'Narcos: Mexico' Season 2 Episode 5 'AFO' is proof that pride comes before the fall
Spoiler Alert for ‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season 2 Episode 5 -- ‘AFO’
Bang in the middle of the second season of ‘Narcos: Mexico’ is one of the most crucial plot points of the story. The episode titled ‘AFO’ almost feels like it’s part of Denis Villeneuve’s critically-acclaimed 2015 film ‘Sicario’. It starts with Commander Guillermo González Calderoni (Julio Cesar Cedillo), now an informant of DEA agent Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy) and his rag-tag team of cops and other agents, explaining how the enmity between the Tijuana and the Sinaloa plazas could be used to their advantage.
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), who made plans to team up with Don Juan to bring the Cali cartel to its knees, goes to Panama -- neutral grounds -- with Don Neto’s nephew Amado Carrillo Fuentes (José María Yazpik) to meet with Pacho Herrera (Alberto Ammann) of Cali. Amado was now going to be in charge of the whole transportation game, a huge promotion for the good work he had done in Juarez.
This episode, however, is the perfect example of the old adage “pride cometh before the fall”.
When Gallardo arrives in Panama, he realizes he’s been double-crossed by Don Juan, who had made his own deal with Pacho and the Cali cartel. Under pressure, Gallardo tells Pacho that he would take on a higher volume of the product -- 65,000 kilos of cocaine.
When Gallardo calls Don Juan telling him that he had made a big mistake, the old man calmly explains that he did not ever want a partnership with him, given the fates of his previous partners.
That’s not the only trouble that’s brewing within Gallardo’s empire. Based on a tip-off from the DEA agents, the Tijuana plaza bosses realize that El Chapo (Alejandro Edda) had been building a tunnel to America on their land.
Ramón Arellano Félix (Manuel Masalva) of Tijuana goes to the warehouse and blows up the tunnel with a grenade before killing everyone there.
The episode ends with Gallardo and his driver getting attacked by an unknown gunman, possibly planted either by the Cali cartel or Don Juan. Gallardo survives unscathed while his driver is injured
This episode was a stark reminder of the fact that while Gallardo is and always will remain a visionary, he’s still not as smart as he thinks he is. His vision, after all, means nothing without the necessary street-smarts that he sometimes overlooks.
‘Narcos: Mexico’ season 2 is available for viewing on Netflix.