Summary
A plodding chapter provides some development of on-going subplots and dynamics, but it’s a tame affair compared to previous seasons.
This recap of Elite season 6, episode 6, “Tina”, contains spoilers.
“Tina” is one of those slow-paced middle episodes that don’t particularly move the plot along but instead wallow along with the characters and their various predicaments. The problem is that we’re not halfway through the season at this point – we’re close to the end, and while you can feel the show moving pieces into place for the climax, the whole thing feels like a far cry from some of the mysteries that defined earlier seasons when Elite was at the peak of its powers.
Elite season 6, episode 6 recap
Stuff like Ari’s father trying to convince her into cajoling the others to testify in his defense is a clear set-up for later, while we continue to go through the motions of other ongoing subplots such as Ivan’s worsening breakdown and Isadora’s revenge mission. The former sees Ivan attending a drug-fuelled sex party that is presented as almost otherworldly when Patrick turns up there. It’s halfway between reality and a dream sequence, although perhaps “nightmare” would be a more appropriate word, at least for Patrick.
Isadora, meanwhile, spies an opportunity in Nico’s new side hustle dealing hormones and offers to pay for his phalloplasty if he’ll provide her with a very particular substance that she fronts is for personal use but is really part of a larger revenge scheme. I’m not sure where to stand on Isa manipulating Nico’s desire for gender-confirmation surgery for her own ends; it doesn’t exactly seem in keeping with the open-minded exploration of the trans experience that this season has been trying to present, but then again nobody ever said that these characters were supposed to be nice people.
It’s the same with Raul and Sara. The latter thinks that she and Raul are taking things slow and that her abuser has totally turned things around, but it’s so obvious that he’s manipulating her that it’s kind of difficult to take seriously (even if it’s depressingly accurate). Mencia is the voice of reason in this dynamic, reminding Sara that leopards don’t just change their spots, and being proved right when Sara returns home to be greeted by another bout of Raul’s aggression. Luckily, she’s able to turn their social media channel against him by live-streaming his outburst, forcing him to leave.
Oh, we also get a bit more on the whole Rocio and Bilal romance, but nobody cares about that.
The next step of Isadora’s plan involves injecting Hugo with the drugs Nico supplied her. It’s designed to chemically castrate him. You can’t say that she didn’t try the legal channels first.
You can stream Elite season 6, episode 6, “Tina” exclusively on Netflix.
