What I’m Watching: Narcos: Mexico

Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 8 “Just Say No” (B+)

Of all the things we’ve seen happen so far this season, the DEA raiding the fields before they were burned by the military was perhaps the most impactful. Part of it has to do with the fact that Miguel and his operation seemed so untouchable, but the multibillion-dollar loss sustained as a result represents a definite blow to the profitable industry. It was a surprising procedural gain for the DEA, who once again experienced a roadblock in their efforts to send findings up the chain to create actual, documented progress, but it didn’t come without one particular cost. Kiki and Mika were celebrating and debating whether they should send their kids to public or private school, but it seemed obvious from the start of this hour, if not a few episodes back, that their happy ending isn’t going to happen the way that they want it to. Here was another opportunity for Miguel to finally call Rafa a liability and take him out for disobeying his direct orders, but it seems that Miguel has lost some control, to the point that he now needs to be responsible for supervising the torture of Kiki to determine what it is that the Americans know. Hearing Acosta say that he’s known for a long time that he’s meant to go out in a gunfight and that there was no use putting off the inevitable made it seem like a big battle might be underway, but that turned out to be far more peaceful, not to mention productive.