<em>Euphoria</em> Says Goodbye to An Iconic Character
As we near the end of the season, the stakes get higher, and the action even more unhinged
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
Euphoria's third season has never been subtle about its stakes, but the penultimate episode — a sprawling, 77-minute gut-punch — finally cashed in one of the show's longest-running chips: Jacob Elordi's Nate Jacobs is dead. Buried alive at a construction site, killed by a venomous snake in a custom extra-long coffin, Nate exits the series in a fashion that is, somehow, both absurd and devastating. According to Harper's Bazaar, this is the role that launched Elordi into the upper tier of Hollywood's most wanted — and his departure lands with real weight, regardless of whether you ever rooted for him.
Everything Happening Simultaneously (Because This Show Has No Chill)
Before we get to the snake, the episode opens on Ali — a significant, if underserved, character finally getting his origin story. We see him at rock bottom: crack in a hotel room, a cameo from Natasha Lyonne as an unnamed sex worker, open-heart surgery, a desperate plea to avoid morphine. It's the backstory the show has owed us for seasons. He rebuilds through AA, becomes a sponsor, watches people he cares about relapse during COVID isolation. It's sobering, in every sense — and it sets an ominous tone for everything that follows. His scenes with Rue, pancakes and a 12-gauge shotgun included, carry the episode's only real emotional grounding.
Meanwhile, the Cassie arc escalates into full telenovela territory. She's hogtied, given 72 hours to wire a million dollars to crime boss Naz, and Nate's life is literally ticking down by dehydration underground. Maddy — ever the operator — brokers a deal with Alamo, exchanges what turns out to be a bag of nothing for Cassie, and watches Alamo shoot Naz in the neck in a late-night ambush. They dig up the coffin. Nate is already gone. The snake got there first. Dylan, a Euphoria side character who slept with Cassie for clout purposes, unknowingly swallowed Nate's severed finger with his ice water. The show is aware of exactly what it is.
Rue, for her part, is simultaneously finding God, confessing her DEA informant status to Lexi for no discernible reason, and sneaking away from Ali at dawn to storm Laurie's house solo. The DEA is tracking a fentanyl run across the border. Rue is bleeding from a self-inflicted head wound trying to earn entry into Laurie's operation. Wayne's crew debates whether to cut off her eyelids or sell her. They land on: make her shoot Alamo when he arrives. In the episode's final moments, Rue and Faye crack open the safe — only to find a stack of IDs, no cash, including one belonging to Angel. Faye unravels. Screams for Wayne. Whatever loyalty was left evaporates on screen.
Elordi's exit closes a chapter that defined the show's early identity — and whether the series can carry its momentum into a finale without him is the only question worth asking now.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
