The summer before college, he and his best friend Derek begin to explore their feelings with each other, but are cut short when Cal's then-girlfriend Marsha announces that she's pregnant. Cal and Derek spend a night at a gay bar, and it's the only time we see Cal unfettered, unburdened, and free. When present-day Cal returns to the bar during a bender, we learn he hasn't stepped foot back into a space where he can openly be himself for nearly 25 years.ĭane read those flashbacks in the script, and then Euphoria creator Sam Levinson played him some footage from those scenes to help root adult Cal in his younger self. 'I definitely wanted to match the physicality of the old Cal in that moment where he's remembering Derek so vividly that he actually sees him,' Dane says. 'At the same time, I'm kind of doing my own thing. Cal's a different guy than he was when he was 17 years old. So I was endeavoring to find the similarities between the different Cals in those moments.'Ĭal's arc hits a crescendo when he arrives home drunk in the middle of the night, promptly pees onto the hardwood floor, and proceeds to unload a lifetime of internalized trauma onto his wife and son.