Sam Levinson was acutely aware that the audience's desire for Nate's comeuppance was palpable, and he certainly delivered on that front. In an interview with Esquire published on May 24th, the creator of Euphoria revealed the reasoning behind the gruesome demise of Jacob Elordi's character, Nate Jacobs.
"There's a funny little game I play with the audience," Levinson said. "I know what they want in terms of justice or karma, and I think, 'Well, how can I give it to them?'" He continued, "How can I provide them with what they want but make it so horrifying and anxiety-inducing that by the time it happens, they're not so sure they wanted it?"
Levinson certainly struck the right chord with Nate's terrifying exit. After narrowly avoiding death at the hands of loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian), who had cut off one of Nate's fingers and toes, his debts finally caught up to him. As a final warning, Naz buried Nate alive for what was supposed to be 72 hours, while Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) scrambled to raise the money to rescue him. However, despite his wife's efforts to pay off his $1 million debt, Nate died before he could be saved, bitten by a rattlesnake.
For Levinson, the goal was to make the audience confront their true feelings about Nate as a character. "It's like, 'Oh, you wanted him to get his comeuppance...?' It's always an interesting note to play within this larger structure," he said. "You end up going, 'Oh God, I don't know. Should he have had it better? Did he deserve it?'"
As Levinson put it, "Those kinds of questions are always exciting to pose to the audience." Elordi himself felt that his character's demise was a "cool way" to exit the series, which concludes after season three on May 31st.
"Nate is someone who has made so many mistakes and dark choices," Elordi said in a post-episode talkback. "It's cool to see it all come to what it's come to."
In summary, Levinson's decision to make Nate's death particularly uncomfortable was deliberate, aimed at making the audience question their own feelings about the character and his fate. The result was a haunting and thought-provoking ending that left viewers both shaken and intrigued.
