Why Euphoria’s Lexi Howard is the Standout Character of Season 2
WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD
HBO Max’s Euphoria has started 2022 off with a bang. The premiere brought in 2.4 MILLION viewers across all platforms related to HBO, becoming the strongest digital premiere for the network. Producers of the show stated in interviews that they were pushing for a spotlight catered to Cassie and Jules this season, but the real star of the season is Lexi Howard.
In this sex-filled teen angst show filled with drugs and violence, the 17-year-old brunette comes out as even more empowering and relatable for a lot of teenagers during this season. With her shy and flustered actions toward her newfound crush towards Fezco and imagining her reality as a drama television show, many viewers have grown a new love for her.
In the first episode, we only get a few scenes from Lexi but the most memorable one features her first interaction with Fezco, Rue’s laidback dropout drug dealer. After introducing each other, the two have a conversation about their holiday break. Fez becomes confused about Lexi celebrating Christmas since she is Jewish, and she explains that her family only celebrates the holiday as it was initially stolen by Christians. The heartfelt conversation immediately sparked a ship by fans and labeled them as “Lexco”.
The ship was further fueled in the second episode. Lexi’s older sister Cassie confesses to Nate Jacobs’ father that Fez was the guy that beat up his son causing an argument between the sisters. Lexi then prepares herself to see Fez and warn him about Nate’s father knowledge of the fight, but goes through a whole routine to look her best, revealing her developing crush for Fez. Upon arrival to his gas station, Lexi is left bashful and speechless, only exchanging a few words towards Fez, but never mentioning Nate Jacobs’ father. This scene in particular not only caused even more viewers to fall in love with Lexi and Fez’s new friendship, but created discussion about how it was one of the more relatable scenes from Euphoria.
Twitter user @marianapilled tweets:
“the way lexi saw fez beat the shit out of a person and then she put on her red lipstick and her best outfit to see him again bc he actually listened to her for like 3 minutes.. god she’s so relatable”
Many fans also connected with Lexi’s action of looking their best to see their crush but only being able to say a few words after seeing them in person. Lexi Howard continues to be deemed as the only character that most viewers relate with.
Lastly, in the most recent episode of Euphoria, we see Lexi having an internal battle with her reality. To cope with reality, she disassociates and pretends to be a producer of an autobiography of her life story. This causes her to create a play highlighting her position in the world, but with differently named characters. For me personally, this is when I was truly attached to Lexi. I always viewed difficult situations in my life as a coming-of-age young adult film and aimed for dramatics to deal with complications. Is it healthy? Probably not, but it provides slight amusement for my mental health.
The second season of Euphoria has left fans wanting more from Lexi Howard and explore her relationship with Fezco due to their drastic personality differences, making me believe that she will be the most favored character for this season.
What do you think? What are your predictions for this season?
