Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Euphoria Season 3 episode "Rain or Shine." Stream the episode with an HBO Max subscription and read at your own risk!
Euphoria Season 3 just said goodbye to one of its most complex characters. Yes, Jacob Elordi's Nate Jacobs was finally killed off, and it happened in a brutal way. As the fans debate about the twisted way he met his end, creator Sam Levinson shared why he saved the most brutal and controversial death of the series for Nate.
Up to this point, Nate had lost a toe and finger in the episodes that aired thus far. Ultimately, Nate's captors finally grew tired of waiting for Cassie to bring them money back. So he was buried alive in a coffin, and Cassie was given a 72-hour deadline to raise the money.
With little option to raise cash, Cassie went to Maddy, who then went to Alamo and finally managed to get to Nate and get him from his grave. Unfortunately, a rattlesnake had crawled in through the vent used to pump air into the coffin. Unfortunately Nate was bitten by the snake and killed before they arrived to save him. If audience members felt weird about that development, Levinson told Esquire that was the point:
There's this kind of funny thing where I know what the audience wants in terms of justice or karma and with that in mind, I always think, ‘Well, how can I give it to them? How can I give them what they want, but make it so horrific and anxiety-inducing that by the time it happens, the audience isn't so sure they wanted it?
Nate Jacobs has done plenty throughout Euphoria to deserve a terrible end, but Season 3 has seen him as more of a shell of his former self. The confidence and "big man on campus" vibe were gone and, in his desperation to get that vibe back, he went into business with the wrong person. Naz was not to be messed with, and Nate didn't get the pass with him that he seemed to get with other characters throughout the series.
While the death itself wasn't gory or on par with what you'd see in the best horror movies, or even Ashtray's death in Season 2, it felt like Nate got an exit that was a bit excessive for what he did. Levinson also shared the following:
‘Oh, you wanted him to get his comeuppance…? OK. That feeling of complicity with the audience is always an interesting note to play inside of this sort of larger structure. You end up going, ‘Oh God, I don't know. Should he have had it better? Did he deserve it?’ Those kinds of questions are always exciting to pose to the audience.
What made the death even more brutal is what it cost Maddy and Cassie to attempt to save Nate. They're now both caught up with Alamo, seemingly not paying mind to Rue's warning that he's not anyone they'd want to be in business with. So we head into the Euphoria Season 3 finale with the possibility that they'll be tied to Alamo indefinitely, and that even Maddie may go from business partner to just another one of his "women."
As for the behind-the-scenes details of the death scene, Sam Levinson revealed that Jacob Elordi had a real rattlesnake in the coffin with him. It was non-venomous, of course, as I doubt the Euphoria creator wanted to be responsible for harming the rumored next James Bond.
As for my thoughts on the death of Nate Jacobs, I almost felt bad for him, until I remembered how awful he was in the first two seasons of Euphoria. In some ways, being mourned by the two women who loved him in the end is almost too good a death for him, but rest in peace all the same.
Euphoria will air its finale on HBO on Sunday, May 31st at 9:00 p.m. ET amid the 2026 TV schedule. We'll see if Nate's death has any more impact on the end of the series, and how the rest of the series ends for Rue and other characters.
