Euphoria season 3 delivered one of its most talked-about moments in Episode 7, titled “Rain or Shine,” when Nate Jacobs met a graphic and deeply unsettling end. Played by Jacob Elordi, Nate is kidnapped by Naz, played by Jack Topalian, who buries him alive inside a coffin. The scene takes an even darker turn when a venomous rattlesnake finds its way through the air pipe and bites Nate in the neck.
The death has dominated fan conversation ahead of the season finale, partly because of its brutality and partly because of the questions it raises about justice, karma and what audiences actually want from a show like Euphoria.
Why Sam Levinson designed the scene to unsettle viewers
In a recent interview with Esquire, creator Sam Levinson explained the thinking behind Nate’s death in detail. His approach was rooted in a specific tension between satisfying the audience and disturbing them at the same time.
Levinson acknowledged that he pays close attention to what viewers want from his characters. In Nate’s case, that meant understanding the widespread desire to see consequences catch up with one of the show’s most toxic figures. However, simply giving the audience a satisfying death was never the goal. Instead, Levinson wanted to engineer a scene so disturbing that by the time the moment arrived, viewers would find themselves questioning whether they had actually wanted it at all.
That philosophy reflects something central to how Euphoria operates. The show consistently resists clean moral resolutions. It delivers consequences, but rarely in a way that feels comfortable or cathartic.
The moment Levinson came up with the rattlesnake idea
Levinson described the precise moment the snake detail came to him. He was driving through Los Angeles with his windows down, heading toward Warner Brothers, when a mental image appeared unprompted. He pictured a rattlesnake moving toward a pipe in the ground. He imagined the snake sensing the vibrations of someone banging from inside. From there, the scene constructed itself: the snake enters the pipe, the coffin becomes a trap with two occupants, and Nate’s end arrives in the most confined and horrifying way imaginable.
The idea, spontaneous as it was, locked into the broader thematic logic of season 3.
What the death says about season 3’s world
Levinson also used the interview to explain how Nate’s death reflects a deliberate shift in tone for the new season. Moving the characters out of high school and into the real world was always going to change the stakes. Without the structure of adolescence providing a kind of narrative safety net, consequences in season 3 carry real and permanent weight.
Levinson described that shift as the Wild West quality he wanted season 3 to carry. The world these characters now inhabit offers real opportunity, but also real danger. Success is possible. So is destruction. Nate, who moved from high school football to a failed real estate career while carrying the same volatile temperament and inflated ego throughout, represented exactly that kind of character. His end was not incidental. It was the inevitable meeting of his choices with a world that no longer protected him from them.
The Euphoria season 3 finale airs on HBO. The show streams on Max.
Source: TVLine / Esquire
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