Control Z is a Mexican teen drama television series created by Carlos Quintanilla Sakar, Adriana Pelusi and Miguel García Moreno and developed by Lemon Studios for Netflix,[1][2] that premiered on Netflix on 22 May 2020.[3] The show stars Ana Valeria Becerril, Michael Ronda, Yankel Stevan and Zión Moreno.[3] Shortly after its release, the series was renewed for a second season on 29 May 2020.[4] Season 2 was released on 4 August 2021[5] and later that month, the series was renewed for a third and final season, which was released on 6 July 2022.[6][7][8]
During an assembly at Colegio Nacional (National School), an unknown hacker exposes a student as transgender, humiliating her. The next day, the hacker reveals more students' secrets. That causes numerous teens to turn on each others. Sofía Herrera, an introverted teenager, tries to uncover who this hacker is before more secrets (including hers) become public. She is joined in her mission by Javier Williams, a newly transferred student.
Sofía, a highly observant student, makes friends with the new kid, Javier Williams. Luis, a defenseless person, gets bullied by Gerry. During a school assembly, a mysterious hacker reveals that popular student Isabela is transgender by blackmailing Raúl, Natalia and Gerry, threatening to leak their secrets. As a result, Isabela's boyfriend, Pablo, who knew about this beforehand, dumps her out of shame, although Natalia and María, her two best friends, support her. Sofía and Javier investigate to find the hacker while the hacker texts Isabela to take revenge on those who disclosed her and also Pablo, to which she replies "yes."
The hacker leaks the secrets of Raúl, Natalia, Pablo, and Gerry by Isabela's request. Raúl's private videos reveal his father, a politician, is corrupt. Natalia is revealed to be stealing the money she collected for the NONA party. Gerry's search history is leaked which shows that he watches gay porn. Finally, Pablo is revealed to have sent his intimate photos and videos to his "Honey Bunny," indicating he had been cheating on Isabela already, making him regret his decision of breaking up with her. Nonetheless, Gerry still humiliates Isabela for her gender identity which evokes a mutual fight between Raúl, Javier, and Gerry. They are all called to Principal Quintanilla's office while Sofía shows up, after deliberately misbehaving, to get clues about the hacker. Isabela confronts Natalia for selling her out to the hacker by stealing her cellphone that contained the video. On the other hand, Natalia is removed as the organizer of the NONA over the money theft, and her nemesis Rosita takes over. Rosita also breaks up with Gerry despite repeatedly denying that he is gay. While Sofía is in Quintanilla's office, she discovers that he plans to propose to Sofía's mother, Nora, who he is currently seeing romantically. Sofía also gets dragged in the game when the hacker starts sending photos of her and her supposedly deceased father, Fernando. Natalia, Raúl, and Gerry face the consequences of their blunders at their homes. When his mother won't stop complaining about the bullying he is receiving, Luis admits that he is the real hacker and, as a result, is expelled from the school.
Enraged by Luis's revelation, Gerry decides to take revenge on him along with Pablo. Javier overhears their plan and follows them. Sofía approaches Luis to tell him that she knows that he lied about him being the hacker. He admits that he lied so he could get out of being bullied by Gerry. Gerry and his minions run after Luis to beat him up but Javier intervenes by slamming his car onto a wall, forcing them to flee the scene when a cop starts approaching. Natalia is asked by Principal Quintanilla to return all the money she stole, but she already spent it all. She tries to collect money by selling her expensive goods. The hacker puts on a live event for Gerry to beat up Luis. Principal Quintanilla hears of this beforehand and locks Gerry in the auditorium. The students gather outside the school for the fight while Luis arrives too. Alex, a socially distant girl, unlocks Gerry, and he runs to the location of the fight. This leads to a massive affray. Sofía and Javier try to save Luis by evading the scene but Gerry drags Luis out of Javier's car and punches him hard, knocking him over. Luis hits the pavement and goes into a coma. Luis' mother blames Quintanilla for the whole ordeal. Fernando leaves the book club to avoid Sofía so that he might not go to prison after he is made aware about the hacker.
Raúl discovers that his parents have fled the country to avoid prosecution and left him a large sum of money. He buys an expensive motorcycle and plans to throw a party at his house and invites the whole school. Gerry gets expelled from school because of his aggressive attack on Luis, whose mother, on the other hand, does not press any charges against him. Sofía receives a text from the hacker to go to Raúl's party. Sofía obeys and attends the party with Javier while her mother goes on a date with Quintanilla. At the party, the hacker plays tricks on Sofía while Natalia discovers someone who lends money illegally. Quintanilla proposes to Nora to which she declines, fearing for her daughter's reaction. Sofía then notices the hacker's logo on walls and glasses which take her to the roof where she encounters Alex. Alex asks Sofía to jump into the pool from the roof as the hacker says or he will reveal her secret girlfriend. After much disapproval of Javier, Sofía jumps into the pool anyway and is pulled out by Raúl. Javier, upset, leaves. María, Natalia's innocent-looking sister, is revealed to be Pablo's "Honey Bunny." María asks Pablo to stop seeing her as for the sake of her friendship with Isabela, who is suffering from the aftermath of being outed as trans, but then has sex with him. Raúl, having a crush on Sofía, kisses her. Gerry arrives at the party but is immediately forced out for what he did to Luis. Alex's girlfriend is revealed to be their Biology teacher, Gabriela. Raúl and Sofía go in the basement to dry Sofía's clothes where they experience a shutdown. As Raúl goes to check the fuse, Sofía is kidnapped by the hacker.
After holding Sofía hostage, the hacker takes her bracelet, subdues her again and drops her unconscious at her house. While in the truck, half-awake Sofía gathers clues. Sofía reassembles the gathered clues and finds the truck with the help of Javier and Raúl, who keep fighting over her. The truck turns out to belong to Bruno, the school's IT guy. In Bruno's apartment, Sofía finds something of Javier's but does not tell him. After an attempted interrogation, Bruno escapes them and Javier is framed. Sofía starts suspecting that Javier might be the hacker, especially after he claimed that he didn't have a secret when she asked him earlier. At the school, Principal Quintanilla has sex with Susana, a married teacher, and are seen by Raúl. The hacker announces to the student body that all of their secrets will be revealed by midnight during the NONA party. After a fallout over her behaviour during Raúl's party, María distances herself from Natalia, who starts selling drugs at the school campus. Isabela and María also start spending time together again, but María can't find the courage to tell her that she is the Honey Bunny. Gabriela breaks up with Alex, fearing that the hacker might reveal their relationship.
Sofía and Raúl report to Quintanilla that Bruno is affiliated with the hacker. He may have also escaped with all his belongings. Sofía discovers that Javier had previously accidentally killed his former football teammate, Guillermo Garaby, during a rite of passage. In addition, Javier's father, a former football player himself and wealthy businessman, used his connections to keep his son's involvement a secret and bribed the others into silence. Isabela suspects Natalia to be the Honey Bunny, which she denies, after the hacker gives her a hint. María shows symptoms of pregnancy when she vomits some brownies that Isabela gave to her. To pay Rosita the funds she had collected for the NONA, Natalia starts working for Jordi, a drug dealer who gives her a loan. Quintanilla cancels the NONA party and bans all cellphones as security measures, which frustrates the students and especially Rosita. Isabela befriends Alex, who previously defended her from some female bullies who made fun of her gender identity. Sofía and Raúl find a newspaper article of Guillermo's death and Sofía's bracelet in Javier's locker that confirm their suspicions about him. Disappointed, Sofía tells Javier that she doesn't recognize him anymore. Gerry keeps visiting Luis out of guilt. At home, Sofía argues with her mother, who confronts her for skipping school with Raúl, and tells her to think about herself and not Sofía. Sofía has memories of her father's death. Stressed, she runs to Raúl and has sex with him, with a mask seen under his bed.
In a flashback sequence of the prior semester, Raúl invites Natalia, Gerry, Maria, Pablo and others to his house where he shows off his father's antique collection and money. They start to record videos there but are interrupted by Raúl's father, who orders them out of the house. Raúl gets blackmailed by someone unknown, later revealed to be Bruno, for ten thousand pesos or he will leak the videos showing his father's corruption. Raúl realizes that his friends are only with him because of his money. They also gossip about Sofía's illness and wonder just what this means for them. Sofía desires a world without secrets and Raúl forms a plan to give her just that. With the help of Bruno, Raúl discovers that Fernando, Sofía's father, is alive and using an alias. Raúl is revealed to be the one who leaked all the private information about everyone. He was also the one who blackmailed Alex to unlock Gerry and forced Sofía to jump off the roof at the party. Furthermore, he was the one who sent Luis the lines to speak while confronting everybody at the huge fight and driving Sofía's father away from their usual meeting spot. Jealous of Javier, Raúl also framed him to be the hacker so Sofía would turn on him.
Sofía and Raúl report Javier to Quintanilla by showing him the video of Guillermo's murder. After initially reluctant to do so, he expels Javier after Raúl blackmails him by threatening to leak his sex video to Nora. Rosita succeeds in organizing the NONA. Raúl helps in his father's arrest. At NONA, Natalia sells drugs to make up for her loan and Maria tells Pablo about her pregnancy, but he reacts indifferently and ditches her. At the hospital, Luis dies in his coma, which infuriates Gerry. Pablo tries to forcibly kiss Isabela, who still refuses his advances, but when María comes to her defense, he spitefully reveals to Isabela that Maria was his "Honey Bunny". Angered and betrayed, Isabela ends her friendship with María. Sofía tricks Raúl into confessing that he is the hacker, with Javier recording the confession and playing it at the NONA. Raúl tries to make it out of the NONA, but Pablo punches him. Raúl then reveals the secrets of everyone at NONA, including Sofía, Javier, Alex and Maria. The revelations cause a massive affray between the students during which Natalia's collected money is lost. Gerry, upon realizing Raúl is the hacker, shows up to NONA and confronts him with a gun, demanding an explanation over his actions. Raúl reveals that Luis had a crush on Gerry, which distresses him, and further fills him with guilt. Gerry attempts to shoot him, but Javier gets shot instead trying to intervene. The show ends with an aerial shot of Javier bleeding out, while Sofía desperately tries to help him, and a crowd forms around them.
In the aftermath of the previous events, Javier survives the gunshot (which further boosts his popularity among girls), Raúl is still vilified by his classmates over his role as the hacker, Nora and Quintanilla are engaged, María finds support in Claudia after Isabela and Pablo abandon her, Gerry is wanted by the police for murdering Luis and Gabriela is fired from National School after her romance with Alex is exposed. Two months later, the entire school mourns Luis and hosts a ceremony to honor him. However, another hacker launches a threatening message to everyone, demanding that they hand over Gerry, warning that "You can't bury the past", and starting to target each of the students, first with Gerry's former friends, Darío and Ernesto, who are buried alive in a cemetery but are subsequently saved by Sofía and Javier. A hooded figure, later revealed to be Raúl, attacks Javier and flees on his motorcycle. Nora is upset at Sofía for hiding the fact that her father is still alive as the whole scandal caused them to get evicted. Natalia is given an ultimatum by the drug dealers.
Lulú, Quintanilla's secretary, finds the walls spray-painted and a half-naked Alex gagged and tied inside a classroom and releases her, before also showing the lockers spray-painted with the word "REVENGE" on them, which leaves very clear the Avenger's mission: to avenge Luis. Alex has no recollection of the events that happened to her and Sofía deduces that she was drugged. Alex also tells Sofía that she was the one who released Gerry the day of the fight that cost Luis his life. Raúl's return to the school leaves everyone infuriated, prompting two fights between him, a vengeful Pablo and the student body that are broken up by both the gym teacher and Sofía, who sets off the alarms of the parked cars to get Quintanilla's attention. Unable to expel Raúl as he still uses his affair with Susana against him, Quintanilla states that he will no longer protect him. María refuses to talk to Pablo for having neglected her before; thereupon Pablo, jealous of Claudia, warns her to stay away from María. Natalia finds out that Raúl is hiding Gerry at his house, but doesn't tell Sofía when she arrives to confront him. However, Raúl blackmails Natalia into staying quiet by threatening to reveal her involvement with the drug dealers. Jordi, one of the dealers who is in league with Natalia, leaves the city to avoid being killed over the money. Nora secretly tips off the police on Rogelio's whereabouts and he is arrested. Meanwhile, Javier and Sofía investigate Luis's house and find his drawings, but are forced to leave abruptly when Marta coincidentally arrives. Just then, the house is set on fire with a molotov cocktail as another warning from the Avenger, forcing both Sofía and Javier to narrowly escape unnoticed.
Rosita wants to throw a birthday party at her house, despite Sofía and Javier trying to convince her to call it off, fearing a possible attack from the Avenger, to no avail. Quintanilla is removed as principal of National School by decision of the school council, given how poorly he has been handling the situation with the Avenger, with Susana taking over as his permanent replacement. Nevertheless, Susana is also unable to expel Raúl for the same reasons as Quintanilla. Fed up with being locked up at will, Gerry breaks his self-imposed curfew by leaving Raúl's house and going to a gay bar where he meets a man named Pipe. During the party, Javier and Natalia take a romantic interest for each other, much to Sofía's jealousy, while Pablo's controlling attitude towards María meets no boundaries. Realizing that the Avenger has poisoned a vodka bottle, Sofía tries to save everyone by throwing off their drinks, just as another fight breaks out between Raúl and the still outraged Pablo which ends with María, who has drunk from said bottle, collapsing and overdosing uncontrollably, leaving her hospitalized.
Pablo feels immersed with guilt after finding out that María has aborted her baby. Alex is upset when Gabriela, now unemployed, has to leave for Spain after accepting a job offer there. Natalia arrives at the school after being attacked and kidnapped by the Avenger. Javier and Sofía clash with each other as Sofía finds her story unconvincing and believes that she knew their identity after noticing her ripped dress, a broken heel and a bruise on her arm (interpreted as signs that she tried to fight back), so Javier accuses her of being jealous of their new relationship. Nevertheless, Sofía believes that Natalia is only using Javier to solve her money issues. Nora and Rogelio don't tell Sofía that she had ordered his arrest. Sparks fly between Gerry and Pipe as they continue bonding. Pablo, suspended from the school for beating up Raúl again, confronts María over her abortion and suspects that Claudia convinced her to do so; on the other hand, Natalia genuinely shows support and promises to always be there for María. Javier offers his help to Natalia regarding her money situation. Gerry suddenly goes missing and Raúl, panicking over what the Avenger might do next, admits to Sofía that Gerry has been living at his house and enlists her help in looking for him.
Sofía and Raúl track Gerry's GPS location to a massive queer club, unaware that they are being followed by Pablo, who snaps a picture of them and sends it to Javier. Meanwhile, Natalia, in order to get the money, uses a sugar daddy app under an alias and María teams up with her. She is matched with an older guy, and they agree to meet in a restaurant, but he turns out to be none other than Javier's father Damián, making Natalia rush out of the place in embarrassment when he indirectly brings Javier up. Sofía and Raúl eventually find Gerry, but before they can deal with him, Pablo, seeing the three together, furiously charges at Raúl, calling him out for harbouring a killer but also mistakenly believing that Sofía was his accomplice, before being forcefully removed by the bouncers after he aggressively shoves her to the ground trying to stop him. Gerry uses the altercation to escape and is sent away by Raúl. At Nora's request, Javier searches and finds Sofía outside the club, though she refuses to return home, and he leaves to see Natalia instead, still thinking that she trusts Raúl after everything he did. Heading back to his place, Raúl and Sofía, following an argument over his previous actions, sleep together, as do Javier and Natalia, Gerry and Pipe, Alex and Gabriela, as well as Rosita, Darío and Ernesto, engaging in a pre-agreed threesome. Raúl promises not to lie to Sofía anymore, but still hides from her the affair between Quintanilla and Susana so he can remain at the school. As Sofía is taking a shower, Raúl is tased by the Avenger who forces him to unlock his safe, thus stealing all of his money. Sofía quickly runs to check on him.
Pablo spreads out the news about Raúl and, allegedly, Sofía hiding Gerry, causing the whole student body to turn on her, including the disappointed Alex. Susana calls them both to her office for questioning where they try to explain that Pablo had set them up, to no avail. Susana considers expelling them, but once again gives in to Raúl's blackmailing skills, leaving Sofía suspicious and confused as to why she relented. Remembering it is Quintanilla's farewell party, Sofía deduces that he is the Avenger's next victim. María tries to explain to Javier's father the truth about the money Natalia owes, but is rejected as a result. Pipe finds out about Gerry's true identity and angrily kicks him out of his house. Quintanilla is locked up in a restroom by the Avenger and is stung by bees until he is released. In humiliation, he lashes out at the students for refusing to acknowledge the hard work he has done to keep the school afloat, claiming that they deserve the misfortunes caused by the Avenger due to their self-righteous attitudes. María and Claudia share a moment and kiss at Claudia's home, but María abruptly leaves in shame. Sofía confronts her mother after figuring out that she is the reason why her father was locked up, having found some papers related to an arrest warrant on him. Continuing to work together, Sofía and Raúl get ahold of and look over Luis's drawings, which echo the comeuppances of the Avenger's past victims. They realize that the Avenger is fulfilling Luis's wishes, through his violent fantasies, on those students who made him feel miserable and wonder who might be the next victim.
In a flashback, the lonely Luis is shown drawing each of the students and their predicted punishments. Sofía shows the drawings to her father, noticing that most of the humiliating punishments are similar to the drawings except for Gerry and Raúl. She later finds out about Quintanilla's affair with Susana, thus severing ties with Raúl for keeping the information from her and demanding that Quintanilla tell Nora or she will. However, the gym teacher, also Susana's husband, arrives at Quintanilla's house when he's with Nora, and punches him before he can tell her, implying that he had somehow already found out. Meanwhile, Damián agrees to give the money to Natalia only if she brings María, who starts avoiding Claudia after the kiss. Alex is revealed to be the reason why Gerry became hostile towards Luis, since she encouraged him to show a drawing he made of Gerry. In effect to that, Gerry used this new personality to mask his true feelings and avoid being made fun of at school after his homophobic abusive father accused him of being gay for accepting the drawing. Susana has students's bags and lockers searched up to see if there's any flammable material that can be used in attacking Rosita (as she could be the next possible victim , as revealed by Luis's drawings), but no proof is found. Gerry visits Marta and they have a heart-to-heart conversation, with the latter lamenting that the other students are suffering because of the Avenger, knowing that Luis would've never wanted any of these incidents to happen; he decides to turn himself in to the police as a way to make up for his previous behavior. Rosita ignores Sofía's warnings about the Avenger wanting to target her. Gabriela leaves for Spain without Alex and breaks up with her, leaving Alex heartbroken. Pablo still wants to get revenge on Raúl, forcing a confession out of him until Gerry shows up to defend him by knocking Pablo unconscious. At the same time, Javier is horrified upon witnessing Natalia and his father making out, and Sofía faints after the Avenger switched one of her pills, prompting Rosita to rush to her aid.
Natalia catches up to Javier and tries to explain the situation, but he breaks up with her; she is even more frustrated given that it is the last day she was supposed to turn the money in. Raúl, knowing that Pablo still loves Isabela, criticizes him for refusing to accept the truth and not having been there for her when she needed him the most, inspiring him to make things right with María before leaving. He also suggests to Gerry that they locate the Avenger in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. It is revealed that Sofía never actually took the pills and staged her accident to mislead the attacker. She and Javier admit to being wrong to trust their former partners and team up again to keep searching for the culprit. Quintanilla is upset at Susana for ruining his engagement to Nora as she happened to be the one who told Güero about the affair, explaining that she couldn't keep letting Raúl blackmail her. Meanwhile, María is informed that Natalia has been kidnapped and the dealers demand the money paid that night, threatening to kill Natalia if the police get involved. Claudia decides to help her and they also manage to sort out the problem with the kiss, with the remorseful Pablo tagging along. As Gerry enters the school, Raúl is attacked again by the Avenger and snatches from him the same gun that was once used by Gerry to kill him and got Javier accidentally injured, which Raúl kept hidden after finding him. Sofía deduces that the Avenger is Alex; she buried Ernesto and Dario, spray-painted the lockers, set Luis's house on fire, poisoned María, assaulted Natalia, simulated her own kidnapping and left Quintanilla to be stung by the bees, as she wanted everyone to feel as guilty as she was for Luis's death, angered at their indifference after they did nothing about it. It is also revealed that she had stolen Raúl's money, a mistake she made "out of love", in order to start a new life with Gabriela, initially contemplating on abandoning her Avenger plans to be with her, but still carrying on after she had left. Alex then threatens Gerry into jumping off the roof. However, Sofía manages to talk her out of it, saying that she is not a murderer, and the repented Alex sobbingly apologizes to Sofía. Javier then picks up the gun and aims at Raúl, demanding his money to save Natalia's life, but Raúl defiantly refuses; earlier, Javier had tipped off María and Claudia about the money's location. María and Claudia attempt to steal the money from Luis's locker, but they are caught by Susana, and the trio heads to the roof after Javier's yelling attracts their attention. Sofía, Javier, Raúl, María, Claudia and Susana then wrestle over the money bag, ending with Susana and the bag falling off the roof, killing her in the process. Witnessing this from the ground, Pablo snatches up the money and drives off, while Javier, Alex, Gerry and Claudia look on in horror, but Sofía, Raúl and María don't show emotion and stand over the edge of the roof looking at Susana's lifeless corpse. The season ends with another aerial shot zooming out.
A flashback shows María, after she and Natalia moved to Acapulco with their parents in light of her sister's kidnapping (which proved to be the last straw for the sudden decision), going through a depression phase after the whole Susana situation ended up traumatizing her, eventually causing María to commit suicide by drowning. Despite María's death, Sofía nevertheless decides to keep an eye on Natalia by convincing her to move in with her; she also deduces that Natalia ran away from Acapulco behind her parents' backs under the pretext of attending the careers fair in order to seek answers behind the new hacker. Raúl suspects something is wrong when he repeatedly refreshes his bank account app. Since he is still unable to afford the hotel, he flees. Sofía, Javier and Alex suspect that Sebastián, Claudia's drama teacher, who is dating her despite being a student, might be @_allyoursecrets_ because of the drama exercise recreating Susana's death. Sofía questions Claudia, who refuses to give up any information. The hacker creates a misunderstanding between Pablo and Claudia when posing as both her and Sebastián, causing Claudia to mistakenly assume that Pablo reverted to the toxic person he was before. Gerry calls Raúl out for involving him in his financial issues as he doesn't want to violate his sentence.
