Previously on Rebelde Way: We are the 99%! Or, more accurately, they are the 1%, but they’re occupying Elite Way anyway. Some random judge came out of nowhere to FINALLY investigate this shady-ass school, and we left off with him going to view Elite Way’s account books.
We open with the kids recapping all the events that led up to this point, which is weird because honestly, of all the plotlines that have happened in this show, this one is probably the least convoluted. Like, why can’t one of them recap who the fuck Blas was supposed to be? I still don’t really understand that one.
Anyway, we also find out that they have somehow now had their final exams and none of them flunked. Great. Wait, are you telling me that FINALS WEEK has passed between the end of last episode and now? Apparently no real drama happened with the discovery of the account books; instead, now Elite Way’s just mired down in a complex legal investigation that involves a bunch of dudes in suits looking at papers. Huh. That’s surprisingly realistic.
So it’s now the last day of school, and Lujan’s voiceover dramatically informs us that this is it: what will be Elite Way’s destiny? What will become of all of them? I mean, none of you are going on to your senior year, that’s for sure.
In the meantime, Miranda has come back to school. His employment is still up in the air, but apparently they’re going to find out the judge’s decision today. On the final day of school! What a coincidence! He says that he’ll stay and fight if he has to, but if all goes well, his work here will be done and he’s going back to Barcelona. The kids say they’ll miss him, as he’s one of the few adults who’s supported them. Aw, have they forgotten Martavio already? Anyway, Miranda and the kids exchange heartfelt speeches about how he has been touched, and he’s pretty sure he’s touched them. Then Michi comes in and tells Miranda that ~someone~ is waiting for him. Miranda tells the kids that, while he’s busy, he’s tasking them with organizing the end-of-the-year ceremony. Yeah, let’s just throw it together within the next three hours. That’s how organizing events works.
Miranda brings Vico to see his mysterious visitor, who turns out to be Vico’s dad. He’s apparently planning to start working with a psychologist that Miranda knows so that he can stay sober. He and Vico hug it out…again. You know, just like they did the first time that Vico’s dad gave her a speech about getting sober…? Anyway, Vico relates the good news to Feli and Mia. Mia is skeptical, which, like, what is the point of this? It’s the last fucking episode! There is literally no more time for Vico’s dad to be abusive again! Were they expecting to do a third season or something?
Lujan frets to Marizza that she doesn’t know about inviting her current boyfriend to school where he could possibly run into her ex-boyfriend. She admits that she hasn’t chosen between Marcos and Mauro, and snipes that Marizza can’t judge her, since she’s all stressed out over Pablo. The music gets all soft and Marizza gets all sappy about how she never doubted how she felt about Pablo. She just doubted, you know, whether she should trust him over his weird stepbrother who groped her at their first meeting. Anyway, this is launches us into a flashback of Pablo and Marizza making out back in season 1. Mildly spicy opinion, but that high ponytail did not really work for Marizza.
Pablo asks Mia if she’s up for doing a final Erreway show at the year-end ceremony. Yeah, I bet the fifth years who are graduating don’t want to celebrate their own achievements or listen to their own music. Mia of course says no, because as we know, THERE MUST ALWAYS BE FOUR. Pablo says he prepped a backing track with Manuel’s vocals on it which is like…so sad. Did the Spice Girls just stand there awkwardly while recordings of Ginger Spice’s lines played when they toured Forever? Just sing his lines yourself, Pablo.
Outside, the girls are cleaning the stage while the boys fuck around and make small talk. Glad to see nothing’s changed after 318 episodes! Then Agustina rolls up and tells Francisco that her father, Nicolas Cage, is gonna come fuck him up for being mean to her. Francisco tells her to grow up and stop hiding behind her dad. Agustina decides to prove that she’s grown by sticking her tongue down Francisco’s throat. I…kind of suspected this was coming from the last episode, but also, WHAT? Have the two of them even had a full conversation before these last couple of episodes? And Jesus, Agustina, from Guido to Francisco? Love yourself.
Marizza calls Mauro to the school, then drags him, Lujan, and Marcos together and tells Lujan to choose. Lujan is like, “Wow, awkward.” Mauro understandably thinks this is BS and peaces out. Marcos self-flagellatingly tells Lujan to go after Mauro if she wants to, and Lujan does. Marcos is emo, but then Lujan comes in like 2 seconds later and is like, “Haha jk.” Avril Lavigne gently plays in the background as she and Marcos make up. Surprisingly, Marcos manages to mostly accurately recap how his family was super fucked up at the beginning of the season, and he lost his head and pushed Lujan away. I mean, of course he doesn’t really acknowledge that he bleached his hair and started thinking he could do better, but I’m mildly impressed that they managed to kind of remember how this all started. Anyway, Lujan says that she still wants Mauro’s help with the orphan house, but like, platonically — and she wants Marcos’s help, too. They walk off arm-in-arm, talking about getting married and having 10 kids. I mean…you know what, it’s the last episode, so I will merely say that this is sweet and I’m still a sucker for these two even though they will totally break up again in college, even if temporarily.
I will say I’m also surprised by how early this scene came in the episode? I’ve seen it a few times in clip compilations, and I always assumed there was more buildup to it. But no. Well, anyway, let’s keep wrapping this shit up.
Pablo tells Miranda that, after the whole showdown in the last episode, Papa B hopped on a plane and hasn’t been seen since. That’s…anticlimactic. Miranda asks Pablo how he’s holding up, and Pablo’s like, “I’m not okay (I promise).” He refuses to talk about his feelings, though, as teenagers are wont to do, and instead runs off to keep working on the year-end show.
Lalo tells Feli that the University of Barcelona has offered Miranda his old teaching job back, which means that he no longer needs Lalo to type up his political rants, which means Lalo is unemployed once more. Feli wails on a bit about what are they going to do and how could this happen to me, but THEN she sits down and says that she’ll just have to get a job. Finally, FINALLY, in the last 40 minutes of this entire show, Feli shows some initiative. God bless. Lalo shuts her down, though, saying that he doesn’t want her to give up her studies. He’ll just work 3 jobs! It’s fine! Ugh. I bet Lalo is one of those weird dudes who doesn’t want his girlfriend to have a separate bank account because that’s like, proof that they don’t ~trust~ each other.
Pablo approaches Marizza about having an Erreway reunion, claiming that it’s Mia’s idea. He says that he doesn’t think they should do it, knowing that Marizza will disagree just to spite him. And she does. Hee. He has her number. Pablo waltzes off, and Laura asks why Marizza doesn’t just kiss and make up with him. “He’s hurt me too much!” she dramatizes. Sure, because Marizza has never been inflexible or unsupportive in this relationship, ever. Actually, I was rereading some old recaps in ~preparation~ for this episode, and — remember how Marizza used to pressure Mia into forgiving Manuel, because if you really love someone you should stand by them and forgive them for everything? Apparently your boyfriend only deserves forgiveness if he cheats on you and assaults you, not if he struggles with extricating himself from his abusive father. Also-also, it’s really weird that Marizza is acting like the victim, because Pablo only refused to get back together because she didn’t trust him while he was double-agenting. Oh, well. I guess Marizza gaining more than an iota of self-awareness was too much to ask.
Papa C comes back to Casa Colucci with a bunch of airplane tickets. He and Sonia cheerfully tell Hilda that they’re taking a family trip instead of a honeymoon, and she’s invited. Hilda is all teary at the idea of having a new family and they all hug it out. Aw. (Although, how incredibly weird for Mia and Lujan, who are not nearly as close to their ex-history teacher as Marizza is.)
Pablo tells Mia that conveniently right before boarding his plane, Manuel had a brainwave and remembered everything. “And he still didn’t stay?” Mia asks. “He’d already gone through TSA, Mia, nobody wants to go through that shit for nothing,” Pablo doesn’t say. Mia is all salty that Manuel still left and storms off.
She runs into Marizza, who tells her that she agreed to do the Erreway reunion, just like Mia wanted. Mia’s like, “Say what?” Marizza realizes that Pablo played her, and Mia remarks that Pablo knows Marizza too well. And I guess that…makes Marizza decide to forgive him?* Because then she runs off looking for him, directly leading to their reconciliation a couple of scenes later.
*This does track, though, since another trope this show likes is “If someone makes you angry or tricks you, that means it’s true love, because they know your personality well enough to manipulate you.” Make of that what you will.
Marcos, Guido, Tomás, and Francisco sit around and talk about how awesome it is that they all have girlfriends in time for the finale. Then Pablo rocks up and they’re like, “Damn, sucks to be the lone single guy in the room now.” They tell Guido to put on some music to help lift the mood, but Erreway’s CD is in the stereo — of course it is — and it starts playing “Dije audios,” which of course just sends Pablo into a bunch of Marizza-related flashbacks. Nice going, Guido.
Pablo’s reverie is interrupted by a call from his dad’s secretary, saying that Papa B has returned from wherever the hell he was. Pablo decides to go to Casa Bustamante to see him. Tomás is like, “This doesn’t seem like a good idea to me?” but Pablo’s like, “Maybe my father’s changed!” I…you know what? Sure. Go ahead and try to save your dad one last time, Pablo, but you better speedrun your realization about his true nature, because we only have half an hour left.
Sonia and Papa C come to Elite Way because neither of them have real jobs. They tell Mia that they’re taking a family vacation — to Mexico! To see Manuel! They’re like, “We’re gonna take you to see your amnesiac ex-boyfriend who abused you before his brain damage and emotionally gutted you by not remembering you! Surprise!” Like, look, even if they think Mia should suck it up and learn to face Manuel, that’s a shitty thing to spring on her without any notice. Anyway, Mia does not react well, so Sonia goes on a rant that I honestly didn’t manage to catch. I think she’s ranting about how they won’t go to Mexico after all, because how dare Manuel not remember Mia and Sonia will string him from the tallest tree. Except then they tell later tell Marizza and Pablo about the trip, implying that they’re still going, so I don’t know what the point of this is. (Of course, as we know, Manuel and Mia reunite at the end of this episode, so it’s actually all pointless anyway.)
Luckily for Lalo and Feli, Papa C swoops in and offers Lalo a job working at his factory. He’s like, “You have zero experience, but you have a good heart.” Er…maybe having a bunch of people in your factory operating heavy machinery without any experience is why Papa B shut it down, my dude. Anyway, Feli is all grateful and asks Papa C to be the baby’s honorary grandfather. Heh. This man is really adopting everyone in the last hour of this show.
Pablo goes home and runs into his dad. Papa B drunkenly threatens to send Pablo to a military school in South Africa (weirdly specific). He’s all, “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” They almost fight but then they don’t, because Papa B gets interrupted by the phone. It’s some political dude telling Papa B that everyone wants his head on a pike for being corrupt, and he’s definitely going to get recalled and replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Maybe not that last part. His career is dead and they’re investigating his finances and everything is terrible. Papa B starts crazying that they can’t do this to him, and don’t they know that his father is the inventor of the toaster strudel?
Pablo still thinks he can save his dad with an emotional speech, so he puts a hand on his shoulder and is all, “But now that you’re not a corrupt politician, you can become a good person!” Papa B’s like, “What? I LOVED being corrupt and you ruined it for me, fuck off!” He lunges at Pablo, yelling that Pablo is just like his mother. I’m mostly just shocked that they remembered the existence of Pablo’s mom. As Papa B insults him, a glowing ~vision~ of Marizza comes to Pablo and kisses him to give him strength. All I can think is that she looks like a Force ghost. RIP Pablo, your dad is no Anakin Skywalker.
Anyway, this gives Pablo the strength to be rebelde and he’s like, “No, Dad, being corrupt is YOUR dream!” He gives Papa B a speech about how he’s been tearing him apart, Lisa, and Pablo never wanted to betray him, but he has to for great justice. Then he leaves, while Papa B stumbles around, drunkenly repeating, “I’m Sergio Bustamante…I’m Sergio Bustamante…” That was kind of anticlimactic. It was very “You thought they were going to fight, but instead they just talked a lot”, like the end of Breaking Dawn.
Whatever. Let’s keep it moving! Pablo leaves, and immediately runs into some Suspicious Youths walking past his house. They throw rocks at him for…some reason? I can’t tell if they’re like, anti-Papa B, or if I’m supposed to think they’re garden-variety hoodlums. Marizza runs up and drags Pablo off and they both run to some cliff somewhere. Seriously, where the fuck is that?
Marizza tells Pablo that she still loves him and Pablo says he loves her too. (Well, he says, “IDK how I fell in love with someone who insults me constantly,” which is close enough! I actually like this bit; I’ve never been a fan of dramatic love confessions, and the quiet, humorous way that it’s presented here actually strikes me as more real and romantic.) Then they make out. Marizza gets a text, which she shows to Pablo: “I’m on the plane. Arriving tonight. Mora.” Marizza admits that she called Pablo’s mom and told her everything that’s happened in season 2 since she left, and Mama B immediately decided to come back. “You did that for me?” Pablo asks. “I’d do anything for you,” Marizza says, and then they make out again some more. Aw. Again, the casual delivery of that line feels a lot more romantic than any overwrought speech would’ve been. This scene is really sweet and well-done, although it would’ve been nice if they moved Pablo’s JanSport out of the shot.
Despite this, however, we do not actually see Mama B, and the episode ends before she and Pablo reunite. Because sure, why show the audience that when we could watch Agustina and Francisco make out? That’s what we cut to next, along with Guido/Laura, Tomas/Pilar, Lujan/Marcos, and Lalo/Feli, all necking on the school staircase. Michi tries to hose them down and eventually gets their attention by announcing that they should all plan a party to celebrate the evil being defeated. Everyone’s like, “Uh…isn’t there still a good chance that Papa B could win his case?” Michi’s like, “Sure, that’s why we’re going to party hard and burn this place down before we go.” All the kids cheer at the thought of causing chaos and run off.
Everyone gathers for the year-end ceremony. Dunoff berates Miranda for letting the fourth-years organize it: “Do you know what happened the last time that class organized the year-end ceremony?!” And then we’re treated to a flashback of 15-year-old Luisana Lopilato ripping off her shirt in episode 1 again. Did we have to see that?
Also, like — this criticism pales in comparison to how creepy that whole thing was, but — in retrospect, it seems weird that Mia would try to get attention by acting sexual, because pretty much the rest of the show established her as kind of idealistic and naive about sex. Also, weird x2 that Dunoff would bring this up, when the ACTUAL last time this class organized the ceremony was at the end of season one. They said goodbye to Mansilla and Erreway performed “Rebelde Way,” remember? (No, I’m sure Patricia Maldonaldo doesn’t.)
ANYWAY. Pablo and Marizza manage to unglue themselves from each other’s faces long enough to go back to school. Papa C and Sonia are right behind them, and they announce that Pablo is also invited on their family vacation. They’re not gonna invite Marcos? He’s got deadbeat parents, too. Pablo says he’d love to, as long as it’s cool with his mom. “She’s coming back to stay with me,” he says. Er…at no point did she say that, so I hope Pablo isn’t getting his hopes up. I guess that answers the question of where Pablo’s going to live, though. Then Sonia starts crying that now she has the nuclear family that she always wanted.
Everyone gathers for the ceremony, and Dunoff announces that the judge’s decision has just arrived. They cut dramatically away to show Dunoff reading the decision in his office, but then he comes right back to the stage to tell everyone, so that was pointless. He tells them that Elite Way is going to cease to exist. Everyone’s like “What the fuck” and Miranda’s like, “Move over, you’re scaring the children.” Miranda gives a big speech about how the school will technically cease to exist in its current form — soon, it will become a school that will no longer discriminate among students! Not because of their income, and not because they’re pregnant out of wedlock like Felicitas Mitre! Wow, did he have to single Feli out like that in front of everyone? How embarrassing for her.
Everyone’s still kind of like “What” so Dunoff has to grab the mic back and finally explain that Elite Way is being turned into a public school. The Good Parents are happy, while the Bad Parents (I think I spy Laura’s mom?) are upset that they were paying $50k a year to send their kids to a school with no extracurriculars and only one teacher, when they could’ve gotten that shit for free. Etchamendi gets on the mic and say that anyone who doesn’t want their kid to study among the unwashed masses should contact him, and he’ll find them a place in another corrupt private school. Heh. Bless him for keeping his scam going. We love a man with ambition.
Miranda announces that Dunoff will stay on as principal and Hilda will become his vice principal. Uh, that’s nice, but seems unwise, considering she’s slowly going senile? (Yeah, yeah, she’s taking some kind of unspecified medication to stop her memory loss; the woman is still like 80 years old.) (By the way, the actress who plays Hilda, Hilda Bernard, only just recently died in April. She was 101 years old, which is absolutely crazy. Much respect to her.)
We cut back to Casa Bustamante, where the leader of Papa B’s political party has come to visit. He tells Papa B that the party has already chosen Papa B’s successor, and also…there’s some other news that he wants to tell Papa B personally. Let’s not say it yet, though! That would make this episode a reasonable length!
Back at school, Erreway gets on stage for their performance. Dunoff interrupts them and is like, “How can you perform with only three members? I won’t let this stand!” Everyone’s like, “Wow, did not realize you were this much of an Erreway stan”, but of course he’s only amping them up for the reveal that Manuel has come back. Did he ever actually go back to Mexico, or did he go back and then hop on a plane back to Buenos Aires after like two days? Either way, dude has wasted a ton of Papa C’s money on international flights.
So Erreway performs “Tiempo” and there’s much crying and emotion, as expected. Crazy how there’s percussion in the background despite there being no drummer onstage! (The footage keeps cutting between them performing at school and footage of a live Erreway concert, which I think is where the audio is coming from.) The song keeps playing as we see Papa B getting led out of his house in handcuffs.
After the song ends, Feli’s dad shows up at the ceremony and tells her that he’s separating from her mother. He says he refuses to abandon Feli and they all hug. From afar, Michi snarks to Miranda that she’s glad one member of the Mitre family isn’t an asshole, then she invites him to go get wasted. Please, God, I hope they’re not implying that Michi and Miranda are going to hook up.
Manuel tells everyone that after he got back to Mexico, he made a full recovery. He’s like, “It was like a miracle, none of the doctors could explain it!” I guess telenovelaneosis isn’t in the International Classification of Diseases yet 🙁 Then he sees Mia staring at him but refusing to approach him, as is her wont. He goes to the mic and makes a big speech about how he remembers now how much of a dick he was, and he’s sorry for like, cheating on her and making her think he was going to rape her that one time and stuff. He tells her that he loves her like he’s never loved anyone else and he wants to spend the rest of his life making up for his shitty behavior. It’s unbearably corny (see my paragraph about Pablo and Marizza, by comparison) but you know what? It’s endearing in its total dorkiness, and I’ll never say no to hearing “Te Soñé“, which starts playing as Mia and Manuel run into each other’s arms.
That night, everyone stands around to celebrate Elite Way becoming less of a shitshow of a school. All the kids make some short toasts to being rebelde and finding true love and all that jazz. (Except for Rocco, who toasts to like, the trees and the air around us, man. I know he smoked a fat blunt before showing up to that boring-ass ceremony.) Even the tertiary kids get some lines, which is quite sweet. I’m surprised they didn’t get bullied out of school for jumping ship when the kids were trying to resist Papa B, though. Also, Belen and Sebastian look like they have their arms around each other, which is weird. Are they dating because all these kids had to be paired up before the end of the show? How did this happen? Once again, Belen is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Naturally, Marizza gets the last toast: “To freedom,” she says. HEE!
Everyone clinks glasses and “Rebelde Way” starts playing as all the kids hug and cry. They voiceover about how the real treasure was the friends we made along the way, as the camera pans over the empty school set. Then we get a slideshow of all the characters and some behind-the-scenes photos, and that’s the end. Aw! It is pretty sad to see this show end after all this time — I mean, the show itself only ran for a couple of years (although that definitely can feel like forever when you’re a teen) — but I personally have been at this project for 10 fucking years (and 2 months) so like…wow. I’m a jumble of emotion right now!
This was pretty decent as a conclusion, I feel. The main plots (Papa B vs. everyone, Manuel’s memory) were wrapped up with an appropriate amount of pathos, there were enough throwbacks and flashbacks to make everyone feel nostalgic, and they managed to play the two main theme tracks a couple of times. All the main couples got back together. Everyone learned some good life lessons. I do think it was strange, though, that we never actually got to see Pablo’s mom again. Did the actress disown this show and was refusing to admit that she was ever on it or something? (Speaking of parents, it would’ve been nice to like…see any of the other parents again, since they were almost all written off early in this season. I miss Guido and Tomás’s adorable moms.)
On the other hand, this show has always loved building up to dramatic scenes and then completely skipping them, so it’s sort of comforting that it stayed that way until the very end. Never change, Rebelde Way.
All that said, I will not post a more lengthy conclusion here, since we still have a movie to get through. I also have at least one bonus post that I promised to write in 2019 but never got around to doing because I’m a mess. And after THAT, then I will post the final quarterly report, so that we can end on talking about the show itself, and not the movie or any of its spin-offs.
As between seasons 1 and 2, I will be taking a short break to recover because holy shit I can’t believe we made it. Posts will resume on June 28th! Be there or be square! (And by “square” I mean that you are a functioning human being and have a life, in which case, good for you. But I’ll be writing about Rebelde Way again.)
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