*Episode premise spoilers.*
I’d say this is an episode with great material for Diego Luna, but that happens with pretty much every episode. Regardless, I really like where the show takes Félix here as the second half of the season kicks off.
Félix has made a deal with the Colombians to start accepting shipments of cocaine, but there are issues that need to be resolved before the first plane comes in. In order to pull off this kind of operation, it’s vital that he establish a partnership with the Mexican government. However, while they vet his organization, 1) the feud with Falcón in Tijuana is escalating, and 2) the DEA has captured a downed plane that they think could hold the key to bagging Félix.
This is an episode where even the plotlines that don’t really feature Félix still revolve around him. Zuno, the friend who arranged Félix’s introduction with a government official, warns him, “Please, whatever you do, keep the noise down. People like my uncle don’t like headlines.” (Side note: in the show, the official is only ever credited as “Mr. X.”) So the last thing Félix needs right now is a turf war with Falcón. As members of both the Tijuana and Sinaloa plazas move on Falcón, no one involved is being all that discreet, and the DFS isn’t stepping in to help. As Nava puts it, “That Sinaloan dirtbag thinks he can make a deal for coke and not discuss our terms first?”
Meanwhile, the DEA has caught a lucky break with one of Félix’s planes. They use it as an in to make a move with intel they acquired illegally. The captured pilot becomes a piece in a shell game, in which they bluff with evidence they don’t really have to put pressure on someone who can get Félix where they want him. Crucially, they lean on the banker who manages Félix’s bank accounts in the U.S., promising they’ll drop (falsified) hints to the cartel that he’s being disloyal unless he convinces Félix to deal with a crisis with his accounts in person. Once Félix is on U.S. soil, they can make their move.
While all this is going on, Félix is doing everything he can to secure the government partnership he needs. As it turns out, there’s little he can do. Right from the start, he’s put on edge—the arranged introduction with Mr. X is at a fancy country club, and even though Félix has built up enough wealth to buy himself social cachet, everyone in the club knows he’s not their people. He hovers on the periphery, guardedly nursing a drink as he tries to figure out who he’s meeting.
Once his disappointingly short introduction has been made, Félix is forced into a waiting game. The government needs to decide whether or not they can get into bed with the cartel without any negative blowback on them, and even though Félix needs this partnership, like, yesterday, they have zero sense of urgency about the timeline. This leaves him twisting in the wind, because even calling Mr. X’s office goes against his need for discretion. He’s bewildered that he barely got to speak at all to Mr. X, let alone talk business, and he’s incensed that Zuno arranged the introduction to his uncle but then didn’t turn up at the meeting himself. When Zuno assures Félix that he already explained his proposal to Mr. X, Félix demands, “Then why the fuck am I here? What did you tell him?”
Félix has intelligence, confidence, and pride in spades, so it’s always interesting to see him in a situation where his fate is in someone else’s hands. Luna is so good at conveying his discomfort at the country club, the way he’s wrongfooted the whole time but trying to appear unruffled on the surface. And after exploding at Zuno, I like how Luna plays his restlessness as he waits on an answer from Mr. X—the man who compulsively attacks problems and finds solutions is stuck, unable to influence the outcome or even speed up its arrival. And I don’t want to spoil the details, but his second conversation with Mr. X is even better!
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