Control Z - season 1

A few words after seeing the whole season, these eight episodes, then I’ll write the details as I saw them while watching.

First: it is a good enough show, Mexican. It’s done well enough, the actors are not bad, the protagonist has an interesting face, and the finale… it’s… well, I’ll talk about that at the very end.

Second: Sofi seemed a very interesting character at first, but I was a little disappointed in how she was portrayed in later episodes, I’ll say why at the end.

Third: there are a lot of things left unsaid, which might be okay if they plan a second season though.

1 - La chica del compleaños    

(Being only the first episode, I don’t remember everyone. Sofi and Javier, of course, and Gerry the bully, and Luis the guy who likes to draw, but I don’t recognize many of the others

Sofi is a quiet girl, a Sherlock-type in the sense that she observes a lot and knows lots more than others do. She’s a bit troubled because she lost her father and maybe hurt herself? She has scars on her arm but the matter has not yet been confronted.

She keeps by herself at first, but then the new guy in school, Javier Williams, son of a famous football player, (meaning soccer of course), is assigned to her for a school project and starts sticking to her. At some point, during a school conference on the responsible use of cellphones, a video shows that one girl, Isabella, was actually born Ismael, a boy.

Obviously chaos ensues, her boyfriend leaves her and she’s mocked by the school bullies. Luckily sisters Natalia and Maria remain her friends.

Asked to find out who did it, after being told by him that Paul chose her, Sofi already understands that Natalia took Isabella’s phone, and Gerry uploaded the video. At the end of the episode, Isabella receives messages asking if she wants revenge against the three of them plus Pablo who betrayed her, and of course she says yes. I mean, don’t judge her, a teenager who’s been hurt in her soul, and she must give a reply right away, so she says yes.

2 - Victims

It starts with everyone receiving videos on those kids for the revenge: Pablo is a cheater, Natalia is a thief, Gerry watches gay porn, and Raul’s politician father is corrupt, or a thief, something.

Lulu, the principal’s secretary, is a great, mean gossip, she has fun with all this, and it’s honestly a bit disgusting, she’s a grown woman not a kid, she should be ashamed of herself!

Isabella doesn’t feel good about it, though, she thought she would but that’s the thing about revenge, it doesn’t cancel the hurt. She talks to Sofia and we learn that Sofi spent a month in a psychiatric ward.

Gerry has sex with Rosita but then she leaves him because of the rumours, while his father takes away his computer. He keeps being a bully at school, though, a real shit and there are no excuses for that.

Luis keeps getting bullied, and his mother shouts at the principal in front of everyone because he does nothing to protect her son, but Luis can’t take it anymore and yells that he did it, he’s the hacker.

Raul’s father is in trouble now and he hits his son out of anger, and is not remotely sorry for it.

Sofi is troubled because the principal wants to propose to her mother, then she also receives a message from the hacker saying he knows her secret - pictures of her with the man we saw in the first episode, the one who knew her father and gives her advice on books to read, although I don’t know what’s wrong with that.

3 - Idiots

Sofi tells everything to that man, and apparently it’s serious, he says her mom would never forgive her and he would go to prison… but I still don’t know why, he’s older but they just talk and he gives her book to read that she gives back afterwards… much to learn here.

Natalia tries to sell her stuff to make money for the money she stole and now has to return.

Javier crashes his car stopping Gerry and his two friends who were running after Luis. 

A post from Luis challenging to beat up Gerry has the principal lock Gerry up in a room, but he manages to get out (maybe that rebel girl freed him, I guess), but when Luis shows up he keeps shouting what he reads on his phone, someone wants him to insult the other kids.

Gerry attacks but Natalia goes first, misses and punches another one, then a general fight starts, everyone fighting, and Gerry beating Luis until Javier stops him kicking him, and then Javier and Sofi take Luis away to the car, but Gerry is unstoppable, pulls Luis out of the car and keeps beating until Luis crashes his head on the sidewalk… he’s in a coma now. 

Sofi finds a video on his phone where he admits he didn’t hacker anyone, he was just desperate to leave school.

Raul gets home to an empty house and a note from his parents saying they had to leave.

Sofi’s friend leaves, and she receives another message from the hacker who seems to know everything, and asks to meet up.

4 - Night school

Sofi cries and has an ‘episode’, and starts cutting her ram when mom calls her to go to school.

Gerry’s father is one of those stupid all-muscles-no-brain that thinks it’s okay to beat people up.

Raul is throwing a party. Sofi didn’t want to go but the hacker tells her to go so Javier drives her there.

Maria stick by her sister for support, but Natalia is mean and manages to alienate her too.

Sofi doesn’t meet the hacker, he sends her other messages through a girl and also on her phone, so she has to drink a glass and she kisses Javier. 

Pablo keeps texting Isabella as if he wants her back, and yet he has sex with his other girl (who was she, Maria?)

The hacker is also blackmailing the girl Alex, so Sofi jumps from the roof and into the pool below as he wants. Her girlfriend is older, I think that’s the problem. After Sofi jumps, Javier leaves and Raul hits on her and they kiss, then the lights go out and he goes to take care of it… left alone, she’s about to phone Javier when it looks like she’s attacked from behind.

There’s also drugs at the party, of course, usual stupid shit.

Sofi’s mom refufes to marry the principal because she thinks Sofi is not ready for that, and maybe she isn’t either. Good, it was a bad proposal, she was worried and instead of understanding he was annoyed and irritating. 

5 - Cara a cara

Sofi wakes up tied up to a chair in a room with the hacker wearing a hood and a mask.

She taken home and left lying outside her house.

The principal thinks it’s Sofi’s fault, then everyone receive messages that all their secrets will be revealed at the Nona, the Notte Nazionale (Spanish it up a bit ok? :-p) , and now the Principal is concerned about the wifi but Bruno reminds him that it’s too late, the hacker already has all he needs. 

(Sorry, I know it’s 2020, but it’s normal for a teacher to have a skirt open all the way up? Guess she wants to be notice, since later on she jumps on the principal and has sex with him when Raul sees them… )

Natalia hooks up with that drug dealer from the party, and he loans her some money.

The school is in chaos. Maria leaves Pablo. Gabby leaves Alex. Raul and Javier seem to be in competition for Sofi. She finds the truck that took her and enters his house, and when he comes in and Javier hits him, they see it’s Bruno.

Javier and Raul fight over her. Gerry visits the hospital again, but Luis’ mother sends him away.

She asks Bruno question, but he only took her home, didn’t do the rest. Sofi and Raul leave him alone with Javier and he gets away with his computer. Sofi found Javier’s sticker in the house so now isn’t sure if she can trust him.

6 - ¿Que tanto conoces a Javier?

Sofi and Raul investigate Javier to know more about him. A guy there says Javier killed him, during a rite of initiation, and shows her a video where he had a newbie jump out the window and into a pool, but he ended on the floor instead and died. His dad bought his way out of the mess. 

Sofia then finds her bracelet in his locker.

Raul said nothing about the principal and Susanna to Sofia. Susanna is married and he says he loves Nora, even though he gave her the cold shoulder.

Isabella thinks Natalia is Pablo’s other girl, and Maria hasn’t the courage to tell her the truth. Javier’s father comes to school and pressures him to play football. Maria is not well, and worries she might be pregnant.

So, the man really was her dead, I thought about it but thought it was too crazy… of course it would be hard to forgive, how could anyone do that???

It ends with Sofi going crazy and then running like hell to Raul’s house and have sex with him, and last image we see is of the hacker’s mask under his bed.

7 - Control Z

The previous semester:

When Raul called Sofi a freak, was friends with Gerry and the others, and showed them all the room of riches of his father. Pablo was with Isa and she was friends with Natalia and Maria.

Sofi wasn’t well and Gerry caught her cutting herself with scissors, and Raul started getting messages with pictures of that room, and he thinks his friends send them. The unknown person asks for money and he pays. 

Sofi talked with Raul about being tired and how everyone has secrets and fake lives, then Raul saw who took the money, then he heard Gerry talk about his father being corrupt.

Raul saw Bruno, and asked him if he could hack other phones too, and then he started looking into Sofia’s messages, and saw her meeting her dad, and films the scene. Sofia got sent to a mental clinic after a breakdown. He went to see her there but they kicked him out. He waited for hours, for days, watching her mom come and go, until Sofi was home again. He tried to talk to her but she was cold (fed up, more like it), while Gerry was unpleasant like others. Isabella and Natalia said she was a freak and shouldn’t be allowed in school.

Raul works with Bruno on finding stuff on everyone, hacking their phones, starting with his friends who ‘had it coming to them’.

He was obsessed with Sofi, and approached her dad after sending her those messages, and that was why he left.

Raul had Alex open the door for Gerry, of course, and he sent Luis messages on what to say, and got punched in the face by Natalia, then had Sofi come to his party. After they kissed and the lights went out, he took the mask and a hood and tied her up. He told Bruno to take her home, that he was doing it all for her. He took Javier’s sticker and planted it in Bruno’s house.

Raul helped Bruno escape, of course, and planted her bracelet in Javier’s locker. 

Present:

Sofia is in bed with Raul, and he tells her he’s always there for her.

8 - Enemigo Publico

Raul and Sofia talk to the principal, and Raul blames it all on Javier. The principal calls Javier’s father who takes Javier out of school. The boy is really upset with Sofi for telling he’s the hacker and never trusting him. Raul of course has stuff on the principal too, we knew about him and Susanna. After Javier is expelled, Rosita now wants to do the Nona again. 

Sofi keeps staying with Raul, Gerry talks to Luis’ mom. The principal goes back to Nora, and Raul tells his father he has no intention of selling the house, and sent the police to get him.

Natalia keeps selling drugs to repay her debt, Maria is pregnant.

At the party, things happen: Pablo leaves Maria to deal with the pregnancy by herself, then tries to force Isabella to go back with him, then yells at her that he was cheating on her for months.

Sofi leaves Raul to get him to confess, and he does, and Javier films it all, and they show it to everyone at the party downstairs.

Raul has a fight with Javier, then tries to go away threatening everyone to reveal all their secrets if they don’t let him through, but Pablo attacks him anyway so he clicks and everyone’s secrets get shows on the screen for everyone to see. Big chaos.

Meanwhile, Luis dies and Gerry can’t take it, but when someone texts him about Raul’s confession, he goes to him with a gun, confronts him, but Sofi and Javier try to stop him and Gerry ends up shooting Javier…

Sofi realised only when they were in bed and he said something that he had said already when he had the mask on, although in different words, something like ‘easy is boring’ or whatever. From that, she found clue after clue in his room, and had no doubt. She even accessed his computer, but I guess she couldn’t delete the stuff on his phone… still, with such a big secret as hers, maybe she should have tried, because her secret was revealed too.

When they are facing each other, Raul tells Gerry that Luis liked him (liked Gerry, that is), which sounds ridiculous since Gerry used to make his life hell, because in real life people don’t love their bullies, but still, we can’t be sure it was true at this point, it wasn’t in the video was it? Maybe he said it to screw with him. Who knows. 

Many things left unsaid, first of all about Sofi’s father. Why did he fake his death? Why wait so long before showing up? Only to her though? How come nobody knew he was alive if he stayed at a bar every day? 

Then the obvious questions: are Luis and Javier dead? What happens to Raul? Did Natalia get the money or will she be in trouble with the dealer? What will happen to Sofi’s mom now? and so on…

I was a bit disappointed in Sofi’s character because in the first episode she seemed Sherlock-like smart, and throughout the series she always seem to know everything about anyone, and yet she noticed nothing about Raul? When in episode 7 they showed that he was right there writing to Luis what to say? 

Anyway, the ending was very bitter, which is not great for me, although I understand that it was… coherent with the spirit of the show… still, it’s very bitter, and I’m not very fond of that.