Picture Credits: Netflix
As the eventful finale of the new series from La Casa De Papel creators unfolded, where does that leave our main characters? And are there good chances at a renewal? Here is everything we have compiled about what went down.
As the eighth and final episode, 2 Minutes Without Roxán, opens, the all-encompassing AI, which controls systems in the bunker and successfully created a perfect digital clone, has been shut down successfully by Max and Asia. As panic sets in in the crew of the Kimera underground bunker, the power is soon restored, but Oswaldo, set to transfer 900 million dollars to the fake Guillermo, has seen a Roxan screen flickering on his smartphone. To avoid examining the transaction papers and suspecting a huge-scale scam, Minerva will set up an even more daring scam. This will ensure that his target stays in Bangkok to finalize the transaction and remains confused, keeping him awake and disoriented.
Meanwhile, in the bunker, Frida has to contend with the revelation of her secret: she and Guillermo have been having an affair for the past 28 years. She tells an irate Max about it. Then, as Rafa eventually learns about it, he also comes clean to Frida and Guillermo with a secret of his own: 10 minutes before the accident, an upset Marta had called Rafa and told him she had learned about the illicit affair. Guillermo then blames Rafa for the death of Marta, while the latter says that the revelation “freed her from a miserable life” and blames him in turn.
While having dinner in a restaurant in Bangkok, Oswaldo hears an upset woman being consoled by an elderly local Indonesian. He soon goes over to her and they have a nice conversation ; the woman is none other than Ingrid, tasked with looking over Oswaldo and luring him into a plan. A series of wrong “signs of fate” and match-made-in-heaven ensure the lonely Oswaldo, accustomed to being the eternal no.2 to charismatic Guillermo, will have the best night of his life… and also deprive him of energy. Ingrid leads him to a fake upscale club called Lola, where attendees turn him into a leader of the party and they proceed to play his signature song when a deal closes, Green Day’s American Idiot. All of it, as Minerva explains in voiceover, has been carefully staged with actors.
In the bunker, Max executes his plan to escape and possibly obtain supplies for Mimi, who is sick. Asia knocks out Tirso, the crew member she had befriended earlier, and uses his credentials to steal materials to manufacture a makeshift bomb out of a kettle. The kettle is then placed on a grid, and once it explodes, it also gets Roxán offline again. Minerva gives the go-ahead to Yako to find Max and kill him, as they strongly suspect he is the one who sabotaged the grid. Meanwhile, Max has managed to escape the underground floor and reach the upper level. Yako arrives to find Asia pretending to be asleep next to Tirso; he pulls a gun on her and tries to coerce a confession. But they are interrupted by Minerva, who orders Asia into a nearby room to try to revive Mimi, who had a heart attack.
Above ground, Oswaldo has led Ingrid into his room in the early morning; as they prepare to have sex, the Kimera crew places a fake family call to extract Ingrid from the bedroom. A sweaty, exhausted Oswaldo is then headed to the office of the Indonesian company set to conclude the billion-dollar transaction. Despite Roxan shutting down, the amount is wired onto a fake account belonging to Kimera. While his private plane takes off to bring him back to Spain, Oswaldo notices the elder lady he saw in the restaurant as the face on a commercial billboard; then, he sees that the fake Instagram profile set for Ingrid’s character was taken offline, and search results for the Lola club return no results. He then orders the plane to turn back and land in Bangkok. While the fake Guillermo places a call and tries to calm him down, Oswaldo realizes he has been set up and accuses Guillermo – accurately – of being a virtual “fake” and contacts the financial authorities in Spain. While he is in the street and contacting the police, Ingrid and Kimera’s henchman, Luca, chase him and eventually catch him. Luca placates Oswaldo and discreetly breaks his neck, and hangs up his cellphone.
In the bunker, Yako unsuccessfully chases Max as he makes his way up the bunker, with access to the security system on a tablet he stole from a hostess on the upper floor. He keeps in contact with Asia through an earpiece, while she tries to revive Mimi alone. Yako and guards shoot the elevator while Max, in a hazmat suit, successfully escapes. He reveals to Asia he didn’t make his decision for Mimi but “for himself” as reuniting with his family has been disastrous ; Asia then reveals she has held feelings for him all along. Max makes a promise that if there is life out there, he will come back to find her. The season closes as the elevator door opens and sunlight blinds Max, while he finds himself in an undisclosed location in Spain.
Will Billionaires’ Bunker be renewed? How well is it performing so far?
As the series is one of the most ambitious projects produced for Netflix in Europe, Billionaires’ Bunker will need to be seen by a large global audience and remain in the Global Top 10 to stand a good chance of renewal.
How well is the show performing so far? We received the first statistics for the series on September 21st, ranking #2 in the Non-English TV charts for the week of September 14th to 21st, with 27.2 million viewing hours, equivalent to 3.7 million completed views. That’s in addition to featuring in the daily top 10s of 90 countries.
Stacking up the first week’s performance against other shows, you can see that it falls around the middle of the pack compared to other Spanish-language debuts and is certainly far below Pina’s other series, Berlin. Arguably, this is quite a low start given the marketing oomph and breadth of talent behind and in front of the camera. We’ll have to keep an eye on this week-to-week, but it’s not a slam dunk just yet.
Story-wise, the series is definitely left open: we don’t know if Max will remain a fugitive from Kimera, as he needs to realize that the nuclear apocalypse was a front, and also find help outside. In the bunker, we’re uncertain whether Asia’s freedom is secure, even if he manages to revive Mimi. It is assumed that Minerva, through the con job of Oswaldo, now has a good chunk of Guillermo’s fortune, but there are other very wealthy individuals within the group. A potential red herring could be devising even more daring plans to separate them from their money in future episodes.
As for cocreators Esther Martínez Lobato and Álex Pina, they have been asked about the potential for a season 2. Pina answers that they “have definitely thought about it”, even though “they have not planned much further” about the future of the series in a video interview with Spanish media eCartelera below (English dubbing is available, question comes around 7:40)
In an interview with Spanish website Espinof, Pina gets more pointed: “We have thought about how to start things back again, since we had to do it in order to write the season finale. So what happens immediately afterwards is laid out, as well as ideas on how to get even more mean and hardcore. What we have not thought about yet is how season 2 would be mapped out.”
Did you enjoy Billionaires’ Bunker? Do you wish for more seasons? Let us know in the comments below!
