‘Narcos Mexico’ Season 3 Episode 6 Recap: “La Jefa”

One other episode of Narcos: Mexico, one other climactic episode-ending gun battle. Anybody else sensing a sample right here?

However it’s a sample that works for the story the present is telling. Has the violence been ratcheted up as a result of that’s what a variety of viewers are tuning in to see? There’s little question in my thoughts. Does it additionally mirror the more and more fractious and harmful world during which the characters reside, although? You guess it does.

On this episode, the violence goes all the way in which to the highest. As if the killing of a Catholic cardinal within the crossfire at an airport weren’t unhealthy sufficient, an all-out rise up has begun in one of many nation’s poorer areas, launched on New Yr’s Day 1994, the very day the NAFTA commerce settlement took impact. And just below 4 months later, Luis Donaldo Colosio, the system-threatening reform-minded candidate put forth by the ruling PRI get together—which together with its wealthy allies was experiencing some critical purchaser’s regret with the man—is assassinated. Our reporter/narrator Andréa speculates the PRI itself was behind the killing, and certainly will get threatened when leaving the workplace one evening, however whoever the culprits could also be, it’s not a superb signal for Mexico’s rapid future.

Change is going on all over. After cementing himself as the largest narcotrafficker in historical past, shifting weight to the astonishing tune of $180 million per 30 days, Amado Carrillo Fuentes finds himself in a bind when Pacho Herrera and his companions within the Cali cartel declare their intent to cease promoting coke, do some jail time, after which go respectable, a deal organized with the Colombian authorities in order that their cash wouldn’t be seized. (That is all lined at size within the third season of the unique Narcos, although the small print differ from how they’re offered right here.)

With out lacking a beat, the Lord of the Skies heads again to Cuba (and the loving arms of his long-distance girlfriend Marta) for a gathering with Orlando Henao, chief of the breakaway Norte del Valle cartel down in Colombia. Henao agrees to commerce cocaine with Amado completely, beneath the identical favorable phrases proven him by the Cali contingent.(This too goes down in a different way from the way it was depicted in Narcos.)

Cali’s determination additionally adversely results the Arellano Félix cartel in Tijuana, which finds itself more and more friendless. Amado refuses to chop them in on his negotiations with Norte del Valle. Unbiased trafficker El Mayo refuses to hitch their group. Norte del Valle freezes them out, per their settlement with Amado.

Then issues go from unhealthy to worse. Low-level narcojunior Alex Hodoyan will get detained within the States for driving a automobile with hundreds of {dollars} in money and a 9mm gun with the serial quantity filed off. He weasels his approach out of arrest, however is trailed again to his home in Tijuana by Walt Breslin, who stakes it out till he sees Ramón and Francisco Arellano Félix there. He calls within the navy, and a gunfight ensues, killing narcojunior Arturo “Kitty” Paez. (Farewell, Unhealthy Bunny, we hardly knew ye.) Whereas Rámon and the Hodoyan brothers escape to the Arellano stronghold, Francisco will get caught by Walt himself.

Realizing it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Ramón items collectively his function in blowing their cowl, Alex calls Walt to disclose their new location in hopes of being rescued. Walt and his navy allies race over to finish the bust of the brothers, however Ramón is one step forward of them. When Walt and his liaison get separated in visitors, Ramón opens fireplace, killing the troopers.

This is only one a part of the evening’s festivities for the Arellanos, who, now solidly beneath the command of sister Enedina, have determined to indicate all their enemies what they’re made from. They torch El Mayo’s valuable shrimping boat. They homicide Sinaloan chief El Azul. They practically kill Amado himself. In a single fell swoop, Enedina (“La Jefa,” because the episode’s title labels her), has made herself a power to be reckoned with.

Amid all this chaos, one other storyline unfolds. Victor, the Juárez cop, lastly locates the lacking woman for whom he’s been looking for months—in a morgue. Noticing that she has blood beneath her fingernails, indicating a battle together with her killer, he asks if they’ll run a DNA check on it to determine the assassin, and is advised that solely north of the border have they got such capabilities.

So victor calls the DEA quantity Walt gave him months earlier and reaches station chief Jaime Kuykendall. Jaime, naturally, desires information on Juárez boss Amado—information that Victor doesn’t actually have. However he does have a approach of getting it: ingratiating himself to Amado’s vicious brother Vicente, who already has a crew of cops doing his soiled work. Now it’s a query of whether or not Victor can survive lengthy sufficient within the underworld to generate the intel he wants for a tradeoff on that DNA check he desires so badly.

In a plot- and action-heavy episode similar to this, Narcos: Mexico not often has time to let issues breathe, cinematically. It depends closely on the careworn faces of actors Luis Gerardo Méndez as Victor, Scoot McNairy as Walt Breslin, and José María Yazpik as Amado to convey emotion and depth beneath the slick, violent floor. In that respect, the present succeeds, because the digicam lingers on every face as they course of the dilemmas during which they discover themselves: These guys actually are capable of anchor the motion in recognizably human methods. When the world is coming unraveled round them, that’s no imply feat.

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Instances, and anyplace that will have him, actually. He and his household reside on Lengthy Island.

Watch Narcos: Mexico Season 3 Episode 6 on Netflix