Coyote – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Juan Doe

We begin episode 4 of Coyote in Boyle Heights 2010 as police stop a trio of teens as they’re graffitiing a wall. These crooked cops take them to a gang leader who begins beating them down. As we skip forward in time, we see that these boys are actually the same trio who are working for Juan Diego.

Back in the present, Diego, Dante and the others rock up in Guerrero, South Mexico where Dante is reacquainted with his old friend, Saulo. The acquaintances are short-lived though, especially when Diego mentions trucks coming into Mexico. He forces Dante to hold a gun up to Saulo’s head and encourages him to fire. While he doesn’t pull the trigger, it does rattle his nephew enough to learn his lesson – never go above the chain of command.

Ben heads back to America and reaches the meeting point; the alleyway he killed the Mexican kid. Ben is none too happy but he doesn’t get time to think this over as he’s given a new job – to break Juan Doe out of detainment.

When Ben returns home, he finds Maria there waiting for him. Given Garrett didn’t have anywhere else to take her, she’s been hanging out at his apartment. As Ben doesn’t speak Spanish, he tells Garrett to sort out alternate accommodation.

Unfortunately that’s the least of Ben’s problems when he learns Diego has sent his men up to keep an eye on him. First port of call – deal with Frank’s car. With Ben supervising, he’s forced to push Frank’s car into the lake after taking out any identification.

The next day, Ben rocks up at the border patrol office. After stealing Garrett’s badge and with a photo in hand, he begins sifting through the files on the computer to find the right Juan Doe. He manages to nail the results down to 12 but runs out of time.

Instead, he heads to the detention centre and manages to identify the right Juan Doe courtesy of a scheme concocted with one of Diego’s men. Unfortunately, Ben is also recognized by the Mexican he tried to arrest back in episode 1.

Ben manages to buy some time for them all, forcing Juan Doe to punch Ben in the face in order for him to be transferred North to Adelanto. Ben also manages to phone his contacts and learns that the drop-off is at 4pm. When Ben disagrees with the Mexicans’ plan to take out the detention guards with wire, he’s choked out and left in the hotel room.

When Ben comes to, he steals a truck and heads to the drop point. He notices the detention truck and rams into it, distracting the guards as they slam on the brakes, screaming to a half just after hitting the wire.

Unfortunately, the wire rips through the van, killing both guards instantly. As the camera pans across, it shows both men completely decapitated.

Holly Vincent from HSI arrives to speak to Garrett. In fact, she wants to know more about Ben. Holly brings up the dead Mexicans and shows him a number of different men that Ben’s been responsible for killing. Given the police have matched the tyre prints to Garrett’s truck by the border, he’s got some explaining to do.

Back in Mexico, Ben brings Juan Doe back to Diego, whom we learn is actually his brother.

The Episode Review

If you’ve made it this far, chances are you’re probably going to see this one through to its conclusion. Just for the record though, Ben has now been directly responsible for 7 deaths, including the duo of ICE guards moving the Mexicans.

It’s so hard to root for Ben, especially given his apathy toward Mexico and not even bothering to learn the language despite 32 years of servitude dealing with Mexicans. It’s only made worse by the fact he’s plunged Garrett into this too and constantly bends the law to his liking.

Predictably, Ben saving Juan Doe from the ICE guards has not allowed him to go free from working with Diego and quite what’s in store for our crooked ex-border guard remains to be seen.