*Episode premise spoilers.*
The season 1 finale of Narcos: Mexico goes hard, and it’s just a stellar episode for Diego Luna. He’s excellent the whole season, but the finale gives him so much great material to work with, and he knocks it out of park.
After Kiki’s abduction, the DEA is out for blood. Félix’s government pals, who’ve been helping to keep the wheels of both bureaucracy and justice turning specifically in ways that would benefit the cartel, are now singing a different tune. Their number one priority is protecting their own asses, and they’ll give up anyone to do so. Félix and Don Neto are both forced to go into hiding, while the plaza bosses speculate about what will happen to the cartel if their leaders go down.
I’m going to preface once more that I’m looking at the show’s version of events which, and the narrative it offers is that Félix’s government allies are the ones who abduct and torture Kiki, going against Félix’s advice and bringing the DEA out in force as a result of their ham-fisted, despicably brutal attempt to keep their association with Félix private. As such, when the DEA mobilizes, the government is now all too happy to facilitate the capture of the right narcos, hoping that the Americans won’t dig too deeply into the cartel’s government ties when they’re pacified with some high-profile busts. The DEA is understandably incensed at what’s been done to Kiki, and after a full season of running up against the brick walls of government corruption, the system finally appears to be working for them.
For much of the season, the narcos have kept the upper hand, but now they’re scrambling. Neto blames Félix for their predicament, saying, “We had a good thing with the weed. And it could have gone forever, but it wasn’t enough for you.” But while the top brass is in the DEA’s crosshairs (with some added assists from the government,) the smaller plaza bosses begin to consider the future of the cartel without the likes of Félix, Neto, and Rafa. Especially in Tijuana, where Isabella plays Cassius to Benjamín’s Brutus.
For a man who’s so often so controlled, it’s fascinating to watch Félix having to scrounge and scramble to try and stay ahead of the DEA. He retains his talent for seeing the angles of a situation, bitterly noting that “the men who should be going down are untouchable,” but he’s brought low in a major way. The ex-cop from Sinaloa, who’s worked so hard to buy a seat at an elite table and demand people’s respect with an unflinching attitude and immense riches, now has to beg for help, a place to lie low while he works out his next move.
Quite simply, Luna plays the hell out of all of this. I like that Félix does blame himself for his predicament, but only to the extent that he should have seen the government’s betrayal coming—“I’m the fool who trusted the wrong people,” he says. While he has more self-awareness than Pablo on Narcos, he still places the largest onus on the people who wronged him.
And even when he’s backed into a corner, gun to his head and only one desperate move left, Félix isn’t ready to be counted out. He declares, “Those men sitting in Mexico City think they’re done with me, but I’m not done with them.” I love watching how he works when he’s out of options. He gets so frantic, but not exactly in a helpless way. He knows someone else has all the power in this situation, and he knows that one wrong word will be the end of him, but his urgency is less about panicking and more about his last-ditch determination to be allowed to make his case once more. Luna is riveting in this scene. (For more detailed, spoilery thoughts, I’ve written about this scene before—just be warned that that post also includes an important scene from season 2.)
Another standout scene from the finale finds Félix talking to the captive Kiki, and again, Luna is can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him fantastic. Here, in contrast, Félix is at his most self-assured, his most powerful. He reminds me of a tiger in this scene, all fluid movements and probing eyes as he metaphorically breaks bread with this DEA agent. Kiki quietly urges Félix to let him go, pointing out that he has a family, and Félix replies, almost conversationally, “Why didn’t you mind your own business then?” So cold, but remarkably understated.
So that’s season 1 under our belt! Onto season 2 next week.
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