Warning: Major spoilers for the final episode of HBO’s Euphoria.
Ali (played by Colman Domingo) winds up armed and in armor looking for revenge after Rue’s death due to the fentanyl-laced pills Alamo gave her. A fierce Western-style duel ensues between Ali and the Alamo. Alamo tries to cheat by drawing early, but his gun clicks empty. Why?
Bishop (admirably played by Darrell Britt-Gibson), his main bodyguard, was quietly emptying the bullets. Ali shoots Alamo dead. Bishop drops the letters on the floor for clarity and tells Ali, “May God have mercy.”
It was just a power grab.
This is the most likely explanation, and remember the shadow of the snake. Earlier, the Bishop tells Rue about the story of the snake that stopped eating because it was “hugging you” in order to get more food. It’s possible that’s what Bishop was doing at the Alamo all along, and DEA pressure, internal concerns, and betrayal gave him the opportunity to take control.
The Bishop is just a mind.
Let’s not forget that Bishop cut down a crew member named Big Eddy (the guy who robbed the Silver Slipper and showed disloyalty) in a plastic covered toilet using an electric saw. He then fed the organs to Alamo’s pigs as a means of disposal. So he could do it because of the mental violence in his heart.
He assured her earlier when Alamo was deep in one of his mysterious spirits. When he drives the Silver Slipper, Maddy teases him about his new poodle, Snowflake, and he manages to crack the first real smile we’ve seen from the stone-faced man all season. After the shooting, Bishop himself gives Maddy a ride home (Kitty follows behind).
Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who plays Alamo) even brought this up in interviews, noting that this might be “the first time we’ve seen the Bishop love a woman” and that he “has intentions for her.”
But the most powerful and revealing detail is the dog. The bishop who brings Snowflake humanizes her in a way we haven’t seen before – it shows a soft, almost domestic side beneath the violence and peace. The poodle is not just a cute set of clothes; it shows that we are meant to look at Bishop differently these times, because he chooses to save Maddy. He betrays Alamo at the exact moment Alamo intends to use him as a human shield and drag him deeper into his world. Snowflake represents the part of Bishop that still wants something worth protecting.
Bishop DEA secretly and had to handle the situation carefully.
The DEA. Fans point to a lot of evidence that he was playing the long game within the team.
It seems that she knows about Rue’s contact “mother” is actually her DEA handler. When he threatens her, he says “it would be hard to lie to your mother” – and snatches her bugged phone before throwing her into a ditch instead of exposing her to the Alamo. He’s protecting the operation, or Rue herself, or both.
Drug withdrawal is another red flag. Only Bishop knew the route and exact location of Laurie’s van, and the DEA picked up Rue almost as soon as they left. How do they know without someone advising them?
Then there is another study of the image of the serpent in chapter 6. Bishop tells Rue about feeding his pet mouse Sweetly to a snake, but the fans reverse their roles: Alamo is Sweetly, Bishop is the snake, and Rue is the mouse that he silently feeds in a grand campaign to bring down the Alamo.
Darrell Britt-Gibson described playing Bishop as “a ninja in a cowboy world”, quiet, cautious, seemingly weary of the unbridled brutality of the Alamo. That fits a deep underdog. But then again, Bishop might be the smartest guy in the room and this whole thing is not because of the DEA but because he’s taking a closer look and thinking about everything that’s going on.
So what is the truth? It is left open and unclear.
But I think it’s clear as the day was about holding power, and being driven by his feelings for Maddy. Bishop is too deep, and has done too many violent things, to be undercover for the DEA or even the FBI. Sam Levinson makes it clear that Bishop loves Maddy and is sick of working under Alamo, so when he sees how weak Alamo has become, willing to use Maddy as a human shield, he sees his chance to rise up in the organization and take it. And while Euphoria is officially over, a spin-off about Maddy is rumored and this will put a stop to that.