Episode seven of Euphoria’s third season, “Rain or Shine,” is a dark descent into a pit of snakes—will anyone make it out alive?

The penultimate episode sees the once-grounded series explode into a full-blown Tarantino movie, with a touch of Breaking Bad.

Warning—Spoilers Ahead

The sudden death of Nate (Jacob Elordi) is shocking, but he’s dragged Maddy (Alexa Demie) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) down with him, just as Rue (Zendaya) makes a terrible discovery.

Ironically, Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is far more cold-blooded than his mother ever was, but he’s not the only snake out there.

What Is The Plot Of ‘Euphoria’ Season 3, Episode 7?

Rue’s religious conviction appears more delusional with each scene—it seems obvious that she’s fatally misreading her situation, because she’s being so annoying about her newfound faith.

While opening up to Ali (Colman Domingo), whose rocky road to recovery was illuminated this episode, Rue rejects his hard-won wisdom.

Rue reckons she’s on the right track, bringing up the burning tree and pointing out that the upcoming DEA arrest is going to happen at Jerusalem Road, which she intercepts as a sacred sign.

Ali reminds her that Moses never lived to see the promised land, and sets the moral stakes by reminding Rue that the dealers are killing addicts with fentanyl.

“You want to undo the evil you’ve done?” Ali asks her. “Start by changing yourself.”

If Rue does manage to take down the sprawling criminal network, countless lives will be saved, but she might not live to see it happen.

Right now, she’s got a very convoluted job to pull off, tasked with robbing Laurie’s (Martha Kelly) safe for Alamo, and staying alive long enough for the DEA to close in.

Unfortunately, Rue is not built for this level of criminal conspiracy, foolishly telling Lexi (Maude Apatow) that she’s a double agent for the DEA during one of her rants about being chosen by God.

Lexi, under the impression that Rue is delusional, passes on the gossip to Maddy, who then spills the details to Alamo, in a breathtakingly naive scene that highlights how out of place she is in the criminal underworld.

Before the fateful conversation with Alamo, Maddy and Cassie lose any chance at legitimacy, both rejected by the entertainment world due to their shady connections to the sex trade.

This isn’t ideal, as Cassie has just deleted her OnlyFans and Nate’s loan sharks are circling, smelling blood in the water.

Maddy essentially becomes Cassie’s pimp, hitting and threatening her, setting up an elaborate scheme to boost her online following, which Cassie successfully pulls off, thanks to a few fake orgasms.

Naz (Jack Topalian), however, is escalating the threats against Nate, the violence spilling over to Cassie, who explains to Maddy how much trouble she’s in and how she needs to pay Naz back.

At this point, Nate is buried in a coffin beneath the planned retirement community that doomed him, with only a few hours left to live—giving Naz the money is his only way out.

Unfortunately for Nate, it’s already too late.

Maddy Makes A Deal With Alamo

Maddy might be acting tough, but she still cares about Cassie (and seemingly, her toxic ex-boyfriend). Maddy goes to Alamo to ask for the money to save Nate and Cassie, seemingly under the impression that she has the situation under control.

This is very far from the truth, as Alamo coaxes Maddy into a deeply uncomfortable conversation in his hot tub, underlining the uneven power dynamic.

It’s at this point where Maddy tells Alamo that Rue mentioned the DEA, sealing Rue’s fate and confirming Alamo’s suspicions that she is a rat, although he doesn’t let on.

The scene cuts to a shot of Maddy beside Alamo’s hunting trophies, implying that he coerced her into sex, or at the very least, trapped her in his web of exploitation

However, Maddy has made her choice, securing the money to save Nate and Cassie. So it seems.

At the meeting point, above Nate’s buried body, Alamo tricks Naz with an empty money bag, shooting him dead before informing Maddy and Cassie that they are now financially bound to him.

Tragically, the trade-off was for nothing—when the coffin is finally uncovered, the two women discover Nate’s bloated corpse, bitten by a rattlesnake.

The Tragic Death Of Nate Jacobs

It’s a pathetic end for a character who once dominated the series, but fell flat after entering the real world—Nate peaked in high school, quite literally.

Nate was a compelling, complex antagonist for Euphoria’s first two seasons, but this season has seen the man brutalized by frightening criminals who make his mind games look like child’s play.

Nate was a piranha in a small pond who found himself in a dangerous ecosystem, swallowed by bigger, more dangerous predators.

It’s not a particularly satisfying conclusion, as viewers never saw the path leading to Nate’s downfall, the series skipping past his decision to deal with Naz, only showing the consequences.

However, the situation seems thematically fitting, as Nate has always pulled Maddy and Cassie into bad circumstances, and this time, he has doomed them to a deal with the devil.

Rue Opens The Safe

Meanwhile, Rue has finally opened the safe, thanks to Faye (Chloe Cherry), whose Nazi boyfriend Wayne (Toby Wallace), is sleeping through the robbery.

The safe is like Pandora’s Box, with Rue opening it and realizing how terrible her situation really is. The safe holds no money—only photos and IDs of Alamo’s club girls.

They are likely being sex trafficked (or worse) with Laurie keeping the IDs for leverage, Alamo manipulating Rue into taking the evidence back.

At this moment, Rue sees how much trouble she’s in, but Alamo isn’t the only snake in this story. Faye, disappointed to see that the safe has no money, blames Rue for the deception and screams to wake her boyfriend.

It seems that Rue, Cassie and Maddy have fallen into a nightmarish snake pit, and it’s unclear who (if any) are going to claw their way out, without being bitten.

Next episode is the series finale, and Euphoria might finally deliver Rue’s redemption, or expose her messianic ambitions as a tragic delusion.

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