WARNING: The following contains spoilers up to Euphoria Season 2, Episode 5, "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird," now streaming on HBO Max.
Euphoria's original pilot script dating back to April 2017 had initial plans to reveal the death of a main character within its first sequence. The 2017 script, written by current creator and writer Sam Levinson, offers a dramatic shift in narrative, in addition to an alternative inciting incident for the series.
The original pilot's opening pages are structurally similar to what would be later released in 2019 upon Euphoria's official premiere; the scene is still narrated by Rue, and her origins of mental illness and birth still exist in the opener. Much of the meat of the original pilot has been either kept in the same opening sequence or remixed to appear later in the show. But on page 13, in a flash-forward, it's revealed to the audience that Nate Jacobs has been murdered and discovered in a cornfield. And even more, that Rue killed him.
The script displays the memorial service for the fallen football player and also includes a voiceover by Rue where she states she doesn't feel bad. The scene also shows Madison Perez, the "grief-stricken" girlfriend to Nate. Rue then explains she didn't have 'much of an issue" with Nate but that she didn't like him until a specific night that is yet to be seen. The majority of the pilot flashes back to before the murder of Nate Jacobs, to when Jules Vaughn first moved to town. It plays a bit with time, though, as it flashes to a scene where Rue is being interviewed by the police, something that did not make it into the official pilot of the series either.
While a major plot point of the original 2017 pilot has been scrapped in terms of exploring the events leading up to Nate's murder, it's still possible that this could be remixed into the show sometime during Season 2 or Season 3. Now more than ever, the possibility of audiences seeing the death of Nate has been brought back into the spotlight.
There's Maddy's reaction to the revelation that Cassie and Nate had been hooking up. In previous episodes Nate said that Maddy would want to kill him if she were to find out about his and Cassie's secret, but that she wouldn't do it. However, considering Maddy's volatile reaction, she's definitely not going to just let it go. And the show certainly hasn't shied away from graphic scenes. So, it's entirely possible that Nate's original murder in the pilot could be reinterpreted, with Maddy as the killer.
The choice to reveal the death of Nate as a hook and then show the events leading up to it would have undoubtedly resulted in a much different experience for the Euphoria pilot. A pivotal focus of the plot would have been redirected to exploring the events leading up to the murder. The Euphoria that exists now instead focuses more on the general lives and struggles of the characters within the show, rather than using the mystery of murder to draw in its audience.
Interestingly enough, the timeline of the current show may actually line up with the four months later flash-forward of Nate's murder that the original 2017 script had to offer. The Season 2 premiere of Euphoria was a New Year's Eve party, and as of Season 2 Episode 6, the show appears to be taking place a month after that, sometime in early February. Assuming the Season 1 premiere occurred right around August or September, that would leave the current timeline right around the four or five-month mark. If Sam Levinson goes through with what he originally planned for the football player, it's entirely possible that Nate Jacobs could be marked for death sooner rather than later.
Source: Trendz OH
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