Coyote – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Sin Of Origin

We begin episode 3 of Coyote on the US/Mexico Border in 2010. Ben and Javi are together and although they lose sight of their target, a runaway immigrant, they do manage to bag his stolen gun.

Before heading home, Javi and Ben decide to go out for a drink in the local town. On the way, they’re stopped by a boy who believes they’re police with a noise compliant. Although Ben isn’t happy about it, he begrudgingly joins to make sure he’s okay. Only, when he drops his bag on the chair, a boy takes off with it prompting Ben to chase him up an alleyway.

Despite telling the boy to stop, as he puts his hand in his pocket, Ben shoots the boy in cold blood. It turns out he was trying to reach for his phone. Ben kills again. (That’s five dead bodies on his watch now, for those who are keeping count!) Javi and Ben decide to frame the entire incident and make it so the boy fired on the officer first.

Back in the present, Ben awakens in Javi’s caravan. Throwing on his clothes, he bags a lift into town from a minibus that rocks up. Unfortunately he’s being watched by Diego’s men and thinks twice about phoning home.

In Guerrero, Southern Mexico, we catch up with our bad guys at the Zamora Family Ranch. Juan Diego speaks to Dante about the bad blood he has toward Ben and reminds him that they’re using him for their own means. Diego pleads with his nephew to lay low for now, encouraging him to wait for the opportune time to strike instead.

Eventually Ben comes to a decision and rings Frank anyway, asking for his help. Given he’s mixed up with the “wrong people”, Ben tells him he’s in danger from the Sicarios who were filming Katie in the bedroom. After telling him not to go to the police, Ben tells Frank to get rid of his phone and take a plane up to Canada after paying for the tickets with cash.

Ben eventually leaves and heads up the road where he finds all the Mexicans mourning the two men he murdered. Ben is completely incredulous to the event though as he runs into Sylvia. He tells her to leave and get out of town but instead she shifts the blame to America, especially given they are the ones who are buying up all the drugs. Anyway, the pair head back to her café where Silvia hands over money from the till for Ben to take.

When Ben heads home, he gets working on setting the foundations for the new house again… but not before another cheeky shot of Budweiser on the table! Frank phones and tells Ben he’s on the plane out of town. On the back of this, Ben finds Javi’s old gun stashed inside the caravan. This gun, if you remember, is the same one Ben and Javi planted on the poor Mexican they shot dead in the past.

Ben then holds a gun up to the police officer at the funeral and forces him to drive. Ben believes he’s dirty and berates him for sending Maria back to the gang after asking for help.

It turns out Ben has a private jet ready and asks the officer to hand over his gun and wallet. As he gets onboard, the private jet flies up… and back down again into Dante’s territory. He takes him up to see Diego at the vineyards and after some pleasant wine tasting, they walk together to a car that happens to hold Frank, tied up. He’s not in Canada after all.

Frank sadly gets shot dead by Dante, much to Diego’s annoyance. As the Mexicans walk away, Ben is told to wait for their call for his upcoming job. It looks like Ben won’t be getting out of this situation any time soon!

The Episode Review

Given what’s been going on round the world, this is really not the year for a storyline involving a police officer shooting an innocent person and covering it up. Let alone giving this to the main character of the show!

On the one hand, you have this Mexican gang that seem to have connections both sides of the border and can move around lightning quick between America and Mexico to thwart Ben’s plan. On the other hand, you have a Mexican-killing border guard who’s framed 1 boy, killed 4 more and almost ran over another right at the end of the episode. Outside of Sylvia, the lady in charge of the café, there’s really no-one here worth rooting for.

Unfortunately Coyote is not a show to remember and in a pretty disappointing month of TV content outside of Asia (The Stand and The Watch as two prime examples) Coyote will need to pretty drastically change things in the final 3 episodes to turn this one around.