*A few spoilers for the end of season 1.*
Season 2 of Narcos: Mexico gets off to an excellent start! It’s an almost deceptively exciting episode—there’s less big action than in some we’ve seen, but there are a lot of moving pieces that all intersect in compelling ways within the larger context of a central event. And Diego Luna is just so good!
Félix was able to avoid consequences with the DEA in the season 1 finale—in part by giving up some old friends, in part by his talent for knowing what people want—but even though the operation appears on solid footing now, he’s still dealing with serious issues. As he prepares for his 40th birthday party, he’s less concerned about the celebration and more about the between-the-lines implications for his business. The DEA, meanwhile, has launched Operation Leyenda to find and take down everyone involved in Kiki’s abduction, torture, and murder. Headed by Walt Breslin, this mission uses dirty, brutal tactics to work their way up the chain of those responsible for Kiki’s death.
We’ll start with the DEA stuff. It’s revealed at the end of the season 1 finale that the show’s narrator is actually Walt, played by Scoot McNairy (a.k.a. Gordon from Halt and Catch Fire.) As an interesting side note, while most of the major characters in the Narcos franchise are real people, Walt is a fictional character. Anyway, Walt and his team are on a vicious vendetta. They know that, after Kiki’s body was recovered in the season finale, not everyone involved went down—just the people that Félix (and more importantly, the government) allowed to go down. But they’re after everyone, and they’ll do whatever they have to in order to achieve that, including some abduction and torture of their own. “If you want to be a lawyer about it, the whole fucking thing was probably illegal,” Walt drawls in the narration, largely unbothered by that fact.
But so far, their investigation has stayed on the periphery of the cartel, so the big power players aren’t yet aware of them. Instead, everyone is congregating for Félix’s birthday, and everyone is bringing their own agendas to the party. Benjamín, urged on by his sister Enedina, wants a larger piece of the pie for Tijuana. Amado shows up to the party without Acosta in tow, and he’s trying to smooth over any suggestion that this is a slight on Acosta’s part. And the Sinaloan guys are champing at the bit to show off their huge, flashy, impractical gift for the understated, discreet Félix.
As I said, for Félix, this party is about connections, logistics, and business, not fun. In the lead-up to it and at the party itself, he’s constantly doing mental calculations on who is/isn’t there and what sort of message it sends. After the events of last season, he’s determined not to be ignored by the politicians, although by now he knows better than to place any trust in them. “Stay sharp,” he says flatly when several governors show up to the party. “They might steal the silverware.”
Luna is excellent throughout, navigating the party like it’s a dangerously high-stakes chess game. Félix has enough power to be sure in his position, but he doesn’t take anything for granted. “Every one of these assholes would put a bullet in my head if they could get away with it,” he remarks as he manages Benjamín, questions Acosta’s absence, and makes a strategic response to the Sinaloans’ ostentatious gift. But all the while, he waits for news of his most anticipated guest’s arrival.
Pacho Herrera, a partner in the Cali cartel, is one of the recurring characters who’s come over from the original Narcos. I love scenes where Félix is dealing directly with Cali, because they always seem to put him on the wrong foot. Even as Félix’s own plaza bosses line up to talk business with him, he has his own business to put to Pacho. Namely, the Colombians owe the Guadalajara cartel $200 million. As is stated, “Powder is fast, cash is slow,” so the cartel has been receiving plenty of shipments of cocaine to traffic but not the payments they’ve earned for their work. Félix lays out this issue as plainly and logically as he can, but Pacho is thoroughly unimpressed. You can always feel the subtle shift in Félix’s response when someone talks down to him, but with Cali, he also knows how powerful and dangerous their organization is, so he’s limited in what he can do. Luna does such a great job with these moments, clearly showing Félix’s reaction to being disrespected while at the same time having to disguise those feelings with the person he’s interacting with.
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