Euphoria Season 3, Episode 7 Kills Off One Of The Show's Main Characters

Don't take out any loans with shady characters if you haven't seen "Euphoria" Season 3 Episode 7, "Rain or Shine." Massive spoilers ahead!

"Euphoria" just killed off its first original character. So, who met an untimely end in the third season's penultimate episode, "Rain or Shine?"

That would be Nate Jacobs, played by recently minted Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi. When we catch up with high school bad boy Nate after the five-year time jump that kicks off "Euphoria" Season 3, he seems to be doing okay. He's taken over his father Cal's (the late Eric Dane) construction business and is trying to open some sort of home for physician-assisted death. (To be honest with you, this isn't particularly clear.) Nate also lives in a huge, tacky, golden mansion with his trophy wife Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney). This facade, though, is a lie; Nate is carrying quite a lot of debt, and unfortunately for him, he borrowed money from an extremely dangerous guy named Naz (Jack Topalian).

Naz has been tormenting Nate ever since his ill-fated wedding to Cassie in the season's third episode (by the time "Rain or Shine" rolls around, Nate has lost multiple toes and his left ring finger to the guy), and in this episode, Naz deals his final blow. Extorting Cassie for $1 million, Naz buries Nate alive with a pipe directly from the coffin to the surface and tells Cassie she has 72 hours to pay up. Why Naz gives Nate that handy source of oxygen isn't totally clear, but it ends up causing his death when a rattlesnake — yes, you read that right! — drops down the pipe, bites him, and kills him, only for Cassie to find his body later after a tense stand-off between Naz and Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Rest well, Nate.

First of all, I'd like to offer a hearty congratulations to Jacob Elordi, who's finally free from his "Euphoria" contract. (I'd also like to flag that the preview for next week's season-ending episode is billed as a "season finale" and not a "series finale," which is disappointing because I've already declared that "Euphoria" should not continue past this dreadful outing.) Elordi, who led "Wuthering Heights" this year alongside Margot Robbie, earned that aforementioned Oscar nod for his supporting turn as Frankenstein's Creature in Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein," and is set to lead "The Dog Stars" later this year with Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, definitely has bigger and better things on the horizon. He doesn't need "Euphoria," especially considering how strangely underutilized Elordi was in Season 3.

I'm not the first person to point this out, but anecdotally, I've seen chatter on social media wondering if Elordi was only available for about a week, and that's why Nate got so sidelined throughout Season 3. The vast majority of Elordi's scenes, save for the ones with Sydney Sweeney's Cassie, are by himself and really short; during last week's episode "Stand Still and See," his only screen time was at his empty construction site where one of Naz's henchmen chases him around in a circle. I cannot stress this enough: Nate exists during Season 3 of "Euphoria" to marry Cassie and be in debt. He does not have any substantive storyline beyond that.

Elordi is a genuinely talented performer with great things ahead of him, and honestly, it makes sense that he got killed off. As the season finale tees up to air next week, what more can we expect from this underwhelming, often bizarre, and largely disappointing third season of "Euphoria?"

I want to say one other thing about Nate Jacobs' overwrought demise on "Euphoria." While it makes sense to kill off the character getting the least play this season, this death was patently absurd. It's one of the most ridiculous deaths I've ever seen on television, and I've watched the doctors on "Grey's Anatomy" die in increasingly silly ways. (Also, according to the behind-the-scenes featurette that aired after the episode, creator Sam Levinson, looking disappointed that he couldn't lock Jacob Elordi in a box with a real rattlesnake, boasted about putting a "rattle" on a boa constrictor. Those two snakes don't even look alike. This guy literally can't do anything right.) I almost feel bad that Elordi had to perform this scene, but again, let's look on the bright side: He's free. (Cue that "breaking my shackles" meme.)

Death by "rattlesnake falling into hole" aside, we now have a lot of ground to cover in the eighth and final episode of "Euphoria" Season 3, which promises a huge showdown between strip club owner and sex trafficker Alamo Brown, monotonal drug dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly), and our original protagonist Rue Bennett (Zendaya, another actor I assume is desperate to find her way off of this show). Chatter suggests that people think Rue is the next to die, and that would, again, make sense; she's found herself caught between white supremacists who want to kill her (Laurie's camp) and a dangerous boss, Alamo, who found out that Rue is collaborating with the DEA thanks to a hasty admission from Alexa Demie's Maddy Perez. Obviously, we'll have to wait and see. Congratulations to Elordi again, though.

The "Euphoria" Season 3 finale airs on Sunday, May 31.