Narcos: Mexico Season 3 Episode 4 “GDL” Recap & Review

GDL

Episode 4 of Narcos: Mexico Season 3 begins with a big sting operation. With special operations surrounding a house, Pablo Escobar is shot dead. This causes ripples across the cartel but it doesn’t slow production. Amado’s Cell System is working a treat, regardless of how many kids are grabbed and interrogated by the DEA.

Walt watches one of these fruitless interrogations go down, before Jaime confirms that his transfer to Chicago has been approved. As he thanks his boss, the silence that follows is deafening.

Down in Sinaloa, El Chapo’s move on the nightclub has caused a big shift for El Mayo. He wants no part of the coming war and has the foresight to realize that even if they have his operation and boats, it won’t make a difference. Mayo encourages him to buy the loyalty of his gang and hide out for a while, given things are about to get pretty intense.

With war declared on the Sinaloa’s, Benjamin begins to rally the troops, and alongside David Barron, manages to convince American gang members to fight for the Mexican cartel.

While this is going on, Andrea continues to look into the Vista Del Oro casino. She’s convinced that this is the hotspot Benjamin is using to launder his money, heading out with stacks of chips. This is a massive coup and Salgado is determined to try and get this printed up before it’s too late. The trouble is, in doing so this will almost certainly paint a huge bullseye on their backs so they need to be 100% sure this is the right play.

Meanwhile, Victor continues to see the darker side of Mexico. Given he’s made a name for himself taking cash bribes, he learns that all these deaths to young women seem to be connected.

Ramon rings Benjamin and tells him to move Barron and his men down to Sinaloa, determined to move on Chapo. And move they do. At the airport they find Chapo escorted to the terminal by two officers. Chivo moves first but is quickly killed. Chapo manages to slip away, leading to a big old gunfight in the parking lot.

After a big gunfight, Chapo scrambles inside the airport terminal, followed closely by Barron, Ramon and the rest of the men. Chapo though, manages to get away.

Among the deceased in this big fight is the cardinal, Juan Posadas Ocampo, who happens to be one of the most important holy men in Mexico. News of this spreads across the country, as our various different characters process the magnitude of this revelation. Not only is this a huge moment in the future of Mexico, it also shines a spotlight on the cartels too.

As we skip across to Amado, he remains confident that things will move as planned. “Chaos brings opportunity,” He says matter-of-factly.

The Episode Review

So the big shootout at the end of the episode proves to be a pivotal moment for the gangs moving forward. There’s a seismic shift in the cartel and although Amado is still sitting pretty at the top, it’s hard to argue that there are a lot of volatile moving parts to this operation – and not all of them look good.

This makes for quite the interesting dynamic and with El Chapo becoming a more prominent part of this third season, especially off the back of Escobar’s death, it leads to an interesting power play that looks set to explode in the coming episodes.

The third season has been an enthralling watch so far and the ending to this one leaves the door wide open for where this may go next.