Jules' Text-Crush Is About To Blow Up In Her Face On 'Euphoria'

The promo for the fourth episode of Euphoria, scheduled to air on Jul. 7, promises to give viewers a glimpse into Jules' traumatic backstory. But her present-day timeline includes some very real dangers, too. In the teaser, viewers see her going to a carnival where she plans to meet up with Tyler, a boy she's been chatting with on a hookup app. Of course, no one knows that Jules' crush is actually her bully Nate catfishing her. The promo doesn't really give us a straight answer as to whether or not Jules actually meets Tyler on Euphoria. But it isn't HBO's style to prolong a dramatic reveal.

Unlike network dramas, which have roughly 22 episodes in a season to fill up with long, drawn out storylines, HBO series have the luxury to move at a more sophisticated pace. I'm betting Tyler's true identity is revealed sooner rather than later, even if he doesn't wind up meeting Jules at the carnival.

Their constant messaging is already starting to stress out Rue, who, in addition to nursing a painful crush on Jules, is justifiably freaked out that her friend is super obsessed with this dude she's never met. And he's asking to meet her by a secluded lake at a carnival at night? The whole thing positively screams sketchy vibes, but young love doesn't really have the benefit of prefrontal cortex development, so what are you gonna do?

As far as Jules is concerned, "Tyler" is jock who's ~not like the rest of them~ and goes to St. Mary's, a neighboring private school. At one point, Tyler sends Jules a dick pic, and she immediately enlists Rue's help in sending back some tasteful nudes. Needless to say, Rue gets flustered. The (angry) tension between the two of them grows with Rue's jealousy, and drives a wedge in their friendship, which neither of them can quite articulate. Eventually, Rue breaks down in tears confessing that she just doesn't want anything bad to happen to her friend. But the wires of big feelings get crossed and Rue winds up somewhat unthinkingly stealing a kiss. Again, she freaks out and splits.

Nate, of course, is the real person behind all this drama, which no one but the audience knows at this point. He created the hookup app persona "Tyler" based on a boy he beat up, and although it isn't 100 percent clear if he knows who he's talking to, Nate and Jules share too many connections for it to all be one big coincidence.

For one thing, Nate was the first one to bully Jules as the new trans girl at school, so it would make a ton of sense that he was projecting some queer panic because he secretly liked her. Then, there's the fact that Jules has had questionably consensual sex with Nate's dad, Cal. Casting aside for a moment that Jules is underage and younger than Cal by decades when the graphic scene occurs, it also appears to be a pretty violent and disturbing sex scene that leaves her shaken up.

As you can see, the drama is super messy, which makes me think that we don't have long to wait before this particular powder keg explodes.