Billionaires’ Bunker’s ending was largely centered around Max and Asia’s attempt to leave the titular bunker in the hopes of getting a dialysis machine for the dying Mimi. Why did things come to that? Minerva was a blue-collar worker with a specialization in constructing megastructures. She used to earn enough to make ends meet, but not enough to live luxuriously. So, one day, she decided to make a doomsday bunker for billionaires, stage an extinction-level event, herd them into said bunker, and then use AI-generated versions of said billionaires to siphon all the money out of their accounts. The first part of that plan was a success, but while Minerva and her crew were in the middle of executing the second half of that scheme, an inhabitant of the bunker, Mimi, started feeling extremely sick. Asia, Mimi’s step-daughter, ran a diagnosis with the help of the bunker’s AI, Roxan, and found out that she had an extremely rare disease called hepatic encephalopathy. The only solution for that was giving her dialysis, and the bunker’s medical department didn’t have the equipment for that. Since Asia was hell-bent on keeping Mimi alive, she joined hands with Max—the guy who was responsible for the death of her elder sister, Ane—to get out of the bunker and get a dialysis machine. Did they succeed, or did they fail? What can we expect to see in a second season of Billionaires’ Bunker, if it gets greenlit? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Falcon Was Scammed Successfully
As mentioned in episode 3 of Billionaires’ Bunker, Falcon was born into an Argentine-Jewish family, and hence he inherited $3.7 billion worth of stock in Falcom Group from his grandfather. Over the years, of course, his net worth grew in spades, so much so that if he lost 1 percent of his fortune, he wouldn’t even notice. But what’d be negligible for him would fund a common person’s lifestyle for generations to come. So, Minerva wanted to take just a fraction of his money, and that’s it. The only thing that was standing between Minerva and Falcon’s fortune was the billionaire’s childhood friend and financial advisor, Oswaldo. I suppose Minerva would have come up with a way to trap Oswaldo in their scam, but he ended up entering the picture on his own with the offer to buy 18 percent of Telixa, one of the largest tech companies in Mexico, something that Falcon had been looking to do for a long time. Once Falcon—the version of him created by Roxan—gave the green light on that, Minerva felt that Oswaldo had bought the fact that he was talking to the real deal. That’s when she got Digital Falcon to order Oswaldo to go to Bangkok and buy a unicorn company called Nexusthai. Once the transaction was done, Minerva would funnel the money through a complicated web of about 93 companies. Oswaldo didn’t question any of it. He went to Bangkok, had a rollercoaster ride of a trip there, and then ended up handing over $900 million to Nexusthai. By the time Oswaldo realized that he had been talking to a digital version of Falcon, the office space that Nexusthai was operating out of was gone. Left with no other option, Oswaldo tried to inform the Economic Crimes Unit of Spain, but he was killed by Minerva’s associates. Hence, the secret about Falcon’s kidnapping and the scam died with Oswaldo.
Now, I suppose I must ask the controversial question: was it justified? Yes, but only if you buy the fact that Minerva, Ziro (her brother), and the rest of their crew were truly victims of a capitalist system and they were pushed into pulling off this heist after being betrayed by the system for far too long. I don’t know about everyone else, but I didn’t get that vibe from these anti-rich haters. To be clear, I had no sympathy for the rich who were going through hell in that bunker; they totally deserved that and worse. However, nothing about Minerva, Ziro, and the rest of her team seemed compelling enough to overlook all the crimes they were committing. I mean, the thing about capitalism is that when the rich steal from the poor, it’s considered business as usual, but when the poor retaliate in kind, it’s labeled as terrorism or violence. If you’re feeling lenient, sure, you can justify Minerva and her team’s actions. That said, for all we know, Minerva, Ziro, and the rest came from the upper-middle class. Sure, they were punching up against the upper class, but did Oswaldo belong to the upper class, or did he come from the same economic strata as Minerva? There’s not enough evidence for us to to comment on that. Therefore, in my opinion, Minerva and her gang were well within their rights to torment the billionaires in the bunker, but by killing Oswaldo, they’ve crossed a line that’ll end up turning them into the monsters that they sought to destroy.
Max Reached the Bunker’s Outer Door
Mimi’s liver disease showed up almost out of nowhere and became the secondary plot of Billionaires’ Bunker. As mentioned before, Asia was hell-bent on saving her, and Max wanted to help her accomplish that task because he probably felt guilty for fracturing Asia’s family—which originally comprised Falcon, Marta, Ane, and Asia, but after Marta’s death by suicide, Mimi was the new entrant—by having a hand in Ane’s death. This plot thread didn’t really amount to anything because Victoria, Max’s grandmother, ended up pumping Mimi’s system full of morphine, nicotine, and alcohol and putting her in a coma. Despite being a cancer patient herself, Victoria didn’t have any sense of empathy. She saw Mimi’s weakness as an opportunity to exploit her and satiate her own sexual desires. She didn’t really care if “having fun” with Mimi killed her.
Since Asia was busy orchestrating Max’s exit from the bunker so that he could get a dialysis machine from the supposedly irradiated hellscape outside, she couldn’t keep track of what was going on with Mimi. It was only after Max had reached the outer section of the bunker that Asia got to Mimi and saw that she was unresponsive. She tried to resuscitate her with the help of a defibrillator. Eventually, she came to the realization that Mimi was gone. After conveying this information to Max, Asia told him to abort his plan of going out into the alleged nuclear hellscape because there was no point in risking his life. However, Max was of the opinion that he should take the leap into the unknown, because if the conditions out there are better than in the bunker, then the inhabitants should know about that and then decide if they want to continue suffering in the bunker or take their chances in the great outside. Before opening the outer door of the bunker, Max and Asia confessed their love to each other, and Asia told him to come back for her once he’d made sure that the world outside the bunker is habitable, or else she would come after him.
In Billionaires’ Bunker’s ending, Max opened the door of the bunker, but before it could be revealed what Max saw, the show cut to credits. The issue with this cliffhanger ending is that, unlike Silo or Paradise, it’s not an actual cliffhanger. In Silo, a lot of hoopla was made around what really existed beyond the titular underground bunker. There was a lot of politics around actually going outside. Making a failsafe radiation-proof suit was an uphill task. As for Paradise, while it didn’t take a lot of time to reveal that the whole show was happening in an underground bunker, the reason behind it was a true-blue gut punch. This Netflix show has already revealed that the world outside the bunker is fine, because the nuclear holocaust that the billionaires saw was a simulation created by Minerva and her crew. As for the reason behind them simulating a nuclear war and trapping a bunch of billionaires in a bunker—that’s also been unveiled. So, what’s the intrigue that the show is trying to create with that cliffhanger? That Max will get the shock of his life after seeing that things outside are fine? That’s so weak, man. I suppose the showrunners were so focused on emulating the success of Silo that they forgot all about actually having a mystery that the viewers can solve along with the characters. Well, what’s done is done; all that the writers can do is give Max something compelling to do after stepping out of the bunker, other than stating the obvious that things are fine outside.
Season 2 Expectations
My first thought after seeing that faux cliffhanger ending to Billionaires’ Bunker was that the showrunners are going to reveal that an actual nuclear holocaust has happened, and the events that Minerva and her team simulated will be experienced for real by Max. But the showrunners have ruled out that possibility, because the Falcon-Oswaldo scam was happening parallel to Max and Asia’s escape plan. If the world had turned into a nuclear hellscape, how would Minerva have used Roxan to scam Oswaldo and Falcon? It’s not a sci-fi show, so I don’t think they’re going to do some kind of time dilation shenanigans, where the people in the bunker aren’t actually experiencing the events of the outside world in real time or something like that. That only leaves us with one option: yet another drama centered around Max trying to convince the denizens of the bunker to defy Minerva and her crew and actually step outside. On paper, that’s kind of compelling, because Max will need to convey the factually accurate message that the world hasn’t been destroyed without sounding like a madman to a whole group of people who are on the edge. He went from one prison, where he endured physical trauma, and ended up in another prison, where he underwent emotional trauma. So, after realizing that he couldn’t taste freedom because of Minerva, putting his points across coherently and calmly will be tough for him. If Max fails, Minerva will have been apprehended or killed so that she can move on from Falcon to scamming all the other billionaires in the bunker. That’ll throw a wrench into Max and Asia’s love story, even though it was doomed to begin with.
In fact, I want the showrunners to do away with the romantic drama because it’s really cringe-worthy. If they can fine-tune and make the interpersonal interactions somewhat tolerable, then they can continue exploring the feud between Falcon, Rafa, Frida, Victoria, and Asia. If not, they just need to keep things dramatic without all the lustful nonsense. I don’t want to sound like a prude, but all those sex scenes really detracted from the show’s anti-rich main plot. Speaking of the anti-rich main plot, if the show gets greenlit for a second season, I really hope the writers focus on Minerva and her gang. They are supposed to be the driving force behind the entire show, and we learn little to nothing about them. Whatever we get to know about Minerva and Ziro is surface-level; the rest don’t even get proper character arcs and themes. What are we even doing here if our protagonists—who are the antagonists from the perspective of the rich folk—are not treated like three-dimensional people? At least the first season of Money Heist was a slam dunk, which is why Netflix got to milk it until the source dried up. Here, they have made a weak start, so they really have to put in that elbow grease to make things interesting. In addition to all that, I think the creators should really focus on the pacing of the episodes because every single one of those eight episodes felt like an eternity, and not in a good way. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of Billionaires’ Bunker. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
