Dear White People season 3's ending revealed more details about the mysterious Order of X, as well as the real identity of Giancarlo Esposito's enigmatic Narrator. The Netflix show's third season picks up immediately after the season 2 finale, but Sam and Lionel are disappointed to learn that the man waiting for them in the bell tower doesn't have the simple answers they need, and are even more disappointed when he tells them that the Order - an elite secret society of African-American students and alumni - has collapsed. As Dear White People season 3 ends, however, it's clear the Order of X isn't gone - just broken.

Of course, Dear White People isn't all about secret societies and Scooby Doo-style mysteries. Set at the fictional Ivy League institution of Winchester University, the show (which was created by Justin Simien, based on his film of the same name) explores racial tensions, romance, and academic pressures among students at the university, in particular the residents of the historically black Armstrong-Parker House. After being shaken by her encounter with conservative talking head Rikki Carter in season 2, Sam handed over her campus radio show Dear White People to her best friend, Joelle Brooks. However, without the powerful and unswerving convictions she once held, she finds herself struggling to come up with a topic for her junior thesis film.

Related: Dear White People Season 3 Cast & Character Guide

Dear White People season 3 also finds Troy Fairbanks struggling to make his voice heard at the tightly-run campus satire magazine Pastiche, and Brooke struggling to make her voice heard at the New Independent... because her editor, Lionel, is more interested in writing autobiographical erotica. Things come to a head at the end of the season when Professor Moses Brown, Reggie's new mentor and a highly admired member of Winchester's teaching staff, is accused of sexual assault by Muffy Tuttle - sparking tensions and disagreement among Armstrong-Parker's residents. Let's break down Dear White People season 3's final episode.

The Dear Black People Universe Explained

Dear White People Season 3 Role Reversal

A common retort to Dear White People's title (both in-universe and in the real world) is what would happen if someone started a radio show called Dear Black People. In answer to this, Dear White People's season 3 finale opens with ten minutes set in an alternate universe where Sam runs a radio show called Dear Black People - but everything else in the world has been flipped as well. White people are historically oppressed, the president is Flavor Flav instead of Donald Trump, Winchester's student population is majority-black, and on her radio show Sam warns that if she hears any black people using the word "cracker" she'll punch them in the throat. In this universe there's also a Professor Moses Brown, but he's a white man who sexually assaulted Joelle. This part of the episode concludes with Sam and her friends deciding to murder Joelle to cover up the sexual assault allegation.

From there, the episode cuts away to a shot of an article in Troy's newly-founded magazine, Fried Chicanery, revealing that Dear Black People is actually a satirical article written by Brooke Morgan in order to bring the allegations against Moses Brown to light. Reggie, who is still vehemently defending Moses' innocence, refuses to read the article at first, but ends up going to a screening of Sam's documentary - which also takes aim at Moses Brown and other professors who wield too much power over students. The bombshell of Dear Black People earns Troy a lot of praise for the maiden issue of his magazine, but it may also have gotten him into trouble with some very powerful people.

Edward Ruskin and the Order of X

Dear White People - Edward Ruskin

Troy is surprised when his father, Dean Fairbanks, praises him for publishing Brooke's article and tells him that it took guts, with Troy noting worriedly that it sounds like he's reading a eulogy. It's at this point that Dean Fairbanks reveals to Troy that he's a member of the Order of X, who are likely to make life hard for Troy now that he's targeted Moses Brown, who is also a member. When Dean Fairbanks goes to Troy and Lionel's rooms, he picks up a photo of Moses Brown with the mysterious Narrator whom Sam and Lionel met at the end of season 2, and identifies him as Dr. Edward Ruskin - a former professor at Winchester University. Dean Fairbanks says that Ruskin was a great educator but not a good fit for the university, and when Sam and Lionel look him up they find that he's officially on sabbatical.

They go to Ruskin's house, where he reveals that he and Moses used to be friends and joined the Order of X as grad students. However, the organization became corrupted by a faction within it that was only interested in attaining and preserving power, wealth and status - to the point of, for example, covering up sexual assaults committed by powerful members. Ruskin shows Sam and Lionel some of the current members of the Order of X, and they're stunned by how many famous names are part of the organization. However, instead of asking Sam and Lionel to join the Order of X and change it from within, Ruskin instructs them to stop listening to him and simply follow the truth wherever it takes them.

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"Kill the Narrator" and the Pyramid Riddle Explained

Dear White People - Pyramid Riddle

When Sam and Lionel first meet Ruskin, he subjects them to a confusing lecture about how the world works, and at the core of this lecture is a pyramid, which he describes as a "skeleton key" that encompasses everything they need to know. He tells them that they need to "consider the pyramid through the eye of god," and that the only way they can do that is to "kill the narrator." The second of these riddles is the one that Sam and Lionel figure out last; Ruskin has been telling them that they need to stop following his voice and start listening to themselves. The second, to consider the pyramid through the eye of god, is more complex, but Sam figures it out in Episode 9 and incorporates it into her thesis film.

Broadly speaking, the pyramid refers to the hierarchy of society, with people coming together to build a pyramid that ends up with the wealthy, powerful and famous at the very top. However, when the pyramid is looking at from above ("through the eye of god") the apex of the pyramid looks small and insignificant, and the eye is instead drawn to the four corners of the pyramid and the lines that connect them. Broadly speaking, the message of the riddle is that "we're all in this together" (which, Sam realizes with horror, is the message of the latest Mista Griggins movie), and also that the vast majority of people don't live at the apex of the pyramid, but along the lines leading to the center of it. The Order of X was originally conceived with this idea in mind, but over time a faction within the Order lost sight of the broader picture and instead became obsessed with climbing to the apex themselves.

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So, what could all of this mean for Dear White People season 4? The season ends with Troy finding Sam and Lionel, showing them an Order of X pin that he got from his father, and telling them, "We need to talk." It's a similar cliffhanger to season 2, only in this case rather than setting up the show's characters to join the Order of X, they seem to be united against the Order of X - especially now that they've all made themselves into targets by exposing Professor Moses Brown.

We may have already begun to see the fallout of the Fried Chicanery article in the form of Coco being turned down for her much-coveted fellowship, despite being at the top of her class and having powerful letters of recommendation on her side. If the Order of X's influence extends as far as the show suggests, then several characters could find their careers at risk of being ruined before they've even begun.

More: What To Expect From Dear White People Season 4