'Euphoria' star Colman Domingo breaks down Ali's heartbreaking moment with Rue on season 2: 'It hurt him deeply'

• Warning: There are spoilers ahead for season two, episode three of HBO's "Euphoria."
• The star Colman Domingo spoke to Insider about his character Ali's gut-wrenching scene with Rue.

"Euphoria" star Colman Domingo opened up about his character Ali's heartbreaking scene with Rue on the latest episode of the HBO drama, and how it'll affect their dynamic as season two continues.

"He's the one person who truly accepts her whether she wants to be high or not, and just be upfront about it," Domingo told Insider.

"Euphoria" (created, written, and directed by Sam Levinson) premiered in summer 2019, centering on Zendaya's Rue Bennett's struggle with addiction. Domingo has a recurring role on the critically-acclaimed series as Rue's NA sponsor who often sees through her facade and has deep conversations with her.

Season 2, episode 3 of 'Euphoria' shows the lengths Rue will go to in order to fuel her drug addiction, at the cost of her relationship with Ali

When Rue runs out of drugs during the episode, released on Sunday night, she pitches a business plan to a drug dealer named Laurie (Martha Kelly).

Rue's "fool-proof system" involves hiring people under the age of 18 to be drug sellers. To have leverage and prevent them from tattling, she'd have their phones uploaded to a cloud.

"Their incentive to snitch is basically reduced to zero," Rue tells Laurie after explaining that teens have a lot to lose if they were to reveal information about their suppliers.

Laurie agrees to fund Rue's plan and gives the teen a suitcase filled with $10,000 worth of drugs.

Later that day, when Rue takes the suitcase with her to an NA meeting, Ali takes notice. He confronts her about the contents of her suspicious luggage.

Ali immediately sees through her lie about carrying schoolbooks, to which she tells him: "I'm not in the mood for a lecture."

She rudely tells Ali to "shut the fuck up," insults his parenting, and snatches the handle of her suitcase away from him.

In response, Ali warns her not to cross that line again or they're done. But Rue refuses to stand down.

Instead, she asks Ali if he'll hit her if she does talk, referring to the story he told her during one of two special bridge episodes of "Euphoria."

In the aforementioned episode, Ali opened up about his own life and revealed to Rue that he previously got into a physical fight with his wife, and his two daughters witnessed it. He described the moment as "rock bottom."

Toward the end of their nearly hour-long conversation in the diner, Rue told Ali that she loved talking to him and agreed with most of what he said to her, but she didn't plan on being alive very long. She also said that she wanted to be remembered as "someone who tried really hard to be someone I couldn't."

In response, Ali assured Rue that he had faith in her.

Ali's confidence in Rue is tested this season, but he's empathetic toward her

When Rue takes a jab at Ali on season two, using his own life experience against him, he finds himself at a loss for words and walks away from her.

"He understands that she's high, but he doesn't know the level and the spiral of her addiction until it hits him in the face, where she breaks a bond and smashes the faith that they've had in each other, that they've established in that bridge episode," Domingo told Insider. "I think it really throws him off guard."

The "Fear the Walking Dead" star said that people with addictions can "hit certain buttons," and that's what Rue demonstrated in that intense moment.

"She wanted to trigger something in him and she did," Domingo said.

"He just didn't know what to say or do, so he chose nothing and just walk away," he continued. "It hurt him deeply. I think it would truly hurt him because she used something that she knew would hurt him."

Even though it seemed like that was the final straw, Domingo said that Ali's relationship with Rue is not beyond repair because he "understands the disease of addiction, which is also very complicated."

"He's like 'Yeah, she really punched me in the gut. But that wasn't her talking. That was the disease,'" Domingo said. "So, I think he still has room in his heart and in his mind for redemption with Rue."

Season two of "Euphoria" airs on HBO on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.