Euphoria Trying To Get You To Sympathize With Nate's Dad Is A Mistake
Warning: SPOILERS for Euphoria season 2, episode 3.
Euphoria season 2, episode 3 begins with a lengthy flashback to Cal Jacobs' senior year in high school, presumably in an effort to get audiences to sympathize with him, but this begs the question — why? Cal, played by Grey's Anatomy's Eric Dane, was introduced early on in Euphoria season 1 as a mysterious figure who sleeps with Hunter Schafer's character Jules. The power imbalance in the relationship is immediately clear and the fact that this older man is sleeping with a high school-age girl makes the entire scene excruciatingly uncomfortable. Cal is meant to be a bad guy and one of Euphoria's biggest twists is that he is the father of Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), a fellow classmate of Jules and the rest of Euphoria's characters at East Highland High.
Flashforward to Euphoria season 2 and Cal has become one of the most prominent characters of the HBO show right now, but not necessarily as the villain many presumed he would be. Euphoria season 2, episode 3 shows Cal in high school falling in love with his best friend Derek. The flashback paints Cal and Derek as victims of circumstance and the social mores of the time. They can't be together openly, so they pine for each other in secret. This culminates in a drunken scene at a local bar where Cal and Derek kiss while dancing. In the morning, though, Cal is awakened by a phone call from Marsha (the future mother of Nate), telling him she is pregnant. Smash cut to the present and Euphoria seems to assume that the character of Cal has been figured out.
Related: Euphoria: Why Rue & Jules Shouldn't Be Together
Euphoria seems to be implying that, because Cal was forced to suppress who he was throughout his life, his anger and
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