt, Rue has been working for her as a drug mule, being forced to choke down massive amounts of fentanyl packs before making the risky trip back across the border. To reduce the chance of her being killed by a ruptured pack, she partners up with another of Laurie’s girls, Faye Valentine, to share the load.

After returning on their latest run, Faye mentions to Rue that one of Laurie’s goons, Wayne, has been squirreling money away with the intent of investing in avocados and going straight. She mentions he keeps the money in a safe, the key to which is on his belt. Rue’s interest is piqued and openly wonders if there’s a way to get his belt off. Faye thinks she knows a way.

At a meeting with her sponsor Ali, Rue says she wants to try and get her life back on track, but in trouble this deep it’s hard for her to actually put that into action. Ali encourages her to start reading the Bible. Affected by the faith and kindness of the Texas family she met, she resolves to do so. In her downtime from being a drug mule, she works as an Uber driver for some extra cash and listens to the Bible on audio book.

When she’s tasked by Laurie to deliver a package to strip club owner and pimp Alamo, Rue arrives to find a hedonistic party taking place. Asking to use the bathroom, she sneaks in and starts to enjoy herself with the girls. He presence does not go unnoticed, and Alamo calls her over and chastises her for not introducing herself first. Getting to talking, Rue asks if she can start working for him instead, but his stoic second-in-command Bishop has misgivings.

In the back, one of Alamo’s girls overdoses from the ecstasy tablets supplied by Laurie via Rue. After examination, they find the drugs are laced with fentanyl. Alamo angrily confronts Rue, blaming her for what happened.

Rue insists she had nothing to do with it, saying she never wanted to work for Laurie but she’s been left with no choice since high school, but believes that God brought her to his home for a reason. To test her resolve and faith in God, Alamo takes her out back and puts an apple on her head, looking play Willam Tell, but with a gun rather than a bow and arrow. When he succeeds, a relieved Rue laughs hysterically in relief.

Maddy and Lexi both moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school in a bid to make it in Hollywood, albeit in very different ways.

Lexi is a production assistant at Warner Bros, having been taken under the wing of a producer on a drama, LA Nights, which is fronted by actor Dylan Reid. Thanks to being hard working and having a natural eye for screenplays, she is well liked and is enjoying the work.

Maddy is now an assistant to a publicist, and despite being indispensable to her, the job pays poorly for a lot of work. Regardless, she curates the ultimate successful life via her Instagram account, making her life seem much more glamorous than it really is. Dylan is one of her clients.

Both maintain loose contact with Rue, who checks in and occasionally couch surfs with them when she’s in town. Rue encourages Lexi to call Fezco, who is now serving 30 years in prison after the raid at the end of season two, and Maddy shares with Rue that her ex, Jules, is now a sugar baby to a wealthy, older man.

While others moved away from East Highland, Nate and Cassie remained where they were. Now engaged to be married, they have set up the ultimate suburban life for themselves – at least, that’s what they want people to think.

Since his father was exposed for his sexual exploits, Nate has taken over the family business. But while they’re building luxury condos, he’s struggling to find any investors and is struggling to navigate California’s red tape.

Cassie is bored and still in desperate need for validation – wanting to become “TikTok Famous” via saucy clips, usually shot by their housemaid. Jealous of Maddy’s Hollywood lifestyle on Instagram, she’s throwing all her time into planning their overly lavish upcoming wedding but is frustrated by Nate “nickel and diming” her.

Oblivious to Nate’s financial troubles, Cassie sets her heart on a $50,000 floral display for the wedding. When Nate refuses to pay that much money for something that will die within a week, she proposes that she bankroll the bill herself by selling raunchy pictures on Only Fans. Over a dinner of spaghetti and way too many candles, she sets out her plan to Nate.

The idea does not sit well with Nate, who likens it to sex work. She argues that she’s not making porn and is confident she can be a star on the site. She tells him that she doesn’t want a “ghetto wedding” – it is her dream to walk down the aisle surrounded by all their friends... and $50,000 worth of flowers.

Nate eventually relents... on the condition that he never sees her face and her breasts in the same picture.