Top 10 Times Maddy Deserved Better on Euphoria

While sleeping with her best friend's ex-boyfriend might be enough to land Cassie’s actions a spot further up on this list (spoiler alert: it, in fact, does!), Cassie’s inability to admit any wrongdoing definitely deserves its own recognition. Sure, Cassie may have shown some regret over her actions in the midst of her affair with Nate - however, after Maddy found out about the two’s secret relationship, Cassie didn’t apologize or even take ownership over her involvement. In what seems to be a moment of deja vu akin to Friends’ infamous “WE WERE ON A BREAK!” storyline, Cassie tries to convince everyone that what she did wasn’t wrong because Nate and Maddy were broken up at the time. “It’s one thing to do what you did, and it’s another thing to pretend you’re all innocent and it’s no big deal” - yeah, we’re gonna have to agree with Cassie’s mom on this one.

Birthdays are the one day of the year we get to celebrate ourselves, and for Maddy, this took the form of a small party with her close girlfriends. Unfortunately, Maddy’s birthday gathering happened to be in the midst of Cassie’s intensifying mental breakdown over her developing feelings for Nate. Somewhere between Nate and Cassie’s first hookup on New Years and their subsequent secret encounters, Cassie’s feelings for Nate turned into an obsession over being his girlfriend - which as Maddy’s best friend, was obviously a problem. So, when Maddy reveals the sweet nothings Nate has showered her with during the party, Cassie’s feelings turn into a physical manifestation of being sick as she throws up in the hot tub - to the disgust of everyone.

#8: Kat Blows Off Maddy

Also in:

Top 10 Times Raj Deserved Better on The Big Bang Theory

Season 1 was a roller coaster for Maddy. Caught between her love for Nate and the underlying mistreatment he puts her through, Maddy becomes increasingly distressed as she navigates the aftermath of being assaulted by Nate at the carnival. Despite her visibly emotional state and alarming calls to Kat, Maddy’s cries for help are neglected by her friend as she blows her off to hook up with a random guy in a parking lot. This incident only leads the two to grow further apart, as Kat becomes more concerned with her new online sexual persona than with the wellbeing of Maddy’s mental state.

Nate's decision to catfish and begin an online relationship with Jules was immoral for many reasons, including that, while Nate was flirting with and sending private images of himself to an unknowing Jules, he was also in a relationship with Maddy. On top of that, while Nate may not have initially admitted that he was talking to Jules for any other reason than to trap her for possessing illegal material, Nate later admits to Jules in season 2 that "everything [he] ever said was true" - implying that he did have an emotional connection to her.

While Maddy's parents may be no Cal Jacobs, they aren't necessarily the Brady Bunch either. Maddy comes from a dysfunctional family in which her parents don't have a happy marriage. Her home life is so bad, in fact, that during Lexi’s play it is revealed that Maddy practically lived at the Howard house to get away from her parents. If you ask actress Alexa Demie, the lack of healthy adult relationships in Maddy’s life is why the character stayed in a relationship with Nate for so long. Demie told the Hollywood Reporter ,"[Maddy] doesn’t see any love [between her parents], so she believes what she has with Nate is far better than what she has at home”.

Not only does Nate treat Maddy horribly, but his family does too. When Maddy shows up to the carnival in a bralette and cut out pants, Nate is less than pleased on behalf of his family who he claims “already don’t like [her]”. Fast forward to season 2 when Nate's mom shares her thoughts about Maddy while she and Nate are having a heart to heart. Marsha shares that she thinks Maddy wanted to spite Nate. Marsha even goes as far to praise Nate for his aggressive behavior towards Maddy during the night of the carnival, in which she claims he was “sticking up for his mama”.

Despite Cassie being Maddy's best friend and seemingly supportive through her breakup with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Nate, Cassie secretly hookups with Nate in the bathroom at a New Years house party. While you might think that Maddy almost catching them in the bathroom may have been the end of Cassie and Nate’s secret love affair, it most certainly is not. Cassie and Nate continue their relationship behind Maddy's back with Cassie growing increasingly obsessed over Nate. As if sleeping with her ex-boyfriend isn’t enough, Cassie seemingly becomes a carbon copy of Maddy as she attempts to take over the life and relationship Maddy once had.

Nate Jacobs has done a lot of messed up stuff, but this might just be the craziest. In the season 2 episode ‘A Thousand Little Trees of Blood’, Maddy is met with a gun-wielding Nate in her bedroom, who threatens her into giving him the stolen disc featuring his dad and Jules. Shedding her usual self-assured composure, Maddy is visibly terrified by Nate’s actions. She quickly gives up where the disc is hidden after he loads one bullet into the chamber and pulls the trigger multiple times, pointing it at Maddy and then himself. Gathering the disc, Nate tells Maddy that there actually weren’t any bullets and that he was ‘joking’ before walking out - leaving Maddy traumatized on her bed.

If you’ve made it this far into the list, you have probably noticed that Nate Jacobs has anger issues, and this is no more evident than when Nate chokes Maddy at the carnival. In ‘Shook Ones Pt. II’, after Maddy confronts Nate's family for disliking her and thinking she looks like a “hooker”, Nate aggressively drags Maddy behind a secluded trailer where he takes her throat in his hands while she gasps for air. Though he eventually lets her go, the assault does not go unnoticed as the bruises on her neck are found and an investigation into the incident, and Nate, ensues. Maddy’s continuous loyalty and love for Nate following the attack is both heartbreaking and hard to watch, and is why this entry ranks so high on our list.

While pretty much all the relationships on Euphoria are toxic in their own right, Maddy and Nate’s on-again, off-again romance definitely takes the cake. Despite all of the jewelry and clothes he may shower her with, it is safe to say that Nate is a HORRIBLE boyfriend to Maddy. Between sleeping with Maddy’s best friend and repeatedly slut shaming her over what she wears, there is no question that Maddy deserves a whole lot better! And while Maddy may have some flaws of her own, Nate’s continuous degrading, and both physical and verbal maltreatment of Maddy is enough to make Nate Jacobs one of the most horrifying, and hated, TV villains in recent history.