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 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, confused, and the kids don’t know what to do with them. Social and economic status seems to be above the judicial system. Yet, the transformation suffered by all the students is the protagonist of the season.

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 was the villain from the previous seasons. She acts with extreme arrogance since the beginning, pretending she was untouchable. Yet, with her father discovering about her relationship with Valerio, her life changes radically. 

It feels a little like karma. Yet, after a while, you may pity her. And so did Nadia. 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 new as a creative choice, but very well worked 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 disease seemed unnecessary to me at first. Later, I came to realize that what’s truly important was its repercussion in 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 way possible to push Omar aside, complicating, even more, their troubled relationship.

Omar ends up in a situation where he becomes a villain for some of the 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 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 “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. Victim of her father’s power and corruption.

Carla makes a new friend, Yeray, which 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 as a former victim of body shaming online, who Carla defended in social media a long time ago. Now he has the perfect body, money, and status and seems decided to enjoy it.

Carla’s father sees Yeray as the savior of the family businesses, now in a bad situation. He forces her to give up on Samuel 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 in Yeray’s party proves her wrong. 

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

Malick 

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

He is a Muslim boy that approaches Nadia, and her family, to look good to his parents. He uses the girl to hide his homosexuality and gets 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 the fact that he helps to unite Lu and Nadia.

Cayetana 

Cayetana 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 if she really loved him or not.

She helps him sometimes but she also prevents him from going to another school - which would make life easier for everybody. She is cold and has a very defined plan. 

However, ending up as a cleaning lady in the school looked to me as a strong punishment. She refuses Polo’s moms offer for her to study anywhere she wanted. This refusal showed that she grew up a bit, and it was nice to see.  

Polo

Polo was a complicated kid with many underlying issues. I liked the fact that they humanized him in the end, instead of picturing him as a simple murderer.

His death was predictable. It is always the easy way out to get rid of a character that 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 is expecting us in 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.