Hey Euphoria, Where Is Nate Jacobs & What Have You Done With Him?

21 hours ago 20

Published May 12, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Euphoria season 3, episode 5.

Euphoria season 3 has had a big problem with characters not acting like themselves, but no one is acting less like themselves than Nate Jacobs. Everyone else in the cast is at least playing some version of the character they played before; they’ve either been Flanderized to focus on one specific character trait, like Lexi’s holier-than-thou judginess, or they’ve had major character traits flipped on their head, like Rue’s sex drive going from being virtually non-existent to driving her every decision.

But the character played by Jacob Elordi in Euphoria season 3 does not seem like Nate Jacobs. The character they call Nate is a brand-new creation, exclusive to this season, like Angel or Alamo or Bishop. This subservient man-child, who just rolls over and lets his wife and his city council and his creditors make all his decisions for him, cannot possibly be the same person who held a loaded gun to his girlfriend’s head just to get his hands on his dad’s digitized sex tapes.

Over the last couple of weeks, Euphoria has finally started feeling like Euphoria again. The girls are all back in each other’s lives, causing chaos at every turn, and everyone’s starting to act more like themselves, from Cassie’s classic pick-me energy to Maddy’s diabolical Machiavellian schemes. But, while everyone else is mostly back on track, Nate is still acting strangely out of character.

The Character Played By Jacob Elordi In Euphoria Season 3 Is Not Nate Jacobs

I don’t know who this person is that Jacob Elordi is playing in Euphoria season 3, but it’s not Nate Jacobs. The Nate I know and hate wouldn’t maintain his composure after taking a champagne cork to the face; he wouldn’t get down on his knees and beg in public; and he wouldn’t run and hide in the bathroom when he’s threatened.

I don’t know what Sam Levinson has done with the real Nate, or where he’s hiding him. It honestly sometimes feels like Levinson wrote a completely different script about a completely different couple — a money-grubbing OnlyFans star and her desperate, debt-ridden husband, who becomes a cuck out of financial necessity — and just find-and-replaced the names with Nate and Cassie to meet his deadline for Euphoria season 3. It would probably be a better story if the couple at the center of it weren’t supposed to be Nate and Cassie. Cassie fits the part of the OnlyFans megastar breadwinner, but Nate does not fit the part of the timid, obedient househusband.

He at least pushed back a little in the previous episodes, but in episode 5, Nate is just Cassie’s emasculated cheerleader. He’s weirdly supportive of Cassie moving in with another man and making erotic videos with him. When Cassie first brought up the idea of starting an OnlyFans page a few weeks ago, Nate responded in his usual stoic, toxic, possessive, hypermasculine way and put his foot down as the man of the house, so this is a complete 180 on his original stance. He’s using her income to pay off his debts, so he has a monetary incentive to keep up the charade of supporting her OnlyFans career, but this isn’t a charade anymore; he’s genuinely excited about it.

I Was Worried Euphoria Would Give Nate A Redemption Arc, But This Is Worse

In the months leading up to Euphoria season 3’s release, there were all kinds of rumors flying around about what the plot would entail, from Rue becoming a private eye to Rue becoming a surrogate mother. One of the most concerning bits of gossip trundling around the rumor mill was that Nate would get a redemption arc of sorts in the third season. Hollywood has a habit of redeeming irredeemable characters, like Negan and Kylo Ren, so the idea of Maddy’s abuser, Jules’ blackmailer, and Tyler’s life-ruiner getting to become a hero in the end was quite vexing.

Thankfully, Nate’s arc in season 3 hasn’t been much of a redemption arc (unless you consider endless punishment to be grounds for redemption), but it’s arguably something even worse: it’s no arc at all; it’s just loan sharks beating him up and Cassie telling him what to do. Nate has gone from being the puppetmaster controlling everyone around him to having absolutely no agency in his own life.

It’s not even that much fun to watch Nate get beaten up anymore, because he hasn’t done anything particularly bad this season. It’s like Levinson wants to recapture the grisly satisfaction of Fezco’s beatdown in Euphoria’s season 2 premiere, but didn’t do anything to set it up this time. It’s diminishing returns — eventually, Nate is going to run out of appendages to snip off.