Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 5 – “The Colombian Connection” (2018)

*A few episode spoilers.*

It’s fitting that we’re now officially halfway through season 1, because episode 5 marks an important turning point in the story. It also initiates the show’s ties with the original Narcos, and while I think this series is terrific in its own right, it’s still neat to get these callbacks.

After a harrowing experience in the last episode, Félix has decided it’s time for a big move: he travels to Colombia in the hopes of securing a deal to expand into cocaine trafficking. While he’s away, the Tijuana plaza has to deal with retaliation from the local cocaine smuggler, and the DEA thinks they’ve found a new way into his organization.

Kiki is especially out for blood here. He’s been recklessly gung ho about this whole thing from jump, but at the moment, he’s incensed with the cartel. One of DFS officers in Félix’s pocket pulls over his wife at the start of the episode, intimidating her in a deeply twisted way. The encounter makes Kiki more determined than ever to take Félix down, and that resolve only gets more and more personal as the episode goes on.

In Tijuana, pretty much all the cocaine passes through the hands of Falcón—Félix had to meet with him in a previous episode to assure him that setting up a plaza there wouldn’t intrude on his turf. But now that Félix is looking to get into coke, Falcón doesn’t take too kindly to the thought of sharing his suppliers and his business. While Félix is out of the country, Falcón makes his opinion heard loud and clear.

As I said, we go back to Colombia here, placing the current timeframe somewhere within season 2 of that show. We see some of the heads of the Cali cartel, along with Pablo Escobar and some notable members of his operation (plus hippos!) I haven’t revisited Narcos since my first watch, but it’s neat to see these characters again—especially seeing how they interact with Félix.

The big question throughout this episode is why? Why, when Félix has the marijuana trafficking corridor completely sewn up and is making more money than he could ever spend, would he want to start trafficking cocaine? Why would he want those additional complications, that notoriety and heat? Why would he want to get into bed with dangerous Colombian cartels? Numerous people ask him, and he gives a simple answer—“If I don’t, someone else will.” And that answer may be true as a statement of fact, but it’s not the actual reason that’s driving him, and waiting to hear Félix’s real motivation lends plenty of tension to the episode.

All things considered, Félix’s first trip to Colombia goes pretty well (barring some light abduction.) As usual, it’s so interesting to see how he tailors his approach to whoever he’s pitching to. He’s told that Cali is headed by someone who’s “shrewd, a real businessman,” and he’s appropriately professional. He’s deferential while still touting the success of his operation, and he brings along his friend Isabella to vouch for him.

But it’s in Félix’s (involuntary) meeting with Pablo that Diego Luna really shines. Félix has just been brought very forcefully to Pablo, when he’d intentionally planned to avoid Medellín altogether—he’d been told that Pablo “has very strong emotions” and decided that was more mess than he wanted to get into. But now he’s face-to-face with the temperamental man he snubbed. He can feel how dangerous this is. But Félix keeps steady, unflinchingly truthful. He doesn’t try to flatter or placate Pablo. He shoots straight, and he doesn’t blink. It’s an impressive scene, and it’s such a treat to see Luna play off of Wagner Moura here. They worked together before in Elysium, but even though they only share a single scene in this episode, it’s a meaty, actorly scene that allows both of them to show off their talent. 

Other Doctor Lives: Twenty Twelve: Series 1, Episode 3 – “Roman Remains” (2011)

Not as entertaining for me as episode 2, but still fun. The committee encounters a very realistic conundrum and deals with it in an amusing way, and I like seeing some different characters getting put together.

The builders have begun laying the foundation for the Olympic aquatic center, but work has stopped due to the discovery of what might be Roman-era human remains. While Ian tries to figure out how to get around the archeological site, Siobhan has a hell of a time getting Kay to record her vlog for the Olympics website. Meanwhile, everyone’s struggling to get into the office because changing security protocols are messing with their swipe cards.

Our character of the week is Kay Hope, head of sustainability for the commission. She’s played by Amelia Bullmore—I’ve seen her in all kinds of British stuff, but State of Play is always the first thing I think of when I see her. She’s all about running the Olympics as greenly as possible, and she’s heavy into the importance of her work. However, public speaking is not her strong suit, and let’s just say her attempt to record her vlog isn’t exactly a slam dunk. The more Siobhan urges her to be friendly, personable, and cool, the stiffer and more nervous she gets.

Again, finding ancient remains on building sites is definitely a thing that happens in Britain, so it’s a very reasonable plotline for the major complication of the episode. But the way the commission deals with it is pretty fun. When an archeologist is brought in to examine the bones, Ian deadpans in a talking head, “Well, let’s hope this guy’s wrong. Let’s hope it’s just a murder or something.” And there’s an amusing scene of a few characters looking at the model for the aquatic center, rearranging the different parts of the building to try and figure out how to avoid the remains.

The narration doesn’t stand out as much for me this time around. It feels a little more functional today, rather than humorous in its own right. Although, one line I did really like was, “For Ian, the aquatic center has suddenly gone from being the week’s good-news story to being a mass grave, which isn’t what he wanted.” Nicely worded, with delightfully matter-of-fact delivery from David Tennant!

Bugonia (2025, R)

This is a wild movie. Which, given that it’s coming from Yorgos Lanthimos, is hardly surprising. I had mixed feelings about this one (also not surprising, honestly)—for the most part, it’s brutal but very good, but I feel like the ending kind of goes off the rails.

Teddy is many things: an amateur beekeeper, a warehouse worker for a giant pharmaceutical corporation, and a conspiracy theorist. He’s gone far down a rabbit hole researching the Andromedans, an alien race bent on destroying humanity. He’s convinced that the Andromedans have embedded themselves into society by posing as humans, and now, he’s put his cousin Don through a training regimen so they can kidnap one such Andromedan. As it happens, she’s the CEO of his company: Michelle Fuller. Teddy interrogates Michelle in the hopes of 1) getting her to admit her alien nature and 2) arranging a meeting on her mother ship, so he can negotiate the survival of the human race.

Bugonia is up for four Oscars. Besides Best Picture, it’s nominated for Best Leading Actress for Emma Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay (it’s based on a 2003 South Korean film called Save the Green Planet!), and Best Score. Again, I have issues with the ending, but other than that, the script is pretty great, the score does a lot to create atmosphere, and Stone is terrific!

Obviously, good swathes of this story are ridiculous. Michelle gives both Teddy and Don a pretty good beating when they come for her. Once they’ve taken her, Teddy slathers Michelle in antihistamine cream to “dampen her powers,” and he’s chemically castrated himself to prevent her from seducing him. There’s also some nice corporate satire, like Michelle singing the praises of the company’s new “you can totally go home at 5:30!” policy while emphasizing that employees can stay late if they choose and they should still definitely get all their work done before they leave.

But at the same time, there are genuinely disturbing elements here, as well as some painful ones. Teddy doesn’t just chemically castrate himself—he convinces Don, who is autistic and relies on Teddy for some support needs, to do the same. While Teddy’s taken a nosedive into wild conspiracies, he’s also experienced some horrific injustices in his life and hasn’t really dealt with grief/anger from that. And yes, it’s goofy that Teddy thinks Michelle is an alien, but he does violently kidnap a woman, hold her in his basement, and torture her for information. The film is funny and unsettling in almost equal measure.

The final stretch of the film, though, doesn’t really work for me. To be fair, since it’s an adaptation, I’m guessing the ending was already baked in. But I don’t like it. It feels like it undermines everything the film was trying to say and leaves me somewhat cold in the last sequence. It’s disappointing, because up until that point, I thought it was pretty excellent, albeit hard to watch at points.

Stone is fantastic in her nominated performance as Michelle. Regardless of whether she’s an alien, she is an objectively terrible person, but that doesn’t warrant Teddy’s actions toward her. It all adds to the complexity of the film, and it’s really interesting to watch Michelle navigate this situation, trying to manipulate the guys and get away. Jesse Plemons does a really great job as Teddy. He’s comically unhinged, intensely focused, and deeply hurting—Plemons balances the different parts of the character, making them all work in a sort of unbalanced harmony. And Aidan Delbis is quite good in his film debut as Don. Delbis is autistic himself, and Don is an active participant in the story with his own point-of-view—you love to see it.

Warnings

Strong violence (including torture,) strong thematic elements (including suicide,) language, drinking/drug references, and sexual references.