Euphoria on HBO completed its first season more a while ago and yet, people still can’t stop talking about it. It’s a very well-executed series, a beautiful blend between poetry and raw truth, and wonderful exploration of humans in a broken world.

Nate Jacobs serves as the main antagonist in Euphoria. Like any good story, however, Nate is not just your one-sided villain everyone works against. Quite the contrary, actually; Jacobs is a multi-layered character, an amazing exploration of the dark within, and a vessel for important and long avoided themes in art.

So let’s explore.

(Euphoria spoilers follow!)

Nate Jacobs & his father.

Probably all of what Nate is, all of what he stands for, his entire behavior, in fact, is rooted in his relationship with his father. When he was young, the boy saw tapes of his dad, Cal Jacobs, having very aggressive and explicit sex with young men. Then, Nate not only realized his father was gay, but also that everything he is, his entire cloak of perfection and togetherness, is actually fake.

Naturally, this had an effect on the boy. It’s a complete break of reality for him. It’s the first time that he feels out of control, the first time that he feels reality and the world is working against him rather that with him.

So Nate tries to change that.

He feels as if he needs to control everything. He needs to handle things and handle them well because he couldn’t handle his father being someone else. Nate needs to be in charge; he needs to be in control, always and forever.

So he becomes the most popular guy in school. He’s dating the most popular girl, he’s the quarterback on the team, he’s successful and liked. Thus, he is, as much as humanly possible, in charge of his reality.

When anything doesn’t go according to plan, Nate becomes aggressive. But he’s not only angry that something isn’t working properly; he’s angry because, deep down, he knows that he can’t fix it properly. So when Maddy pushes over the chili at the fair, Nate gets physical; he’s unable to handle it any other way and the only possible solution, in his mind, is to exude and enforce his strongest side a.k.a. his physical strength.

Nate strives to deal with any situation. When he can’t find a proper way to do it, he does whatever possible. The means don’t matter – it’s all about the ends and if the ends make him feel in control. The most obvious example of this is the entire plotline with Jules. Nate finds out she’s slept with his father and decides to take charge of things by blackmailing her to stay quiet.

It’s fairly obvious that this is not really necessary. Jules wasn’t going to say anything anyway, especially after her conversation with Cal. But to Nate, it’s like a drug. He finds something, anything, that he thinks needs fixing and goes at it; it doesn’t matter if the situation needs him – he needs it in order to, yet again, feel capable.

Jacobs’ desire for control is rooted in what he saw on the tapes when he was a child. But currently, he’s compensating for something else entirely.

The truth is, Nate is gay.

He doesn’t want to be. He hates it to the bottom of his heart. Not only because he’s very obviously homophobic, but also because the idea of being like his father disgusts him.

Unfortunately, and ironically, Nate is not in control about whether he’s gay or not. He wants to be, desperately, more than anything, but he simply can’t be.

So he compensates for that. He goes after Jules, after Rue, after Fez, after his dad, even, to get some false sense of recognition within. He tries to control the external because he can’t control the internal.

And, of course, Maddy.

Maddy is an anchor for Nate. She’s the perfect idea for him. Feminine, popular, strong, hairless. She’s everything he thinks he needs, everything he thinks he deserves, everything he thinks he must have in order to function.

And the truth is, Jacobs does love this girl. It’s a different type of love though, more so necessary than involuntary, but it’s there nevertheless. Nate loves the idea of Maddy and loves everything she gives him. He loves the anchor she is and he loves the sense of control she gives him. But, probably, he doesn’t love the actual person. Just everything behind them.

Nate Jacobs is the darkness of finding yourself.

A character that breaks themselves more and more every day. A person that, at a very young age, saw something truly haunting. Someone that desperately seeks control because they can’t control themselves. Someone that, beyond all the darkness, might actually be an okay person.

But they need to be pulled away. Nate Jacobs is purposelessly floating through life trying to find a version of himself he can live with.

Nate needs someone to be there; to show him that the true version of himself is actually the only version that he can control.

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More character analysis pieces here.

More info on Euphoria here.

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