Apr 26, 2026 7:00pm PT

Why Eric Dane’s ‘Euphoria’ Return as Cal Jacobs Is So Powerful

Daniel D'Addario

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Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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Courtesy of HBO

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “The Ballad of Paladin,” Season 3, Episode 3 of “Euphoria,” now streaming on HBO Max.

One of the defining loose threads of “Euphoria” has been settled — in moving and compelling fashion.

The action of the first season of “Euphoria” back in 2019 kicks off with a crime. Jules Vaughn, the new girl in her high school, solicits sex from older men; Cal Jacobs, a seemingly upstanding member of the community, commits an act of statutory rape. The act is captured on a tape that haunted the show through its first two seasons — as evidence of Cal’s unfaithfulness and of a queer identity he can barely admit to himself, and as a potential catalyst for his fall from grace.

Why Eric Dane's 'Euphoria' Return as Cal Jacobs Is So Powerful