If you’re planning to watch Euphoria Season 1 Episode 4, then you might be a little confused by the title. The title is called “Shook One, Part II.” But was there ever a “Shook One, Part I”?
No, you didn’t miss an episode of Euphoria. Although Episode 4 is called “Shook One, Part II” there was never a part one. This isn’t the second in a two-part series like you’d expect from the title. It’s actually a song title, I’ve recently learned. (An earlier version of this story didn’t reflect that.)
Here are the episodes and episode titles we’ve had so far for Euphoria:
- Episode 1: Pilot
- Episode 2: Stuntin’ Like My Daddy
- Episode 3: Made You Look
- Episode 4: Shook One Pt. II
The “Shook One Pt. II” title actually refers to a song title by Mobb Deep called Shook Ones (Part II). (Many thanks to a helpful reader who contacted me to let me know this refers to a song title!) This was the lead single in Mobb Deep’s 1995 album The Infamous. Pitchfork listed the song as Number 25 in their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s. The song itself was a sequel to the 1994 single Shook Ones.
The description for tonight’s episode reads: “Rue tries to get clean for Jules and chaperones Gia at the carnival; Jules encounters Cal with his family; annoyed at their boyfriends, Cassie and Maddy decide to do Molly together; Kat hangs out with Ethan until she misreads a situation.”
You might be interested in knowing that every episode title refers to a song title. That’s a pretty ingenious idea by the show and leads to some great opportunities for analysis after each show airs. Here’s an explanation shared by a reader:
@StephanieDube (1/2) hey I saw your Euphoria piece Re: Shook Ones Pt.2 title – and i thought id point out all the episodes are specifically rap song titles from 90s-2000’s-Shook Ones Pt.2 is infamous for its beat and got even bigger when Em used it for the climax battle in 8-mile
@StephanieDube (2/2) (forget ‘Pilot’ tho im sure its a song name) but ‘Made Ya Look’ was a Nas single from 2002 (so good) & ‘Stuntin’ Like My Daddy’ was a single Lil Wayne x Birdman (aka Daddy…weird i know) dropped in 2006 so i expect it to continue & how they relate to the eps
Since Euphoria is known for breaking conventional rules, it’s not surprising that they would even break rules with the titles they choose too, such as using song titles you might not immediately recognize. If you didn’t know it referred to a song title, then you were likely confused by the name choice (like I was at first.) But it’s a pretty smart convention that we’ll likely continue seeing in future episodes.
Here are some more fun facts about tonight’s episode.
Interestingly, some publications had originally thought that Storm Reid wasn’t joining the show as Rue’s sister until tonight’s Episode 4. But obviously that wasn’t the case, since we’ve had Gia on the show since the pilot.
IMDB does have Clark Furlong appearing in this episode as a Young Jules and he’s not listed for any other episodes. The look into Jule’s past will be an interesting plot point in the show.
Hannah Nordberg will also be joining today’s episode in her first appearance as Emma, according to IMDB. She’ll be in next week’s episode too.
Elizabeth Posey is listed on IMDB as playing Becky in this episode, and it will be her only appearance on the show.
Mike Ostroski is listed as playing a doctor and it’s his only listed appearance on the show too.
Tonight’s episode is directed by Sam Levinson. He directed Episodes 2 and 3 also.
(On an interesting note, this isn’t the first series to have a “Part II” in the title when there was never a part one. The very different series Rick and Morty did the same thing during their last season, when they had an episode called Vindicators 3 but there was never a part one or two in that case. However, the reasoning was completely different for that series and not at all connected to a song title.)
This story will be updated after the episode airs.