‘Euphoria’ Season 2 Premiere: Why Did Fez Beat Up Nate?

Euphoria‘s Season 2 premiere ends on a bloody note. After circling each other at the gang’s New Year’s Eve party, long-time enemies Fezco (Angus Cloud) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) come to physical blows. Well, that is, Fez gets physical. After a tense interaction, the drug dealer with a heart of gold shows off his stone cold savage side. He toasts to a New Year and then hits Nate with a bottle. With the bad boy of Euphoria caught off-guard, Fez then pummels the teen over and over again to the horror of Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Maddy (Alexa Demie), and Lexi (Maude Apatow).

When the dust settles and Fezco walks away, Nate is passed out on the ground. His face is bloodied and bruised. A group of his friends try to carry his body off the floor and to safety while Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) look on. Rue simply says, “Damn,” and then the show cuts to the end credits. Cutting Crew’s ’80s classic “I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight” plays. It’s darkly funny, but also concerning. Is it possible that Fezco did beat Nate to death at the New Year’s party? (That’s certainly what that needle drop implies.) But would Euphoria really kill off one of its main antagonists during the Season 2 premiere? Especially after setting up a dangerous love triangle with Nate, Cassie, and Maddy in the same episode? AND WHY DID FEZ BEAT UP NATE?

Did Euphoria just pull a Game of Thrones, killing off a key character at a shocking moment? Or did they follow Succession‘s suit? Leaving a leading man’s fate up in the air for shock value, only to reveal he’s fine the next episode? Here’s everything we know about the ending of the Euphoria Season 2 premiere on HBO.

Why Did Fez Beat Up Nate on the Euphoria Season 2 Premiere?

That’s the question, isn’t it? Why did Fez beat up Nate? Well, it’s both complicated and straight-forward.

All throughout Euphoria Season 1, Nate established himself as a twisted bully. While many people will recall how he physically abused his girlfriend Maddy, he also spent quite a few episodes catfishing Jules in some sort of twisted, kinky, confusing version of revenge/flirtation. As a kid, Nate discovered that his father liked taping himself having sex with men, boys, and transwomen. When he discovers a recent tape involving his father and Jules, Nate becomes weirdly obsessed with his new classmate. He catfishes her on a dating site, leading Jules to believe that she’s in love with his alter-ego Tyler. Nudes are shared. When Jules finally meets “Tyler,” she realizes she’s been had. Nate threatens Jules by saying if she ever reveals her hookup with his dad, he’ll report her nudes as child pornography.

When Rue finally realizes how Nate has been blackmailing Jules, she asks Fez to intimidate him. The sweet Fez complies, but doesn’t realize how ruthless Nate can be. Nate in turn reports Fez to the Feds. That means that Fez and Ashtray (Javon Walton) have to toss their stash of drugs during a raid. That also means they are in the lurch financially when it comes to paying their suppliers off. This sparks a shitstorm that culminates in Ashtray killing their dealer Mouse (Meeko), which isn’t good.

So Fez beat up Nate in retaliation for putting his drug dealing business, livelihood, and life on the line. Kind of makes sense, huh?

Did the Euphoria Season 2 Premiere Kill Off Jacob Elordi’s Nate?

Normally we would be loathe to call it on the life of one Nate Jacobs with just a bruised and bloody face. The thing is we’ve already seen Fezco’s young associate Ashtray (Javon Walton) kill a man with a single hammer blow to the head this episode and Fezco really went in on Nate. Furthermore that cheeky needle drop seems to suggest that Nate might have actually died. But do we have evidence that the mean boy survived?

Yes. Yes, we do.

The Euphoria Season 2 trailer features at least two scenes with Nate that we haven’t seen yet in the show. Furthermore, the “In the Weeks Ahead” trailer that HBO dropped after the Euphoria Season 2 premiere confirms that Nate makes it to the hospital alive.

Nate did not die, guys! But he should probably be in jail! You know, for being Nate!

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