Griselda – Season 1 Episode 1 “Lady Comes To Town” Recap & Review

Lady Comes to Town

Episode 1 of Griselda starts with a quote from Pablo Escobar: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”

The scene cuts to a woman, Griselda, running into a house one night in 1978 in Medellín, Colombia. She is bleeding, so she proceeds to give herself first aid and take some medicine. Based on her wound, we can deduce she was shot. She then calls an old friend, Carmen, and asks for a favour.

Carmen is startled from her sleep and agrees to let Griselda stay at her home in Miami with her kids. Carmen is surprised that Griselda is travelling from Colombia to Miami, but the former says she will explain later. Griselda hurriedly asks her three sons to pack, and they leave in the dead of the night. She also promises her children to explain once they get to their destination. They ask about their dad, and she says they are getting a divorce. Dixon is happy, saying he is not his father anyway.

Upon arriving in Miami, they move into Carmen’s house, and their mom begs them to be good guests. Carmen takes Griselda to dinner and hears the sob story of how Griselda left Alberto. Carmen was a mob wife before leaving for Miami and starting her travel agency. She doesn’t want anything to do with drugs, and Griselda promises she is done with that world. She wants to start over and build a good life for her children. Carmen offers her a job in the travel agency, and Griselda gladly accepts. However, after dinner she heads home and starts unpacking. It turns out she sneaked a whole kilo of drugs from Colombia.

The next day, she calls a close acquaintance named Arturo, and we learn that Griselda has people looking for her. She worries that they roughed up Arturo, but he is fine. She asks him to look into a guy in Miami who can sell the drugs. Arturo is a good friend and is willing to look out for Griselda. After the call, Griselda hands Carmen the mail and heads to lunch at the nearest diner. There, she starts a conversation with a fellow Colombian working as a waiter.

Later that night, Griselda goes to a club and gives a freebie to one of the men working for a local dealer, Amilcar. She uses her new friend, Johnny, to get an introduction to him. However, Amilcar is not interested in Griselda’s offer to sell him only one kilo of cocaine. He doesn’t even try her product and asks her to leave. On her way to her car, Johnny hits her and takes the kilo of cocaine from her. Griselda is disappointed, but she doesn’t give up. She heads back home and comforts her lastborn, who misses Alberto.

Through a flashback, we learn what transpired between Alberto and Griselda. It turns out that Alberto didn’t listen to Griselda, and they lost their shipment. Alberto’s brother ( Fernando) demanded to sleep with Griselda in return for paying off their debt. Fernando has always had a thing for Griselda and wants her to spend one night with him. Alberto argues that Griselda needs to save the family, especially their boys. He claims that she used to be a prostitute, so it shouldn’t be so hard for her to sleep with his brother. Ultimately, Griselda agrees to save her son and her husband.

The scene cuts to the present, and our girl Griselda follows Johnny and beats him with a bat until he gives her back the kilo of cocaine he stole. She threatens to rat him out to his boss for trying to secretly sell her cocaine unless he gets her a meeting with the guy he was about to sell to. Johnny agrees to schedule a meeting and intentionally drops by Griselda’s place of work.

Once Carmen learns that Griselda is trying to sell drugs, she is disappointed and asks her to leave her house. Carmen is done with drugs after nearly dying and what she went through with her mafioso husband. Griselda tries to explain, but Carmen is determined to stay out of it.

The following day, Griselda meets with Chucho (the waiter from the diner) and hires him to be her bodyguard for the night. Johnny introduces them to Eddie, who agrees to buy Griselda’s product for $ 20,000 after a hard bargain. After the deal, Eddie asks Griselda to join him in a dance. As they dance, a man enters the room and starts killing Eddie’s people. Chucho steps in to protect Griselda and ends up getting slashed on his right arm. After the shoot-out, one of Amilcar’s men walks in and picks up the kilo of cocaine on the table. He advises Griselda to go home, and she immediately leaves. Chucho follows her out.

Griselda counts her money in the car and remembers what happened that fateful night she left Colombia. That night, she returned after sleeping with Fernando, and Alberto accused her of enjoying the sex. Their fight escalated, and Griselda made it clear she was done. They continued to fight outside the bar. Alberto demeaned her, saying she is a mother of three and would have nothing without him. In a moment of pure anger, Griselda drew her gun and killed Alberto. Unfortunately, she was shot by one of Alberto’s men during this altercation.

Presently, Griselda returns to Amilscar’s bar, drenched in Eddie’s blood, and insists that Amilcar tastes her product. She promises they can make a lot of money together. After trying the product, Amilcar likes it since it is superior, and Griselda convinces him to make her the new supplier for his new territory. Amilcar underestimates Griselda, but she assures him that she is capable. Finally, Amilcar gives her one shot and asks her to double his order next month, and he will make her his supplier. Griselda leaves the club proud and ready to prove herself.

The Episode Review

Chucho’s boss at the diner seems unbearable. He works Chucho so hard and is needlessly rude. It must be because he feels superior and thinks he can take advantage of him since he is an immigrant. Such behaviour is despicable and explains why Chucho didn’t hesitate to take the new job. However, the new job proves to be more dangerous than he thought.

Griselda survived by the whisker in this episode, yet we know she still chose to pursue a life in the drug business, even after seeing how dangerous and cutthroat it is. We can understand her motivations and why she felt she needed to do this. However, Carmen is right. There is always an excuse, a way we try to justify why we make bad decisions.

For Griselda, she believes it is only one last time until it wasn’t. She now has to work for Amilcar, but how will she smuggle such a huge order into the country?