In other words: sex, drugs and school exams... Not bad, well done, intriguing, but sometimes it's a bit... too much. Like those telenovelas where everything happens to them. There is school drama, sex, theft, sex, blackmail, sex, murder... you get the idea. These rich kids who have everything seem to only have sex to spice up their lives, like they're already at the end :-/
This is one of those shows where lots of things happen to lots of characters, all of them intertwined. Sometimes even too much. There's lots of drama, that's for sure. I can't say who is my favourite character, and this is a first. I thought I'd like Nadia (she's called like me ^_^) but... not really. At the end I think I can say that my favourites would be Omar and Ander, if the first was not an (ex?) drug dealer and the other was a bit more... I don't know, just more. As it is, they are my favs only compared to the others in this show, but not in general.
1 - Bienvenidos
It’s devided in two timelines. In one, there’s an officer questioning Samuel and Christian, found on the crime scene with blood on them, and also Nadia. It’s not clear yet what happened, but at the end we see that Marina is dead… figured, one girl acting decent :-/
The rest is basically a very long flashback that will tell us how they got to that present:
A school roof went down, so our protagonists have to change school. To make ‘amends’ without too much trouble, the constructor responsible gives out three scholarship that go to Samuel, Christian and Nadia. The new school is very posh and only rich people go there, so they’re immediately targeted.
Nadia is forced by the school to stop wearing her hijab in class; Guzman keeps mocking Samuel while his sister Marina seems to like him. Christian is not bothered by their snob behaviour, and keeps putting himself out there, but Lu’s friend Carla seems to find him nice.
Nano, Samuel’s brother, is out of jail and immediately rides his bike to the constructor’s house to write on the wall that he’s a thief, and Christian makes friends with Ander, the headmistress son, by taking him to a guy who sells him some kind of drug to smoke.
Nadia sees Guzman and Lu having sex in the showers in school, so now she could get them in trouble.
Marina’s father is none other than the constructor who saw Samuel and his brother on the security cameras. He tells his daughter to invite them to her party because he wants to take pictures with them for his image.
At the party, Ander throws up on Lu’s dress, Christian chats with girls, Samuel looks uncomfortable unless he’s with Marina, and Nadia keeps on her own. Lu suggests Guzman hits on Nadia, makes her fall for him so they’ll be able to take her down.
Christian has sex with Carla while her boyfriend Polo watches unseen (not cheating, though. Polo suggested it).
Marina is angry at her parents for never talking to her, for treating badly Samuel and his friends only because of Pablo (I think), because apparently she fell in love with a guy outside her social status and now she’s hiv positive.
When the guys leave, Nano comes to take them home, and Guzman shouts at them. Nano shouts back and hits him with a punch. Guzman yells that he’ll lose the scholarship so Nadia goes to him, to tell him that Samuel is a good guy but she’s not, and if he has Samuel expelled she’ll talk of what she saw in the showers.
Marina goes to Samuel’s house in the morning to tell him he can go to school because Guzman won’t say a word, and she talks with Nano since Samuel is still asleep.
Ander, I think, got a blind date through the internet with a guy, but when he gets there it turns out it was the guy who sold him the drug. As soon as they see each other, the guy runs away. (I think he’s Omar, Nadia’s brother. It’s always hard for me with first episodes like this introducing lots of characters, I forget names and faces, but I tried hard and I’m almost sure.)
2 - Deseo
The cop questions the others as well. Lu speaks of the new guys like another species that disrupted her world, that they should never have come to their school. When they question Polo after Carla, she tells him they suspect Guzman. Guzman speaks lovingly of her, and she tells him that Marina was pregnant.
They must do a social-media project in pairs. Christian wanted to ask Carla but since she’s with Polo he asks Ander instead. Nadia wanted to do it with Samuel but he goes straight to Marina, so she accepts when Guzman asks to pair together.
Samuel got Nano a job as a chef where he works as a waiter. He likes spending time with Marina, and she talks of having proof that it was her father’s fault for using poor quality materials in his constructions.
Ander buys another joint from Omar, and then they talk and kiss, but after a while Ander feels uncomfortable and goes away. Guzman saw them together. After talking to Christian he tells Ander’s father about the drugs, and his dad wants him to stop. Ander is angry at Guzman for it.
Nadia wants to keep her time with Guzman to a minimum, only working at school and not outside, but Guzman dares go to her family shop and talk to her father, who is not at all pleased.
Guzman then asks Christian about Omar after seeing her with Nadia, saying Ander told him about him, and Christian tells him about the drugs… (an idiot if you ask me). Guzman almost fights with Christian because of Carla, his friend’s boyfriend, so Polo has to tell him what they are doing, and Guzman is appalled, tells him to think about it because what if Carla falls for him? Polo tells her to stop, but she wants to keep going, and swifts his attention with sex. Later she has Christian come to her house, but when Polo arrives, instead of watching from the shadows he walks forward and tell everything to Christian. He seems upset mostly at how he treated her, letting his girlfriend have sex with someone else, and she’s very angry at Polo for it.
Lu tells their professor Martin to stop giving Nadia too much attention, because it’s not Nadia who pays his salary…
Nano watches Samuel’s videos of Marina, where she speaks of her father. He gives some men from the jail, those who protected him, a lot of money, 40.000 euros, and now they harass him and he’s worried because they scared his mother too. He wants to steal Marina’s father documents. Samuel offers to get them and asks Marina to keep studying at her house.
Nadia goes to Guzman’s house to study as well, and Lu sees them together, laughing. Her dad calls her and she says she’s with Samuel, so she goes in search of him and he’s forced to stop. Her dad though understands she wasn’t at his house and is upset that she lied, and thinks that school is changing her.
Nano is angry that Samuel doesn’t want to take the documents anymore because he says he likes Marina.
3 - Sabado noche
Christian cries, swearing that it wasn’t Nano. Nano says that they wanted to run away together because he was the father of her baby, but she was dead when he arrived to get her.
Since mom is out, Samuel plans a party and Omar and Nano help him set it up on his phone.
Guzman explains to Ander that he doesn’t hate drugs only because someone drugged Marina in the past, but also because his biological parents died years ago of overdose.
Guzman goes to Nadia to ask the party address to check on his sister, and let’s be honest, he was kind of right, the girl is wild, drinking and stripping. She says she simply smoked with Pablo, he didn’t want to hurt her, and he got infected sleeping with rich girls, not poor ones.
((ok, but they are sixteen now, and they talk like they’ve been sleeping around for years. Is there anyone anymore in the world who values childhood?)
Samuel tells Nadia there a not-alcoholic drink, because he believed his brother but there is wine and she gets drunk.
Guzman fights with Ander because he saw him taking some stuff, and Ander gets angry at him, Christian and Omar too.
Nano hits on Marina and they go to her house and have sex. He tries to take the documents but is stopped when Guzman arrives (but doesn’t see him).
The police stops the party. Nadia wants to go to Guzman’s pool with him. She swims and acts seductive, but Guzman realises she’s not herself, and calls her a taxi.
Nadia’s sister was a drinker, wanted to play the good life, and ran away at 18 and they never knew anything about her. Marina says that they are 16 and that is the right age to lose themselves. (I beg to differ, 16 is the age to have friends and have fun in stupid little ways, like you won’t be allowed anymore once you grow up.
Ander wants more drugs and is out of his mind, asking random guys on the street, and Omar takes him away and tells him they should never see each other again.
Marina tells Samuel she’s hiv positive, and he tells Nano. He goes talk to her, and she says that she’s getting cured and she’s not contagious.
Carla and Polo invite Christian to their new house and they talk all together, and offer a threesome, and they do it.
Jealous, Lu tells Nadia that Guzman only wanted to get her virginity to put her in her place, and she’s very upset. He wants her to forgive him.
4 - El amor es una droga
Pablo left the school two years ago after the thing with Marina. Prof Martin says Marina’s parents paid him, they didn’t want the police involved. Two years ago there was also a fight, between Pablo and other students, one of them was Ander. With Polo and Guzman, they beat Pablo up. Guzman beat him more than anyone, but Ander doesn’t say that, to protect him.
Lu is angry because now Nadia is first of the class, not her. Here she’s kind of right, because that school sucks more day after day: prof Martin says they use this method: there is a first and a last, the rest are all in between, because there can be only one on top, which is complete and utter bullshit because there isn’t only one job in the world! There’s only one top stair on a ladder, yes, but the world is full of ladders to climb! Unbelievable.
Lu, which is short for Lucrezia, is upset with the prof now, and after a bit of social media research she figured out that his wife wants to adopt, to have children, and Lu’s father could make it all easier for him, if he only made her the first of the class (which she is, according to her). So he changes the votes and makes Lu the first of the class.
The scary guys want Nano to shoot a man in the legs as a warning, since he still hasn’t paid then.
Carla buys Christian a new suit and wristwatch.
Guzman let out that he sees Nadia without hijab at school, so now she has to tell her father the truth. He tells her again to not let them change her.
Guzman’s father hosts a charity party or something. Carla is there with both her boys, Lu arrives alone, Samuel comes to meet Marina but he’s not on the list because her parents didn’t want him, so she says he’s her boyfriend and pulls him in. Guzman (accidentally?) rips his suit, so he probably can’t give it back anymore, and he gets angry and goes out because she’s using him to rebel against her parents. They talk a little bit and then she kisses him…
Polo and Christian sort of bond over parents making them feel like nothing (both his parents and Polo’s mothers, and also Carla’s mother the marquees). The three of them leave the party together, and Carla lets her mom see her kissing both boys.
Ander makes a new profile to contact Omar again, and then tells him he wanted to see him and go all the way, so they hide at the party, but both Samuel and Guzman see then kissing. Samuel is upset Omar didn’t tell him, but when later he says “I know” Omar thinks he’s talking about the drug dealing, and they fight about it.
Nadia wears the hijab Guzman gave her and seems to have forgiven him. Now they talk about being friends, and she starts liking him.
Guzman confronts Ander on his many lies, saying he doesn’t care that he likes boys, just doesn’t want him to keep lying, and Ander loses it, says it’s years he keeps lying. He’s a star tennis player, and he hates tennis, and start crying.
Nano tried to do what they told him, but when Omar introduces him to the guy he can’t do it. Fer is the one who gives Omar the drugs to sell, because he says he has a family to support, so Nano tells him to run away, but those man get him and shoot him instead, and injure Nano. Marina is at his home when he gets there, but doesn’t tell anything to Samuel.
5 - Todos mientes
Carla and Marina were best friends when they were little.
Carla continues her threesomes with both boys. Polo offers Christian a job as a model. When Carla learns about it, she jokes that he likes to see him naked or something.
Marina is with Samuel now, but also wants to help Nano, so she tells him how to rob Carla’s father’s watch collection, and he does.
Prof Martin has Nadia read out loud a text on Samuel’s phone, and it’s about Marina’s HIV, and Guzman gets angry, nobody knew. Nadia reacts in a bad way, really, telling Guzman that they are so different, after what he did and then his father using drugs and his sister being positive, she acts all judgemental here like she’s all better because she never got herself in a bad situation… she forgot already when she got drunk I guess. She didn’t want to, but still she did. Upset, he tells her that her brother deals with drugs and like… let’s say boys.
Nadia confronts Omar on the drugs, and he says he’s going to quit (really? I hope so) and also regarding the other thing… and she’s all ‘you’ll have to separate yourself from our parents, after all they did for us’… well, and she was the one saying ‘you can talk to me’ just a second ago… she tells him he should wait a couple of years to follow that road, and he tells her he’s not made of ice like her… When Omar next meets Ander, Guzman and Polo are there and Guzman gives them his ‘blessing’ as long as he stops with the drugs, and Omar runs away scared, saying they’ll never ‘be together’ because of his family.
Marina tells Samuel she wants to do ‘it’, and he’s worried because he’s still a virgin, but their firs time doesn’t go exactly well as he hoped it would. He’s angry when Nano tells him about the watches. Right after, Marina calls Nano and they do it too - we can guess, we see them kissing, and she later avoids Samuel. She takes drugs and gets sick.
Christian is upset when he can’t do the audition, Polo didn’t put his name in. He seems jealous of Carla and Christian again.
6 - Todo va a salir bien
The cop shows Nano a test Marina never sent: she couldn’t go with him.
Marina’s father gets arrested, it must have something to do with the stolen watches. Carla and Polo think Christian stole them and he’s rightly angry at it. Carla tells Marina that there’s a usb in one of the watches, with important documents. He keeps it and gives the bad guys the other watches. Both brothers find out she’s pregnant, four weeks old, but she can’t tell Samuel about Nano. When Samuel suspects, Nano denies it.
Guzman’s family has no more money, they’re bankrupt.
The headmistress catches Marina’s drugs, and Marina is forced to give away Omar’s name. Ander denies it was him, but it’s not enough. Ander is angry at her for involving Omar. Now Omar is in lots of trouble. His parents are out of their mind. They took Omar’s cellphone and Ander can’t see him anymore.
Lu suspects Marina’s involvement in the theft, and Carla now considers it.
Nadia gives Marina the name of a clinic where she can get an abort. Nadia’s sister went there. Marina goes with Nano for support, but at the end they don’t do it. Nano says he wants to go away with her.
Polo gets Christian another audition, this time going with him. Later on, he wants to stay alone with him, and they get a bit intimate, on the promise that Polo’s mother decides who gets the front page. Next day though, Polo denies it being so simple, and calls Christian a whore. Christian tells it all to Carla. She’s very upset, because Polo lied to her.
Marina tells Nadia about the scholarship already being decided. Martin cancels the adoption. During a test, Martin is worried about Marina and Samuel thinks he’s the father and Martin gets fired. Lu gets suspended for two months.
7 - Todo estalla
Samuel helps Nano blackmail Carla’s father for the watch, but he won’t give in. Carla warns Marina about it, in a threatening sort of way, but Nano insists.
Nadia and Lu talk, and Lu says that they were the same, wanting to be on top, but they were both outsmarted by Marina who after them is the best of the class. Guzman tries to find the money to bail his father out of prison, but with no luck. When Lu confronts him because he doesn’t answers her calls and tests, he tells her that he’s in love with Nadia.
Omar’s father wants to set him up to marry the daughter of some friends. He asks Nadia’s help and she finally gives him Ander’s letter, and also her phone to go meet him now, and she’ll cover up for him. So he goes to him, they have some time together and Ander says he loves him, but mom comes home early and sees them kiss while Omar is leaving. Both parents tell him that they’re ok with it, but still press him with the tennis, then mom understands he’s the same one who used to sell drugs. Nadia helps breaking up the arrangement.
Ander asks his mom to help Omar with his father, then Guzman asks her to help Nadia with his father who wants to keep her out of the school the next year. She talks to the man but he takes it badly and storms into the classroom right before an exam to drag her away. She yells at him letting escape that Omar is gay… Lu wanted to take the test but the headmistress kicks her out and Marina laughs. Omar has no chance but to deny it, so his dad presses again for a wife.
Somehow Guzman bails his father out and when he’s home, he knows from Carla and her father about Marina and confronts his daughter, who starts yelling at her whole family that she’ll make a new life with her child and Nano, the father. Guzman calls Polo and Ander and goes to beat him up. There are other guys there, and the fight turns bad, and three have to run away. Polo actually fought more with Christian than Nano. Guzman finds refuge in Nadia’s shop, while Ander tries to hide but is found and beaten, and Omar finds him and tells him he loves him.
8 - Assilah
Samuel is attacked in his own home while Nano was out planning his escape with Marina. Nano tells Samuel about it. They were looking for the watch, but Marina has it. Samuel talks to Guzman, but he knows it’s her fault and is fed up. Marina half tells Carla that she has the watch.
Nadia wants to go to the school party and Omar insists to let her go, so their dad wants to go all together. At the party, Marina dance alone, Christian and Ander put alcohol in the punch. When Nadia’s family arrive, Guzman promises her father that he’ll stay away from her if he lets Nadia stay in school. Omar meets Ander. Carla asks Christian to open Polo’s locker, giving him Marina’s locker number instead. He understands though, and doesn’t do it. She’s not angry though.
Marina wins the scholarship. She apologises to everyone she hurt and goes away, takes the watch and the trophy and waits by the pool. Samuel begs her not to run away with Nano, she barely knows him. They kiss but she refuses. He goes away. Polo goes to take the watch for Carla, and they have a bad fight, and Polo hits her on the head and leaves her there. He meets Carla and Christian afterwards and gives her the watch, and Carla hurries to help him wash.
Nano arrives that she’s still alive, but not for long. Samuel sees Nano running away and finds her dead.
Carla says they always protect each other in her world, like Polo did for her, and it wouldn’t have been necessary if he had opened that locker.
And now we are to the present.
Polo repeats to the police the story Carla gave him.
AT the funeral, Ander tells his dad he doesn’t want to play tennis ever again. Guzman hugs Polo like a brother. He’s breaking, but Carla wants to help him because he helped her.
Omar and Ander meet during the ten minutes his dad goes to the bank. Nadia wants to go back to the school without conditions, being herself hoping they’ll still love her.
The cop arrest Nano. Lu stops Guzman from attacking Samuel with a bottle. Then she stops Guzman from killing himself.
