Elite- Season 7, A Review

Family can screw up your life.

Elite Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 Review. Class Review.

The seventh season of Elite follows on from the previous season and the aftermath of the school shooting, revealed to have been caused by Dídac’s (Álvaro de Juana) criminal family. As a result many parents petition to have him expelled, putting Isadora () in a difficult position who chooses to distance herself. Iván (André Lamoglia) also attempts to piece together his own accident, with many believing the since vanished Patrick to be responsible, when it was in fact Sara (Carmen Arrufat) whose abusive boyfriend Raúl (Alex Pastrana) uses this to blackmail into staying with her.

Feeling miserable, Iván offers money and scholarship to pizza delivery boy Joel (Fernando Líndez) who is then revealed to be former student Omar’s (Omar Ayuso) new boyfriend, bringing him back to Las Encinas whether he likes it or not. Meanwhile Nico’s (Ander Puig) Cousin Eric (Gleb Abrosimov) comes back home and begins causing trouble and new student Chloe (Mirela Balic) gets off to a rocky start when a sex tape of her begins leaking around the school. As usual the drama in plentiful and Las Encinas and soon enough somebody else will be dead. But who will it be this time and how far will those responsible go to cover up their crimes?

For me season seven felt a bit lost, with most of the storylines sort of floating around each other but never interacting, having little to do with each other or the school itself. Everybody kind of had their own thing going on and in some cases two or three episodes would go by before we circled back again, meaning there didn’t really feel like there was a central character or conflict. Not to mention this was the first season of Elite without any flashforwards, which I found strange especially because this was the first season in a while to have an actual murder and the body found in the courtyard would have been perfect flashforward material. Instead we got seven episodes of kind of nothing and then a murder jammed into the finale, which albeit made for a great episode, but still could have been utilised a lot more.

Each new season of Elite comes with the arrivals and departures of new cast members and I will say season seven had some of the best new characters we’ve seen in a while. I really loved Chloe and her Mother Carmen (Maribel Verdú) and the somewhat messy relationship between them, with Chloe potentially acting out for attention and Carmen hellbent on reconnecting with her long lost son Ivan. The pair were massively entertaining and ended up having quite a lot to do with this season’s mystery, making for a potentially interesting season eight for the pair of them. Joel was also a nice addition to the cast, bringing Omar back into the fold and then in typical Elite messiness becoming involved in several school scandals. Eric was probably the weakest of the new cast, probably because his storyline didn’t really effect the show as a whole but I did still like his relationships with Nico and Rocío (Ana Bokesa) and I’ll be interested to see what happens next with him. We also seemingly said goodbye to Ivan this season (with him apparently moving to South Africa with Blood & Water’s Fiks- an unexpected cameo which I loved) and I’ll definitely be said to see him go, his storyline this past three seasons and relationship with Father Cruz have both been series highs.

One of the biggest draws of season seven (and perhaps the reason I did decide to tune in) was Omar’s return after a year away from Las Encinas and seeing him back definitely made me miss the show’s original days. As one of the og cast members it was obviously great to see him again, and whilst Omar was never my favourite character I will admit I liked what they did with his storyline. Traumatised by Samuel’s murder and the school in general, we now see Omar in therapy and attempting to rectify his past and move forward. His relationship with Joel however send him right back to the one place he never wanted to go back to and in doing so we finally address Omar’s own issues, particularly with relationships. Season seven really addresses Omar’s co-dependency issues and how his relationships aren’t always healthy for him, something which I have always disliked about Oma as a character. Something I’ll discuss more down below but Omar never seems to get a happy ending romance wise and I’m glad the show finally is taking a step in the right direction and finally putting him in therapy!

Like I said above Omar never exactly has the best luck romance wise and I this this can extend to most if not all of the characters in Elite as a whole. Watching seven seasons of this show has made me realise that these kids never seem to get a happy ending and as a whole the situation really kind of sucks for them. All of the couples on the show- from Omar and Ander to Guzman and Nadia- have ended up breaking up and I can’t think of a single relationship past or present that has actually ended happily. Even the characters who have left the show got dumped when new love interests were introduced and it’s all just made me realise how depressing it must be to live in the world, especially if you’re dating.

Despite my initial reluctance to watch this season and carry on with the show overall I will admit I did enjoy season seven despite its issues and am obviously going to watch the upcoming final season. I think it’s obvious Elite’s glory days were in its first three years and I have been constantly comparing when I should have just accepted the show had moved on past those characters and there was no going back. Season seven was enjoyable for what it was and I definitely have to see the show through to the end, I’ve come too far to stop watching now. Season eight already promises the return of Nadia and Lu (apparently confirmed by both actors) and I’d easily watch for that reason alone, whatever Elite cooks up for its ending I’m sure it’s going to be great.

Overall I enjoyed this seventh season of Elite and despite some floating storylines I will admit that these new set of characters have probably been the best since maybe season three. The show is never going to be as good as the original three seasons but the continued high drama and constant messiness of the show remains strong and despite a somewhat decline in quality I am excited for the final season and some potential returning faces. I do wish we’d gotten some typical Elite flashforwards this season (I’m still confused why we didn’t), especially since the actual murder felt so rushed but overall this was a pretty solid season and I’m interested to see what happens next.