** Euphoria episode 7 spoilers ahead **
Euphoria‘s penultimate episode killed off one of the HBO hit’s prime actors, in a grisly end that involved a casket and a canny rattlesnake.
The victim in question? Jacob Elordi’s machiavellian Nate Jacobs, who certainly would have deserved such a fate had it come in seasons one or two of the drug-addled show.
But with the third iteration, Nate has undergone something of a personality transplant (or, in the eyes of some fans, a lobotomy).
Life after high school had brought Nate low, with a construction company built on loan shark cash and some kind of multi-level marketing scam involving his Republican neighbours.
So far this season, we’ve seen Nate get his toe chopped off, reattached and then chopped off again. It was probably inevitable that he would end up carted off in a coffin.
As happened during the seventh episode, when the metaphorical $1million hole Nate had found himself in turned literal, when he was tossed in a shallow grave (presumably a long one, for the 6ft 5 actor).
The benevolent loan sharks gave Nate a small vent to terra firma, allowing his newlywed bride Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) three days to amass the cash to free him before the airhole was closed up.
And good on Cassie, because with Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) help, she managed to circumvent the cash demands and rope in eminently dodgy Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to shoot the sharks.
Not that it mattered, because when Nate was dug up, they found a rattlesnake (which they shot with a real serpent) had burrowed into the vent and finished him off itself.
The result was a classically Euphoria fever pitch of grim, which one fan on X dubbed ‘the most horrifying death of the entire series’.
They added: ‘The image of him inside the coffin next to that snake will be etched in my mind forever,’ while another viewer said he ‘died in the worst way imaginable’.
Elordi, whose fame is in large part down to his turn on the HBO show, said in a post-episode interview that it was a ‘cool way to go’, even though it was ‘bittersweet’ to bid farewell to the Euphoria gang.
The 28-year-old said: ‘Nate is somebody who’s made so many mistakes and so many dark choices, it’s cool to see it all come to what it’s come to.’
His description of the experience inside the coffin was akin to a sensory deprivation tank, which he said was ‘quite peaceful’.
He added: ‘I had to go into this coffin, my shoulders were touching the side, and I couldn’t move my arms, and then they would drill the lid on and it would get dark.’
Showrunner Sam Levinson gave ‘enormous credit’ to Elordi because he required the actor to shoot the scene with a real snake.
Elordi added: ‘The snakes were rattling, which was really alarming when you’re locked in a box.
‘They had a boa constrictor that they put a fake rattler on the end of, and Sam was like “I’m gonna drop a snake on you”.
‘And that was it. It’s a bittersweet thing. 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.’
Euphoria is available to stream on Sky, NOW and HBO Max.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.