The ending of season three of Money Heist (originally known as La Casa de Papel) was brutal. It had us clutching the edge of our seats as we watched the team in Dalí masks and red jumpsuits through the climactic final scenes.
Without the wisdom and watchfulness of El Profesor, the team members had yielded to their inner demons. Recurring disputes over leadership, hostage handling and forbidden love were all jeopardising their success in heisting the Bank of Spain. Add to that, they had the relentless Colonel Tamayo and Inspector Sierra hot on their heels.
Well, following the season’s gun-blazing finale, we’re totally up for the next one. Here’s what you can expect from Money Heist cuatro. Don’t worry, it’s spoiler-free. We promise.
the same formula with more hard-hitting chaos
Season four follows a traditional upward trajectory in the story line. It satisfies viewers with answers to questions like “Is Nairobi alive?” and “Does El Profesor know about Lisbon?”. More importantly, its first few episodes lay out the plan, the preparation by the team and the memory of Berlin – all the crucial details to set up what lies ahead in the series.
Filmmaker Álex Pina peppers the narrative with well-timed humour – Helsinki revealing his “pet”, Denver teaching a hostage how to profess his love, to name a couple – and teases men with Tokyo’s sexiness. Then he lets lose, presenting an unprecedented chaos of politics and a devastating betrayal that no one saw coming.
Palermo once said, “Real chaos makes no noise” – that’s pretty much season four for you.
kickass soundtrack
“Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao.” Any Money Heist fan worth his salt has come to expect a kickass soundtrack. From Cecilia Krull’s My Life Is Going On, to Manu Pilas’ Bella Ciao, to Pablo Abraira’s María Mi Amor, you can count on Money Heist and its music producers to curate great music. It gets even better this season—not least because there’s a song for Liverpool football club fans. Season four comes with a more diverse genre of English and Spanish tracks. So expect catchy tunes coming from Spanish rock band Vetusta Morla, Canadian rock band Arcade Fire and veteran singer Van Morrison. Our pick? Scottish band Belle & Sebastian’s Another Sunny Day.
This won’t be the end
Although we only had the luxury to catch the first five episodes made available by Netflix, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to realise Money Heist won’t be ending anytime soon. By now, viewers will have realised Tokyo has been narrating every single detail of the heists since the first episode. Such an approach is hardly a novel idea; Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is one that explored this concept. If we draw parallels to Scorsese’s film, however, it would mean either something happened to the crew, or Tokyo herself, that led her to be the only one left recounting the heist/s.
Then there’s the phone call between Ryan Reynolds, from Netflix’s original film 6 Underground, and El Profesor. There’s little, or almost no, hint as to why is there a trade happening between the respective leaders for Tokyo and Denver and Number 2 (played by actress Mélanie Laurent) and Number 7 (actor Corey Hawkins). All that’s left to do is keep watching. With this quality work from Pina, though, we can’t complain.
All images: Netflix Singapore
