WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS MAJOR PLOT POINTS THAT SOME READERS MAY PREFER NOT TO KNOW.
Sam Levinson’s controversial teen drama continues to shock. In the penultimate episode of Euphoria, one of the series’ most recognizable faces died a gruesome, painful death.
Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate Jacobs, met his end in season 3, episode 7. Nate’s fate was sealed after spending the entire season trying to pay for a lavish wedding and attempting to maintain his father’s business.
In pursuit of the latter, Nate racked up a debt of $1 million with loan sharks, resulting in violent attacks. Many severed fingers and toes later, the sharks buried Nate in a coffin beneath his own development project. Within the confines of his own grave, Nate met his end after being bitten by a rattlesnake.
The harrowing scene, which aired Sunday night, was “bittersweet” for Elordi, 28. The Australian actor rose to mainstream prominence thanks to playing Nate on Euphoria since 2019.
“It was a cool way to go,” Elordi said in a behind-the-scenes video shared by HBO. “Nate is somebody who’s made so many mistakes and so many dark choices, it’s cool to see it all come to what it’s come to.”
The Wuthering Heights actor described the process of filming within a coffin. “I had to go into this coffin, my shoulders were touching the side, and I couldn’t move my arms, and then they would drill the lid on, and it would get dark.”
“It was really nice, actually, it was quite peaceful,” he said.
The snake used in his death scene was real. Levinson, the creator of Euphoria, said he gave “enormous credit” to Elordi for this. Real rattlesnakes were used for footage of the snake before it enters Nate’s grave. A non-venomous snake was used in the actual scene, with rattle sounds added in post-production to punctuate the scene.
“He was super cute. He was like real cuddly,” Elordi said of the snake. “He kind of just sat up next to me. No, it was nice, but he was a real sleepy, sleepy snake. I had to kind of nudge him to get him to come up.”
Levinson told Esquire that he wanted to give the audience what they wanted “in terms of justice or karma,” when it comes to Nate, a contentious, often cruel character on the show. His death follows nuptials with Sydney Sweeney’s character, Cassie, in another eyebrow-raising storyline.
“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?” said Levinson, 41, of Nate’s death.
“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,” he posited.
Elordi said Nate’s death is “a bittersweet thing.”
“This show is a massive part of not just my career, but my life,” the actor said. “It’s been amazing, and I’m so proud being a part of this.”
