Content Warning: This list includes mentions of drug use, violence, sexual assault, and mental health.

Some memorable Euphoria scenes that almost went too far, which is part of what makes the HBO series one of the most popular yet provocative shows currently on television. The series follows the lives of fictional high schoolers who constantly face issues with drug addiction, toxic relationships, and occasional violence. Euphoria is led by Zandaya and Hunter Schaffer as Rue Bennett and Jules Vaughn respectively and also features an ensemble cast of problematic characters including Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, and Angus Cloud.

Euphoria season 2 faced criticism due to its overuse of nudity and substance abuse. Sweeney, who plays Cassie, had to ask creator Sam Levinson to remove nude scenes of her character that she deemed unnecessary (via Independent). Several scenes in Euphoria season 2 that were originally meant to contain nudity were removed or altered after similar complaints from cast . Levinson is known to push boundaries in Euphoria, but several scenes that made the final cut in the HBO series nearly went too far.

20 Cassie Pukes At Maddy's Party

A Previously Strong Character Becomes Uncomfortably Vulnerable

It's not surprising that many of the most shocking Euphoria moments contain violence, a character death, or a scene of an obviously sexual nature. Euphoria is, after all, a show that exists to push boundaries. However, one especially disturbing scene comes in Euphoria season 2, episode 4, "You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can" that is incredibly difficult to watch despite it containing no sex or violence. There's a sequence in the hot tub at Maddy's party when Cassie, overcome with emotion, promptly stands up and vomits over the other occupants.

This Euphoria scene is shocking on two levels, the most obvious being that seeing anybody get puked on is all-but-guaranteed to prompt a strong emotional response. However, at a deeper level, it's shocking because it showed just how much Cassie's feeling for Nate (and her guilt at sleeping with her friend's former partner) had disrupted Cassie's mental health. She appeared truly broken in this moment, and Sydney Sweeney's performance made it especially jarring to witness.

19 Ashtray Kills Custer

A Child Displays A Disturbing Capacity For Violence

Ashtray is the youngest character in Euphoria, and given what the rest of the characters get up to around him, it's no surprise he's a central figure in many of the show's most shocking scenes. While Ashtray killing Custer in Euphoria season 2, episode 8, "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name," wasn't the most jaw-dropping scene for young Javon Walton's character (or even the most shocking murder Ashtray committed), it was still an incredibly brutal moment.

While the violence of this shocking Euphoria scene is enough to raise eyebrows in its own right, it's everything it reveals about Ashtray which makes it truly harrowing. Ashtray was raised by Fez, and so his understanding of morality was always clearly skewed. However, walking up to Custer and coldly planting a knife into his neck showed viewers just how far gone Ashtray truly was.

18 Fez Gets Shot By The Police

An Overshadowed Moment

The Euphoria season 2 finale, "All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned For A Thing I Cannot Name," had no shortage of shocking moments. However, due to events both before the scene and after, a particularly jaw-dropping Fez moment is often overlooked. When viewing for the first time, the sequence that Fez gets shot in the stomach by a SWAT team while screaming desperately at them not to harm Ashtray is incredibly jarring.

Ultimately, it's a moment many viewers forget because of everything still to come in the episode. However, had Fez being shot been the final scene in the sequence, it would still be renowned as an incredibly shocking Euphoria moment. It's also worth noting that it was so harrowing not because of the gunshot necessarily, but because of the phenomenal performance of the late Angus Cloud as Fez.

17 Faye Injects In Front Of Rue

Euphoria's Casual Drug Use Reaches New Levels

Narcotics are a regular narrative feature in Euphoria, though the introduction of Faye (Chloe Cherry) in season 2 also brings a moment of shockingly casual use of incredibly dangerous drugs. Rue meets Fay through Fez, and at one moment is left alone with her while Fez and Custer, who is Faye's boyfriend, leave to arrange a deal. Much to Rue, and the audience's, shock, Faye proceeds to pull out a needle and inject herself with heroin as casually as many characters light a cigarette.

Euphoria has some incredibly well-written moments when it comes to depicting addiction and drug-use. It also has many that have been criticized for being borderline-glamorizing of an issue that claims thousands of lives each day. The moment Faye shoots heroin in the car with Rue arguably falls into the latter category, although Rue is, thankfully, just as perturbed by Faye's actions as viewers are.

16 Cal Destroys The Family

Coming Out Of The Closet Became A Destructive Moment

Cal is an incredibly complex character in Euphoria, and it's a testament to the writing of the show that he's such a loathsome antagonist despite having many struggles that — if he'd acted differently in life — it would be easy to feel sympathy toward him for. However, while struggling with sexual identity is an obstacle that many can relate to, Cal in Euphoria manages to weave even this into the long list of reasons viewers find him absolutely despicable.

Euphoria season 2, episode 4, "You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can," brought Cal's double-life to a head when he finally came out to his family. However, in typical Cal fashion, he did so in perhaps the most destructive and shocking way possible. After urinating in the foyer of the family home, Cal drunkenly brags about his infidelity in front of his wife and children before shaming his son Aaron for watching pornography, and crushing Nate by reminding him how much of a disappoint Cal sees him as. He destroys the family unit in a single conversation, and it's one of the most emotionally brutal scenes in Euphoria.

15 The Police Want To Investigate Maddy’s Bruises

Maddy Doesn’t Cooperate

After the show has already made it clear that Nate has been physically abusive to Maddy in the past, it goes one step further to pile the trauma onto Maddy. After attending a carnival where Nate grabs her neck, Maddy hides the bruises with a turtleneck instead of makeup, and still reeling from the incident, she doesn’t eat. With the air conditioning not working at school, Maddy still feeling upset about the incident, and no food to give her energy, Maddy faints at school, which prompts paramedics being called in.

Instead of treating Maddy like a survivor of abuse with any kind of comion or care, when Maddy refuses to cooperate with the police because she doesn’t want to relive the incident, they hold her down and forcibly cut away her clothing.

Because the bruises are seen by the paramedics and school staff following her fainting, the school has to report the bruises to the police. Instead of treating Maddy like a survivor of abuse with any kind of comion or care, when Maddy refuses to cooperate with the police because she doesn’t want to relive the incident, they hold her down and forcibly cut away her clothing to get a look at the bruises.

It’s a scene that’s uncalled for and hard for the viewers to watch, but it also gives a window into how survivors of abuse can be treated and blamed for what happens to them.

14 Mouse Gives Rue Fentanyl

The Scene Implies Mouse Could Have Done More Than That

Though Rue is presented as an addict who will try anything when she relapses in Euphoria, that isn’t entirely the case. She’s stayed away from fentanyl, and even Fezco doesn’t sell it because he considers it too dangerous. When Rue, however, happens to be at Fezco’s house when Mouse is there, the other dealer uses the opportunity to try to take advantage of her. Not only does he force Rue to take a dose of fentanyl, but he also implies she can use her body instead of money to pay him for it.

The scene stops short of Mouse actually physically assaulting Rue, but it’s certainly implied that he could have if Fez wasn’t there to pay for the drug on Rue’s behalf. In fact, Rue spends days there, so out of it from the drug, that Fez has to call Jules to come get her. The show could have crossed even worse of a line than it did.

13 Cassie’s Carousel Ride

Cassie’s Drug-Fueled Freedom Is Cut Short

In one episode of Euphoria, Cassie and Maddy decide to avoid how their boyfriends have made them feel by taking MDMA and allowing the high to entertain them instead. Unfortunately, a stimulant and hallucinogen like that can actually enhance feelings, leading Maddy to attempt to leave Cassie behind to go confront Nate. Cassie spends her time on a carousel with another classmate, but her feelings get the better of her.

Initially, what Cassie loves ing the MDMA while on the carousel is that she feels completely free. Eventually, however, she starts to use the carousel for some self pleasure, and her moaning draws the attention of those around her. Before the scene can go too far, Cassie gets embarrassed and seeks Maddy out to leave, but the scene is awkward enough without taking anything further.

12 Cal And Nate Fight

Nate’s Reaction Implies Past Abuse

Nate and his father have a complicated relationship as is evident in Nate having a nightmare about him, but it’s also reflected in the way Nate treats other people. The abuse Nate has suffered, however, is only implied for much of the first season of Euphoria.

It’s not until Nate and his father get into an argument in the Euphoria season 1 finale that becomes physical that it’s clear how bad the abuse might have actually been in the past. Cal throws Nate to the ground, and when he does, Nate nearly immediately begins sobbing and banging his own head on the floor. It’s an incredibly traumatic response to the fight and leaves the viewers knowing that much worse has likely happened to Nate in the past. While Nate is a morally flawed and nearly irredeemable character, the audience feels for him in the moment.

11 Chris McKay’s Hazing

The Way The Scene Is Shot Implies More

As McKay feels the pressure to be a collegiate-level athlete, he and Cassie grow distant. He also, however, has more trauma in his life as he starts college than simply pushing his girlfriend away from him. While his father continues to push him to be his best, his future fraternity brothers violently assault him.

With all of the violence in the show, Euphoria, again, avoided going a step too far with another instance of sexual violence, but the implication was enough for some.

When McKay is attacked by a group of young men, the scene is chaotic and shot in a way that implies not just physical violence, but sexual violence as well. That implication wasn’t something that actor Algee Smith was aware of until after he saw the completed scene. According to Smith’s interview following the airing of the episode with The Hollywood Reporter, “It looks really graphic in the scene the way they edited and chopped it up, which is scary as hell, but they’re play-humping… I was surprised by the editing.”