The Scholarship
In the aftermath of the blackout party, episode 6 of Elite Season 3 begins with both Rebeca and Carla getting ready for the day ahead. Samuel confronts Carla about her night but Rebeca arrives and immediately gives him the cold shoulder. Lu helps Carla cheat on the test before declaring afterward that she owes her an A on the test. As Lu leaves, Samuel watches as she heads into the bathroom and buys drugs off Valerio. This is one step too far for Samuel who kicks Valerio out of his flat and tells him to pack up. Omar makes amends with his sister and admits he has serious faults. As the results of the scholarship comes in, it turns out Nadia won and Lu congratulates her personally, going on to tell her that out of all the people to lose to – she’s the only one she doesn’t mind as much. Amidst all this happiness, and with graduation 3 days away, Ander receives some bad news and learns he needs to continue chemo. Guzman gets the text through with a thumbs down and he immediately realizes what this means. Samuel spills the truth about Valerio around campus, telling Polo about him dealing to Carla and still doing drugs. That evening, as he and Cayetana return home, Polo confronts him about the drug money and buying his way into college. Meanwhile, Omar and Malick continue to hook up in private while Carla continues to mask her feelings in drugs and sex. Stuck in a tough situation, Nadia is given a marriage proposal out the blue by Malick, which she finds herself begrudgingly accepting while her Father is nearby. As she heads to school and tells Lu what’s happening, she tells Nadia to grow some balls and confront him; accept the scholarship and go to New York alone. Hearing this encouragement and empowerment from her rival is enough for Nadia to throw her arms around her and hug Lu. While the party begins, Ander sees messages on Omar’s phone about his hook-up, with messages from Malick telling him he can leave Ander if he wants. At the same time, Guzman tries in vain to encourage Samuel to head to the party while Nadia confronts her parents about Malick and her scholarship. She tells them she’s going to New York but promises to come back, no longer the girl they want her to be. Feeling empowered, she heads to the party and gets Lu to sign the scholarship deal with her, meaning they both get to go to college but must split the budget between them. It’s a really touching moment and one that sees Lu return the favour and hug her back. Drugged up, Carla confronts Yeray around the “arrangement” she finds herself stuck in and tells him it’s just another nail in the coffin. Despite him telling her it’s just work and nothing to do with her relationship, she laughs it off and keeps drinking herself into oblivion. Meanwhile, Ander arrives at the party and confronts Malick over the text messages he’s sent Omar. He asks whether they’re in love and he honestly replies “I don’t know”. As Ander walks away, he tells Malick not to make their conversation public. Back home, he sits with Omar and presumably lies, telling him he’s been with Alexis and cheated on him, breaking up with Omar and forcing his hand. Ander kicks Omar out the house and tells him to stay with Samuel, rolling over and sleeping as Omar calls him a son of a bitch and leaves. Unbeknownst to him, Ander weeps silently over this betrayal. Back at the party, Polo saves Carla who passes out from her heady cocktail of drugs and alcohol, scrambling to pluck her out from the pool and pleading with the group to call an ambulance. In the morning, Rebeca decides to give up the drug selling after seeing its effects first-hand while Polo, enraged by Carla passing out, tries to hit Valerio. However, Samuel jumps in at the last second and pummels Polo to the ground. Unfortunately the commotion brings Azucena out from her office, where she finds the drugs on the floor, right infront of Rebeca. In the future, Rebeca is approached by Samuel who pleads with her to hire someone to scare Polo. She refuses though and as we skip ahead to her interview, she admits that there was a person who went in the bathroom after Polo – Samuel. With the scholarship playing a big part of the early drama in this series, the conclusion to this is finally revealed in a surprisingly touching and well written manner. Nadia and Lu have always had a rivalry, right the way back to the first episode of the first season and seeing this spill all the way over to this season where the two start to coexist and surprisingly form a friendship together is testament to the good work done by the writing team. The real victim this episode though is Ander who finds himself losing everything he held dear thanks to the leukemia. Unfortunately temptation has been too much for Omar this season and it’s a shame to see this descend the way it has, especially given how he’s always presented himself as the pure part of this relationship in the past. Carla meanwhile has it really rough too and seeing her admit the truth to Yeray does raise big question marks over the future episodes and their relationship. For now though, Elite continues its melodramatic journey and quite who killed Polo is perhaps the biggest question hanging over this one now.
