Elite Season 3 - review

(Spoilers ahead.)

Elite is one of the best teen drama shows I’ve watched, and season 3 brings us a new death and a new mystery.

After Marina’s (María Pedraza) killer returns freely to Las Encinas, the rage, revolt, and depression seem to spread amongst the students. They know that nothing will be like before. The feelings are complex and confusing, and the kids don’t know what to do with them. Social and economic status seem to be above the judicial system. Yet the transformation experienced by all the students is the season's protagonist.

Many teenage shows tend to picture the characters as if they are merely underage adults. Here is where Elite went further and better. Yes, they do things that usually only adults do. Yet, the way they deal with them shows the truth: they are little more than children.

Lu’s Fall

Lu (Danna Paola) was the villain from the previous seasons. She acts with extreme arrogance from the beginning, pretending she is untouchable. Yet, when her father discovers her relationship with Valerio (Jorge López), her life changes radically. 

It feels a little like karma. Yet, after a while, you may pity her. And so did Nadia (Mina El Hammani). Despite how much Lu made her suffer, Nadia shows, more than once, that she is better than Lu—truly rewarding to watch. 

Surprisingly, a friendship was born. Two enemies united by the same goals. Not exactly a new creative choice, but very well executed here. Nadia makes Lucrécia a better person, and Lu helps the Muslim girl to free herself from her own prejudices. 

Undeniably beautiful, Nadia’s decision to share the scholarship with Lu seemed to be the typical happy ending. 

Ander’s disease

Ander’s (Arón Piper) disease seemed unnecessary to me at first. Later, I came to realize that what’s truly important was its repercussion on those around him. All students were directly or indirectly hit by it. A deadly disease like cancer confronted them with how everything can change from one day to the next. It shows how some little wars are a waste of time.

Ander falls into depression, becoming alienated from what’s happening around him. He looks for every possible way to push Omar (Omar Ayuso) aside, further complicating their troubled relationship.

Omar ends up in a situation where he becomes a villain to some viewers. At least, quite selfish. He recently gained his so desired freedom, and now, he feels trapped again by Ander’s disease. He can’t deal with the pressure. We can understand that, yet, it’s difficult not to think that Ander and even Nadia should cut him out for good.

His final decision to stay with Ander and start the new school year in Las Encinas was interesting. But I felt like Ander accepted him back too fast.

Carla’s Dilemma 

Carla (Ester Expósito) was one of the most complex characters since the first season. She knows who she is, and she seems to accept her world. Deep down, she was always aware of the dangerous games played in the background.

After Christian’s (Miguel Herrán) “accident”, her perspective of what would just be a game of power changes. She confronts her father. Soon, she is in the difficult position of a victim. A victim of her father’s power and corruption.

Carla makes a new friend, Yeray, who seems absolutely random in the story. He is one of the most “non-interesting” characters in the show. The boy is only a tool to develop Carla’s character. He appears to be a former victim of online body shaming, whom Carla defended on social media a long time ago. Now he has the perfect body, money, and status, and seems to have decided to enjoy it.

Carla’s father sees Yeray (Sergio Momo) as the savior of the family businesses, now in a bad situation. He forces her to give up on Samuel (Itzan Escamilla) and date Yeray, leading her to depression and drug abuse. She believes that with drugs, she will be able to do what her father wants. The pool scene at Yeray’s party proves her wrong. 

Throughout the season, Carla goes through painful emancipation tinged with revenge. Yeray saves the business, but puts them all in Carla’s hands. A great lesson for her father. In the end, Carla decides to study abroad, leaving a little surprise for her father. Not very realistic, her choice of Valerio to take care of everything while she is away was delicious.

Malick 

Malick (Leïti Sène) seems to be another unnecessary acquisition to the show. The character is not that interesting. He is the cause of some messy situations, but he doesn't really contribute much to the story's development. 

He is a Muslim boy who approaches Nadia and her family to look good to his parents. He uses the girl to hide his homosexuality and has a relationship with her brother. He is a very shallow character. Like Yeray, he only shows up as an excuse for other characters' development.

The only good thing about this character is that he helps unite Lu and Nadia.

Cayetana 

Cayetana (Georgina Amorós) seems to find in Polo a way of keeping her outrageous lifestyle. She does what she can to ignore her precarious economic condition. We are never sure whether she really loved him.

She sometimes helps him, but she also prevents him from attending another school, which would make life easier for everyone. She is cold and has a very defined plan. 

However, ending up as a cleaning lady at the school seemed to me like a severe punishment. She refuses Polo’s mom's offer for her to study anywhere she wants. This refusal showed that she had grown up a bit, and it was nice to see.  

Polo

Polo (Álvaro Rico) was a complicated kid with many underlying issues. I liked that they humanized him in the end, rather than portraying him as a simple murderer.

His death was predictable. It is always the easy way out to get rid of a character who is always getting in the way. I would like to see him in jail, but their choice was quite good and full of surprises. Lu, being the killer, was the biggest one. Simply perfect.

Happy Endings and New Beginnings 

Elite has multi-layered characters and an involving story that can make us care about them and their fate. All of them have a good side and an evil side, which humanizes them to the viewer. 

This season of Elite ends with an epiphany: the kids realize that they are stronger together. We end up with the typical row of happy endings and punished villains, but also a pinch of what the new school year will look like.

What can we expect from the next season? New characters? A new death? A completely different story? It is difficult to match what has been done so far. Let’s hope they can manage it.