Élite outstayed its welcome – but its twist ending was a delicious and fitting farewell
Oh how the tables have turned. **Warning: contains spoilers for Élite season 8**
School's not just out for summer at Las Encinas. It's out forever now that Élite has ended with its eighth and final run. For those who have stuck with the show from its heyday right through to its last couple of undeniably dire seasons, watching the teen drama finally come to a close is more exciting than any summer holiday could ever be because, at last, we and the show alike have been put out of our collective misery.
It wasn't always this way, though. Back when Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona first released their collaboration on Netflix in 2018, Élite was thrilling, progressive and massively ahead of its time, especially compared to many of its teen peers. Together with Money Heist, a new era of Spanish language TV took the world by storm... until suddenly, it didn't anymore.
The first three seasons of Élite were, by far, the best, and it helped that they were each connected by an addictive throughline kickstarted by Marina's murder at the hands of Polo. But what followed could never quite match this initial impact. Subsequent seasons introduced tons of new characters with a rehash of the same old themes and, of course, a central murder mystery, but few aside from Patrick (played in a star-making turn by Manu Ríos) actually made us care about them as much as we did our initial faves.
Endless nudity and his demonic twink energy helped, of course, because Élite thrives when it's at its most salacious, but only when the narrative is strong enough to back up all that chaos. That's something seasons 4-7 tended to forget, a few standout moments aside, which might explain why the final run tries so hard to recapture that early glory.
Key to this is the introduction of the Alumni Club, led by two savage new characters named Héctor and Emilia Krawietz. Together, the somewhat incestuous siblings (classic Élite) represent everything that's wrong at Las Encinas: all the petty privilege and incessant cruelty that's blighted the school since day one. Every conflict the students have faced across the years really boils down to this. They are the institution's problems encapsulated in mean-spirited, attractive form.
Héctor and Emilia are fitting foes, then, for Omar, the last original character who was first forced to deal with all of this when he joined Las Encinas as a scholarship student in Élite's very first episode. The problem is that bringing them and the Alumni in now, so late in the day, doesn't work half as well as it could have if the Krawietzes had just been introduced to us earlier.
In fact, any new episodes at all feels superfluous after season 7 wrapped up so many of the show's key character arcs. That's especially true for Nadia, another original character from season 1, whose return doesn't really add anything to the story beyond that initial nostalgia hit. Why bring her back at all in that case, especially given that Nadia already enjoyed a better send-off a few years back?
Season 8, and therefore the series as a whole, ends with Omar uploading damning video evidence online to discredit Héctor and Emilia, ensuring that all their wicked crimes are fully on display for the whole world to see. In doing so, Omar also exposes the corruption that's so deeply rooted in Las Encinas itself, which leads to the school's closure for good. Honestly, it's about time, and we mean that in more ways than one. There's only so many times a student can be murdered at your school before someone complains, after all.
But in one glorious, final twist, the principal sends the students to take their final year exams in a public school, of all places.
Suddenly, the rich entitled brats who once made Las Encinas hell for our fave scholarship students will now suffer the same fate, relentlessly mocked by the same kind of people who they once treated so cruelly. At long last, they'll learn that they're not better than anyone else, that the world does not revolve around them, and these lessons will surely come for these brats in the most humiliating way possible. It's going to be anything but a brat summer where they're concerned.
It's a fitting, even poetic end to Élite, bringing the core of this show's ethos back full-circle (even if the majority of the characters first introduced at the beginning have long since moved on to pastures new).
School is over, then, in every sense of the word, and like so many goodbyes, this one is bittersweet. Élite did outstay its welcome, that can't be denied, but even so, it had been quite a ride. And we're not just talking about all the orgies, either.
You could even say that its persistent, dogged need to hold on for more episodes than it should have is also very befitting of Élite. Because what is this show if not excess personified?
By entering your details, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Élite seasons 1-8 are available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
