PART OF WHAT Euphoria always does in an interesting way is putting a mirror up to things actually happening in modern society. One of season 3’s major storylines follows a major theme in today’s popular culture: the pursuit of fame via the internet. Cassie’s (Sydney Sweeney) season-long story has involved a pursuit of financial success and fame via a career modeling on OnlyFans, and in the fourth episode of season 3, comes to eventually intertwine with Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) path. Maddy, as we’ve seen in the season to date, is now a professional talent manager who knows exactly how to help someone like Cassie blow up and make it to the next level. She herself has been seeking proper fulfillment from her professional life, and Euphoria wants us to wonder if working with her old friend Cassie could be her ticket there.
The episode’s story plays out with basic enough beats. After a disastrous wedding night that left her husband Nate (Jacob Elordi) broke, beaten, bruised, and with his pinky toe surgically stitched back on after being brutally severed, Cassie decides she’s had enough. Maybe eventually she’ll go back to her pathetic husband, but for now there’s nothing holding her back from achieving the fame she’s really wanted all along. So she hits Maddy up, and the two set up something new in Los Angeles. Cassie gets a complete makeover, pawns her wedding ring in exchange for money for a new apartment, and Maddy uses her celebrity channels and connections to find the perfect way for Cassie to really grow her following.
That plan unfolds throughout the course of the season’s fourth episode, titled “Kitty Likes to Dance.” There’s a party at the home of a Logan Paul-esque influencer named Brandon Fontaine. If Cassie can slink her way into his vicinity and get onto his social feeds one way or another, it would be massive.
We’ve already seen this season that for all of Cassie’s occasional naivety, she is also capable of coming up with and executing a strong plan. And so not only does she eventually find her way to Brandon at his party, but she flirts with him enough to make a major impact. Eventually, she and another girl (who just happens to be Maddy’s former client-turned-OnlyFans star Katelyn) go up to Brandon’s room to do cocaine (“I love coke,” Cassie somewhat convincingly yells). One thing leads to another, and Cassie playfully engages Brandon long enough behind a locked door, for Maddy and Brandon’s friends (one of whom is wielding a live-stream camera) to eventually worry something is wrong and come to the door and break through. With his life constantly on camera and filmed, Brandon’s friend catches Cassie involved with drugs, sex, and kind of the modern version of rock ‘n’ roll. She smiles, announces her social media handles to the viewers, and lets the rest just happen.
It’s not clear whether the way that all played out was part of Maddy’s original plan, if Cassie saw the opportunity and jumped at it, or if the whole endeavor was ultimately sheer luck. But what Euphoria excellently depicts here is the singular power our modern society has not only put into the random assortment of personalities who happen to collect millions upon millions of followers, but the kind of power that the shock and surprise of basic hedonism and debauchery holds.
Not only does Cassie get the benefit of showing up on screen for 20 million followers as a beautiful woman (which comes with its own level of natural magnetism), but she gets the advantage of coming across as someone edgy, dangerous, and willing to break the rules. She’s not just someone Brandon—the influencer extraordinaire—brought onto his feed, but someone who got him into something of a compromising situation. There’s not only a level of intrigue now around Cassie, but a level of playful salaciousness as well. “You have their attention,” Maddy tells Cassie at the end of the episode as her followers begin to roll in. “Now keep it.”
There are a lot of projects out there that do a good job of exploring the state of fame and the modern celebrity. The Studio was a fun look at the modern state of cinema. Charli XCX’s movie The Moment, which came out earlier this year, was an insightful view into the tiring life of a modern pop star. But with Cassie’s latest storyline (and the help of characters like Brandon Fontaine), Euphoria is examining the influencer in a really intriguing way.
Jeff Wahlberg plays Brandon Fontaine in Euphoria season 3
First things first: Yes, Jeff Wahlberg is related to Mark Wahlberg and Donnie Wahlberg. Jeff’s parents are mother Bennie Wahlberg and father Jim Wahlberg, and Jim is a brother of Mark and Donnie. So, the famous brothers of The Departed and Blue Bloods fame are Jeff Wahlberg’s uncles.
It’s also worth noting that Euphoria isn’t Wahlberg’s first job. After starting his career with a number of smaller, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it parts, the 30-year-old Boston native has taken on more significant roles in recent years. That includes playing Dora the Explorer’s cousin Diego in the 2019 Dora the Explorer movie, a key supporting role alongside Tom Holland in 2021’s Cherry, Joe and Anthony Russo’s first movie after Avengers: Endgame, and a recurring role alongside Elle Fanning in the 2022 Hulu docudrama, The Girl from Plainville.
We’ll see if Brandon Fontaine continues to appear in season 3 of Euphoria,as Cassie’s online star only appears to be growing from here—and Brandon should be a key tangential character in that.
Wahlberg’s next role will be in the indie film Corpus,which marks the feature debut of director Corrin Evans. Evans has previously directed short films and worked as an intimacy coordinator on projects like MaXXXine, Yellowstoneand American Horror Stories.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
