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Spoilers ahead for Narcos: Mexico…
The second season of Narcos: Mexico hit Netflix on Friday morning, and if you’re anything like me, you quickly ingested it via binge-watch. It was another gripping season of television from the Narcos team — one that leaves little doubt that the series will return.
Season 2 ran along two parallel tracks. It followed the ambitious Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna) as he unites various cartels, and it followed the DEA, led by Scoot McNairy‘s Walt Breslin, as they aim to avenge the death of Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña).
The season ends with a bang, albeit a quiet one. There’s no gigantic shootout or car bombing. It boils down to a jailhouse showdown between Félix and Walt, who finally come face-to-face. The scene is absolutely riveting, just two phenomenal actors sitting across from each other, having a conversation. Does that sound familiar? Because it should.
Image via Netflix
“In every season of Narcos, we’re inspired by films we’ve seen and stories we’ve heard, and that particular scene was very much influenced by Heat, and the need to have these two adversaries sit down and face off, and to get some sense of their ideology,” said showrunner Eric Newman, who elaborated on the final scene in an interview with Collider:
“What I think is very unique about this show [is that] at that point in the season, they’re no longer adversaries. It’s over, and they’ve both lost. Neither one of them got the thing that they wanted, and they both went into this thing very naively. Walt thinks, ‘I’m going to go down [to Mexico] and get justice. It’s that simple. We’re gonna go down there, we’re gonna kick ass, and we’re gonna win.’ And Félix Gallardo believed he was going to control this partnership he had with the government, and that he wasn’t disposable, he was a guy who had made himself so important in the economy of Mexico that he was above the law. Both guys find out that they’re wrong, and they’re having this conversation about where it’s going to go,” explained Newman, who gave credit to both Luna and McNairy, saying their performances were “spectacular.”
What he loves most about Walt is his determination, and his drive for justice. “Scoot’s character know that Gallardo is right, and he’s still not going anywhere. It’s such a great metaphor for American foreign policy, particularly in the war on the drugs, where we continue to fail, and yet we continue to proceed in the same direction. ‘You can tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll agree with you, but this is the path I’m on.’ So that scene, for us, really kind of brought this season home,” said Newman.
Image via Netflix
Collider’s EIC Steve Weintraub handled the interview, and Newman seemed to agree with Steve when he said it seems like “the shit is gonna hit the fan next season.”
“It’s very much an acceleration into chaos, but we’re still in the early days of it,” said Newman. “Félix Gallardo going to jail, and the splintering of this thing he had built into these fiefdoms, was the beginning of the first incredibly violent chapter of the drug war. [We’re] heading into the ’90s, where it gets really ugly, because that thing that held everybody together, which was Félix Gallardo and his dream, is gone, and so the killing starts,” the EP said, indicating more bloodshed and a higher body count next season, should Netflix renew the series.
“You look at today and what’s going on, it’s many of the same guys, the same old guard cartel guys,” said Newman. “The Sinaloa cartel, the Juarez cartel, the Gulf cartel, the Arellano-Félix cartel in Tijuana and remnants of these other cartels, are waging war against a new generation of cartels that are incredible violent and have none of the code. They’re truly characterized only by their propensity of violence. It’s the only move they have. As we watch this happen, we’re rooting for the old guys to win. Because the reality of the new generation, be it the Jalisco cartel or Los Zetas or any of these groups, they are just about bodies hanging from telephone poles. But this season, Season 2 of Mexico, is really where we reach that point of no return and then go hurtling off into chaos,” he warned.
I can’t wait to follow Narcos on that journey, and see where it takes Agent Breslin. For now, Félix Gallardo is behind bars on the show, though it’s unclear whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for those on both sides of the law.
To watch the trailer for Season 2 of Narcos: Mexico, click here.
