The Great Heist (El Robo Del Siglo) – Episode 5 Recap & Review

Funny Money

The Bail-out

Lawyer and Chayo both find themselves captured and behind bars in episode 5 of The Great Heist. With the pair failing to talk, Dona K arrives with bribe money to bust them out. The officers immediately sense that they’re the ones who robbed the bank but Mrs K downplays this nicely. She laughs hysterically and gives them an ultimatum. As we’ve seen numerous times this season, a tough situation is resolved quickly within a couple of scenes.

With law enforcement closing in on them, Mrs K sits the boys down and talks them through her plan. She wants to use the Marimbera Route. With all guards on the payroll, the checkpoints should be easy to get through and they can use Sardino on this gig too.

Chayo phones home and manages to speak to Carmen. With no venue for Luisa’s party, Chayo promises he’ll sort something out. Putting his family first (his other family of course), he puts Sardino in charge and heads back to Bogota.

The Walls Are Closing In

As he does, law enforcement start interviewing everyone inside the bank. The more people they talk to, the clearer this picture seems to be. They realize that someone on in the inside was part of the gang. For now though, they aren’t sure who.

Chayo returns home and greets Carmen, handing over a whole stack of cash and telling her their problems are over. Only, they’re obviously not given the serial number situation.

Sardino meanwhile drives up the road but unfortunately finds himself pulled over at the side of the road by the military at a checkpoint. Thankfully, Sardino manages to make it through but he’s also been forced to hand over 6 stacks of cash as a bribe.

When Mrs K finds out she’s not happy and holds Chayo responsible for what happened. As she hurries off, irate and angry, the rest of the family take their cut of the cash. Estiven asks for a bonus but Chayo talks sternly to them all. He tells them not to be silly with their money and sends them on their way.

Make It Rain

With all the money now in place, our various characters start to splash out and live their best lives. Unfortunately Estiven – currently sleeping with that police officer Miguel – admits that he stole the money from the bank.

Meanwhile, the police start to get leads on money being paid into banks but they’re from normal civilians. They realize that the only way to do this is to follow the money and find the real culprits. That comes in the form of a public TV broadcast about the serial numbers and how worthless this money really is.

Chayo sees the report too and immediately phones Lawyer. Lawyer however is convinced that Boris will make things okay in the end. Unfortunately things won’t be okay as they find out Ulises has been murdered and worse, the notes are worthless. No one will take them, not even the cartel.

As Boris leaves, the rest of the group do their best to try and change the serial numbers. Mrs K meanwhile has her own problems when she finds herself at the mercy of a dangerous man called Kike. Given Chayo knows of his identity, he tells her to tie up loose ends.

Without much of a choice, Mrs K phones Chayo and requests his presence. Mrs K leads both Lawyer and Chayo into the heart of the junkyard and holds a gun up to their heads. Deciding she’s not that sort of person, she decides to leave. As she does, we cut across to the police who find Maguiver dead. The dominoes are starting to fall.

Chayo and Lawyer decide to go their separate ways and head home. Only, when Chayo heads home he finds a note from Kike thanking him for the deal. After smiling awkwardly through dinner, he phones Kike and asks him what he wants. It turns out he wants real money, not the monopoly money they currently have. Chayo has until 7am the next day or the jig is up. They’ve also captured Dona K too. As gunshots crack down the phone line, we’re led to believe she’s been shot.

The Episode Review

With the heist over, we’re instead greeted with more problems for Chayo and the gang to tackle. The biggest issue here though comes from Dona K. She tells Lawyer and Chayo she’s “not that kind of person” but she did torture Chayo in episode 1 and splash hot water in Ulises’ face.

While she may not be capable of murder, she is definitely far from an angel. It also seems a bit out of character for her to run away. Even worse, her alleged death off-screen is a bit of a poor way to kill her character off.

Having said that, the archival news footage from 1994 adds an air of authenticity to the series. It’s a nice touch to keep things steeped in realism and the various montages work well too. It’s just a shame that some of this is muddied by the whole Kike sub-plot. It feels like a disappointing twist that takes away from the more interesting robbery at play here.

Still, the finale is up next and all eyes now turn to see how this one will be resolved.