This article contains spoilers for Euphoria.

Watching Euphoria Season 3 there are many questions that spring to mind. Like "who wrote this" and "why?" and the answers to those questions are Sam Levinson and honestly, I am not sure. 

The once-lauded series has taken a bit of a dive when it comes to critical (and fan) reception in its third season.

From criticism of the former High School drama transforming into an unhinged Wild West dark comedy, to accusations this show has turned into a 'humiliation ritual' for Sydney Sweeney, there has been a hefty amount of backlash to the tone and content of this final season. 

Watch: The hosts of Watch Party discuss Euphoria. Post continues below.

I'm not here to say whether or not this season is good, because I simply do not care, it's up to personal preference anyway, and honestly I am enjoying watching the nonsense unfold in a sort of fascinated, unhinged way. At the very least, there is a lot to unpack.

And in the penultimate episode, we lost a true icon of the screen.

By that I mean we said goodbye to one of the shittiest characters of all time, who somehow became a less shitty person this season? An interesting and intentional development in his personal growth, that left his death feeling all kinds of emotionally fraught.

Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi, met his untimely end when a blackmail extravaganza somehow worsened. Because of snakes.

Jacob Elordi on set for his final episode of Euphoria. Image: Instagram/HBO.

How did Nate Jacobs die?

Nate had been making terrible business decisions and racking up a huge debt with bad people — loan shark Naz (Jack Topalian) — in order to fund his 'American Dream' lifestyle with Cassie (Sydney Sweeney). His financial spiral finally caught up with him.

In the episodes before, his finger and toe were cut off, he was kidnapped, and buried underground in a coffin for 72 hours. Meanwhile, Cassie and Maddie (Alexa Demie) scrambled to come up with the necessary funds to free Nate in time.

Maddie called in a favour from Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) in order to rescue Nate, but when they dug up the coffin his lifeless, necrotising body was shown.

Because Nate Jacobs met his fate when a venomous rattlesnake slithered its way into the coffin's air hole and bit him. Several times.

Elordi, in all of his Queenslander glory, said working with a snake for the first time was "super cute" and "quite peaceful". He also called it a "cool way to go". Which is interesting.

"They had a boa constrictor that they put a fake rattler on the end of, and Sam was like, 'We're just gonna drop a snake on you,'" the actor said in a post-show interview on HBO. "The snakes were rattling, which is really alarming when you're locked in a box."

"He was real cuddly, so he just saddled up next to me, and it was nice," he said. "But he was real sleepy. I had to kind of nudge him to get him to come up."

Elordi also said he was happy with his character's demise.

"Nate was someone who has made so many mistakes and made so many dark choices. It's cool to see it all come to what it's come to. This show is a massive part of, not just my career, but my life. It's been amazing, and I'm so proud, being a part of this."

Big yikes. Image: HBO.

Creator Sam Levinson said it was a "funny" kind of karma for the character, known for his abusive and violent tendencies. In an interview with Esquire, Levinson says he intentionally "muddied the moral waters" for Nate this season, so that the audience would question if he truly deserved his sick fate.

"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?'" Levinson told Esquire. "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…? OK. That feeling of complicity with the audience is always an interesting note to play inside of this sort of larger structure," Levinson said. "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."

He also admitted he always knew he'd kill off Nate this season, but initially thought it would be suffocation or heat that killed him while he was buried alive.

Image: HBO.

"I always loved the movie The Candy Snatchers where the girl gets buried alive with a pipe as an air hole. So I had imagined that Nate would get buried alive," he said. "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?'"

Well, we all know what happened next.

And it was yucky-disgusting and also, tragic, I suppose.

The final episode of Euphoria will air next Monday night on HBO Max. Who knows what fresh hell awaits us then. My thoughts, and a Katniss Everdeen whistle, in support of my girl Rue.

Feature Image: HBO Max.