9 Euphoria Scenes That Prove Zendaya Earned Her Leading Actress Emmy Win

While footage highlighting Rue's drug addiction opens the premiere episode, it isn't until she explains why she takes drugs that we begin to understand her. She describes the feeling of being high as euphoric nothingness, saying, "Everything stops . . . everything you feel, and wish, and want to forget, it all just sinks." As the Rue on screen sinks deeper into her high, her voice-over notes that, though she freaked out when she got high at a party, "over time, it was all I wanted. Those two seconds of nothingness."

It's a simple scene with Zendaya's voice-over doing most of the work, but she manages to inflect such wistfulness that you believe she genuinely finds sanctuary in the void of being high. And you can't help but wonder what demons are plaguing her so much that the only way she can escape is by drugging herself.

In this scene, though Rue and Jules have only just met, the two quickly become inseparable. Rue's burgeoning feelings for the other girl are beginning to show, and she shyly asks her to come to her house for dinner. It's one of the first times we see Rue truly act her age in an action as innocent as being awkward around her crush. It's such a pure moment, and Zendaya forces us to remember being that young and so eager around someone we like. When Rue thinks, "I'm such a loser," we all felt that.

After Jules reveals her online love connection wants to meet up with her, Rue expresses concerns at her meeting someone alone, late at night. It leads into an argument that is subsequently resolved when Rue goes to Jules's house to apologize. It's another vulnerable look at Rue, but it's also a glimpse at how deeply she cares for Jules. She's visibly nervous, fidgeting as she attempts to convey her feelings for the other girl. Rue admits that the idea of Jules being angry at her "hurts my heart too much," and she pleads with Jules not to be mad at her.

While on the surface it's a sweet scene that leads to the characters' first kiss, it's truly a scene that shows how intensely invested Rue has become in her relationship with Jules. Zendaya presents Rue as a scared girl not wanting to lose her friend but also demonstrates how Rue has gained a new addiction she's desperate to keep in her life: Jules. Her pleading to Jules is a softer lead-in for the next scene, which shows a darker side of Rue's inclinations.

After kissing Jules, Rue is a frenzied mess, and we all know what she turns to when she needs solace from her emotions. But when she meets up with everyone's favorite dealer, Fezco, he refuses to sell anything to her. This sparks a rage in Rue that viewers haven't seen before, and it's a stark reminder that, as sweet and fragile as Rue is, she's still a drug addict — they don't tend to take obstruction from drugs very well.

Zendaya pulls off Rue's combination of fury and desperation so well, it's hard to watch the scene through. The teen goes from cordial to outraged, from begging to demanding, to just shrieking, ordering Fez to "open the door." It's an absolutely chilling scene, and we're forced to remember there's nothing cute or glamorous about Rue's addiction.

When Rue starts talking to her unofficial sponsor (of sorts), Ali, about her relationship with Jules, the older addict is the first person to give her a realistic look at their situation: Rue has transferred her addiction from drugs to Jules (told y'all!). He says Jules will likely move on and wonders what Rue will do when she does. At their next NA meeting, Rue admits to the group that she's been lying about being sober but reveals that Jules made an ultimatum that forces her to be sober so they can hang out.

While it's obvious that Rue is making the choice to refrain from drugs for the wrong reasons, it's also the first time we've ever seen her have real hope. It's obvious she's not used to the feeling, but Zendaya perfectly conveys a cynic's desperate wish for their one shred of hope to pull though in the end.

Not only is this one of the funniest scenes in the entire season, but it's also a clever way of depicting Rue in a manic state. Zendaya and Maude Apatow play off one another beautifully in a faux good cop/bad cop routine that's a breath of fresh air amid all the heavy drama of the episode. Detective Rue is every chain-smoking cop who is getting way too old for this sh*t (which she points out during a rant to Fez, exclaiming, "I'm Morgan f*cking Freeman, and this is the beginning of the third act"), and I would absolutely watch a webseries about her adventures with Detective Howard.

But as Rue smokes cigarette after cigarette (doesn't the school have smoke detectors?) and her theories get more in depth, we realize this is spiraling into more than just a funny investigation, and Rue has entered into a serious manic episode. At one point, she stands in the middle of a sea of photos and declares to Lexi over the phone that she's never felt better in her entire life. But as Detective Howard tells Detective Bennett, "You're too close to this case."

It doesn't take long after her manic episode for Rue to slip into a depression. It happens swiftly and seemingly out of nowhere, and Zendaya handles the transition with such nuance and care that it doesn't feel forced. It's a depiction of depression that isn't romanticized or glamorized; it's days spent in bed like "one suffocating loop" where you can't and don't want to do anything. Where you're so disinclined to get up even to pee that you develop a kidney infection and have to be taken to the hospital. "Eventually all you can think about is how life has always been this way," Rue explains to the audience. "And it will only continue to be this way."

This scene hurts so good in so many ways. Rue and Jules's relationship has been teetering on the edge for a couple of episodes now, and their breakup in the season finale is gut-wrenching. I could see it coming the first time Rue questions what was originally her idea while the two are in Jules's room packing up her belongings, but actually seeing the two of them realize this is goodbye was another story.

Rue, who has been clinging to her connection to Jules from the start, can't even put into words her decision to stay behind, simply staring at the other girl because she doesn't want to be the one to say goodbye. Zendaya brings heartbreak to a new level as Rue seems at war between her desire to follow Jules to the ends of the Earth and her inability to hurt her family again by leaving them behind. In the end, she's left by herself, and her breakdown as she walks home alone is just as agonizing as I would expect.

I've already gone into my feelings about the season finale and Rue's fate, but I have to reiterate how amazing this final moment of the season is. We're brought right back to the beginning, with Rue falling into her old habits again even as she's acknowledging everything and everyone in her life that's at stake. Zendaya mimics the clumsy movements from Rue's revolving room scene for this music video as the robed singers jerk her around, managing to be both threatening and comforting as they pull her around.

Not only does Zendaya sound like an angel on Labrinth's "All For Us," but she also truly keeps us guessing in this final moment, leaving us to wonder exactly what happens to Rue as she falls into the abyss.