Ezequiel

**Ezequiel** was a Offshorer administer who was the former head proctor of the Process, starting in 99th process and last on the 104th process.

He was married to Julia, who committed suicide after being taken to the Recovery and Treatment Center for trying to escape to the Inland to find her son, Augusto. After Julia's death, he balanced meetings with Augusto and trained him for the Process, along with attending to his duties as the head of the Process.

## Personality

Ezequiel begins as a rather mysterious and intelligent man who often makes decisions that other characters and the viewer question. However, there is always a method to his "madness". He also, for all his pomp and circumstance, is emotionally unstable in private, though ostensibly he has his life together. This is evidenced by the times he holds his breath underwater for as long as possible, and also by the times that he holds other characters underwater. Ezequiel holds himself aloof, maintaining a careful distance from people like Aline and Nair who question him about his life and stability. He does this in order to maintain the appearances that everything is okay. However, the death of his wife has emotionally shattered him, leading him to seek and maintain a dangerous relationship with Augusto. Overall, he is a bold innovator, not afraid to take risks, but his stability is fragile and make-believe, and he could come apart at any minute, especially with added poking and prodding from Matheus and Aline.

## Background

Born in the orphanage in which the Cause was born, Ezequiel was born into the Cause, and eventually joined the Process out of taking out the Offshore from the inside. While he was discouraged to do so by the "Old Man", Ezequiel joined the process, and easily became a part of the 3%. He seemingly lost his way in the Offshore, and abandoned the Cause, at least, he had.

He had a loving relationship with his wife until she became obsessed with finding her son Augusto, leading her to her suicide. Since then, he has been unstable as seen with his 'drowning' sessions in his office.

## Season One

### "Chapter 01: Cubes"

Ezequiel introduced the participants to the 104th Process, telling them that only 3% would become the "selected heroes" to move on to the Offshore, where the "founding couple" created the perfect world. He denounced the Cause, who he claimed were using populist ideals to aimed to destroy everything the Offshore has achieved. He asked the participants to trust the Process, and that they each created their own merit and, no matter what happens, they deserved this. While he spoke, he was watched by Aline, who he confronted, stating that he didn't get a memo that she would be reviewing the Process. She cheekily responded that she was his memo, and that it was a recent decision. Ezequiel checked Aline's registration, and told her it would be a pleasure having her around.

Ezequiel returned to his office, where he confronted Nair, asking why he didn't get a notification that the Process would be reviewed. Nair told him that the current Process was extremely important, because it was the first Process since the first ever murder on the Offshore. As Process Leader, Ezequiel was responsible for all individuals who arrived on the Offshore, thus making him partially culpable for the murder. Nair warned Ezequiel that Councillor Mateus was using it as an opportunity to try to instate a lighter, weaker Process. Ezequiel let her go, saying that he was the only one who could effectively run the Process. Afterwards Ezequiel nearly drowned himself in his sink, showing his instability.

During the interviews, Ezequiel watched the candidates from the camera room and catalogued successful candidates. After the first test, Ezequiel spoke to Cassia, who informed him that they caught a member of the Cause - a man named Jorge. They were able to interrogate him and find out that a spy infiltrated the Process, but were unable to get names. Ezequiel told Cassia that he needed results immediately, and Cassia worked to interrogate Jorge.

When Alexandre Nogueira threw himself off the second floor of the Process building, Ezequiel was there to take care of the situation. He told people to stay back, and that the doctors would handle it. Later, when Denise came to him to discuss the situation, he nearly drowned her in his sink, telling her he did the same thing to himself every day to remind himself of the stakes of the Process. She thanked him for the lesson and the wisdom he has imparted on her during his time as Process Leader.

Some time later, Cassia informed Ezequiel that they had narrowed the infiltrator down to two candidates - Bruna and Michele. After Bruna attacked Cassia and was killed, Ezequiel intervened and told Michele to back away. After being assured everything was under control, he had her blindfolded and brought back upstairs.

### "Chapter 02: Coins"

While candidates were being evaluated, Ezequiel confronted Aline, stating that he didn't want any misunderstandings between them. Later, Aline and Ezequiel watched the next test together, where he noted that about half of the candidates would be eliminated. When Aline mistakenly stated it was a test in deduction, he told her it was a test in induction, instead. During the trial, Rafael correctly guessed the circumstances of the woman's death, and Aline pointed to him as "your boy" to Ezequiel. Ezequiel immediately became defensive and asked if she thought he was defending him, but Aline replied that she was simply messing with him.

After the inductive reasoning trial was over, Ezequiel asked Aline to oversee the next trial with Alvaro. He told her that she could do it from the control room, and Aline agreed. While the Process was running, Ezequiel put on a robe of rags and tied up some fruit and a pair of glasses, heading to the inland. He went to see Augusto, but ended up dropping the fruit and was unable to visit with him.

### "Chapter 03: Corridor"

Before the corridor test, Nair called Ezequiel and warned him that Aline was working with Councillor Matheus. They shared the same values of more transparency and an easier Process. However, Ezequiel informed her that there was nothing to worry about and that he could handle it.

While waiting for the next challenge to start, Ezequiel began repairing the glasses that he broke while running back to the Process building. Shortly after, Aline arrived and asked Ezequiel if she could join him for the next challenge. He agreed and they watched as the candidates struggled through a tunnel filled with odorless gas. The point of the challenge was to see if they could move past their paranoia and get to the end of the tunnel. After the corridor test, Cassia asked Ezequiel what Aline was up to with the questions she asked about the usefulness of the Process tests, and his plants. Cassia asked what Ezequiel thought would happen if the proctors were put in the corridor, if they would pass. Ezequiel chastised her, saying they didn't have time to discuss crazy hypotheses and that he didn't have time to joke around with her or answer Aline's questions.

Ezequiel was working at his desk when the security alarm went off, showing footage of a young boy slipping into the Process building. Cassia called him to tell him about it, but Ezequiel brushed it off, saying that he had tripped the alarm by accident. Ezequiel was able to find the boy, who said he was there because he was hungry. Ezequiel brought him back to his apartment and erased the security footage that showed their encounter. Ezequiel gave him food, and the boy was revealed to be Augusto. He said that he wouldn't be able to visit Augusto in the near future, because he was being watched. After the meal, Ezequiel gave Augusto the glasses, allowing him to see clearly for the first time. After dinner, Ezequiel let Augusto play with a cube from the Process exam.

Ezequiel's time with Augusto was interrupted by Aline, and he hid August in the back room. Noticing that there were two plates, Aline asked if he had company. Ezequiel attempted to distract Aline by saying he knew Matheus had sent him, and why. Aline said that secrets shouldn't be kept between members of the Offshore and then asked if it was normal for staff to leave during the Process, indicating that she knew he had left the building. With that, Aline left.

### "Chapter 04: Gateway"

During the dormitory test, Ezequiel altered the test to see how candidates would deal with the division. While he worked on the test, he was alerted that someone had broken into his room, and told Cassia to deal with it. Ezequiel continued to monitor the test and was informed by Alvaro and another proctor that the group had continued to stay strong, despite having to pull the levers for each candidate's food rations. When Alvaro asked if they should release the candidates, he said no and that he wasn't prepared to let them all pass. He called Otavio and told him that there would be a few small changes to the test. After withholding foo for several cycles, Ezequiel had Otavio release all the rations they had at the same time.

With the test underway, Ezequiel called the Council and confronted Matheus head on. He accused Aline of being a spy and said that she had no right to go through his things. Matheus argued that Aline had the full authority of the Council, but Ezequiel countered that a spy had no rights. He said that if Matheus had any problems with him, he should come there himself. Ezequiel angrily hung up on the Council and went back to overseeing the Process.

An alert went off when Joanna escaped the dormitory through the air vent, and Ezequiel headed her off. He showed her footage of the dorms and told her that the official part of the test was only the level pulling part. When Joana asked why the test had continued, he told her that the test had a flaw - it assumed there was an endless supply of food and that all work would be compensated equally. He wanted to see how they would deal with injustice, because that was when people revealed their darkest selves. Ezequiel offered Joana food, but said that if she ate it, she would be disqualified. Instead, he encouraged her to go back and finish the test - it had to be a candidate to stop it. She agreed to go back into the dormitory and Ezequiel went back to monitoring the test. After the candidates left, Ezequiel noticed that Marco was able to move. When Marco was near the exit, Ezequiel began the process to close the door. Marco was presumably unable to get past the door, as a crunching sound was heard and Ezequiel flinched at the screen.

The candidates entered into a field after the dormitory test and Ezequiel and the other proctors were there to greet them. There, he said that only 9% of candidates reached that point.

### "Chapter 05: Water"

Aline was waiting for Ezequiel in his office. She told him that the cube on his shelf had caught her eye and so she ran it for fingerprints. She had only expected to find his fingerprints, but had also gotten the prints of a young boy. Aline asked him who the boy was, and told him that she hadn't reported it to the council. She threatened him by saying he should imagine spending the rest of his life at the Recovery and Treatment Center. Ezequiel asked what the other option was and she said he could finish out the year, resign, and then recommend her for the next head of the Process. Aline said that Councillor Matheus once told her he had caught Ezequiel sitting in his seat, just to see how it felt, and that she hoped it would work out as well for her as it had for him.

After Aline left, Ezequiel remembered his first ever speech. Stressed about making his speech as good as Matheus', he vented his concerned to Julia. Julia took him to the bathroom an had him dunk his head under the water for a few moments, tell him that he created his own merit, that he deserved this. Ezequiel used the phrase to finish off his speech. Things were initially happy for the couple, with Julia doing great work to improve the office.

Suddenly, things changed when Julia interviewed a mother in the Process.This worsened when a raid was conducted and one of the civilian casualties was a caretaker of a young boy. Julia immediately recognized the boy as her lost son, Augusto. Julia became distraught and confided in Ezequiel that she had a son before she met him. Ezequiel was advised by Councillor Matheus to have Julia admitted to the Recovery and Treatment Center, but Ezequiel resisted. After Julia tried to sneak out to the Inland to see her son, Ezequiel was forced to commit her. When Julia committed suicide by drowning herself, Ezequiel was devastated.

### "Chapter 06: Glass"

During the family test, Nair called Ezequiel and told him she had good news - Aline had submitted her report and it was positive.

Ezequiel snuck out one last time to the Inland to visit Augusto. He told him that this would be the last time he could ever meet him and he left him the cube from the exam. Augusto asked why and said he didn't want to be alone, but Ezequiel said being alone would be good for him, that he would grow up strong. Augusto tried to lay down near Ezequiel, and Ezequiel seemed to be changing his mind, but instead he left, saying he couldn't do this.

Back at the Process building, after another drowning session, Cassia arrived and talked to Ezequiel about what was going on. He told her that Aline was blackmailing him and that he would have no choice but to resign. Cassia asked him what blackmail she had, but Ezequiel said he better not say. Cassia said that she was on his side and that she would try to work on a plan to get the rest of the agents to ally with him as well.

In the board meeting, Ezequiel and the other proctors decided what to do for the candidates' individual tests. In the meeting, Aline took charge while Ezequiel said little, clearly frustrated by the turn of events.

### "Chapter 07: Capsule"

Ezequiel and the other proctors hosted a celebratory dinner to those in the 3% who managed to make it to the Offshore. During the dinner, he was approached by Michele, who congratulated him on the Process and gave him a hug, using the moment to poison his drink. Ezequiel was suspicious, so he switched his drink with Cesar's. When Cesar died of the poison, Ezequiel realized that there was an infiltrator.

Aline asked Ezequiel if he had been in bad heath, or if this usually happened. Ezequiel responded angrily that this was not common. When the doctor revealed Cesar had tested positive for a toxin, Aline suggested that maybe Cesar wasn't the target. Cassia noted that the toxin was known to be used by the Cause and Aline asked why someone from the Cause would still be there. Ezequiel angrily replied that Cesar was dead and they needed to focus. Ezequiel asked to be alone, and Aline told him he needed to fix the situation immediately or his recommendation would mean nothing.

Ezequiel received a conference call from Nair, who asked him what was going on. He said he had a plan and would need her help later. Ezequiel chose to interrogate the candidates one by one to figure out who poisoned Cesar. After the interrogation, Ezequiel went on a conference call with the Council, who criticized him for a murder happening under his watch. The Council told him that the investigation needed to be fast.

Ezequiel presented the Council with evidence that Aline was the one who killed Cesar. When Matheus asked why she would do that, Ezequiel said that Cesar was not the target. Aline had tried to kill Ezequiel with the poison used by the Cause, saying that Aline was a cause member. Ezequiel gained a confession from Jorge and said that Aline was a member of the cause and that she had infiltrated the Process ten years ago. She was to lay low until she had an opportunity to help the Cause from the inside.

### "Chapter 08: Button"

While Ezequiel prepared for the purification ritual, he ran into Fernando, who was standing outside of Michele's door. When Fernando asked where she was, Ezequiel said that the candidate had been eliminated and the room was empty. He said they had found irregularities in her registration and she was taken to the gates a few minutes prior. He asked if he had noticed anything strange, which Fernando said he had not. In response, Fernando told Ezequiel that he had wanted to quit. Ezequiel was shocked after he had come so far, but eventually took him away.

After dealing with Fernando, Ezequiel checked on Michele, who he had been torturing using a pau de arara. Ezequiel untied her from the device and said that Cassia and him had suspected her from the start. Bruna didn't fit the profile for a Cause member. He asked her why she was trying to kill her, and said that he just wanted to talk to her and know why she was so angry. He told her he wouldn't leave until he got answers. Michele responded that he had killed her brother. Ezequiel asked her why she thought that, and she said it was because he was with the cause. He responded that it was unlikely Andre Santana was with the cause, and, showing her a picture of her brother, that there was no way he would pose for a photo at the Offshore if he was dead. The photos were five years after his supposed death.

Ezequiel told Michele that she was indoctrinated in the name of a lie. He knew the old man who ran the Cause, saying when he knew him, he didn't wear the hood all the time. He was with the Cause, but abandoned the ideology a long time ago. Ezequiel told her there s no good or evil, only those who have merit and those who don't. He said that he didn't want her life, he wanted to take down the old man, and that he would free her if she told him the old man's location. Ezequiel returned to the Process, leaving Michele with a video of her brother.

At the purification center, Ezequiel greeted the candidates and told them what the purification ritual entailed. They would receive a vaccine that would sterilize them. Ezequiel explained that he wondered the same thing 20 years ago, and that it was because heredity was the heart of injustice. Merit was needed to create a superior society, and the Process was the only way to evaluate it. He told the candidates that they were the true children of the Offshore, and left them to decide.

Returning to Michele, Ezequiel asked her once more to tell him where the old man was. He said that the deaths of Cesar and Bruna were not her fault because she was manipulated by the Cause. He asked her to tell him where she would meet him if she was eliminated. Michele gave in and gave Ezequiel the address. Ezequiel gave Michele the vaccine, saying that anyone else would have surely killed her. He told her he had seen both sides, so he would take her to the Recovery and Treatment Center and monitor her progress personally.

After dealing with Michele, Ezequiel met with Joana. He said that he wanted to test their total abilities. He believed that she had the trajectory of a warrior. He brought in one of Gerson's gangsters, who had nearly killed her before. Ezequiel said that a model citizen can't have any feelings towards the 97%. All she had to do was push the button and confirm that she was really one of the Offshore. The button would kill him. Despite the immense pressure to push the button, she resisted, saying that she wasn't a killer. Ezequiel said that he should have never put his faith in her, that she was too weak, nothing. Joana laughed at him, saying that he couldn't change everybody's minds. Joana said that the Process was just a way for people like him to feel superior, and that he was the one who was trash. With that, she left, leaving Ezequiel shaking in rage.

Ezequiel packed up his office and Cassia let him know that they had packed up for the year. Preparing to drown himself one last time, Ezequiel smashed his wine bottle (the same brand he drank with Julia) into the sink before collapsing on the floor, the red-wine pouring over his face, mixed in with the water. The red wine on his face symbolized and foreshadowed his fate.

## Season Two

### "Chapter 01: Mirror"

Ezequiel visited Michele in the RTC, where she was sent following the end of the Process. She tried to convince him to let her see her brother, which he eventually did. He then asked her to design a new test for the Process. She developed a maze which changed as the candidate walked through it. Ezequiel then modified it to be even more difficult. He then told her she needed to go back to the Inland and infiltrated the Cause to stop the bombing they knew was going to happen. He used her brother to convince Michele do do this.

### "Chapter 03: Static"

Ezequiel took Michele to see the Old Man, who apologized to her but told her the Cause needed her. Then Ezequiel reminded her of her orders in the Inland. No one else knew the plan. He modified her registration and told her he'd be listening as she prepared to return to the Inland. He gave her a flask which had a liquid he told her would deactivate the bomb. He promised her her brother would be released once it was done. When she arrived at the Inland, Ezequiel listened as Michele met with Fernando. When he heard that Rafael was there as well, he identified Rafael as a member of the Cause.

### "Chapter 04: Napkin"

Ivana and Joana held guns on Rafael and Michele and debated who among them was the traitor. Ezequiel coached Michele on what to say to Ivana to prove her loyalty. In order to prove this, Michele told Ivana that Ezequiel was with the Cause, against Ezequiel's wishes. While this was happening, Marcela noticed that Rafael was in the Inland and believed he needed to be rescued. Against Ezequiel's wishes, she put a team together and sent them to the Inland to retrieve him. In order to convince Ivana and Joana that she was on their side, Michele said she wanted to kill Ezequiel and would if she had the chance. When Michele stopped following Ezequiel's instructions, he connected her to her brother in order to lure Michele back in. He then helped Michele and Joana escape.

### "Chapter 05: Lamp"

Michele pretend to Ezequiel that she was alone and he told her how to make Joana show her the bomb. When Ezequiel realized that she had lied and that Joana was in the room, he came to the Inland himself and confronted her. He revealed that he was part of the Cause himself and is the reason the Old Man was scarred on his face. Against the Causes's wishes, he joined the Process and infiltrated on his own. He impressed Nair during his Process which led to his status. Ezequiel finally told the other Cause members that the contents of the flask he gave Michele wouldn't stop the bomb, but make it invisible to the Division. Unbeknownst to him, Cássia and Marcela were listening to this conversation and Marcela came to the Inland, where she killed Ezequiel and framed the Cause for it.

## Trivia

* Indirectly, Ezequiel was responsible for the Offshore's destruction, because some of the people who he passed, such as Michele, Rafael, André and Elisa, and some people who took part in his Process and were affected by him, such as Joana, Fernando and Marco, played each an important role in the Offshore's destruction.
	+ Nathalia is the only exception.