Chapter 02: Shock
A Window To Paradise
Episode 2 of The 3% season 4 begins with Antonio presenting his “Window To Paradise” for the eager Inland residents. Within the orb is a seductive video about the Offshore. Only, that Offshore also includes all the Shell Members wandering around. With Andre now the new Process Leader, he opens the Process early – tomorrow infact – and this throws a serious spanner in the works. Thanks to that announcement, the Shell will lose credibility. Instead, Michele takes drastic measures and decides Xavier needs to enter the Process for them to make this plan work. Michele brings both Gloria and Xavier into her office and asks them both outright who’s against the plan. With 30 seconds to admit the truth, both plead their case until Michele decides to speak to Xavier in private. It turns out all of this was a ploy to train Xavier ready for the Process.
Reunions
Joana is asked to take down Andre by Nair. Given Andre won’t negotiate, Nair admits that a lot of the council members are prisoners. However, Joana drives a hard bargain. If she takes down Andre form them, then in exchange they’ll be forced to end the Process forever. Unwilling to go this far, Joana scoffs and drops the knife, walking away. Instead, she heads back home and distances herself from the others. While she does, Rafael continues to act paranoid. However, Marco uncovers a hidden compartment in the back garden featuring numerous pictures. One of which happens to hold a baby that looks strikingly like him. Elisa feeds back to the others that the Turbine isn’t in the lab. This immediately sends Joana racing away and straight up to the shore. Natalia follows though, where she opens up to her lover about the familial issues she has. Meanwhile, Andre continues to spin his web of deceit and plants a whole group of people as spies inside the Process – including Ariel.
Training
Interestingly, Michele starts to use Ezequiel’s advice from the past and projects that on Xavier. She helps him practice the different stages of the Process. Some of these are interview techniques while others include how to read people. She also interestingly uses the stealing technique for the cube task that was used in season 1. With everything she knows instilled in Xavier, he heads up to the Process along with thousands of other hopeful candidates. Among them is a man named Pedro who riles up the group and teases him. Unfortunately Xavier is eliminated. However, his impassioned pleas afterward toward Denise soon changes her tune and he manages to get through by the skin of his teeth. The next round however, is not the cube test. Instead, Pedro and Xavier are teamed up together in a violent test of teamwork and resilience. Back to back, the pair share electrical currents with levels increasing their partner’s voltage. Desperate to progress, Xavier sacrifices himself and increases his own voltage. Both of them pass the test but are clearly in a bad way. Denise can only watch in shock, as Andre shrugs it off and tells her he doesn’t want weak people in the process.
Ending The Process
After Joana’s demands echo around the Council, Nair and the others contemplate whether to take the girl up on the offer. Given the sort of people Andre is willing to bring to the Offshore, it may well destroy the Process before Joana does. Meanwhile, Rafael and the others find out about Joana’s run-in with Veronica and Nair. As they start to come to blows, Veronica suddenly arrives and admits that they’re willing to negotiate. In the dead of night, the group team up to infiltrate the RTC. With little time to waste, Joana hears more about Veronica’s past. Still believing her to be her Mother, she uses that as a basis of trust. Is that trust ill-placed?
The Traitor
It turns out Gloria really is the one who’s acting as a traitor. She heads into the jail cell, handing over a bowl of food to Marcela. She tells Gloria this is her last test and persuades her that the Process isn’t over for her.
The Episode Review
As things start to heat up, the plan is finally starting to come together. Will Joana and the others manage to destroy the Offshore? It certainly seems like they have the approval of the council and it’ll be interesting to see what direction this story goes next. There’s also a lovely juxtaposition of fate here as Michele teaches Xavier everything she knows about the Process. It echoes that of Ezequiel (which is confirmed as much given the flashbacks to season 2) and it’s a nice touch. This is, of course, a technique also used last season as Michele’s plan to cut the guys down to 10% ironically felt like the Process 2.0. For now though, The 3% delivers another really good episode and with the traitor finally revealed, things do not look good for Michele and the others.
