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Is Nate Jacobs undergoing a personality overhaul?
Jacob Elordi’s portrayal of Nate Jacobs in the Season 3 premiere of “Euphoria” has sparked controversy among the show’s fan base. Viewers have taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction with how the character is being depicted.
One viewer vented on X, previously known as Twitter, saying, “They gave Nate Jacobs 200mg of sertraline and a lobotomy.”
Another fan expressed disbelief over a storyline involving Cassie, noting, “I’m actually losing it that Cassie offered to sell porn.” They added that Nate’s lack of reaction—neither punching a wall nor yelling—was unexpected, quipping, “Guess lobotomies are still legal in 2026.”
A third fan echoed the sentiment, suggesting that the current depiction of Nate is unrecognizable from the character seen in the first two seasons, stating, “The Nate from Seasons 1 and 2 wouldn’t put up with Cassie’s antics.”
In the first two seasons of the Sam Levinson HBO drama, Nate Jacobs was a psycho jock with rage issues. When his girlfriend publicly embarrassed him, he choked her. He blackmailed another guy into taking the fall for the crime. He threatened people with guns. Elordi played him with a manic energy that made it seem like Nate could snap and kill someone at any moment.
For “Euphoria” viewers to blast Nate, you’d think it would be about another horrible thing he did. But it turns out, fans were angry that he was wildly out of character and acting too “docile” and “sanitized.” After two seasons of outraging fans for his vile behavior, Nate is now outraging fans for being too nice, without enough narrative work to explain his change.
In Season 3, which finds the characters five years later, Nate seemed to have gotten a “personality change,” as another critic commented.
The season finds Nate and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) engaged and living together. Cassie is trying to have an OnlyFans career, which involves dressing up in fetish outfits such as a dog and posting photos and videos online. She claims she’s doing it to make money for a $50K flower arrangement that she wants for their wedding.
Nate is mildly annoyed with her, but ultimately is fine with it, and tells Cassie, “Baby, I’m trying to give you everything you want.”
That clashes with Nate’s personality from past seasons of the show.
In Season 1, Nate said, “f–k her like the whore she is, then kick her to the curb,” about Cassie. He berated his first girlfriend, Maddy (Alexa Demie), for wearing revealing clothing, sneering that she looked like a “hooker.” In Season 2, he also didn’t appear to love Cassie as he repeatedly manipulated and degraded her.
His Season 3 behavior comes out of left field.
Another viewer criticized how odd it is to watch Nate enter his “docile house husband era” after “seasons of being a certified threat to society.”
“It’s the jacob elordification of nate jacobs,” another comment read.
“I want nate to change because he had a real reason to change, not because they got lazy with his character now that jacob got worldwide recognition and fame,” another viewer said. “And they’re making him do all the lifting with no writing to support it. this is not nate jacobs this is a stranger.”
Another fan slammed Season 3’s version of Nate for being a “completely sanitized character out of nowhere,” while another fumed, “you cannot sand down the edges of a character in such a significant, visceral way after such a hiatus without clueing us in as to what might have happened…that’s a stranger.”
“Euphoria” Season 3 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.