Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 3, Episode 8 – “Last Dance” (2021)

*Some overall season 3 arc spoilers.*

This is an odd entry: first, because it’s almost an entire season after the previous episode I reviewed, and two, because Diego Luna is barely in it. So this will be a fairly quick episode write-up, and then I’ll spend some time at the end wrapping up Narcos: Mexico.

Now that Félix is no longer in the picture, the federation has dissolved. The separate plazas are each running their own operation, and Amado is on top. Over in Colombia, Cali has made a deal with the government and will be shutting down in exchange for slap-on-the-wrist prison sentences, so Amado is focused on finding a new supplier while also thinking about how he wants his on story to end. Walt is trying to investigate the “narcosjunior,” wannabe-narco rich kids. He has one such teenager in custody, but the interrogation isn’t bearing the fruit he needs. And a new character this season, a reporter named Andrea, investigates a PRI slush fund that she thinks she can tie to the cartels.

Season 3 of Narcos: Mexico is all right, but it emphasizes for me how crucial Félix and Diego Luna’s performance were to my appreciation for the show. It doesn’t hold my attention as well when he’s not around. Still, there are some nice points of interest.

This season takes place at the same time as season 3 of Narcos, so again, we see the implications of the Cali deal on Mexico. Pacho and Amado’s relationship is interesting, and I like seeing Amado realize he has to start thinking about his own exit. “Escobar, Félix, the Cali guys… All thought they had more time,” he points out. “They were wrong.”

Andrea is an enjoyable character. The “dogged reporter will do anything in pursuit of the truth” thing is a well-worn trope, but it’s effective, and the stakes are magnified when the people she’s investigating could definitely kill her if she gets too close. She also serves as a new narrator this season.

Like I said, Diego Luna’s appearance in this episode is miniscule—he doesn’t even have any lines. We just see him in an opening flashback leading up to Amado’s first meeting with Félix. The scene is more noteworthy for what Neto tells Amado about Félix in preparation. He sums Félix up simply: “Takes shit too seriously. He’s got big ideas.” When he mentions Félix’s plan to unite the plazas, Amado is intrigued by its potential, but Neto warns, “Don’t bring it up. Once he gets started on it, he’ll never stop.”

And that’s it for Narcos: Mexico! Here are my final thoughts:

Recommend?

In General – I would, as long as you’re into gangster stuff and don’t mind a lot of violence. This is an interesting series that touched on a lot of history I didn’t know.

Diego Luna – Absolutely. This is one of my favorite performances from Luna—he’s phenomenal as Félix!

Warnings

Graphic violence (including torture,) drinking/smoking/drug use, language, sexual content, and strong thematic elements.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 10 – “Free Trade” (2020)

*Episode premise spoilers, which spoils the end of episode 9.*

Season finale! This is the big one. Personally, if I’m picking favorite Diego Luna episodes, I’m going to go with one of the ones featuring Félix’s desperate dig-deep moments, but that’s as much my personal preference as anything. Luna is damn good in this episode, and he makes every moment count.

With Amado’s help, Félix was able to successfully bring in the 70-ton shipment in the previous episode, baiting the DEA with a massive bust only to turn the tables on them. Now that he’s pulled off such a power move, he’s done playing nice with anyone. Cali, Guerra, the plaza bosses—Félix is making it clear that he calls the shots, and anyone who doesn’t like that will deal with the consequences. A far cry from his federation days.

First of all, Our Flag Means Death fan that I am, I have to highlight Nat Faxon making a guest appearance in the stateside storyline with Walt, as a government type who’s eager to rubberstamp the DEA’s partial wins and move on. This character appeared in an earlier episode of the season, but I couldn’t place him then. Seeing him again in the finale, it suddenly hit me and I yelled, “Swede!” out loud.

This episode is full of great scenes and awesome moments, top-quality gangster shit. There’s a wild bust at the start of the episode, Chapo unknowingly kicking a hornet’s nest, and a devastating betrayal.

And rightfully so, most of the episode is centered squarely on Félix. The best scenes are devoted to his face-offs with various characters, including Pacho, María Elvira, and the plaza bosses. For I think the first time in the series, he’s able to leave a meeting with Cali with a swagger in his step. He’s all too aware that they planned on him losing their coke and using that as license to destroy him, but he neatly and ruthlessly sidestepped that grenade. Meeting with Pacho this time around, Félix has the upper hand and he knows it. “And your partners, have you talked this through?” Pacho asks when Félix is finally in a position to demand what he’s been after. Félix steadily replies, “I don’t have partners. I have employees.” There’s no frantic recalculating, no struggling to save face—Félix has all the power in this room.

But as has been true with Félix throughout the show, that power doesn’t come for free. The more he flexes his authority, the deeper the fallout. He indulges in revenge and throws his weight around in brutal ways, but it leads him to a tipping point.

Luna is excellent from start to finish, but I want to highlight a one-on-one scene he shares with Scoot McNairy. As with Kiki last season, Félix is really only in one significant scene with Walt, and it’s a doozy. It places them in a scenario where Walt should have all the power and approaches it as such, but Félix proves coldly impervious to everything he tries. We see it right from the start of their conversation, when Walt asks, “Do you know who I am?” and Félix replies, “No, not a fucking idea. But with that fucking accent, I’m sure I could guess.”

This scene is scary good, and I mean “scary” in more ways than one. You get a sense that this is a Félix who’s completely dropped his mask. Luna’s performance is quiet but chilling, and it’s fascinating to watch him toy with Walt.

The finale marks a turning point in the show. Much like the original Narcos pivots from Pablo to Cali in season 3, Narcos: Mexico changes direction going forward. Luna does appear in one episode of the third season, though, so I’ll save my final thoughts on the show until next time.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 9 – “Growth, Prosperity, and Liberation” (2020)

*Episode premise spoilers.*

Penultimate episode time! All kinds of big stuff going down in this one.

The big day has arrived. Félix’s operation needs to go collect 70 tons of cocaine from Colombia and traffic it to the U.S., knowing full well that the Colombians will show no mercy if anything goes wrong. Speaking of which, Walt’s team knows about the shipment and decides that it’s the ideal time to strike—the prospect of catching the cartel with that much coke is mind-boggling.

The stakes are super high on all sides, so most of the episode is an all-but-literal countdown to the big clash. Will the DEA catch their white whale? Will Félix, Amado, and co. stay one step ahead? What will Calderoni, the DEA’s inside man, do to affect the outcome? The tension builds and builds until we reach the brutal climax.

Lots of interesting stuff for Félix today. As the big boss, he’s out of the direct line of fire while everything’s going down, but even if he’s not under the immediate threat of physical danger like some of his some of his men are, the mental weight of the whole operation is hanging heavily on them. Not only is he well aware of what Cali will do to him if he can’t pull this off, he’s staking everything on the success of this shipment. Even if the Colombians backed him into a corner to agree to it, he now needs to bring it home for his own sake, the ultimate power play.

As he does all this, Félix has also been trying to get closer with his ex-wife, María Elvira. He’s feeling nostalgic for the past, perhaps because he knows he’s dead if he fails, and maybe he’s trying to mend fences before it’s too late. The dynamic between them is interesting, because María Elvira knows exactly who Félix is and calls him out on his shit, even as she also starting to get pulled back in herself. Félix brings up his past transgressions, saying, “I haven’t forgotten what I did to you,” and she simply replies, “Neither have I.” He looks toward the future, pinning all his prospects on the success of the shipment, and says, “I’m almost there.” In response, she asks, “Where is ‘there’? And what happens when you arrive?”

As another bit of nostalgia, the episode opens on a flashback to the old days, before the series even started. We look back on a scene when Félix was still a cop, when life at home with his family was simple and Rafa was out in the greenhouse experimenting with sinsemilla. It’s wild to see Félix like this, and Diego Luna does a great job with it—his entire bearing is different.

It’s in stark contrast with his present, where he’s trying to convince María Elvira to give it another go while simultaneously having a harder grip on the cartel than ever before. When his judgement is questioned, he puts it plainly: “That’s right. You all rose with me. Without me, everyone is fucked.” We’ve watched Félix’s transformation so gradually over the course of the two seasons that it’s almost shocking to go back and see how he used to be. For Luna to play both radically different versions of the same character in a single episode is so effective.