Chapter 07: Sun
A New World
The world was divided into two states…until now. Welcome to the season 4 finale of The 3%. It’s been a wild ride up until this point but it all boils down to 75 minutes of action, drama and hidden truths. With the Offshore gone and the Shell all but a distant Utopian dream, all of our characters return to the Inland.
Antonio greets Ariel and the others with warm applause as he tells the crowd that the Offshore will be rebuilt again. Only, someone clearly doesn’t think so as rebels throw Molotov cocktails through the window. They curse the Offshore residents for what happened to the Shell and proceed to stir this volatile cocktail.
Where there’s chaos, there’s opportunity. As we cut back in time to the 28th Process, we see the different Offshore residents discussing the Cause and their growing…cause. Interestingly, with the Founder’s daughter in trouble, the Founder wants to head back to the Inland. That daughter’s name? Tania.
Two Weeks Later
It’s been two weeks since the incident at the Offshore and things aren’t much better with the Inland. With the Offshore gone, Andre exerts his authority and tells them all the 3% are in charge now.
The rest of our ragtag group of survivors take Michele’s death hard. With her body burned, Xavier berates the others and curses them for what they’ve done. Things are worse than ever but now, there’s four factions to contend with rather than two – the Inland, Offshore, militia and the church.
A gunshot forces them to bolt from the rooftop, straight to an old man who may hold the clues they need. Hidden in his house, he tells them his story. As a child he overheard Tania discussing one of her Mother’s mementos that was hidden underground. However, no one else seemed interested in finding out. Given she was the Founding Couple’s daughter, it could be something important.
The Founding Couple
In the past, Lais confronts Tania and shows her the artifact. Unfortunately this orb is taken away from her by soldiers after gunning her down in the street. Keeping up her tough facade, as she hurries away with the orb she struggles to hold back tears.
News of this gets back to the Offshore too, as the various members mourn the loss of Lais. As Patricia steps up, she decides that the Founding Couple need to be more than a person – it has to be an idea.
Back in the present, Rafael returns home and apologises to his Mother. After some initial hostility, she allows him to stay. They discuss the Process and she admits that her life has been a mess since that time. With determination, Rafael decides to head out and bring her kids back.
Natalia and Joana come up with an idea of organizing a large meeting with everyone. Just like in the Shell, if they can co-operate then they can sort out all of their hostilities. This idea couldn’t come sooner either, as Elisa is brought before Andre and Xavier renounces his claim to the Offshore. He finds some recruits and decides to try and kill Andre.
The Final Fight
All the different factions prepare for Joana’s upcoming meeting. Xavier leads the rebels while Antonio and the churchgoers all head in with weapons. As they do, Joana and Natalia find the tombstone and start digging, eventually finding that very same orb we’ve heard about before. Held within the orb are numerous maps, pictures and tests for the Process.
As all the factions stand across the way from one another, Joana approaches with the orb. She tells them all this is from the Founding Couple and presents a way out this mess.
Allowed the stage, Joana turns the contraption on and shows the projections from the Founding Couple. She has a proposal for them all; 6 candidates step forward and take part in one final test to determine the fate of their world.
Veronica, Xavier, Joana, Marcela, Rafael and Andre are the candidates chosen. Handing a gun to Pedro, Andre whispers something in his ear and joins the others in the street.
And The Winner Is…
As the crowds anxiously gather, the six candidates take part in this game of colours and symbols. Each is eliminated one by one until it boils down to Andre and Joana. If Joana wins, she tells them all they’re to destroy their weapons and meet at the Process Building. Not to try and get to the Offshore though, but instead to have a general meeting where everyone is heard.
Joana beats Andre but Pedro shoots the orb out of her hand before it can confirm this to the rest of the world. Andre storms off and tells his troops to be ready in 20 minutes. However, Veronica and Elisa are not so sure this is the right thing to do.
The different factions contemplate whether to join Joana and bicker over whether she won or not. As they do, Rafael sits with Joana on the roof – the proverbial calm before the storm.
As the sun starts rising, Joana, Rafael and Natalia watch as numerous people start marching up toward the Process building. All the different factions – those from the Offshore, Inland, Militia and the Church – all decide in their own way to have their voices heard.
Andre however is unable to deal with this and heads down to the submarine alone. Deciding he’d rather die than play ball, he sinks it to the bottom of the ocean. Andre starts to lose oxygen and as he dies, Michele appears before him and starts stroking his face affectionately.
As the episode – and series – closes out, everyone gathers in the main atrium as Joana decides to let everyone’s voices be heard this time around. Presumably moving forward we’ll be looking at a brave new world.
The Episode Review
As a big fan of The 3%, it’s hard not to come away from this show a little disappointed. Andre’s ending was incredibly weak and allowing him a sweet moment with Michele doesn’t feel right for this antagonist. Him dying alone also doesn’t help and feels incredibly unsatisfying overall.
Having said that, the idea of everyone coming together is a nice one but unfortunately a little too idyllic in this society to work. Conflict will happen no matter what. Also, while we’re on the subject of idyllic scenarios, why is there no comeuppance for what Gloria did to the Shell? She straight up burnt their home to the ground and yet no one actually brings it up again.
The decision to pass the torch over to Joana is a good one but Michele has had such a minor role this season. There’s some nice ideas here but this final series has really failed to hit the same heights those early seasons did.
Personally, it would have been nice to see a big four-way brawl at the end. With lots of casualties on all four sides of the conflict, the emerging candidates could then have stepped forward and took part in their game. With deaths piling up around them, that could have then been used as ammunition to spur the group on.
In terms of ideas, this last season has had some good ones but the execution has been lacking. The extra information about our characters and their past is nice but also something that perhaps should have been given a bit earlier on too. Still, despite all that The 3% has been an enjoyable ride and bows out with a pretty decent final episode.
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Episode Rating
(3)
I was also disappointed about the ending. Ok it ended well. But I wanted that traitor Gloria to die or be known for she has done to the shell. She was evil. She is not to be trusted. I felt bad that Marco didn’t join the gang and decided to leave his son behind all of the sudden that’s was so weird. Las but not least Marco died to nice and sweet. To me they had to shoot him dead or torture him. SORRY.
I enjoyed this season. Especially the complexities of how our characters respond to being on the offshore. I was sad to see the whole series end. Maybe because I’m not religious I had trouble understanding why people with nothing, abandoned by the offshore, still worshipped it. I also didn’t understand why a test, if decided by the founding couple, holds any weight. They clearly were awful people from the start, who cares if they developed one final test. Finally, there was a tiny reference to the test rewarding people cooperating, but the test did not bear that out. I wonder if the ones who were eliminated were to tell their favorite remaining players their own symbols, they could have swayed the final outcome, so that would mean “cooperative?” I wanted to understand why the test was supposed to solve anything except for the apparently luck of who won. Since Joanna stated her dream of a better government others followed the image more than their idea of who won.
I agree, Gloria was a weakly developed character. Over and over she proved untrustworthy, but was eagerly believed each time she switched sides. No explanation as to why. Perhaps it was her looks?? Meanwhile, wish Marco had returned with the gang. He was another complex, yet understandable and ultimately likable character.
Ultimately, I don’t care about the details. It was a fable, with many elements that were silly. For example, how could the guy who shot the artifact have had such good aim? It’s not like he was a trained soldier. I just loved watching the whole series, the expressions of the actors, all superb. The development of the characters and how they changed. The clothing and the scenery were so compelling. Will watch it again in a few years.
I thought the series should have ended with Rafael and Joanna on the rooftop: “as long as it stays quit, we win.” Fade to darkening horizon. Ultimately, that’s the best we can hope for at any given time.
People are way too judgemental about this extraordinarily original and entertaining series which was deceptively symbolic and insightful about the current state we find ourselves in. Capitalism and exceptionalism in the first world serving as a beacon and a mirage for people and countries which need to focus on solving their own problems and building their own unique futures. Factions and in-fighting lead by fanatical and/or sociopathic leaders that undercut progress and propagate cycles of suffering.
The series was imperfect but I felt like that was part of it’s charm. For instance, the goegraphical scope of the program was tiny. What the heck was going on in the rest of the world? I let that concern and others go after a couple of episodes, enjoying the rich characters and the intriguing symbolism of the Process, Offshore,Cause, etc.
I agree, it was a pretty disappointing finale. The lack of comeuppance for Gloria not once, but TWICE in two seasons just seemed absurdly unrealistic. Overall I enjoyed the series, but seasons 3 & 4 definitely felt like it betrayed the morality it was building in the first two seasons, which felt more realistic.
I agree, this ending did not live up to the expectations that the show has set for itself. Andre’s death seemed like they just needed a way to wrap it up nice and quickly.