As Money Heist is almost near its 5th Season premiere on the 3rd of September, on Netflix, we thought it would be great to give our readers a backtrack episode starting with Season 1, that focuses on all the major events that took place till the end of Season 4. The last time the show aired was back in 2019 and with a major gap in 2020 and after much delay, the show is finally back for the audience one last time. Keeping this in mind, we have a recap of every season ready and first, we will be starting with Season 1 itself.
Season 1 of Money Heist begins with a girl narrating her story and how she comes across her savior, who successfully gives her a second chance at life. Robber by profession, she is taken by who we know as the Professor and the Professor has more in mind than her. He gathers 8 robbers in total, all of them a specialty of their own and names them, with the names of the cities. This is where we meet the OG gang of thieves- Tokyo, Rio, Denver, Moscow, Berlin, Nairobi, Helsinki, and Oslo. The professor has set a plan, he will rob the Royal Mint of Spain, where he will print money and also take the ones stored there and will divide it up equally. For a successful heist to work, he needs a foolproof plan and this is where their 5-month stay in a secluded villa comes into play. This is the sanctuary, where the Professor teaches them every single detail of what could go wrong, what will go wrong, what can happen, and what will happen, everything with the police and hostages included.
Now, as they enter the Royal Mint of Spain, they have the plan in full action. Their main aim is to hold the hostages, but not hurt any of them and release them when the time comes. It is in the Professor’s rule book not to hurt anyone and not to get hurt as well. Another important rule is that no one will ask each other about their past, real names and not get involved in romantic relationships with each other. The third rule already is broken as Rio and Tokyo start getting, which later costs them a lot in the heist. Now, with the police, media in place they have started making their movies, and negotiations from the police’s end have started. This is where another key player comes in Raquel Murillo, a police negotiator. She is on the call with the professor every minute and checks the condition of the hostages and how they plan to leave them unscathed.
One amongst the first to be released is Allison Parker, the daughter of the British Ambassador in Spain, who came to the Mint as a part of the school trip. They choose this day and Allison for a reason, this will build pressure on the police, to agree with the negotiations and since they don’t have anything else to do with the hostages, they will let them go. Allison Parker was also the perfect target to bring them the media attention they have wanted for this robbery.
All this while, as this goes on, the Professor tries to make a move on Raquel differently. As no one besides the gang has seen Professor’s face, it gets easy for him to manage things outside for them. One of the plans is to get close to the police officer and get out information and he is able to slowly and successfully do that with Raquel but, as he goes on with her, he realizes he is falling in love with her. He uses this opportunity to plant a bug in the police camp that is built in front of the mint, which helps him to stay ten steps ahead of the police. He gets his mind in the game back again so that his gang can get all the money and come out of the man-made tunnel, they will be building to transport everything along with them.
As the printing of the money, the making of the tunnel is at full speed. Certain hostages try to mess up things and this is where Arturo Roman, an employee of the Mint and a hostage himself, comes in. He is having an affair with his secretary, who is pregnant with his child. He has been a pain for the gang because he is always up to something and most of the time, he is even near death, but he still doesn’t budge. Meanwhile, Monica, the secretary, her condition worsens at a certain point and she is taken into a vault so that she could rest and get better. Denver is on duty to look after her and as he continues to do that and look after her, both of them start falling in love. The love is strong enough that she is even ready to leave everything and join Denver in this quest.
Now, finally, they are halfway near the printing, breaking the tunnels, after a lot of bickering, falling apart, pointing guns at each other. The gang now unleashes one major plan that was plotted by the professor to get more hostages to trust them and that is- money. The last plan in this season is to use the remaining hostages and ask them if they want freedom or money. Most as expected choose money and they agree to start working for the robbers. If they work for them, as planned they will get freedom but also a huge amount of money, which wouldn’t be possible for them to earn even when they work for a full year. Some are working in the tunnel building and some are working in money printing, but everything is running on full power at this point.
Now, on the other hand, as expected Raquel and the professor’s relationship is going smoothly. Smoothly enough that he is even taken to places where civilians should not be allowed. This is where it is revealed that the police have now found the hiding space the gang used to train themselves for 5 months. This is what leaves Professor dumbfounded, he was sure that he didn’t leave any crumbs behind, but even then Raquel being the investigator finds proof that might connect her to who the Professor is. This incident takes the Professor back in time when he was in the house with all the gang members. The flashback reveals that he was in the room discussing the plan and how it came up and started and finally, it is revealed it was his father’s plan, to begin with, and he was sharing this intimate chat with none other than Berlin, who happens to be the Professor’s stepbrother, ending the Season then and there.