'Narcos: Mexico' Season 2 Episode 4: 'The Big Dig' sees a lot of dirt uncovered on both sides of the border
Spoiler alert for ‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season 2 Episode 4 -- ‘The Big Dig’
It isn’t often that ‘Narcos’ or even ‘Narcos: Mexico’ has flashbacks. So the presence of one immediately feels odd and even overtly important. ‘The Big Dig’, the fourth episode of the second season, begins by taking us two years back in time in the US. We see DEA agent Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy) experience personal loss -- his brother gets killed in a drug-related incident of violence. It illustrates Breslin’s motivations -- why he wants to hurt the Guadalajara cartel so badly.
In Mexico, back to the present (in the show’s universe, that’s the mid-80s), Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), who is now worried about the extent of Breslin’s attacks against the killers of DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña), is forced to take some unlikely steps. He visits an old friend in prison. Don Neto (Joaquín Cosio), who was arrested at the end of season one, however, seems less inclined to help him.
In the meanwhile, Ruben Zuno Arce (Milton Cortés) gives up his uncle, the minister of defense, as the man who has instructed the murder of Camarena. It would seem like a big victory, only it felt like the calm before the storm.
Neto is not the only old and familiar face we see this episode (aside from a small glimpse of Rafa in prison). We see CIA agent Bill Stechner (Eric Lange) in Nicaragua, where Gallardo tries to make a deal with him. Stechner, through his contacts, not just got Ruben to lie in court, but also made the state department drop the investigation (including Breslin’s operation) drop.
We see Breslin followed by a car in America. It turns out to be yet another familiar face. Guillermo González Calderoni (Julio Cesar Cedillo) the cop who let Gallardo escape, was still in his heart an honest cop. He tells Breslin he could help him get inside Gallardo’s operations. While Breslin doesn’t immediately say no, this means that the investigation could still stay on, potentially.
The episode’s title, of course, is quite the literal one. It refers to El Chapo’s (Alejandro Edda) legendary plan to connect Mexico and the US through a tunnel. But in a sense, one can suppose it was also a metaphorical one. The deeper Breslin and his crew dig, the more dirt they uncover, even on their own side.
‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season 2 is available for viewing on Netflix.