What happened to Nate in Euphoria? Sam Levinson says he settled Nate's season 3 fate before filming began

Euphoria 's most-hated character got the season's longest sendoff, and it wasn't a fight or a confession. It was a hole in the ground and a delivery problem.

Season 3 premiered on HBO on April 12, 2026 and ran eight episodes through May 31, picking up five years after high school. Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) spends it trying to revive his father's construction company, which is how he ends up owing money to people who don't do payment plans. He is attacked and loses a toe and a finger before the season is halfway done.

The episode

It happens in episode 7, "Rain or Shine," which aired May 24, 2026, written and directed by Levinson and running 77 minutes. Nate is buried alive in a coffin at a construction site by Naz. A breathing pipe is drilled down to him. The loan sharks give Cassie three days to produce the money.

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A rattlesnake goes down the pipe. It bites him repeatedly, and he dies before anyone gets to him. Maddy and Cassie are present when the coffin comes back up.

The decision was made first

Levinson has been direct that this was not a late-season improvisation. He built the season around it, including the stretches that ask the audience to feel something for Nate.

"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?" Levinson said in 2026.

His reference point was The Candy Snatchers, a 1973 exploitation picture that buries a character alive with an air pipe. The snake came later, as a fit for the season's Western styling. The original plan had Nate dying of suffocation or heat.

Six weeks in a box

Elordi has described the shoot in blunt terms, and the production details back him up:

• The location — Lancaster, California, with real rattlesnakes on set and the nearest hospital an hour and a half away.
• The substitution — for the shots with Elordi, a boa constrictor with a fake rattle attached stood in.
• The snake's performance — Elordi described it as "real cuddly" and also "real sleepy."
• The safety rig — stunt coordinators kept oxygen on hand and limited how long he stayed in the coffin.
• The night shoot — Alexa Demie has said she was freezing during the 4 a.m. filming of the reveal.

Elordi's own verdict: "That was a cool way to go. Nate was someone who has made so many mistakes and made so many dark choices."

Where it left the show

"Rain or Shine" drew 308,000 linear viewers and is the highest-rated episode of season 3 on IMDb at 7.7. The season as a whole did not fare as well — 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, 56 on Metacritic — with the acting and cinematography praised and the writing not.

HBO confirmed on May 31, 2026, the day the finale aired, that Euphoria was finished after three seasons. Nate's exit is the last major thing the show does with a character it had been building since 2019.

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