History Series / TheBarrier

* KidnappedForExperimentation: One of the plotlines involves children getting kidnapped, sometimes after being made LegallyDead during a hospital stay, for the sake of FindTheCure.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Álex's perspective is definitely one through which the plot becomes downright weird. His first three days in Madrid alone are quite a romp. His niece is taken away because his brother is unemployed, his brother ends up working for a minister because his mother-in-law used to date said minister and the authorities show a suspicious reluctance to give his niece back after Álex brings them proof that her father has a job. His sister-in-law[[spoiler:'s boyfriend is arrested for terrorism]] and he now has to pretend she's his ''other'' sister-in-law. He's saved from being killed by a fake member of LaResistance only to end up needing to bring information to the real resistance. The real resistance refuses to believe he's not an informer and he only gets his story backed because a person he has crossed paths with before is part of it, as well. Since he mentions that cricket hunting was the most exciting thing he got to do in his hometown, one can't really blame him for bieng ''very'' weirded out by Madrid.

The above it the plot of the first episode alone, with the following ones having a similar average density of surprises in stock for the viewer. Because of this, it will be hard to read any further without getting spoiled.

* QuickDrawDecision: Alma presents the President with a plan, expecting him to have to make a very difficult decision about it. She's pleasantly surprised when he promptly signs off on it.

[[folder: Tropes A-M]]

[[folder: Tropes N-Z]]

* PayPhone: Most people in Sector 2 don't have a phone in their own home, so they need to use public pay phones to make calls.

* AdultFear:
** Marta being taken away from Hugo at the registry turns out to be the among ''less'' underhanded means by which Alma acquired the children detained at the CIM. In several cases, they were [[spoiler:checked into hospitals by their parents, and "died from [whatever they were brought in for]"]].
** Thanks to New Spain being a dictatorship, the risk of being reported, arrested and/or killed for showing any sort of sign of not agreeing with the government is ever-present.
** One's spouse having an affair with someone who's seriously considering MurderingTheHypotenuse.
** On top of everything else, there is the looming risk of noravirus. The way those sick with it or exposed to it are handled apparently has a bad enough reputation that people go to great lengths to avoid it.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The series, which extrapolates trends from the late TheNewTens, is set in a future in which liberty-restricting governments, recovery from an economic collapse and WorldWarIII, ClimateChange, reduced availability of resources and ThePlague are all happening concurrently. [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic It turned out to be spot-on for that last one]].

* ClimateChange: It takes a backseat compared to the other changes that have happened since 2020, but it's still affecting people's daily life. The presence of droughts is heavily implied by the fact that water in Sector 2 comes out of plastic jugs, one of the pieces of GraffitiOfTheResistance from the opening credits being "remember the rain" and the fact that Sector 1's running water is desalted sea water. There is also a 2020 flashback of Luis and Álvaro going to visit a lake one last time before it dries up that cuts to the lake's dried up present counterpart.

* PistolWhipping: Alejo uses his gun to hit Julia at a point where he has her at his mercy, right after threatening to shoot her if she wans't compliant.

** After Luis turns on the government for good, Luis discreetly returns to his home to [[spoiler:pick up Sergio and]] give a couple members of the household who weren't included in his escape plan a chance to join them. After his attempt to convince Alma fails, Alma starts calling for the leader of the police detachment currently searching the house, making it look like she's going to hand Luis over to him. When she actually leaves the room in which she had been talking to Luis to meet with the policeman, she instead asks him to be very thorough in his search and announces that she'll show him a few papers that he missed. While it's still bad news for Luis in the long term, on the short term it lets him leave while the police is disctracted, do his other errand an give another person the chance to come with him.

* MixedAncestry: [[spoiler: Manuela and Iván's]] child is shown in the epilogue. Since one of the child's parents is one of the few black characters, this is a given.

* {{Tyrannicide}}: Does this look like the sort of show where where the President is still alive by the time the end credits of the finale roll in?

** There are some hints on the nature of the chip. It turns out that Marta's clean bill of health, the statement according to which Sara saved Marta's life and the price of her own and the fact that [[spoiler:she died specifically from the noravirus]] are related. The fact that Julia belives that [[spoiler:noravirus isn't actually that easy to catch]] points towards this, as well.

** When showing Marta the way to Sergio's room Alma calls Sergio "[Marta's] new friend". New arrivals at the CIM are always introduced as "new friends" to the existing ones.

** How Emilia was let into Sector 1 in the penultimate episode, especially without anyone in the Covarrubias household knowing in advance, at a point where security was ''tighter'' than usual, is never addressed. Any previous occurrence of Hugo and Julia going in or out with someone else, barring one with a conveniently timed [[[ThePlague noravirus]] patient in the line, has required calling someone from the Covarrubias household to sort the situation out.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Thanks to how much the characters have on their plate at a given time, some actions that should have only affected one plotline on paper end having negative knock-on-effects the person comitting them couldn't have predicted:

** [[spoiler:Carlos breaking into Marta's room to desposit an item he wants Julia to find]] results in Hugo getting worried enough to want to take her to the Covarrubias house for the day, giving Alma the means to continue exploiting Marta for the purpose of her research in the process.