Narcos: Al Fin Cayó! – Finally It Ends (Review)

Netflix Narcos

After an incredibly long build up, Pablo Escobar is brought down. But not until Javier is sent back the the USA. Judy Moncada drops a dime on the DEA agent after being forces to work for the government as an informant.

Escobar is now living in an small townhouse and the only man he has left is Limon. Fat, bearded and wearing flip-flops instead of shoes, the richest criminal in the world has now hit rock bottom.

The final episode starts with Pablo imagining he is the president of Columbia sharing a  celebratory spliff with the former El Presidente. His family sing happy birthday to him in his new prison, his latest hideout.

It has taken a long time to get to the last moments of Pablo Escobar. While the Netflix show is classed as a biography, clearly the final day of Escobar’s existence is based on the whim of a typewriter  and the imagination of the show’s writers. (Except for the rooftop deaths suffered by Pablo and his lieutenant.)

Poetic license has Pablo swanning around town, giving a Columbian cop his dropped lighter and speaking to his dead brother Gustavo on a park bench.  Escobar eats an ice cream and looks to be pondering his last moments on  earth.

The radio conversations with Tata are more realistic and probably give  a better idea of what Pablo was thinking and planning even as the police and Murphy were getting closer to killing him. Tata pleads with her husband to surrender.

She knows Pablo well and appeals to his egotistical side by saying he would  be like Nelson Mandela. Humorously, when Pablo repeats this to his one remaining soldier, Limon has no idea who Mandela is.

President Gabaria has made it clear that he wants Escobar dead. Martinez’ son messes up the first time he finds Pablo’s location but makes up for it the second time with a sighting.  Escobar has gotten so careless that he stands in the window while making plans with his wife.

Tata is getting desperate and Hermilda; Pablo’s mother,  leaves the hotel suite while Escobar’s wife stays and tries to convince him to surrender to the authorities.  She has even lined up an interview with the press.

Ironically Tata is reading off the journalist’s questions when the police and Murphy finally find Escobar. The running gun battle, where it seems that both Limon and Pablo have magic pistols that never run out of ammunition, ends with both men being shot on a rooftop.

This then is a pretty accurate presentation of the reality; the rooftop deaths, as this is what really happened to Pablo and his last lieutenant.  In Narcos, Murphy is right there when it all happens and the episode recreates the infamous picture of the DEA agent and the police posing for a picture with the dead drug lord.

Narcos has now told the story of Pablo Escobar, over a two season arc and will now move on, presumably, to the Cali cartel. In the show, Javier is in front of what he believes to be a disciplinary board. He did, after all, pass information to Los Pepes.

It turns out that he may well be sent back down to Columbia and Bogota to help bring down the “gentlemen from Cali.”

An interesting point is made during the last few moments where Javier learns that he is not in trouble after all. The man chairing the review explains that the entire time the DEA and the Columbian police force were trying to take down Escobar, the amount of cocaine smuggled into the US increased.

Narcos has been approved for two more seasons. It may take on the Cali cartel next season or possibly the new kids on the block, Los Pepes.  Pablo Escobar was the starting point of the series.

Wagner Moura was beyond brilliant as Escobar and his costars, Holbrook and Pascal packed a punch with their characters as well. This was an addictive biographical look at Escobar. With the real life footage included throughout it gave the proceedings a feeling of truth, despite the license taken by the medium in the retelling of Pablo’s rise and fall.

Kudos to the series creators; Carlo BernardChris Brancato and Doug Miro as well as the entire cast and crew for delivering an excellent project.  May season three rush to our screens as soon as possible.


Author: Mike's Film Talk


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