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Warning: major spoilers for Euphoria season 3 episode 7 ahead
It looks like the end is nigh for Euphoria, and while HBO hasn't made an official announcement on what happens next to the hit series, creator Sam Levinson has reiterated he has 'no plans' for season 4. Added to this, lead actor Zendaya has said she sees season 3 as the last chapter for Rue Bennett.
As we head into this potential endgame, Euphoria season 3's penultimate episode pulled off a twist almost no one saw coming. The rumor mill went into overdrive that someone was about to kick the bucket in the teen TV drama, but it was anyone's guess who'd meet their untimely demise. Hunter Schaefer's Jules was a left-field choice, but ultimately, an altogether bigger addition to the cast has said their goodbyes. Just weeks after Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) tied the knot in a suitably OTT pastel wedding, it looks like Nate's run-ins with loan sharks have finally caught up with him.
After swallowing balloons to become a drug mule, nearly having her head smashed off with a polo mallet, and even surviving a fiery car crash, Rue somehow lives to fight another day. Sadly, it's not such good news for Elordi's Nate Jacobs in May 24's "Rain or Shine".
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While Elordi has joined Sydney Sweeney and Zendaya as one of Euphoria's breakout stars, it looks like he'll have to find a new gig. Following several episodes of having digits severed and reattached, Nate met a gruesome demise in one of the show's most grim turns. With Nate owing $1 million, and Cassie given just three days to come up with the money after she's also kidnapped, the show's golden boy is buried alive with just a small vent to the outside world.
Cassie scrambles for help and turns to Maddy (Alexa Demie) for help. The latter then gets herself indebted to Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who shoots one of the loan sharks and gives Cassie one last reunion with Nate.
Delivering the kid of death you'd expect from HBO's Game of Thrones, Cassie comes across Nate's dead body, with a shocking reveal that a rattlesnake had crawled inside his makeshift coffin and bitten him some time earlier. Cut to a weeping Cassie crying over Nate’s necrotized corpse. The streaming giant has again cemented itself as one of the goriest networks around.
They’ve been showing snakes throughout this season too, I guess it was kinda foreshadowing…
— taiyaki (@starlightclod) May 25, 2026
If this is the last season of Euphoria, Levinson is at least trying to ensure it goes out with a bang. After middling reviews and some scathing critiques from fans, "Rain or Shine" seems to have gotten things back on track with the highest-rated episode of the season on IMDB. Compared to lows like the infamous macrophilia scene, earning episode 5 a low of 6.6, episode 7 is currently rated an impressive 8.2. As for Nate's death, some think it was foreshadowed months ago in a season 3 promo poster. Posting on X, one fan noted a snake slithering next to Cassie as a potential wink to Nate's ultimate fate.
Even though many in the replies noted it's not the same kind of snake, others agree the promo was queuing up Nate's goodbye long ago.
There has been plenty of snake foreshadowing in season 3. Alongside Cassie posing naked with a snake at Alamo's Silver Slipper club, episode 6 included Rue being told the story of a Burmese python that suddenly stopped eating. When taking the snake to the vet, the owner was informed it was sizing them up so it could eat them.
There's also the idea that snakes represent betrayal, as well as temptation via the whole Garden of Eden story, and as Rue finds a new spiritual path because she thinks God saved her, it'll be interesting to see whether the allegory continues. Still, after three seasons of rage and romping, it's time to say goodbye to Nate.
