The Kat Storylines That Euphoria Fans Never Got To See
"Euphoria" is coming out hot from its scorcher of a second season. The HBO series set a daring new precedent of user infatuation on Twitter and has come up on the rear bumper of the megahit dark fantasy series "Game of Thrones" as the second most popular HBO franchise of all time (via Variety).
Created by Sam Levinson, "Euphoria" has broken new ground in the already overcrowded genre of teenage television drama by creating characters who feel grounded and authentic even as their lives rise to shockingly raw new levels of intensity and disruption.
One of the characters that helped to make the first season of "Euphoria" so buzz-worthy was Kat (Barbie Ferreira). Though she begins the series feeling insecure about her weight, Kat finds new confidence through her sexual awakening and learns the power of confidence, boasting a brazen new look and putting her body shame firmly in the rearview mirror. However, her character lacked the same kind of initiative in the second season of the coming-of-age drama.
Kat's plot was cut down dramatically for Season 2
Since Kat was a major fan favorite in Season 1 of "Euphoria," some fans were baffled that her character took such a back seat to the other storylines of the show in Season 2. According to rumors, these sudden changes could be due to a feud between Barbie Ferreira and Sam Levinson over the direction Kat took in the latest batch of episodes (via Radar).
Though the claims remain unconfirmed, it does seem telling that Ferreira chose not to attend the Season 2 premiere of "Euphoria." Meanwhile, Zendaya, who plays Rue and also produces on the series, confirmed to The Cut that there were definitely elements of Season 2 that were scrapped. "The things that didn't make it definitely needed to die," she said cryptically.
For her part, Ferreira called the plotline of her character "mysterious" in the second season. Craving more excitement in her life, Kat breaks up with her loving and affectionate boyfriend, Ethan (Austin Abrams), by telling him a massive lie: that she has a terminal brain illness. It's a bizarre way to end the romance between the two and lends further support to the rumors surrounding Ferreira and Levinson.
"Kat's journey this season is a little more internal and a little mysterious to the audience. She is secretly going through a lot of existential crises," Ferreira said in the same interview with The Cut. "She loses her marbles a bit." Since no one from the show has confirmed the feud, fans can only speculate on what led to Kat's jarring changes, but it is definitely surprising that her storyline wrapped up the way that it did in Season 2.