There’s no scarcity of intriguing and enigmatic characters on Netflix’s Cash Heist (La Casa de Papel).
Cash Heist Season three of the crime drama launched followers to Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri), the lead police investigator within the Financial institution of Spain heist, and fairly frankly, essentially the most puzzling character up to now.
Sierra is an thrilling and worthy substitute for former police inspector Raquel Murillo aka Lisbon, who left her policing days behind to affix the Professor’s merry band of robbers following their first heist on the Royal Mint.
With a lollipop in hand, Sierra is able to cease the theft of the financial institution in its tracks and at last carry the criminals to justice.
Her actions and choices carry a brand new degree of unpredictability to the collection, which makes her a worthy opponent for the Professor. Raquel performed by his guidelines, however Sierra has found out his guidelines and stored up with them… virtually too effectively.
She’s in it to win it, and previous to her introduction, we hadn’t seen anybody who was equally as crafty because the Professor.
She’s outlined by her brutality; whereas others would shudder on the considered utilizing members of the family as leverage, she’s overjoyed to cross the road on a number of events, together with when she makes use of Nairobi’s son and Raquel’s ailing mom to govern them.
Sierra isn’t simply loopy good at her job, she’s merely loopy… and that permits her to go head-to-head with the Professor, with or with out the assist of legislation enforcement. She’s a sociopath, in her personal approach, that’s equally as advanced, ruthless, clever, and assured as each the Professor and Berlin.
There are additionally many parallels between her and Raquel.
They’ve each been outsmarted by the Professor on a couple of events, they each misplaced the assist of their crew whereas working the heist investigations, they had been each become scapegoats for the company, and so they each used their intuition to efficiently hunt the Professor down.
However there’s a key distinction that units Sierra other than Raquel — she’s not in love with the Professor.
Raquel pursued the Professor, however she was additionally blinded by love. The belief they developed when she did not know who he actually was made it simpler for her to know that, although flawed, his intentions behind the heist had been noble.
Sierra, alternatively, was motivated to search out the Professor to complete a job. She by no means as soon as overpassed the prize, and one may say her dedication to the job and capturing the unhealthy guys have been fueling and motivating her.
The dramatic Season four cliffhanger, which ended with Sierra discovering the Professor’s hideout and ambushing him by pointing a gun at his head, proves we’ll dig deeper into her character come Season 5.
She could have the higher hand as issues stand now, however there’s an enormous likelihood the Professor will manipulate and outsmart her whereas giving us some much-needed background about her.
The vagueness about Sierra’s villainous character has drawn a lot consideration from followers who’re theorizing how she’ll play into the storyline shifting ahead.
All we all know for sure is that she and Raquel attended police coaching collectively, her husband died a couple of months in the past resulting from most cancers (we don’t even know who German is or if he’s vital to the story), and that she’s pregnant (and even that’s questionable).
The thought that Sierra could also be faking her being pregnant crossed my thoughts whereas binge-watching the collection.
Even earlier than Sierra was roped into main the investigation on the Financial institution of Spain, she was liable for inhumanely torturing Rio by means of unlawful techniques comparable to waterboarding and burying him alive.
A lot of her actions point out that she doesn’t have a lot of a maternal bone in her physique, and it’s attainable that she’s faking her being pregnant to achieve sympathy from the general public within the occasion that her sadistic actions come to mild.
The sympathy card has labored on many events for the Professor and his robbers, and realistically, we’re all much less prone to choose a pregnant girl’s motion.
It may very well be the explanation why the company tried to put the blame solely on her when the Professor uncovered their torture techniques on a civilian.
There have additionally been different moments the place Sierra is seen smoking, gorging on junk meals, and ingesting caffeine. All of that compounded with the stress of the job can’t be good for a girl in such a complicated being pregnant.
One may chalk this as much as private quirks and Sierra’s unhealthy coping mechanisms, or, it may very well be an enormous purple flag that the being pregnant isn’t actual.
Don’t even get me began in regards to the stamina wanted to spend hours interrogating somebody or looking down the Professor with none help.
There’s an added degree of suspense to having a pregnant maniac in cost — particularly up to now alongside within the being pregnant — as a result of the viewers is all the time questioning when she’ll go into labor.
The most definitely (and predictable) state of affairs lends itself to Sierra going into labor whereas pointing the gun on the Professor.
It could catch her off guard, put her at a drawback, and drive her to depend on the Professor to assist her give delivery. It could additionally enable the Professor to regain management of the state of affairs.
Despite the fact that he has a few of the most meticulously thought-out plans that anticipate each attainable final result, luck tends of working in his favor.
However that’s the important thing to all of this — anticipation. The Professor has performed out each attainable state of affairs in his head. Even those which have taken him abruptly have, in some unspecified time in the future, crossed his thoughts, so it’s unlikely that he’d be careless sufficient to depart behind a path main instantly again to him.
If Raquel was capable of finding his first hideout, the probabilities are excessive that he would think about that one other agent, one which isn’t blinded by love and is extra cutthroat than Raquel, would be capable of monitor him down, too.
To not point out the Professor additionally has a bonus this time round as a result of Raquel is aware of Sierra personally and may predict how she’d act in sure conditions.
By making Rio’s torture non-public, he may’ve anticipated that the company would attempt to save face by putting the blame on Sierra, as they did with Raquel, and thus, figured she would search him out.
It’s fully attainable that the license plate and the footage of him threatening a cop that led Sierra to him had been all a part of the plan.
He laid the breadcrumbs, and he or she fell into his lure, considering it was a victory.
Perhaps she’s a needed a part of the plan to assist the gang escape from the Financial institution of Spain alive and with the gold?
The Professor was in a position to manipulate Gandia from outdoors of the Financial institution of Spain to mess with the police, and with Sierra by his facet, and presumably counting on him for her and her child’s survival, this might play out in precisely how he wants it to.
Since we don’t know a lot in regards to the copper-haired inspector, we are able to’t rule out that there isn’t a private connection between her and the Professor.
I’d .be remiss if I didn’t contact upon the preferred concept circulating across the web that Sierra is the late Berlin’s spouse, Tatiana.
On the floor, the idea is promising and thrilling, and also you would possibly even suppose you’ve lastly outsmarted the writers, however let’s take a step again and pull it aside.
Sierra and Tatiana had been each launched in Season three and share many related traits, together with reddish hair and bangs, however other than that, there are a variety of issues working towards the idea.
For starters, the timelines don’t add up in terms of Berlin and Tatiana’s wedding ceremony and Sierra and Raquel’s coaching.
There’s the argument that Berlin and German are related as a result of the capital of Germany is… you guessed it, Berlin. However that might imply that Berlin one way or the other made it out alive, which is moderately not possible since we noticed him get riddled with bullets.
And at last, the Professor, Palermo, Marseille, and Bogota would have acknowledged Sierra because the inspector instantly whatever the five-year distinction, and, in flip, Sierra would have acknowledged the Professor because the chief of the heist.
Some followers need this concept to be true so badly that they’ve gone so far as to say that Tatiana acquired cosmetic surgery (hey, it labored in Jane the Virgin) or that she married Berlin as a part of an undercover police operation, and whereas it is a present the place something is feasible, it’s not possible.
As with Sierra, Tatiana is an enigma as we’ve barely scratched the floor of who she is or was. We’ve solely seen her in flashbacks, which established that she’s an vital character who knew in regards to the plan for the heist.
Her data of the plan didn’t sit effectively with the Professor, and for that cause, he wasn’t supportive of the connection and warned Berlin that she can be a legal responsibility as a result of she knew an excessive amount of.
Apart from flashbacks, although, we haven’t seen her within the present-day. She wasn’t part of the planning of both heist, nor was she concerned within the first heist on the Royal Mint. The place is she? What occurred to her throughout this time-span?
The one bit of knowledge now we have to work with is that Tatiana was additionally a robber, so if I needed to guess, I’d say she died throughout one in all her smaller-scale heists with Berlin, which might clarify her absence within the present-day.
And this brings me to a extra believable concept: Sierra is Tatiana’s sister.
If Tatiana died because of her involvement with Berlin, it stands to cause that Sierra would need revenge on the folks accountable, which might clarify why she’s so personally and emotionally invested on this case.
Sierra has a specific set of abilities, abilities she’s not afraid to make use of towards the Professor, however there needs to be a cause as to why she’s so decided to carry him down.
Sure, she’s an formidable girl, however she is not fueled by a hero advanced or a want to clear her personal title. No pregnant girl would wish to go rogue and put herself and her child within the line of hazard for an company that did not recognize her within the first place. This feels private as a result of it’s private.
We all know that nothing, completely nothing, is random in terms of the Professor; the whole lot occurs for a cause, and each character is launched for a cause, even when the reason being unclear at first.
My concept is that the Professor is aware of that Sierra is Tatiana’s sister, and Sierra is aware of that the Professor is Berlin’s brother. Household is a big theme within the collection, and it’s a must to admit, there’s one thing poetic about two folks on opposing sides combating for the same trigger — to avenge a sibling’s demise.
Many followers have additionally questioned whether or not Sierra would possibly be part of forces with the Professor, particularly since she sings “Bella Ciao,” the anthem of the resistance, within the credit.
I would prefer to suppose her rendition served extra as a observe as much as her “checkmate” remark — a quick second by which she underestimated the Professor and thought she received the sport.
Contemplating she doesn’t have a romantic reference to the Professor, I really hope she doesn’t pull a Raquel and be part of the resistance. A part of what makes her character so refreshing and engaging is her unwavering dedication to being one of many “good guys.”
One other big theme is loyalty. If the Professor, Berlin, Palermo, and everybody else managed to remain loyal to the plan, it might solely make sense for Sierra to remain loyal to her facet of bringing the unhealthy guys to justice.
And she or he is likely to be the one with sufficient guts, wit, and confidence to burn this complete plan to the bottom proving there’s multiple mastermind.
Plus, there’s no approach she will be able to redeem herself after placing Rio by means of hell and killing Nairobi. There’s an excessive amount of blood on her fingers for the Professor or anybody contained in the Financial institution of Spain to ever forgive her for all of the ache and struggling she’s induced.
As of now, Netflix hasn’t formally renewed the collection, however Alvaro Morte, who performs the Professor, posted a photograph of himself in a face masks with the caption “the Professor is again” on Instagram a couple of days in the past hinting that the collection is in manufacturing.
And contemplating the Spanish-language crime drama is Netflix’s most-watched non-English series, one other season is sort of assured.
I’m turning it over to you, TV Fanatics.
What are your Alicia Sierra theories? How do you suppose issues will pan out between her and the Professor?
Lizzy Buczak is a workers author for TV Fanatic. Comply with her on Twitter and skim her private weblog at CraveYouTV.