WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Carmen Sandiego Season 3, now streaming on Netflix.
Season 3 of Netflix's Carmen Sandiego deepens the rivalry between Carmen and VILE (Villain's International League of Evil) when she scuppers their plans to replace Shadowsan. To make matters worse, ACME (Agency to Classify and Monitor Evildoers) is hot on her trial again, angry Carmen hacked them at the end of last season, which she did to get info about her father's murder in Argentina.
While most of Season 3 revolves around Carmen trying to find her mom, the finale, "The Jolly Good Show Caper," focuses on a heist in England. And it's here the animated franchise remixes all the Ocean's Eleven movies to pull off a stunning heist and deal VILE a massive blow.
CARMEN SPRINGS A SINISTER TRAP
Roundabout, revealed to be Head of the British Secret Service, susses out how Carmen is hitting VILE targets and stealing from the group first, only to return the treasures so these places can beef their security up, thus ruining VILE's plans. As a result, Roundabout sets things up so it looks like VILE is hitting the Tower of London and stealing the Crown Jewels, which lures Carmen in.
However, just as she's about to strike first and claim St. Edward's crown, Roundabout's hacker, the Troll, brings the security systems back online and the chamber closes down, trapping Carmen. She's finally been caught and is taken away by agents, leaving Roundabout to stroll in and pretend to survey the crime scene. The Troll hacks the feed, though, to put it on loop just like Livingston Dell in Ocean's Eleven casino's heist. This enables Roundabout to swap the crown with a fake, transferring it to Le Chevre (aka the Goat) to take to VILE, with Britain's cops none the wiser.
CARMEN TURNS THE TABLES
Roundabout then finds Shadowsan and decides to kill the VILE traitor, which would make his taking over her role on the leadership council that much sweeter. But as they scramble atop the Tower, Shadowsan reveals they anticipated Roundabout's long-winded scheme. They've been casing him just like Danny Ocean's crew cased the Night Fox in Ocean's Thirteen.
In that film, Matt Damon's Linus was handed to cops for trying to steal diamonds from Al Pacino's Willy Bank. However, like Carmen, Linus is handed over to secret allies. Linus was given to his father, while Carmen met up with Ivy and Zack, Shadowsan having been a distraction. Carmen enters the public space again, finds the Goat in London's crowd and pickpockets the crown off of him. This is similar to how Linus stole the Fabergé egg in Ocean's Twelve.
ROUNDABOUT GETS TAKEN DOWN
These developments stun Roundabout, and he soon finds a helicopter blocking his escape on the rooftop, which allows Shadowsan to disappear. But before he does, Shadowsan lets the VILE mastermind know any potential alibi is dead in the water because Player, Carmen's hacker, actually hacked the Troll's work and sent the Tower's real feed to Interpol and the cops. Roundabout, in denial over how he's been implicated in what's going on, thinks he can lie his way out and say it's video editing. However, Carmen has already slipped into his office and placed the stolen crown for the authorities to find.
She walks away with fireworks going off and Ocean's-like music playing in the background. With hard evidence to incriminate him, Roundabout is arrested and Carmen's team continues on its journey, stealing from VILE and donating the money to charity. But in a clever twist straight from VILE's playbook, Roundabout is actually being transported back to the group's new lair in Scotland by VILE's Cleaners. It's unlikely Roundabout will face punishment for his actions in Scotland, as he has proven to be a worthwhile asset.
GRAHAM IS BACK IN PLAY
To close the season out, with ACME shaken by the chain of events, the Chief wants former VILE operative Graham brought in, thinking he can be the bait to lure Carmen in. It's very similar actually to Andy Garcia's Terry Benedict, who rounds up the thieves at the start of Ocean's Twelve after they stole from him. In Graham's case, he had his memory wiped after failing a VILE mission in Season 1, but ACME has been monitoring him since.
Chief knows Carmen contacted Graham in the second season for a job, but it remains to be seen if the group knows the extent of his memory wipe. Gray, as he's affectionately known, is none the wiser, working as a lighting specialist at Sydney Opera House, unaware ACME is coming for him. Given how incensed the Chief is, she hints she's even ready to use nefarious means to interrogate him and extract information, as she wants to find out where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego.
Starring Gina Rodriguez and Finn Wolfhard, all three seasons of Carmen Sandiego are available to stream on Netflix now.