Every season of Elite revolves around a murder, and Season 8 is no different. The victim in the final outing is Joel, whose death forms the mystery for the entire season. But the question isn’t just who killed the pizza delivery boy turned Alumni puppet, but why, and how his murder informs a lot of the show’s ongoing themes and, ultimately, its conclusion.
Let’s dig into who Joel is, why Luis killed him, and what it all means.
Who is Joel?
Joel is a character who was originally introduced in Elite Season 7, initially as a pizza delivery boy. He was in a relationship with Omar after meeting him at the at-risk youth clinic where he worked, but he also began a relationship with Ivan.
In Season 8, Joel is involved in a love triangle with Ivan and Hector, a new character who is the head of the exclusive Alumni Club. His financial dependency on Ivan causes him to be manipulated into sex work in the hopes of providing a more independent financial future for himself, not realizing he’s being used as a pawn.
Joel’s lower-class status — he’s the fourth male main character to come from humble beginnings after Samuel, Omar, Christian, and Bilal — is integral to his character arc throughout both Season 7 and 8.
Luis Killed Joel
At the end of Elite Season 8, it is revealed that Joel was killed by corrupt police officer Luis.
Luis was investigating the Alumni’s illegal activities and was using the fact that some of their sex parties had been held in Isadora’s club to blackmail Isa. When Joel attempted to strongarm Luis using his Alumni connections, Luis killed him.
Luis was attempting to cover up his own misdeeds. However, his crime was inadvertently caught on camera by Chloe, who was looking for kompromat on Joel after he blackmailed her and Carmen to help Dalmar.
Elite | Image via Netflix
Joel Story Is Elite’s Story
Joel makes sense as the final victim in Elite since his personal story is tightly intertwined with the key themes that have powered the show since the very beginning.
Joel’s journey began when he came out as gay and his parents kicked him out of the house. Sexuality has been a major theme throughout the series, and struggling with self-acceptance is an integral part of Joel’s story. Several months of homelessness led him to the at-risk youth clinic where he met Omar.
Likewise, Omar’s romances are bundled up in both his difficulties coming to terms with who he is and his low economic status. This allows him to enter into financially dependent but emotionally toxic relationships.
Ultimately Joel is killed because of his desperation to carve out his own path for himself away from that dependency, ultimately and ironically allowing himself to be further manipulated by others. But he’s also killed by someone desperate to hold onto their own secrets, someone who sees his lack of importance and status as an excuse to simply do away with him. This is symbolic of how he has always felt, especially as a lower-class student in Las Encinas.
