Euphoria's Maddy and Nate are the furthest thing from a quintessential high school relationship. Their toxic relationship unfolded throughout the first season, starting with Maddy, who's 17, having sex in the pool with 22-year old Tyler in front of everyone at a house party. This leads up to Nate's abusive behavior coming to light as the on-again, off-again duo begin to unravel when Nate begins to take his aggression out on Maddy.
All this turmoil aside, Levinson created the dark world where Maddy is caught in an abusive cycle, unable to leave him. Fans of the show interpret their final exchange at the winter formal as a possible ending to their relationship, as Maddy acknowledged Nate's abusive past, saying the two shouldn't be together, to which Nate responded with, "I know." According to Jacob Elordi, who plays Nate, the final scene carried a lot of weight. He told Entertainment Weekly, "The way that I looked at the scene was, it was a really difficult goodbye. Because right after his breakdown, he tried to... had a moment of clarity and she definitely had a moment of clarity after everything they put each other through."
