WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Euphoria Season 2, now available on HBO.
After the season 2 finale of Euphoria, it's safe to say that Cassie is the character who's fallen from grace the hardest. Not only did she betray her best friend Maddy by sleeping with Nate behind her back (although their conflict had an annoying ending), she also turned into a villain when she finally started dating Nate. Cassie's betrayal wasn't even worth it, as Nate ended up dumping her after Lexi's play aired everyone's dirty laundry. Cassie and Nate's relationship is unquestionably toxic, with that toxicity being shown through the costuming decisions in Season 2.
In Season 2, Episode 7, "A Thousand Little Trees of Blood," Nate was seen dressing Cassie in a yellow dress with pom poms. This dress was a piece from the Moschino 2022 Spring collection designed by Jeremy Scott. "Baby Ladies Who Lunch" received some online backlash when it was released because it appeared to be infantilizing women. The collection was also a take on the 1950s housewife and suburban life, reflecting Nate's fantasy of getting Cassie pregnant -- which many fans think she is -- in Season 2, Episode 2, "Out of Touch."
The controversy behind this collection highlighted the dynamic between Cassie and Nate in Season 2 of Euphoria perfectly. After they officially got together, Cassie told Nate that she wanted him to control her. By doing this, she created a power dynamic where he was stronger and more important than her -- similar to the dynamic between a father and daughter. Nate clearly wanted to dominate Cassie and saw her as his property, which only made the use of this dress more sinister.
Euphoria fans have also pointed out that the pink outfit Cassie wore in Season 2, Episode 7, "A Thousand Little Trees of Blood," looked a lot like a combination of Maddy and Jules' styles. This was clearly a sign that Nate was trying to project his attraction to these two other female characters onto Cassie instead of actually respecting her as an individual person. The pink outfit didn't fit with Cassie's style from Season 1 at all, which Maddy pointed out after Nate and Cassie walked past her in the school corridor.
Cassie was already drastically changing her appearance on Nate's behalf earlier in Season 2, as seen with the beauty montage in Season 2, Episode 3, "Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys." She woke up at 4 a.m. every day to go through an intense skincare and make-up routine and dressed exactly like Maddy in a desperate attempt to make Nate like her more and ask her to be his girlfriend. In so doing, she stripped away every last part of her original personality.
It's undeniable that Nate and Cassie's relationship is extremely toxic, culminating in their intense and sudden breakup in Season 2, Episode 7, "The Theater and Its Double." The costuming choices up to that point revealed a lot about Cassie's character development and also gave an insight into Nate's psyche. It became clear to the audience that Nate wasn't over his breakup with Maddy. The costuming also explained more about the terrifying nightmare he experienced; he was clearly attracted to Jules but had conflicted feelings because she slept with his dad. In choosing Cassie's outfits, Nate had an outlet for his attraction to Maddy and Jules -- and Euphoria had a subtle way to underline how terrible he was for Cassie.
To see Cassie and Nate's relationship, watch Euphoria on HBO Max.