The Billionaires' Bunker finale focused primarily on Max and Asia's attempt to leave the bunker in the hopes of getting a dialysis machine for the dying Mimi. Why did they go to that lengths? Minerva was a factory worker who specialized in building megastructures. She used to earn enough to make ends meet, but not enough to live in luxury. So, one day, she decided to build a doomsday bunker for billionaires, stage a mass extinction event, lead them to said bunker, and then use AI-generated versions of said billionaires to siphon all the money from their accounts.
The first part of the plan was a success, but while Minerva and her team were executing the second half, one of the bunker's inhabitants, Mimi, started feeling very ill. Mimi's stepdaughter, Asia, ran a diagnosis with the help of Roxan, the bunker's AI, and discovered that she was suffering from an extremely rare disease called hepatic encephalopathy. The only solution was to administer dialysis, and the bunker's medical department lacked the necessary equipment. Since Asia was determined to keep Mimi alive, she teamed up with Max, the man responsible for the death of her older sister, Ane, to break out of the bunker and obtain a dialysis machine.
Creators: Esther Martínez Lobato, Álex Pina
Stars: Miren Ibarguren, Joaquín Furriel, Natalia Verbeke
As mentioned in episode 3 of "Billionaires' Bunker," Falcon was born into an Argentinian Jewish family and thus inherited $3.7 billion in shares in the Falcom Group from his grandfather. Over the years, of course, his net worth grew considerably, so much so that if he lost 1% of his fortune, he wouldn't even notice. But what would be insignificant to him would fund an ordinary person's lifestyle for generations. So Minerva wanted to keep a fraction of his money, period. The only thing standing between Minerva and Falcon's fortune was Oswaldo, the billionaire's childhood friend and financial advisor. I guess Minerva would have come up with a way to catch Oswaldo in his scam, but he ended up entering the scene on his own with the offer to buy 18% of Telixa, one of the largest tech companies in Mexico, something Falcon had been eyeing for a while. Once Falcon—the version of him created by Roxan—gave the green light, Minerva sensed Oswaldo had bought into the fact that he was talking to the real person.
That's when she got Digital Falcon to instruct Oswaldo to go to Bangkok to buy a unicorn company called Nexusthai. Once the transaction was done, Minerva would funnel the money through a complex network of some 93 companies. Oswaldo didn't question anything. He went to Bangkok, had a crazy trip, and ended up handing over $900 million to Nexusthai. By the time Oswaldo realized he'd been talking to a digital version of Falcon, the office Nexusthai was operating out of had disappeared. With no other option, Oswaldo attempted to inform the Spanish Economic Crimes Unit, but was killed by Minerva's associates. Thus, the secret about Falcon's kidnapping and the scam died with Oswaldo.
Now, I suppose I should pose the vexed question: was it justified? Yes, but only if you accept the fact that Minerva, Ziro (her brother), and the rest of their team were indeed victims of a capitalist system and were forced to carry out this heist after being betrayed by the system for too long. I don't know about others, but I wasn't impressed by that impression from these anti-rich people. To be clear, I felt no compassion for the rich people who were going through hell in that bunker; they deserved that and worse. However, nothing about Minerva, Ziro, and the rest of their team seemed convincing enough to overlook all the crimes they committed.
I mean, the thing about capitalism is that when the rich steal from the poor, it's considered normal, but when the poor retaliate in kind, it's labeled as terrorism or violence. If you're feeling lenient, sure, you can justify the actions of Minerva and her crew. That said, from what we know, Minerva, Ziro, and the rest came from the upper-middle class. Sure, they were up against the upper class, but was Oswaldo actually upper class or did he come from the same economic stratum as Minerva? There isn't enough evidence for us to comment on that. So, in my opinion, Minerva and her gang were within their rights to torment the billionaires in the bunker, but by killing Oswaldo, they crossed a line that will turn them into the monsters they wanted to destroy. Mimi's liver disease appeared almost out of nowhere and became the subplot of the Billionaires' Bunker.
Because Asia was busy arranging Max's escape from the bunker so he could get a dialysis machine from the supposed irradiated hell outside, she couldn't track Mimi. Only after Max reached the outer section of the bunker did Asia reach Mimi and see that she was unconscious. She attempted to revive her with a defibrillator. Eventually, she realized that Mimi had died. After sharing this information with Max, Asia told him to abandon his plan to venture into the supposed nuclear hell, as it made no sense to risk his life. However, Max believed he should venture into the unknown because if the conditions there were better than in the bunker, the inhabitants should know this and decide whether they wanted to continue suffering in the bunker or take their chances outside. Before opening the outer door of the bunker, Max and Asia confessed their love for each other, and Asia told him to come back for her once he was sure the outside world was habitable, or else she would come after him.
In the Billionaires' Bunker finale, Max opened the bunker door, but before what he saw was revealed, the series cut to the end credits. The problem with this cliffhanger ending is that, unlike Silo or Paradise, it's not a true cliffhanger. In Silo, a lot of fuss was made about what actually existed beyond the titular underground bunker. There were a lot of politics surrounding going outside. Creating a radiation-proof suit was a chore. As for Paradise, while it didn't take long to reveal that the entire series took place in an underground bunker, the reason behind it was a bit of a blow. This Netflix series already revealed that the world outside the bunker is fine because the nuclear holocaust the billionaires witnessed was a simulation created by Minerva and her team. As for why they simulated a nuclear war and trapped a group of billionaires in a bunker, that has also been revealed. So what's the intrigue the show is trying to create with that cliffhanger ending? That Max gets the shock of his life when he finds everything is fine outside? That's just lame, man. I guess the showrunners were so focused on emulating Silo's success that they completely forgot about having a mystery that viewers could solve alongside the characters. Well, what's done is done; all the writers can do is give Max something engaging to do after leaving the bunker, besides stating the obvious: everything is fine outside. My first thought after watching that fake-out cliffhanger ending at the Billionaires' Bunker was that the showrunners would reveal that a real nuclear holocaust had occurred, and that Max would experience firsthand the events Minerva and her team faked. But the showrunners ruled out that possibility because Falcon and Oswaldo's con was happening in parallel with Max and Asia's escape plan. If the world had become a nuclear hellscape, how would Minerva have used Roxan to con Oswaldo and Falcon? This isn't a sci-fi show, so I don't think they'll be pulling any kind of time-dilation shenanigans, where the people in the bunker don't experience the events of the outside world in real time or anything like that. That only leaves one option: yet another drama focused on Max trying to convince the bunker's inhabitants to defy Minerva and her team and get out.
In theory, that's compelling enough, because Max will have to convey the message, with facts, that the world hasn't been destroyed without looking like a madman to a group of people on the brink. He went from one prison, where he suffered physical trauma, to another, where he suffered emotional trauma. So, after realizing that he couldn't taste freedom because of Minerva, it's going to be difficult for him to express his ideas coherently and calmly. If Max fails, Minerva will have been arrested or killed so she can ditch Falcon and scam the other billionaires in the bunker. That will complicate the love story between Max and Asia, even though it was doomed from the start.
In fact, I want the showrunners to cut the romantic drama because it's truly embarrassing. If they can fine-tune and make the interpersonal interactions somewhat tolerable, they can continue exploring the feud between Falcon, Rafa, Frida, Victoria, and Asia. If not, they just need to keep the drama going without so much lust. I don't want to sound prudish, but all those sex scenes really detracted from the show's main anti-rich plot. Speaking of the main anti-rich plot, if the show gets a second season, I really hope the writers focus on Minerva and her gang.
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