Élite loses momentum in its messy, directionless fifth season

Netflix’s teen drama Élite has thrown in almost every outlandish scenario possible: multiple casualties, bizarre love triangles, draconic parents, and even incest. But whenever the Spanish noir tossed in these wild storylines, the writing was good enough to sell it, with characters that were fleshed out and multi-dimensional. The series was refreshing among the zany teen dramas like Riverdale that often got too out of hand. But by its new fifth season, Élite finally arrives at the point where it can no longer pull off its gimmicks.

More bad news: Many core cast members left before this season—including Miguel Bernardeau (Guzmán), Mina El Hammani (Nadia), and Áron Piper (Ander)—so the show is now devoid of (past) fan favorites. While the series keeps introducing new characters in season five, it lacks direction without those familiar faces, attempting to fill that void by forcing new ill-fated romances, pointless drama, and new mysteries.

When we last saw the Las Encinas students, Guzmán, Samuel, and Rebeka teamed up to hide Armando’s body after Guzmán accidentally killed him. In a moment of quick thinking, the friends tied an anchor to Armando and he sank to the bottom of the lake. When his corpse surfaces in the middle of a daytime party at the Lake Club, it creates chaos for everyone.

The first episode of this season picks up right at that bash where Armando was killed, depicting a dramatic event involving Phillipe, the prince who left France for Spain after being accused of sexual assault (and later attempted to also assault Cayetana). Last season, Phillipe tried to make his situation with Cayetana seem like a misunderstanding. But this episode undercuts that claim, beginning with a video of his French accuser Elodie naming Philippe and announcing that she will not remain silent.

But the reveal is interrupted by a flashback showing a handcuffed Samuel being interrogated by a detective about his confession. Before Samuel can answer, we see yet another bloody body wearing the Las Encinas uniform floating in a pool. That moment, meant to be shocking, is forgotten about until the fourth episode, when we learn that it’s the body of one of the main characters.

While the new mystery and the uncovering of Armando’s body should be the season’s focus, it instead wastes time introducing plot lines for new characters. There’s Isadora, an empress with a substance abuse issue who lives in the penthouse suite of Madrid’s Four Seasons. Her purpose seems to be to make Cayetana’s life miserable, attempting to win over Philipe despite being accused of two assaults. She attempts to clear Phillipe’s name by denying he’s done any wrongdoing and ropes him into becoming one half of a miserable power couple.

Isadora is meant to be the new “It girl,” but she lacks complexity. It’s never truly explained why a teenager with more than one million Instagram followers and can get her hands on any rich, powerful guy she wants would want to waste her time on a controversial prince. By the time the series tries to humanize her—she feels abandoned by her parents and finds comfort in drugs and nightlife—it comes off as underdeveloped. Isadora isn’t nearly as charming as former mean-queen bee Lucrecia and doesn’t have much of a personality besides being overly obsessed with Phillipe. Élite’s writers seem unable to turn her into a character fans would actually like, eliciting sympathy by subjecting her to a gang rape while on a spontaneous, drug-fueled trip to Ibiza.

This arc becomes excruciating to watch. Phillipe doesn’t take full responsibility for his actions towards Cayetana and Elodie, but gets to be the hero when he finds a video of the boys raping Isadora and urges her to report the assault. Élite doesn’t need to make a powerful statement about sexual assault; there are plenty of horrifying actions taken by characters on a regular basis on the show that don’t need justification. But the arc lacks direction, and the attempt at making Phillipe likable falls flat.

Another new controversial character introduced this season is Iván, the son of a pro soccer player. Like Rebeka, he’s the responsible child in a family with a dysfunctional parent. But Iván’s true purpose is to create more drama for Patrick. Last season, Patrick began a casual romance with Omar and Ander. With Ander out of the show and Omar focused on work, Patrick needed a new love interest—hence Iván, who claims to be straight but flirts heavily. But just when it looks like there’s potential for Iván to come to terms with his sexuality and provide Patrick with a stable relationship, Iván—seemingly out of nowhere—also begins pursuing Ari.

Ari and Iván have barely any chemistry, and the scenes involving her cheating on Samuel with him feel forced. (Iván and Patrick do, and that romantic pursuit makes sense.) When Patrick gets fed up with Iván pursuing Patrick’s sister instead of him, Patrick questionably begins a secret romantic liaison with Iván’s dad. It’s one of the oddest love squares featured on Élite, and it’s tedious to take in over eight episodes.

The show also introduces Bilal, an unhoused teen who works with Omar at the Lake Club. After noticing that he’s unsafe without a place to stay, Omar invites him to crash at his shared home with Samuel. But when Samuel notices Bilal has been stealing valuables both at home and at work, this causes a rift in his close friendship with Omar. Unfortunately, Bilal, who is the only Black character amongst the teens, is shown as a disturbing stereotype of immigrants from African countries and doesn’t get to have much of a purpose onscreen besides being used to create drama between Omar and Samuel.

One of the main issues with this season of Élite is that rather than standing on its own, as it has for the past four seasons, it seems like the series is attempting to compete with Euphoria. The sex scenes are far more graphic (see the four-minute-long romp between Patrick and Iván). The character aesthetics mimic Euphoria’s, too, to the point where you’d think they’re actually trying to dress like those characters. Similarly, the storyline of Isadora’s dependency on drugs mirrors how Zendaya’s Rue copes with romantic disappointments. It’s as if Élite doesn’t know if it wants to focus on being murder mystery show or sultry teen drama.

With more focus on creating drama rather than centering the season around how Armando’s murder will be handled—and what events lead to the body—Élite loses its charm. There are so many storylines this season that seem directionless. The writers have seemingly forgotten that while some romantic drama creates exciting moments, the biggest appeal of Élite is the central mystery.

By the time the show reveals who’s behind the (possibly accidental) murder of the main character found in the pool—an event connected to Armando’s body being found—the revelation doesn’t feel surprising or heartbreaking. Instead, we’re left wondering: Why did the character go through so much throughout five seasons only to meet their demise in that way?

Élite was once a fun, campy watch that’d have you on the edge of your seat. But the absence of beloved characters from the first few seasons feels conspicuous. While Netflix doesn’t seem to want to get rid of the show anytime soon (it was renewed for a sixth season), it might be time to wrap things up.