By: Emma Callahan

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Love is a dangerous emotion

 Sharper than a knife

 Darker than the night

 a blinding desire

with greater strength 

than the sun's light.

 It is one’s nature to succumb to love,

 but it is what one does for love

 that is fatal.

​

I recognize the hatred readers will feel as I bring up Cassie Howard, a greatly disliked character from HBO Max’s teen drama Euphoria who had an entanglement with her best friend's boyfriend. Not to play devil's advocate, (I am…. I very much am), but Cassie does not deserve to be perceived so cruelly. Like most people in our world, she only ever wanted to be loved. 

 

Cassie's desire to be loved stems back to her father. Cassie's father wasn’t a bad guy, in fact, he and Cassie had a special bond so when he abandoned her, it hurt. The day he left, a part of Cassie left as well. He wasn’t dead, he was gone, and that was the worst pain of all. It was the first time Cassie ever felt rejected and it was the void her father left that she was left forever trying to fill. 

 

Furthermore, it was ultimately Nate Jacobs, her best friend’s former boyfriend, who manipulated Cassie. Nate was the one in control, he knew exactly what he was doing and the lives he would ruin in the process. Like the predator Nate was, he took advantage of Cassie's vulnerability and hunted her down like prey. Nate was the perpetrator and Cassie was his victim.

 

The day Cassie slept with Nate she hurt the person she loved most, Maddy, her best friend, or as she once put it, her “soulmate.” Cassie’s hunger to be loved was never a desire but an addiction. Nonetheless, the love she had for Maddy could not surpass the love she became dependent on from Nate. Cassie is not a bad person, she is broken. 

 

“At least I'm loved”- Cassie Howard