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The secret society of Ares

Basically roughly one year and half ago, I discovered Ares, which is a Dutch series that is present on Netflix. What I've discovered through the watching of the whole serie, it's basically an Eyes Wide Shut modernized and with more episodes.

Members of the society

It's the story of Rosa, a med student, who is approached by members of a society which want to recruit her.

The secret society called "Ares" force their members to do humiliating rituals before being accepted :

• They have to crouch while being nearly naked and have to reveal all their secrets
• They need to be marked on their forearm

Everything is done to enable this secret society to remodel their adepts. It has to be said that adepts are pre-selectioned and that the members of this society come from very wealthy families. It functions like a mafia organization with a main leader, a council (composed of elders) etc. There are many similarities with masonic lodges.

What shocked me the most through the show, is that at one point, one of the elders of the society ask her daughter to make a sacrifice if she want to become the head of the society.

The sacrifice is to kill a newborn child by pressing a button that will desactivate his medical crib. The daughter refuses, but his father still kills the newborn by pressing the button, in a very cold way. I've rarely seen a scene of this violence, it's not violent in terms of blood or gore, but it's incredibly violent because of the coldness of the action and the way it's filmed.

The sacrifice which has to be made

I put there the dialogue that accompanies this scene :

- We're searching for...the purest thing inside of you. A custom-made test. Different for everyone. Personal for everyone. Kill it, Carmen.

- You're kidding, right? It's a joke, isn't it, Dad?

- This is... the most important moment in your life. Do it, Carmen.

- No...- The first woman of our society. You'll have to. Do it. Do it! We all had to do this.

At the end, the main character (Rosa) become the leader by killing her longtime friend, a young man who had problems with the organization and himself. A part of the scene (the script) is below :

>! Rosa, look at me.!<

You are Rosa Steenwijk, aren't you?

Yes.

Then do what they ask of you.

Finish it, become a leader.

Then you can set Beal free.

The entity to which they gave offerings is called the "Beal" (sounds odly similar to Belial), its presence is located in the underground section of society's HQ. It's symbolized by a black pit, probably because this is the link between the Beal and our world, a sort of portal.

Older than Amsterdam. Nobody knows how old, exactly...but we're the first to use its full potential. This is everything we expel,the things we don't talk about. The cover-up. We use this to make the decisions others aren't capable of. So, we can be the leaders this country needs.

Apparently they use it as a mean of controlling Dutch society

The \"Beal\"

Some excerpts from the serie :

Extracts

>! Christiaan Dhondt.!<

Tell Beal your biggest secret. It was dark. The lights of my car were still off. Um... before I knew it, somebody crossed the street and... She died before anybody could help her. We don't judge each other at Ares. Ares thanks you for your honesty.

>! Form a circle around your president. Novices of Ares, show your allegiance through your words, your actions...- and your body. !<

>! Novices of Ares...show your allegiance through words... your actions, and bear the symbol with the others. Beal sees you. On your knees.!<

- It's private. Nothing is private at Ares.

Steenwijk is a novice.Why would we give her privileges reserved for elder members?

>! Rosa has no right to it. She's not from an Ares family. She doesn't know our history, she's nobody. !<

>! Ladies and gentlemen. Members of Ares, welcome. I'd like to ask the circle to stand up. Honorable members... for some time now I'm responsible... for the progression within Ares. Responsible for purity... integrity and the consistency of it. Okay, turn around and I'll cut you free. No. But Beal is restless.

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This is quite frankly one of the most interesting series which I've seen because it has so much on symbolism etc. And I've barely stratched the surface, it would need more analysis.