The Mosquito Coast – Season 2 Episode 8 “Dead Totems” Recap & Review

Dead Totems

Episode 8 of The Mosquito Coast Season 2 starts with Dina leaving with Adolfo down to the coast. The latter encourages her to join him as they head out together to a town brimming with life. Adolfo shows her all the local hotspots, including the church and where he used to play football.

In the town square, there are big celebrations, complete with a band and some obligatory slow dancing.

Speaking of plans, Margot rings JJ and tries to get confirmation that she’ll have full immunity if she gets Allie for him. He gives her his confidence but she’s not sure he’s being truthful The call ends on an ominous note.

Next, Margot sits and speaks to Richard, learning about his family life and how he’s been relegated to voice calls with his kid. Margot has decided to help him out… or has she?

While Richard is out with Isela, Margot breaks into his cabin and begins snooping around, snapping pictures and working out that he has a whole bunch of fake passports. Oh, and a fake one for Margot too, under the name of Judi.

When he returns to his cabin, Margot is there waiting for him, ready to confront the guy. No way, the man who’s super shady and a known terrorist happens to be super shady and a terrorist? Whoa!

Meanwhile, Allie heads through the forest alone, knocking over an ants nest en-route, smashing the security cameras and setting off the cage traps. Allie continues on alone, searching for the traffickers. He certainly finds them, witnessing one of the men killing a prisoner and forcing the workers to continue with their plight. As he creeps through the canopy, he runs into Charlie who happens to be with him.

Charlie admits he’s been around these parts a few times and he knows how to snoop by without being detected. Trusting his son, Allie points out what he needs to do with Sandpiper. He continues to explain to Charlie how it works, using birds as his example, in a conversation we really didn’t need given we already know all this.

Anyway, the attention does eventually turn to Charlie and his gun, with the pair having a well-needed discussion about what’s happened. They seem to come to an understanding too, although Charlie doesn’t listen to his father and the pair end up breaking into a compound run by the traffickers.

They snap photos of the evidence, including drugs hidden under the floor. Allie makes sure to snap photos of everything, ready for what he intends to do.

Speaking of plans, Dina steals the car and takes off, attempting to steal Adolfo’s car. She’s stopped before she can do so though, and Adolfo ends up joining her as they drive out. Dina leaves a note for Charlie though, informing him of where she’s going.

The Episode Review

The editing in this episode was really poor, borderline atrocious. We go back and forth between Dina and Adolfo’s teen drama angst, alongside Allie creeping through the jungle, all with a distinct lack of urgency to anything that’s happening.

I appreciate that this is working as dressing for what’s going to follow, with Margot working to gain Richard’s trust and Allie getting evidence to use against their landlord, but it all happens at such a lethargic pace.

Either way though, we’ve got a few more episodes to go and we’ll have to wait and see if this one actually gets a conclusive ending.