With season 3 of Euphoria currently underway, BHC decided now would be the right time to analyze one of the show’s most polarizing characters: Cassie Howard. Starting as a good but troubled young woman and turning into what many would call a “mean girl”, her character evolution is fascinating to watch. Some characters on the show grow and change throughout their run and Cassie is no different. What separates her from the rest of the cast is that her development seems to be taking her down an antagonistic path, rather than growing for the better or earning some sort of redemption. For the purposes of this post, we will be analyzing her character arc and seeing what could be worked on if she went to therapy and what her treatment plan might involve.
Cassie starts season 1 as friends to Maddy Perez, Barbara Brookes (BB), Kat Hernandez, and (to a lesser extent) Rue Bennett. She has a crush on Chris McKay and this forms the start of her arc. She struggles to navigate her relationship with McKay and learns a lesson early on about establishing sexual consent with him. She displays great discomfort with having to establish this boundary, but McKay is understanding and the two continue their relationship.
They are again tested in the following episode when McKay voices his grievances with the football team. Cassie listens intently, but then tries to make a move. KcKay responds negatively to this, claiming that she is always making things sexual. Cassie is hurt by this and we see her struggling to deal with the aftermath. McKay later apologizes and asks for nudes, which she hesitantly agrees to.
A couple of episodes later, Cassie and McKay’s relationship hits another snag when he refuses to acknowledge her as his girlfriend during the town carnival. To cope, she ends up taking MDMA with Maddie and the two bond over their shared experiences with lackluster partners. While on the substance, she later flirts with a guy named Daniel. She then begins to masturbate by rubbing up against the ferris wheel horse she is sitting on, stunning the nearby crowd. Filmed and publicly shamed, Cassie is forced to run out of the fair. McKay later apologizes and they again reconcile, but the damage to her reputation and self-esteem is already done.
During a Halloween party, McKay is hazed by his fellow teammates. Frustrated and emasculated, he has rough intercourse with Cassie to the point where she is left in tears. Him ignoring her pleas for him to take it easy sends her over the edge and she leaves. Later on, Daniel reappears and asks Cassie to have sex. She denies him and he insults her. Again hurt, she returns home and takes a pregnancy test, finding that it is positive. When she later tells McKay, he is astounded and insists that she get an abortion. Her family supports her in this decision and Cassie terminates the pregnancy, though she is obviously affected by this. Flashbacks in season 1 reveal that Cassie’s parents divorced when she was very young. Her dad got into an accident and the pain pills he took turned him into an addict. Her dad would use her unconditional love to get his fix and would never come around unless he wanted something from her. He even robs their house for things to sell to continue his addiction. Her dad would ultimately fall completely out of the picture, leaving Cassie with strong feelings of abandonment. It is also revealed that she was promiscuous for a time and would engage in casual sex quite often before meeting McKay. All of this helps recontextualize Cassie’s behavior and paint her in the light of someone with deep abandonment issues, but someone with a heart of gold underneath.
Season 2 takes this concept and begins flipping it on its head. While at another house party, Cassie begins a sexual relationship with Maddy’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Nate Jacobs. Despite knowing this could destroy her relationship with Maddy, Cassie continues to sleep with Nate multiple times. It is revealed that she is still depressed about her abortion from the previous season and one could argue that she is again using sex to cope with her underlying emotions. Her relationship with Nate causes her to pull away from Maddy and the rest of her friend group, with her getting up at 4am to do an extensive beauty routine to keep Nate’s interest. She starts to take tips from Maddy’s wardrobe, even dressing exactly like her in one instance. Nate later cancels an evening with her and decides that he wants to get back with Maddy, angering Cassie.
Cassie decides to try and win Nate back by wearing a revealing bikini while at a get together at her house. While this action grabs Nate’s attention, it leaves the rest of her friend group confused. To deal with the continued rejection, she later drinks too much and throws up in the hot tub. They later end up fighting, with Cassie threatening to nuke Nate’s relationship with Maddy to get what she wants. Maddy begins to suspect that something is wrong with Cassie, but doesn’t seem to put it together that she and Nate are an item. This later changes when Rue reveals that she saw Cassie and Nate kiss in his truck back in the premiere.
This revelation causes a huge rift between Cassie and Maddy, the latter banging on her bathroom door and crying, stating that Cassie committed the ultimate betrayal. Cassie avoids her friends entirely and struggles with the guilt of taking Nate. The two become an official item, holding hands in the school, and Cassie continues to dress like Maddy in a bid to hold his attention.
In the two part finale, Cassie and Nate attend the play put on by her sister: Lexi. It becomes quickly apparent that the play is about the friend group and summarizes the entire first two seasons of the show up until that point. The audience is entertained, but Cassie and some others are not amused. After a homoerotic musical number about the football team and Nate, he storms out of the performance. Cassie tries to calm him down and he dumps her. Again single, Cassie disrupts the play and tries to embarrass her sister on stage. Things get heated and she is quick to assume the role of the bad guy, claiming that she will gladly take the role if that’s how people want to see her. This causes Maddy to chase her off the stage and into the school proper. After an altercation that leaves Cassie with a bloody nose and bashed skull, Maddy warns Cassie that Nate is manipulative and that their breakup is not the end for her. Cassie stares off into space, horror dawning in her eyes as she is left to process what exactly that means. The season ends with the play being a huge success, but Cassie is public enemy number one.
Taking a look at Cassie’s past and her behavior through the first two seasons, a common theme surrounding her is abandonment. Her dad left her, she isn’t close with her mother, and most of her relationships with men are purely sexual in nature. She wants to be loved and appreciated, with criticism hurting her to an extreme. She uses sex to feel closer to the objects of her affection, even if she is aware that they don’t return her more intimate feelings. Her unprocessed relationship with dad is the most likely trigger for this behavior, seeking the male validation that she lacked most of her life. Wanting to feel loved in a world that she believes has forgotten about her.
Our treatment plan would involve digging into her relationships with dad, mom, and Lexi. Processing how each member of the family has betrayed her and how that has left a mark on her. What she thinks it says about her. We’d look into ways to communicate boundaries and why she deserves them. Casual sex and how there are other ways to get validation (though there is nothing wrong with casual sex). Her abusive relationship with Nate and ways to stay safe if she wants to stay with him. Lastly, we would work through the loss of what appears to be her whole friend group over her actions and how she can grow from this experience to be the person that she wants to be. To identify that she doesn’t have to be the villain in the story and can instead live a life that she is happy to have, regardless of her past mistakes.
Cassie is a great example of how mental health problems can shape a person. Some learn compassion and process it positively, while others react to the pain by inflicting it on others. In season 1, she is a sweet but misguided young woman who struggles with her own self-worth and what a mature relationship looks like. In season 2, she quickly unravels and externalizes her pain, tarnishing her closest relationships and feeling vindicated while she does so. She becomes her own greatest enemy. At Behavioral Health Clinic, we have clinicians who specialize in trauma, family therapy, communication issues, and self-esteem. Reach out at 855.607.8242 or email us at appointments@bhclinic.com.
