TV Show 3 Percent Episode 2 Explained and Discussed
I want to know very specific things about the world of 3%. I want to know what it’s like on the Offshore. I want to know if it’s just one big ruse. I want to know how the Founding Couple even established this setup in the first place? I want to know if the spies and moles that have burrowed their way into the process will be able to take the Offshore down.
3% Episode 2 Overview
3% episode 2 starts off with Fernando’s backstory, you know, the one in the wheelchair. This episode reminded me very much of the Lost episode entitled walkabout. You know, the super clever episode wherein Locke spends the entire episode trying to go on a walkabout, but getting denied at every turn. Only to find out at the end that he was in a wheelchair the whole time. Similarly, we go backwards to see that Fernando’s father is a pastor of the Church of the 3%. (No idea if that is what the church is called, all I know is it is crazy.)
Aline is talking to someone on the Offshore and he says to her, “To overthrow Ezekiel you need something more compromising.” So we know that Aline is trying her best to overthrow him. Apparently the Process is important in the world of the Offshore as it determines the people that will make up the 3%.
Episode continues with it’s fascination with Fernando as they come to the medical exam. Person after person passes, until they come to Fernando, and his goes red. He is taken over to a medical attendee to be inspected at a deeper level. So the question here for me is this… if Fernando had not been able to be treated, if he had not been able to walk again in the future, would they have failed him out of the test? The point of pushing through for Fernando, was to show the Process that he could succeed just as he is. That he was capable of whatever else any other candidate was capable of. But if the reason he was checked by the medical attendant was just to validate he would in fact be able to walk again after he passed the exams and graduated in with the 3%… then that is something else entirely. But I’ll talk more about that at the end.
The next test is looking at a crime scene and determining what is happening. At first they believe that one person has poisoned another. And then they realized that it was actually a silver allergy instead. So, by the skin of their teeth the group makes it through again. And, we lose a Red Shirt, in Teo. (You know what I mean when I say Red Shirt right? Star Trek… nameless Red Shirts are always the ones that die. Here too, nameless faces are always the ones that will be kicked out of the show with each test.) Don’t remember him at all anywhere. Obviously they aren’t going to kick out the people we’ve come to invest in already.
The next test is six coins for seven people. At first some of the people grabbed coins, but after scuffling, it is decided that all the coins will go in the bag, and that they’ll draw straws to determine who gets the coin. This particular test reminds me of the movie, The Exam or The Circle. The Circle is about a group of people who find themselves on a alien ship and they need to decide who will live and who will die. Every couple minutes someone will die and if they want, they can let it be random. Or, they can vote for the death of someone via popular majority. And the Exam is another closed room movie, in that we have a number of contestants all trying out for the same position. But at the end of the day it’s more about who will survive than it is about who will get the job.
Ultimately it is Joana who draws the short straw. But in a very clever maneuver, she had palmed her coin when supposedly putting it back in the bag and therefore, she short circuited the process and ended up sending another red shirt home. (Whom she had made love to earlier in the episode… which, I have to say, was fairly incongruous. But maybe that’s just me?)
Meanwhile, Aline, the auditor was asked by Ezekiel to help audit the coins test. But instead she spends the time watching Ezekiel running around in the barrio areas, running around in the 97%. (I don’t think we’ve been given a name for the non-OffShore have we? Not yet anyway.) Why? He’s hooded. He has food with him. Bananas. Oranges. And a card of some sort. A pass? Why? And Aline watched him running and scurrying for cover. And apparently, he’d been doing this for a while, and each time he’d managed to cover his tracks. But this time, the cameras were able to glean who he was by facial recognition. So if Aline looks closely enough, she will be able to connect him to these escapades. But why does that matter? Well, she’s looking for some way to overthrow him. She needs evidence that he is doing something untoward. And maybe this is it.
3% Episode 2 Theories:
The show has a really good setup by now. We are enjoying watching the trials of the passage and the clever ducking and weaving of our core group of contestants. We are also able to go backwards and to witness the pasts of individual contestants and learn about why it is that they do what they do. This week was Fernando. We got to see that his father was a pastor of a crazy church (why would you go to a church of the 3% when you already missed the cut?). We got to see how his father has taught him all his life how to make the cut. And we also get to see some details of the Offshore-ians. We are learning more about their politics and about their less than perfect Utopian society.
Personally I believe that everything is pointing to the leveraging of cracks in the Offshore to the benefit of the 97%. We may see Ezekiel getting caught at something. Maybe we will see who the murderer is in the Offshore and that it was politically motivated. Maybe we will see the beginnings of the demise of the 3%. For the next few episodes though? I expect we will continue to see the tests continue. We will continue to see people getting voted off the island. But as we do, I think Aline and Ezekiel’s clashing will become even more open and more public.
Overall Thoughts of 3%
Will we see all out rebellion in the world of the 3%? I think I see the cracks of it already. I think we are beginning to see that the door is opening to revolution. Let’s hope that that is where it is going anyway! Can’t wait to watch episode 3!
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