HBO’s Euphoria is known for evoking two emotions — despair and more despair — but Sunday’s season-two premiere gave us something else. It gave us joy. Not because of anything particularly happy, but because something happened in the premiere that fans have been waiting a year for: Someone finally beat the shit out of Nate.
Like every character on Euphoria, Nate isn’t without his personal demons, but his behavior in season one — physically abusing his girlfriend and people around him, blackmailing Jules, calling in a raid at Fezco’s home — made him the absolute worst. So, when the season-two premiere ended with Fezco (Angus Cloud) breaking a bottle over Nate’s (Jacob Elordi) head, tackling him to the ground and punching him in the face until blood poured out of his nose, fans rejoiced. It was brutal, violent, and absolutely satisfying. I usually don’t condone violence, but I’ll make an exception for Nate — as have many other fans, who were tweeting their endorsement of Fezco during the episode.
The actors also thought the beating was well-deserved. Cloud told Entertainment Weekly that even though the stunt was “hard” to film, “Nate deserved all of what he got.” And even Elordi agreed that Nate deserved what he got. During an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, the actor admitted that he “would love to beat him [Nate] up.” Though he did add, “As Nate, I feel very bad for him.”
Oh, Nate, I wish you many, many more punches to the face in the future.