Eric Dane tragically died at 53 in February following an ALS battle. Before his dying, the “Grey’s Anatomy” star accomplished filming for his function in “Euphoria” Season 3.
His character, Cal Jacobs, wasn’t within the season premiere, however it included a photo of Dane onscreen with the message, “In remembrance of Eric Dane. 1972-2026.”
Dane makes his first posthumous appearance within the season’s second episode, “America My Dream,” which aired Sunday.
Warning: Spoilers forward! Do not proceed except you’ve watched “Euphoria” Season 3’s second episode, “America My Dream.”
Cal exhibits up about midway via the episode, visiting his son, Nate (Jacob Elordi). Father and son chat in Nate’s kitchen, principally pleasant, with little of the explosive rigidity that that they had within the present’s first two seasons. Cal is sitting down for many of his display time.
When he arrives at Nate’s home, he appears to be in excessive spirits (or tipsy), singing a music. In Nate’s kitchen, Cal tells Nate that he’s attending SLA conferences, which is “Sex and Love Addicts.”
The season premiere revealed that Nate’s fiancée, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), is making an attempt to promote pictures of herself on OnlyFans to boost $50K for a floral association at their marriage ceremony.
Cal makes a involved remark about Cassie’s pictures to Nate. When Nate waves it off, Cal expresses fear that Nate is likely to be having “financial issues.” Nate has taken over Cal’s building enterprise, and the present implied that he’s struggling, however he doesn’t reply to Cal.
As Nate cooks, Cal cautions his son about “chasing pleasure” as a substitute of being “grateful to what I had at home,” evaluating himself to what Cassie is doing. Nate dismisses the comparability, and tells Cal, “you’re gay. You’re in denial, and it came out in very weird ways.”
Cal replies, “I’m not gay, I was a hedonist.”
Overall, Cal and Nate appear to be comfortable with one another.
This is a wild change from their risky relationship in Seasons 1 and a pair of. The shift continues Season 3’s development of constructing Nate really feel so totally different, it’s prompting fans to say that he had a “lobotomy.”
In the first two seasons of “Euphoria,” Cal was powerful on Nate, criticizing his soccer abilities and inspiring his aggression. Although he was married to Nate’s mother and projected the picture of being a rich household man, Cal usually went to lodges to have intercourse with younger women and men, together with Nate’s trans classmate, Jules (Hunter Schafer). He taped his encounters.
Nate discovered Cal’s intercourse tapes at a younger age, which messed together with his thought of intercourse and masculinity. It formed Nate’s anger points, and his borderline psycho conduct.
At the top of Season 1, Nate and Cal obtained right into a bodily combat. In Season 2, Cal advised Nate that he was his greatest remorse. To defend Cal’s secrets and techniques, Nate threatened his ex-girlfriend, Maddy (Alexa Demie), with a gun in Season 2, after she stole one in every of Cal’s intercourse tapes. Season 2 ended with Nate calling the cops on Cal (the present implied that there have been minors within the intercourse tapes with him).
Season 3 is ready 5 years after the occasions of Season 2. It’s not made clear how Nate and Cal obtained from having an explosively hostile relationship to casually hanging out in Nate’s kitchen. Their first Season 3 scenes additionally didn’t point out Nate calling the cops on Cal.
Dane introduced his ALS diagnosis in April 2025. He handed away simply wanting a 12 months later, on February 19, 2026.
ALS “is a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord,” resulting in “loss of muscle control” that progresses over time, according to the Mayo Clinic. It has no remedy.
“I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to the set of Euphoria next week,” Dane advised People in April 2025.
In June, Dane advised Access Hollywood that it was “great to be back” on set after the present’s four-year hiatus, since Season 2 aired in 2022.
In a latest interview, creator Sam Levinson told Extra that Dane advised him concerning the analysis earlier than they started taking pictures.
“We had a lot of conversations about just life and what that meant. I loved him very deeply, and I said, ‘Eric, whatever shape you show up in, we’re gonna make it work. I have faith that it’s all gonna work.’”
Levinson added that when Dane got here to set, he had “a slight slur in his voice,” as a consequence of his sickness.
In response, Levinson recalled, (*3*)
“Euphoria” has not introduced what number of Season 3 episodes Dane can be in, however footage from the trailer exhibits Cal at Nate and Cassie’s marriage ceremony, which is the third episode.
Dane and actress Rebecca Gayheart called off their divorce in March 2025, one month earlier than he introduced his ALS analysis.The former couple wed in 2004 and had daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14.
Elordi has not spoken publicly about his TV dad’s dying, however one month previous to it, he was seen posing for pictures and chatting with Dane’s daughters on the Hollywood premiere of his film “Wuthering Heights.”
Dane is the third behind the scenes tragedy for “Euphoria.” Cast member Angus Cloud, who performed Fez, overdosed in 2023 at age 25, and exec producer Kevin Turen died in November 2023 at age 44 from a cardiac emergency whereas driving.
The season premiere ended with an “in memoriam” tribute to all three of them.
“Euphoria” Season 3 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
