Euphoria season 3 kills off Nate Jacobs in brutal buried-alive twist ahead of finale

HBO’s Euphoria delivered its most shocking moment yet in the penultimate episode of Season 3, killing off Jacob Elordi’s Nate Jacobs in a brutal, game-changing death that reshapes the series finale.

How Nate Met His End

In Episode 7, “The Reckoning,” Nate is kidnapped by loan shark Naz and his crew over a $1 million debt from failed business ventures. They bury him alive in a shallow grave under a construction site, leaving only a small vent for air.

Things go from bad to worse when a rattlesnake slithers through the vent and bites Nate before anyone can rescue him.

His body is later exhumed by a backhoe, confirming his death. The scene also sees Cassie kidnapped and given 72 hours to raise the ransom, pulling Maddy and Alamo into the chaos.

Elordi called it a “cool way to go” in a post-episode HBO segment, saying, “Nate is someone who’s made so many mistakes and made so many dark choices… It’s cool to see it all come to what it’s come to.”

Sam Levinson on Giving Fans What They Asked For

Creator Sam Levinson told Esquire that he knew fans had been calling for Nate’s “justice or karma” for years. His goal was to deliver it in a way that made viewers question whether they actually wanted it.

“How can I give 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.[fans]

He revealed the original idea came from the 1975 film The Candy Snatchers, where a girl is buried alive with a pipe for air. The rattlesnake twist came to him while driving to Warner Bros. on a “gorgeous LA day” listening to Otis Redding.

Filming the Burial Scene

Elordi described filming the coffin scene as surprisingly “peaceful.”

“My shoulders were touching the side and they couldn’t move my arms. Then they would drill the lid on it, and it would get dark. It was really nice, actually,” he said.

The snake used was a boa constrictor with a fake rattler attached. Elordi said it was “super cute” and “really cuddly,” though the crew nicknamed the real rattlesnake used for the vent shots “little b—-.”

What It Means for the Finale

Nate’s death completely upends the final episode, which airs May 31 at 9 PM ET on HBO. Cassie’s 72-hour deadline to raise the ransom is now moot, and the power dynamics between Cassie, Maddy, and Alamo are left hanging.

It also marks the end of Elordi’s run on the show after four seasons of Nate’s manipulation, violence, and toxic relationships. The actor said the exit felt “bittersweet,” but fitting for a character who’d burned through every bridge.

Euphoria Season 3 has been marked by major shifts, including Fezco’s off-screen prison sentence following Angus Cloud’s death in 2023. But Nate’s demise is the season’s first on-screen death of a core cast member, and it’s likely to define how the story wraps.