Selfishness or Family?

    The truth about the first suicide in the offshore is revealed in episode 5. Ezekiel is humanized by showing his past through a series of flashbacks. Julia, Ezekiel’s wife, shows an overwhelming amount of support and she even invents a famous quote of the process speech, “you create your own merit.”  Her support comes to an end when she discovers surveillance footage from the inland of her son and his caregiver who was killed. She begins to carry a heavy secret and plans to escape back to the inland to protect her son. Once Julia is honest about her son with Ezekiel, he considers sending her back to the offshore which results in her being sent to a mental facility where she eventually commits suicide. Because of all the guilt Ezekiel feels, he does everything in his power to protect Julia’s son which results in him being blackmailed into quitting the process making this his last year. Episode 5 was based on humanizing Ezekiel and showing the sympathy he upholds; however, he does not show the same sympathy towards the contestants. 

    Despite the heavy surveillance of the process, the contestants still seem to get privacy through a simple trick of turning on the faucet so the microphone catches the water trickling down rather than their conversations. If two people are in a room arguing and a faucet turns on unexpectedly, you would think that the others listening in would be suspicious. However, in episode 6, the contestants are given the ultimate test of running off with their family with a large portion of money or continuing in the process with zero money to their name. This is an easy task for some but difficult for many. Michelle declines the money in her attempt to reach the offshore because she has no family. It was a simple yes or no for her. Rafael, on the other hand, had to argue with his mother about staying in the process because she wanted the money for his family. This led to a blackmailing scheme which was done with the faucet running so the leaders could not hear. Rafael’s mother threatened him with malformation by claiming that she would tell the truth about his false identity so Rafael fired back with disinformation by stating that he will tell the leaders that she created the plan so none of her future children could ever register for the process ever again. This results in her running away and screaming that he is a “traitor to his own family.” 

    This test was made to convince the contestants to choose their family over a better life which is ironic because family would be considered the “moral” option; however, the process does not want the winners to choose the moral option. They want the 3% to choose a better life for themselves which some would consider selfish. This leads to the question of whether or not the 3% division wants each winning contestant to carry this trait that many would consider negative. Even the leader’s reaction to Julia wanting to leave the offshore to find her son on the inland speaks volumes. They framed her as crazy and psychotic for wanting to leave the “perfect society” for her own blood and even forced her into a mental facility that resulted in her suicide. The offshore is flawed and there is no perfect representation in what they want in their future citizens. If family is not valued in the offshore, then what about love? Love is what humanizes people and makes them sympathetic. Instead, the offshore seems to be filled with imperfect people just as the inland does. The real question is, what makes them different? Is it the secrecy, the manipulation, or the selfishness?

Charlone Tiago Mello, César. “3%, Chapter 06: Glass” Season 1, episode 6, 2016. 

Charlone Tiago Mello, César. “3%, Chapter 05: Water” Season 1, episode 5, 2016.