Narcos: Mexico’s Third and Final Season Brutally Proved You Can’t Tame Trafficking – Paste Magazine

The third season of Netflixs compelling Narcos: Mexico widened its focus and gained a new narrator as it entered a new decade (the 1990s), but the game remained the same. The stories that Narcos and Mexico have told over their combined seasons have familiar ebbs and flows: A dealer or grower has a grand idea to become a distributor or networker, and next thing you know, a new cartel is born. But just as that leader becomes wealthy beyond belief and begins courting politicians, it always signals the beginning of the end. Again and again, from Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel in Colombia to Flix Gallardo, Amado Carillo Fuentes, the Arellanos, and El Chapo in Mexico, the cycle of violence is as predictable as it is savage.

The other important half of Narcos, of course, has focused on the DEA and their role in that cycle of drug leaders and territory disputes; once the traffickers begin getting cozy with officials, the Americans start to take note and follow the money. One thing leads to another, violence ensues, and a new kingpin will rise. In Narcos: Mexico, it began with Kiki Camarenas dogged pursuit of Flix Gallardo, and the latters fatal mistake of torturing and killing a federal agent, leading to new American operation to dismantle Flixs Guadalajara cartel. But as Walt Breslin says to a colleague before one of many failed attempts to capture Benjamin Arellano in this latest season, getting Flix was bullshit; they gave him up. And once again, in this final run of episodes, by the time the DEA shows up the play has already been made from the inside.

In the wake of Flixs end, Narcos: Mexico Season 3 ostensibly focused on Amado Carillo Fuentes, one of the most successful traffickers of all time, and who (according to the final frame of the series), may be the only kingpin to get out alive. But either way, Amado had to get out fairly quicklyit had to end. And this was a man who had a Mexican General in charge of the countrys drug war, one praised by the US government, on his payroll. It still wasnt enough. The dream that Flix started the series withof uniting the cartels into a businesswas never sustainable. Amado didnt try to unite anyone under his reign, he just out-maneuvered them and tried to drop as few bodies as possible. Yet his big idea was still related to Flixs hopes: to sanitize the drug trade as much as possible by (in part) splitting it up into segments to protect himself and his lieutenants, while making connections with high-ranking politicians to clear the way to exceptional wealth and influence. It still didnt work.

Season 3 had some flashy sequences that showed the drug money being spent by traffickers high and low on the chain, but thats never really been what the series was about. Its about those who tried to do something different, to go beyond nightclubs and street fights and build an empire towards legitimacy. That same desire, to tame trafficking, was shared by Benjamin Arellano Flix and his familyhe also made friends with politicians and used his drug money to further mutual interests. But violence was always nipping at the heels of this plan in the same way it did for Amado, Flix, and the others. As soon as an upstart (in this case, El Chapo) feels disrespected, its not about lawyers and loopholes and lobbyists: the guns come out. Here, that violence escalated until Benjamins brother Ramn and his cronies shoot up the Guadalajara airport in broad daylight with not a thought spared for any innocent they mowed down indiscriminately with their gunfire. And that, of course, caught the attention of the Americans, where an increased DEA interest kept the Arellanos on the run while El Chapo and El Mayo filled that void. Once again, the DEA was involved, and was aware, but was also several steps behind while the Mexican government was inert. And even if the Americans or Mexicans did take one crime boss down, even a major figure, there are a host of others waiting in the wings. This business cant be tamed, nor seemingly stoppedgunfire and brutal violence always follow.

Meanwhile, this carousel was being reported on by new characters introduced from the newspaper La Voz, a truth-telling publication that chronicled all of these crossed paths and payouts as best they could before they, too, were victims of extreme threats and violence. And in a storyline that really didnt connect at all to anything else that was happening (but was nevertheless compelling its own right), we saw the ongoing murders of women who worked in factories around Juareza staggering injustice that still has not found an end.

All of this built to a devastatingly bleak finale in which no one really had a win (except, perhaps, Amadothe one character the series has always quietly liked and championed, curiously). For the most part, we saw a variety of different bad guys who wanted to be good guys, or at least respected guys in terms of avoiding the violent cycle of greed and corruption that had played a part in the downfall of their predecessorsand this includes Walt and the DEA. As Narcos continues to prove, even if you try and do everything right, as Walt does, it still goes to shit when it comes to trafficking and everything connected to it. Don Neto says the same to El Chapo in jail: Youre still looking for whats right in all of this? It doesnt exist.

When its at its best, Narcos echoes HBOs excellent series The Wire, which investigated all sides of the drug trade in the inner city of Baltimore, and the many systemic failures of the War on Drugs. Narcos does the same, if not as elegantly in its execution. But also like The Wire, there arent many satisfying conclusions, and high-level investigations tend to get stopped as soon as people with political power start to get named. Because again, the true power lies not in the violent warring of the traffickers, but in the quiet halls of supposed justice. Theres a scene late in Narcos: Mexico Season 3 between Hank and Amado that tells the score:

Amado: Someone tries to kill me, that changes things. You have to adapt. Thats what I do. Hank: There isnt anything you have without me. Amado: Its the end of my business Hank: You dont have one. Thats something you made up. It doesnt exist.

Later, once Amado has found a new supplier, he reminds Hank that his business does exist and does affect him, but Hank still refers to it as ours. The reality is that Hank is right; its not a business at all, at least not in its own right. Technically yes, some of the traffickers did and do have ambitions to create something as stable, but the volatile nature of the drug trade will never allow that stability for long. (Look at a figure like El Mayo, who seemed to exist outside of the drama on the quiet fringe, until he made his brutal play for power.) As Narcos illustrates again and again, it is ultimately controlled by violence and the whims of cruel personalities, with everyone struggling and striving for that same golden ticket. Unlike the boardrooms and halls of power that some of the traffickers aspire to, their world is still define by guns and death, much of it random and arbitrary, and that wont end. Its all corrupt, its all connected, but while the true businessmen and politicians may profit from them, the traffickers will never achieve their same false piety and safe cover of legitimacy. The world turns.

As such, Season 3 concluded with something of a shrug from Walt and Jaime of thats Mexico for ya! even though we saw Walt speaking with Andrea from La Voz to try and shine a light on some of the horrors behind the scenes of this cursed war. But as Andreas narration says in the end, sometimes the truth isnt enough. Its worth fighting for, but thats also all we see of this world: fighting. Narcos: Mexicos final season started and more or less ended with Amado in a shootout on an airfield. None of the money and power he amassed in between mattered. In the end, heand all of the other narcosare still vulnerable to the bullets that define their empires.

Allison Keene is the TV Editor ofPaste Magazine. For more television talk, pop culture chat and general japery, you can follow her @keeneTV

For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV.

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Narcos: Mexico's Third and Final Season Brutally Proved You Can't Tame Trafficking - Paste Magazine