The buzzy Spanish-language teen drama gears up for its sophomore season on Netflix.
Warning: There are major spoilers from season one of Elite, so if you have not watched and want to remain spoiler-free, bookmark this page and come back when you have.
It's time to return to Las Encinas!
It's been almost a year since the first season of Elite -- Netflix's buzzy, Spanish-language teen soap about young, pretty people doing bad things -- and fans are just hours away from unraveling all the questions the finale left unanswered.
If you're new to Elite, think of it as Gossip Girl meets The O.C. and Big Little Lies, but with the insanity meter turned up to a thousand. If you strip away all the extra stuff, the series is really about a group of teens at a uber-rich private school in Spain, who, through flashbacks, à la Big Little Lies season one, are interrogated by a detective to solve the mystery of who killed their classmate, Marina (María Pedraza).
There's something for everyone in this salaciously soapy world, from sexy hookups (gay, straight and even a threesome) and an unexpected love triangle to blackmail and substantial class divides. And we're almost certain that won't be changing when season two rolls around.
So, in need of a refresher course for Elite before new episodes drop on Friday at midnight? Check out ET's guide to the binge-worthy Netflix series.
What happened in season 1?
When three scholarship students -- Samuel (Itzan Escamilla), Nadia (Mina El Hammani) and Christian (Miguel Herran) -- are sent to Las Encinas after their own school is destroyed by a tornado, they have varying degrees of success trying to fit in with their wealthy counterparts.
Similar to Gossip Girl's Blair and Nelly Yuki, Nadia and Lu (Danna Paola) spend the season competing to be the top of the class, which comes with a trophy and, less importantly, the chance to study at an Ivy League school in the U.S. While generally insignificant to the rest of the plot, said trophy ends up playing the most important role of all as it's used by Polo (Alvaro Rico) to murder Marina at the school's swimming pool.
Why did Polo, of all people, murder Marina? Polo's motive for murder came when Marina, who was forced to reveal her HIV diagnosis to her classmates and was pregnant by Samuel's brother, Nano (Jaime Lorente Lopez), prior to her murder, wound up with a watch that belonged to his ex, Carla's (Ester Exposito), wealthy dad and contained a USB with secrets about the shoddy building of the scholarship kids' original school, which would incriminated both Carla and Marina's fathers.
Carla and Christian, who often had sex together with Polo, became accomplices to Marina's murder when they helped Polo destroy the evidence. Unfortunately, Marina's baby daddy, Nano, was wrongly arrested for the murder and put in jail at the end of the season, much to Samuel's dismay.
On the love story side of things, Omar (Omar Ayuso) and Ander (Aron Piper) decide to pursue their forbidden romance, despite having to hide it from Omar's religious dad, while Guzman (Miguel Bernardeau) and Lu eventually find their way back to each other after Guzman's failed pursuit of Nadia. (We still wish Guzman and Nadia kissed!)
What is season 2 about?
During a press conference last month in Madrid, Netflix's director of originals in Spain, Diego Avalos, shared the first tidbits of information about Elite's sophomore season. Much like season one, Elite will flash forward each episode after one of the main characters goes missing, a clue that was revealed in the season's first trailer.
"In the first season, we were conscious that we were making a series for Netflix, and tried to put everything into it,” said co-creator Dario Madrona, per Variety. "For season two, we thought that we had the opportunity to explore the characters and the new ones as well. But it was an instinctive decision."
The trailer for the second season, featuring a slew of snapshots of sexy scenes, wild parties and general debauchery, promises that some of season one's biggest lingering questions will be addressed and maybe even answered.
Who are the new characters?
That there will be a number of new faces when Elite kicks off season two.
Lu's hedonistic half-brother, Valerio (Jorge Lopez), will make his entrance, as will Rebeca (Claudia Salas), a working-class girl who helps Samuel with his boxing skills. Cayetana (Georgina Amoros), an Instagram influencer, will also join the series.
So what are the biggest questions leading into season 2?
The main mystery of Elite season one may have been solved, but the resolution, or lack thereof, left a lot to be desired. And with the wrong man behind bars for Marina's murder, there's bound to be heightened stakes when it comes to addressing the ramifications of that unresolved thread that could create added wrinkles (translation: epic tension) among the Las Encinas circle.
But, we've come up with handful of the biggest questions, we have been thinking about since that season one faded to black:
1. Will Samuel be able to get Nano out of jail? How will the class divide affect his efforts?
2. Will Polo confess? Will someone turn him in? How will Guzman take Polo's betrayal?
3. Will Carla and Polo rekindle their romance? Will Christian be involved?
4. What will come of the all-important watch? Will it bring down Marina and Carla's families?
5. Will the scholarship kids eventually be sent back to their old school?
6. Will Omar and Ander be able to hide their relationship from Omar's dad?
7. Will Guzman and Nadia finally get together?
8. Who goes missing? Are they eventually found alive or dead?
Is Elite returning for season 3?
Yes! Netflix announced that the show had been renewed for a third season back in November. It's set to debut on the streaming service in 2020.
All eight episodes of Elite season two hits Netflix on Friday, Sept. 6.
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