Is Nate dead? Euphoria cast and crew risked their lives for ‘horrific’ season 3 episode 7

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Euphoria season three episode seven*

After the first two chapters set him up as the ultimate villain, Nate (Jacob Elordi) has almost become sympathetic in Euphoria season three – but that’s not the only reason his fate is so “horrific”. 

We knew it wasn’t going to end well for him. At the start of the latest chapter, we soon discovered Nate and Cassie’s (Sydney Sweeney) “right wing suburban bubble” life was an illusion. 

Nate had gotten into trouble with loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian), who eventually crashed their wedding and subsequently cut his toe off. Since then, Nate’s had his appendage stitched on, cut back off again, and lost a finger (which was sent to Cassie as a threat). 

In the penultimate season three episode seven, ‘Rain or Shine’, the sharks hold Nate hostage over his $1 million debt, eventually burying him in a shallow grave with a small vent. 

They then capture Cassie and tie her to her bed (it’s the moment from the trailer everyone was talking about), forcing her to cough up the cash or else they’ll kill Nate. 

Eventually, Maddy (Alexa Demie) ropes in Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to help her, only finding out that this means she’s now indebted to him after the deal is done. 

I use the term “deal” lightly – Alamo simply kills Naz, but they soon find out the whole thing wasn’t even worth it. 

As we saw earlier on in the episode, while screaming out for help from his grave, a huge rattlesnake came through his airvent. It opens its jaws towards his face, but the scene cuts before we see the results. 

This all changes at the end of episode seven, when Alamo and co. help Maddy and Cassie to dig Nate up. They open the coffin to find his already decomposing corpse, with the snake wrapped around him. 

Euphoria season 3 crew risked their lives for Nate’s death

So yes, Nate is definitely dead, and not only that, but it ties together two common fears: Claustrophobia and ophidiophobia. Euphoria creator Sam Levinson has now broken down the death, and apparently, the cast and crew literally risked their lives to make it.

Speaking to Esquire, Levinson revealed that they used real rattlesnakes while shooting the scene, and he received an ominous warning from the snake wranglers while filming in the desert on the outskirts of LA County. 

“When we were shooting with the rattlesnakes out in Lancaster, they said, ‘If you get bitten by a rattlesnake, you have about an hour before you die. And unfortunately, the nearest hospital’s an hour and a half away,’” Levinson said. 

“‘So… don’t get bitten by our rattlesnake.’”

Originally, the plan was for Nate to either die from heat or suffocation, but the snake idea came to Levinson when he and his wife were driving to work. 

“It was one of those gorgeous LA days where it was perfect weather. We’re listening to Otis Redding. The windows are down and we’re driving to Warner Brothers and I’m looking out the window,” he told the outlet. 

“I just had this image of a rattlesnake coming towards this pipe. He’s banging and the snake can sense the movement in the ground. And I thought, ‘What if the snake goes into the pipe and then he’s stuck inside the coffin with this rattlesnake?’

“It’s sort of a funny moment where you realise that not all dark scenes come from a dark place. I turned to Ash and I said, ‘I think I got it.’ And I explained how Nate dies in this sequence. She goes, ‘That’s what you’ve been thinking about?’”

Even though they risked it using real rattlesnakes for the shoot, the one you see coiled around Nate was a non-venomous species, which I think we can all agree is a smart idea. 

Instead, the team used a boa with a fake rattle, who Elordi described as “super cute.” 

In the behind the scenes video, Elordi said, “He was like real cuddly. He kind of just sat up next to me. No, it was nice, but he was a real sleepy, sleepy snake. I had to kind of nudge him to get him to come up.”

“That’s a cool way to go. Nate is someone who’s made so many mistakes and made so many dark choices,” Elordi continued. “It’s cool to see it all come to what it’s come to.”

Editor Julio Perez added: “You want to highlight the claustrophobia. You want to engage in an editorial pattern that puts the audience in that confined space with the character.”

Sam Levinson reveals why Nate died

In his conversation with Esquire, Levinson said he wanted to make the death as grisly as possible to make viewers question whether they wanted to see it at all. 

“There’s this kind of funny thing where I know what the audience wants in terms of justice or karma and with that in mind, I always think, ‘Well, how can I give it to them?’” he explained.

“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?”

“It’s like, ‘Oh, you wanted him to get his comeuppance…? Okay.’ That feeling of complicity with the audience is always an interesting note to play inside of this sort of larger structure,” Levinson added. 

“You end up going, ‘Oh God, I don’t know. Should he have had it better? Did he deserve it?’ Those kinds of questions are always exciting to pose to the audience.”

Levinson knew from the beginning that he wanted Nate dead in season three. The question now is will Rue (Zendaya) suffer a similarly horrific fate after Faye (Chloe Cherry) woke up Wayne at the end of season three episode seven?

We’ll have to wait and see. According to Levinson, “When episode eight airs, if you’re not watching it live, it’s going to get spoiled for you.”

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Featured image credit: HBO