© Netflix
Predictably, the last episode of Narcos: Mexico has a pretty spectacular body count. Also predictably, it probably ends up posing more questions than it answers, leaving things wide open for the confirmed second season.
The DEA are finally given a tip on where to find Kiki, but in true Guadalajara style his body has been dumped at a politically sensitive location, meaning that when the DEA storm in and riddle everyone there with bullets, they are doing some of the Mexican government’s dirty work for them. That’s just how things seem to work there.
Kiki’s body is discovered outside, and it is clear that he has suffered terrible torture. Mika stands vigil beside her husband’s body, whose death was ultimately so unnecessary. It’s difficult to see how they’re going to replace Kiki as the main protagonist for the second series. He was one of the most fleshed-out and likeable characters in the whole show, he’s going to be a tough act to follow.
Photo: Carlos Somonte/Netflix
Gallardo returns home to Sinaloa, but finds he is not that welcome there. His escape is going to come at a hefty price, and he is going to have to pay the governor, with whom he has a very complicated relationship, to help him get false documents and get out of the country. The governor agrees to help, but then immediately reveals Gallardo’s plan to the cops, resulting in a raid on Gallardo’s safe house, lead by Calderoni.
Calderoni captures Gallardo, and it looks like this surely will be the end for him, but Gallardo manages to talk his way out of it. He tells Calderoni he has the tapes from Kiki’s torture sessions, revealing all the names of everyone involved in the phenomenal corruption that has let the drug cartel become so powerful. According to Gallardo, if Calderoni takes these men down, then Calderoni will become their next enemy, and he has a point. There is currently quite a lot of cleaning house going on, with anyone who might give the game away being gunned down without ceremony. A handsome sum of money is waved under Calderoni’s nose to sweeten the deal, and eventually he agrees to let Gallardo go.
Don Neto is not so lucky. In a stylish but gruesome sequence, his hideout is raided, and he sits in his deck chair listening to his Walkman while everyone around him is shot. His stoic, bloodstained face has to be one of the takeaway images from the entire series.
Photo: Netflix
Now it’s Gallardo’s turn to clean house. He hasn’t even left the country when he hears that the other cartel bosses are holding a summit to decide what to do now he’s out of the way. He pulls the ballsiest move ever and waltzes in mid-meeting, kicking Isabella out altogether because he knows she’s the one who was trying to capitalise on his absence, and making the others all swear their loyalty to him. And if anyone was in any doubt as to what Gallardo’s about, he delivers the governor his own son’s head in a box to let him know what he thinks of his betrayal. Gallardo is back, which almost takes us back to where we were at the beginning of the series, and renders the DEA’s efforts rather futile.
But there’s also a changing of the guard in the DEA, as we finally get to meet the narrator of the whole series, an agent called Walt, played by Scoot McNairy, and his motley crew of associates. These guys looks altogether different to Kuykendall and Kiki, they roll in driving an old camper van and looking like a bunch of dropout surfers, but the camper van is loaded with guns, and you get the distinct impression that they’re not here to check out the waves. This surely is a hint of what’s to come in the second series of Narcos: Mexico.
