Elite

Elite

on Netflix

Elite Season 5 Finale Shocker: Are They Really Dead?

at .

Rest in peace, dear one -- if you're truly dead. 

With Elite's sadistic track record of killing off main characters, I shouldn't have been surprised by this season's fatal blow, but it floored me, so much so that I'm not sure it was fatal, after all. Bodybag, or it didn't happen, right?

Spoilers ahead! If you haven't watched, continue at your peril

Elite Season 5 Samuel and Omar (portrait)

I have two theories: Samuel is dead, the cliffhanger cleverly employed to compel us to watch Season 6 (not that we wouldn't anyway) or Samuel is on the brink of death, will live, and will leave Las Encinas for good, Itzan Escamilla exiting the show. 

The latter would be preferable.

Samuel has gone through far too much to die poolside of a head injury. However, that manner of death is eerily similar to that of his Season 1 lover Marina, so it could be a full-circle closure of his storyline.

He fell in love with a girl. She collapsed by a pool, bludgeoned and bloody. He then fell in love with the idea of a father, who did to him what Polo did to Marina, minus the trophy and replacing the precious watch with a SIM card.

Samuel at the auction -- Elite

Both Marina and Samuel stood up and attempted to stumble off, disoriented, before crumpling again to be held by their loved ones. That can't be a coincidence. Rewatch Marina's moving death scene, and you'll see what I mean. 

Samuel never falls for the right people. (Never fell? Let's pretend he is alive until proven dead.)

They all cheat, lie, leave, die, or a lethal combination of the four. He's a good kid with bad luck and tends to get caught up in shady business to protect the people he loves.

Unfortunately, there's far more evidence supporting Samuel's death versus its illusion. For one, the bleak song that played over the last five minutes of the episode, "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" by Soko.

Omar and Rebe cry -- Elite

This song provided yet another parallel to Marina's death scene, during which Matt Maltese crooned "I Hear the Day Has Come" in the background, a similarly haunting song that might as well be a death knell.

The lyrics, "'Cause soon enough we'll die," were on a dreary loop as Omar and Rebeka turned to look behind them one last time, hinting not just that the injury Samuel sustained was fatal but that Omar and Rebeka might say goodbye to Las Encinas as well, Omar Shanaa and Claudia Salas making their own departures. 

Since Samuel and Omar are the only original cast members left, it would certainly be poetic to set the pair free together, though Samuel gets the short end of the freedom stick.

If this is the end of the line for them, I wish their friendship could've been highlighted in a brighter light this season, with less arguing and more laughing like in the old days.

Elite's beginning to feel like Grey's Anatomy, newcomers replacing the OGs at a rapid pace, which can be a hard pill to swallow.

Luckily, most newcomers spice their debut seasons up, growing on me pretty quickly -- not including Phillipe. I was hoping Phillipe would be this season's casualty. 

Further pointing to Samuel's death and Rebeka and Omar's departure is the great divide formed between the family of Benjamin and the found family of Samuel.

In the telling closing sequence, Rebeka punched Benjamin in a fit of rage and in defense of Samuel, who she earlier deemed her best friend. 

Rebeka breaks -- Elite

When Mencia grabbed Rebeka, they shared a look of incalculable intensity that conveyed: this is it. With wide, distraught eyes, they communicated they could never be together again.

It was a wordless severing of their connection.

Lines were drawn clearly on the lawn. Patrick and Mencia stood by their father while Omar and Rebeka knelt by Samuel. Ari was the final tether left to be snipped. Omar held the fateful scissors as Samuel's other overprotective best friend. (Clearly with reason to be.)

When Ari chose Samuel's side, Omar shoved her off him, forcing Ari to return to her family. There's no coming back from that. After all, the episode is titled, Your Side of the World and Mine. It appears that Benjamin's side prevailed.

What is most frustrating about Samuel's probable demise is that he could have avoided it.

Samuel dead -- Elite

If Samuel were less of a compassionate angel worried about ruining Benjamin's life and the lives of his children, he would have turned in the SIM card to the police the second he acquired it.

He wouldn't have walked into the lion's den to hear out Benjamin.

I'm sorry, naive Samu, but what did you think would happen? Benjamin would let you leave with your little schoolboy backpack and skip over to the station to incriminate him?

Samuel was just as desperate for Benjamin's approval as his actual children, but nothing is ever enough for Benjamin. Samuel's faith in him was his downfall, his loyalty to him getting him jail time and a cracked skull.

Yet, even after Benjamin broke his promise to bail Samuel out of jail, Samuel clung to his so-called father figure until Benjamin dashed his false hopes, saying outright that he was not Samuel's father.

Patrick Bloody -- Elite

That's a good thing because Benjamin is an awful parent and deplorable human being.

At least Samuel used his "last" words to blame Benjamin outright.

It may have been an accidental homicide, but if Benjamin had called the ambulance the second Samuel hit his head, Samuel could've made it, given we heard the sirens as Samuel took his ostensible final breath. 

Patrick was at fault, too. I love him, but he should've called an ambulance instead of his sisters. I get he was in shock and thought Samuel was already dead, but, jeez! Mencia was the only one with any sense.

As the minutes counted down, I waited with bated breath for Samuel's corpse to be hauled off in a bodybag or for some irrefutable indication that he was gone, but all we got was tears and rain. 

Omar and Samuel friendship -- Elite

The sky in the show cried more than I did because I was in denial.

Even as the credits rolled, I was sure Samuel was alive, but now, after drawing comparisons to Marina's death scene, I fear we've lost Samuel. If so, I hope his death is appropriately dealt with next season and not brushed under a rug.

There's nothing I detest more than characters immediately bouncing back after tragedy. Maybe they'll erect a memorial in Samuel's honor to remember his happy days.

In my mind, Samuel will remain the giddy, lovesick sweetheart of Season 1 who put up lights in his room to set the mood for when Marina came over. 

What do you think? Is that the end for our original cast members? Is Samuel really dead? Let us know in the comments below. 

Ashley Myers retired from TV Fanatic in May 2022..

Show Comments
Tags: , ,