#pacho herrera

It simply cannot be disregarded that Pacho Herrera is a very important part of Amado’s life story. I would even put him in the ranks with Pablo Acosta and Félix. Not only did Pacho facilitate Amado’s existence as a character, but he also made it possible for Amado to be a somebody in-universe.

It is explicitly stated by other characters as well as backed up by on-screen proof that these two have a notable connection, one that is genuine on both sides, at that. And I cannot stress this enough: that’s not normal for this show. So we’re going to unpack that 😀🤌

Narcos goes out of its way to make sure the audience knows that the narcos are never friends with one another. They have conditional relationships, they tolerate each other for the sake of maximizing profit. Actual friendship isn’t economic for them, because emotional attachment is a net negative. It just means it’ll be harder for you to see a bullet go in that guy, and oftentimes a bullet going in that guy is directly beneficial to your situation. When you’re a narco, you don’t deign to covet anything, least of all things that are expendable. Like people, and feelings.

However, over and over again the show chooses to flesh out the friendship between Amado and Pacho in a strangely beautiful way? Like, it’s so weird, and worth acknowledging. Because NONE of the other characters are shown to have that kind of dynamic with one another, let alone one that was given room to slow-burn over the course of three damn seasons, but the writers took what little there was to go off of in the og show and decided to delicately build this relationship up. Brick by brick, and I really mean brick by brick.

As early as the first episode of Mexico season 2, we get the first hint towards what is to come. Pacho attends Félix’s birthday party where nobody is having a very good time. He eats Félix for breakfast and then promptly leaves, but on the way out he and Amado share a #meaningful look. Talk about the butterfly effect. I almost considered not even including this, but then I went back and realized this single interaction was the reason Pacho recognized Amado in Panama years later. Crazy.

When the two of them first officially meet, Amado is shitting because he thinks Pacho is going to kill him in the very near future. Which is understandable because, well, he was. The whole “I didn’t catch your name” thing was just so it’d be easier to find Amado when he inevitably bungled the shipment and had to be dealt with. Weird thing is, Pacho was still being friendly about it, even if he wasn’t being entirely genuine. Pacho will rip Félix’s throat out for free, who is sitting right there, but he was nice to Amado about the whole thing. More on the significance of that later.

From here we enter a strange limbo wherein Pacho is basically just laughing at the Guadalajara cartel on what he foresees will be their death bed. This is mostly aimed at Félix, but we see Amado being the target of Pacho’s “intimidation tactics” when he sends Navegante to drop off the coke in Chiapas; and they give us a truly excellent moment where Navegante tells Amado that “somebody” is sending him “very special regards, with a kiss and everything” on the task he’s about to undertake, to which Amado is weirdly not at all concerned, and proceeds to say he’s sending the kiss back with “much love and respect.”

What the fuck?

Now. I can’t be certain, but something tells me that whatever it was Pacho told Navegante to say, if he told him to say anything at all, was NOWHERE NEAR what Navegante actually told Amado; and I feel like Amado should have clocked that Navegante was taking the piss, right? Like, that should have been very obvious. Because we’re talking about the guy who’s been terrorizing the Federation for quite a while now, and he hasn’t been particularly nice to anyone about it. He genuinely hates Félix and is indifferent at best to everyone else (he didn’t even acknowledge anyone at the birthday party. Except, ya know…). And you think THAT guy is flirting with you? Through his assistant?? When you’re about to pick up the shipment he’s betting on killing you over??? And you flirted back????

Like I’m sorry but he would NOT say that. Somebody got played here. Navegante did a good job of keeping his composure, because I would have been rolling on the floor for like five minutes if I pulled off a stunt like that, but I digress.

From what we know of Pacho at this point, he doesn’t really play with his food. He’s pretty serious about killing people, if not a bit artistic when he does so. He did fuck with Félix over the phone with the motorcycles, and with Salazar at the club, but those two scenarios were still VERY DIFFERENT from what Navegante was talking about out there. Amado obviously doesn’t have the omniscient knowledge we as the audience do, though, so it’s not too unlikely that he didn’t think anything of it. If the roles were reversed, Amado probably would say some shit like that, so maybe he was just projecting onto Pacho, who is still a blank slate to him at this point. Or trying to make himself feel better about his imminent death. Anything to cope I guess 😂

I had to over analyze that situation because it really is the moment ever. Even if it was more for the audience’s sake, the writers obviously did not want anyone to forget that Amado and Pacho will end up as good friends down the line, and they purposefully avoided making their association too antagonistic, despite the fact that they are playing for rival teams at the start. We have to believe that by the time season 3 of the og show comes around, they’re close enough to kick it with each other, so they couldn’t start off on too bad a foot.

And I have to admit, I was thrilled to see that someone in the writers room was putting actual care into developing their relationship, because Narcos is not great at letting things cook. Or even using the right ingredients in the first place. Most of the romantic plots are cinematic travesties, namely in the og show, but definitely extending into Mexico as well. That’s not what we’re here to talk about, but it’s relevant because it’s so rare for them to let us wait so long for a payoff in this area. Usually we meet people after they’re already friends or it’s skipped over in a time jump. Or it just isn’t really touched on at all. They didn’t do this with Amado and Pacho though, and it makes a difference.

Jump cut to the end of Mexico season 2, and Amado has enlisted the support of Cali (who have, presumably, assigned Pacho as their diplomat to Mexico because the rest of them can’t deal with the hoopla going on) in ending Félix’s reign of terror. To which Pacho was probably thrilled to hear about, and I imagine it didn’t take much to get him on board.

Interestingly, Pacho drops the line “I’m curious how you got this number” when Amado is on the phone with him, which means the two of them had no means of communication before this, but Amado somehow sleuthed out Pacho’s personal phone number…Idk about you, but my money is on Navegante being involved somehow.

Quick aside: The way the show is cut would have you think that Enedina is the one who was on the phone in that instance, and it’s never explicitly confirmed who it actually was. I personally think it was Amado because Enedina didn’t have any pre-established relationship with the Cali cartel. Her whole arc that season was with Norte del Valle, why would she be talking about Cali when she said “What if we had our own connection to Colombia”? I’m not saying it’s impossible that she could get ahold of him, but who would have set that up? Norte del Valle? They’re the only Colombians she has connections with at this point, but I find it HIGHLY unlikely that they would have done that, and even stupider to insinuate that’s what happened. I mean forget it, Henao would send a pipe bomb before he gave one of HIS clients the contact information of his sworn enemies.

Amado is the one who says he spoke with Cali. Benjamín was at the same meeting and didn’t mention it at all. I think there was a purpose to everyone leaving before Amado did, because they’re not the ones who orchestrated the disbandment. I’m not sure it makes complete sense, but I find it more likely that he’s the one who talked to Cali first and then hooked everyone else up, or ensured them that Cali would keep supplying them even if they disbanded. Amado is the one who successfully moved the 70 ton shipment through Mexico after all 🤷‍♀️ Cali would trust his word before the other plazas, who 1) didn’t even really know who the Cali cartel were (Hector Palma was the only one who even recognized Pacho in ep 1) and 2) didn’t have any direct lines to them. Let alone one of the Godfathers. You know who did though? Who actually met one of them in person? Yeah.

MYTH BUSTED.

Okay so that was already kind of a lot, and we haven’t even reached the craziest parts yet. Because we have to go through Mexico season 3.

Mexico season 3. Where do I even begin?

We jump right in with Pacho kicking Amado out of the business. Amado is flabbergasted at this, because he thought they were chilling, but he forgot that the idea of Pacho he has in his head is not the one that actually exists, and they aren’t actually friends. Quite the rude awakening for Amado, who by this point has endured some grade A bullshit in his life when it comes to personal relationships and abandonment. He also had his values completely reorganized by Pablo Acosta and is big on the “trust between allies” thing. Now Pacho is just hanging him out to dry without even hearing him out? Ouch…

But Amado is a man of action now 💪 because he has lost too much in this life, and he stalks Pacho to his date that night, literally waiting outside like some creeper leaning up against a damn tree talking about “give me another chance Pacho, you’re gonna hurt my feelings.” That quote isn’t extrapolated by the way. he actually said that. Anyways. Pacho is like “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings weirdo, this is business,” because to Pacho, Amado is just that. A business associate, and one who hasn’t been pulling his weight. Which is like a mortal sin in the cartel trade.

He doesn’t know Amado, and has less than zero reasons to risk his own ass and go out on a limb for this guy who came from the worst failure of an organization known to man. Pacho is too experienced to believe that the pipe dreams Amado was talking about were even possible, because Amado is aiming to go bigger than Félix with Juárez, all on his own, using tactics nobody has ever heard of because they’re literally futuristic. And that just sounds like something Pacho does not need to be involved in, thanks, you go have fun with that. I have enough problems in my life. It’s probably worse that Amado came to bother him about it again because empty promises and appeals are so run of the mill in this business. And Pacho has already characterized Amado a a shallow person who only cares about profit and nothing else, because he knows everything about everyone and TO BE FAIR, he is rarely ever wrong.

But after dealing with soulless freaks like Escobar and Félix, playing double entendre with the DEA, picking and choosing who’s an ally and who isn’t, then having to throw or be thrown away for the last decade and a half, can you blame him? I certainly can’t, and neither can Amado, because he knows what it feels like to not trust that anyone around you actually cares about you, or other people, or anything that isn’t material. Amado was burned by Félix, too, and he went to the Pablo Acosta school of accepting that you cannot have logic without emotion. If you aren’t driven by passion, you’re not really driven by anything at all. If you don’t care about other people, you will never attain what you’re searching for, because the one thing you will never be able to fill up with so-called accomplishments and money is your freaking heart. And Amado’s heart is very empty right now.

He’s had possibly the worst few years of his life, rounded off by the death of his mentor figure and young child, not to mention getting thrown in prison and forgotten about for three months. Amado is in a position to understand the importance of being honest about what your motivations are, and trusting other people with things that make you feel vulnerable. Amado knows that Pacho isn’t like the other Cali Godfathers. He’s been through some shit himself (and has to endure some shit, present tense, being an openly gay man in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, living in a country where Catholicism is a prevailing lifestyle), out of everyone the two of them have ever known in their entire lives, Amado and Pacho are uniquely situated to bond with one another on a personal level and have it actually mean something.

So when Amado comes clean to Pacho about why he needs his support in reorganizing Juárez, he’s trusting that Pacho will understand where he is coming from. He’s giving Pacho his pain as a way to prove he’s serious about this, and he isn’t just trying to make Pacho’s life harder for some kind of vanity project. This isn’t just business to him, it’s important to him as a person, he needs this to survive right now; and most of all he does not want to be thrown out. Amado has learned what it’s like to have nothing to live for and he doesn’t want to feel that way anymore. This is the only thing he can think of to fix it, so he basically asks Pacho to please put some of his own faith in him, because Amado believes he’s one of the few people left who actually can.

Also, a big part of Amado’s argument here has to do with containing bad luck so that when it inevitably comes around, he can make sure it doesn’t hurt “you and I” as much. A lot of Amado’s character has to do with the concept of fate and luck in general, but he gives it a physical presence in this conversation. Remember that.

Needless to say, Pacho was not expecting that. He was actually speechless for the first time since Escobar threatened to kill him in front of his face, which is a pretty high bar to cross. Pacho can’t in his right mind say no, even though he probably should have. He simply knew he couldn’t, because Amado had just proved his integrity by bearing his fucking soul, and Pacho already knows he’s going to hell, but brushing Amado off after that would be too heartless even for him. He didn’t even think about it 😂 he folded IMMEDIATELY. Perhaps a little part of him never wanted to let Amado go in the first place? He did move 70 tons of coke for him in a single day once. Either way, Pacho took the metaphorical red pill and officially entered himself into Whatever The Hell it is he now has with Amado. No going back now! Which is great because when Amado Carrillo Fuentes has an emotional attachment to you, your life either gets 10x worse or 10x better. There is no in between.

Brief interruption: We also will not be addressing the Walt/Amado parallels when it comes to this whole mess because I simply can’t do that to myself or anyone else today. Moving on.

Let’s take another moment to just sit and appreciate that this even happened in the first place. We haven’t seen fuckery like this since Gustavo Gaviria and Pablo Escobar, and it wasn’t even on this level since they were already family in the first place. This is majestic character building, and they gave it to THESE TWO out of everyone? Imagine having a total of like three episodes together, with 10 minutes of screen time, in the third and final season of a show, that were so iconic the writers went on to spend THREE WHOLE SEASONS lovingly crafting your whole friendship up from the ground. I could break into tears. I really could. Narcos does not often spoil us in the interpersonal relationships area, but when they do it they REALLY do it, apparently.

Okay, back to business.

Straight away in the next episode, Pablo Escobar is dead (🪦), and they haven’t even finished the breaking news report before Amado is on the phone to Pacho, who PICKS UP? Within like 5 seconds?? As if he didn’t have other things to be doing in that moment rather than talking to a guy who wasn’t even involved with what was currently happening? We’re just having a little chisme break? Okay, yeah why not.

Now, I don’t know how much time has passed between this episode and the last one. They make it feel like it’s been at least a few weeks with this cold open, but I guess it’s been a month since Amado’s system is “up and running.” I’m partial to believing it’s the latter since we suddenly have Amado and Pacho operating pretty much like they do in the og show. Clearly they communicate frequently, because the formal tone of their previous conversations is gone, and Amado doesn’t seem to be afraid of Pacho anymore.

The really interesting part about this interaction, though, is that in response to Escobar’s elimination, Amado tells Pacho that “I think it’s time we started having that conversation.”

That conversation? And what conversation would that be? You two seem to be aware of a conversation that should be taking place…Which means you must have spoken of this…conversation. At a previous date…wherein you didn’t actually have the conversation, but you had a conversation about having the conversation…and you’re both aware of what that conversation is about. But you haven’t had it yet?

Are we picking up what I’m putting down here? Are we all catching the vibe?

Treachery, my good sirs, is afoot!!

3/4ths of Cali and Amado then meet up in Cuba to discuss their future plans.

Amado proceeds to give the speil on what he thinks will be the best plan moving forwards, which entails him getting paid in product. Chepe and Gilberto are understandably shocked by his boldness and they take the piss a bit, but Gilberto starts to get a bit suspicious when he realizes Pacho isn’t saying anything. And you know what? I was also getting a little suspicious, because Pacho Herrera is the king of ripping proposals to shreds. He laid into Félix when he asked to do this very same thing not four years ago, like, he ended that guy’s career over it; and now Amado is telling him he wants the same thing and Pacho just doesn’t have shit to say about it? Sounds fine to me?? I don’t think so.

Gilberto was right to side-eye him like that, because we now know what “that conversation” was from earlier in the episode. It was this conversation. The one about forming a closer alliance between Cali and Juárez. These two SCHEMERS rehearsed this whole god damn meeting on their own time, like two cousins trying to convince their parents to let them have a sleepover. They even tried to be slick about it by staging it as an unscripted meeting inspired by coincidental events; but all it took was Pacho opening his mouth to agree with Amado, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, for Gilberto’s bullshit detector to fly into action, because there was absolutely nothing discrete about that.

They knew they got caught red-handed too, which was the funniest part of the whole thing, because they both had to act like they weren’t shaking in their boots after Gilberto called them out. Pacho told Amado not to bring it up again if Gilberto didn’t agree, ostensibly to enact some authority, but also because he 100% knew he was about to get yelled at in the car for making autonomous business deals without the knowledge of the other Godfathers. Gilberto probably told him to never do something like that again because he was clearly unhappy about it, probably even more so that Pacho and Amado were right about what they should do in the future, but their meddling made it so that Cali was the one agreeing with Juárez’s proposition and not the other way around. Also it doesn’t bode well for the partnership to have one of your associates making rogue deals without your permission.

Then we get a short scene where Pacho (who is trying to act like Gilberto didn’t whoop his ass probably) calls Amado to tell him Gilberto agreed to the deal, and Amado is the most relieved he has ever been on this show. He wasn’t even this happy when…well nothing good has ever really happened to him but he’s acting like this is the best moment of his life for some reason. Like you need to chill bro you’re scaring the hoes.

Anyways, this whole ordeal is significant because it brings us to the Shit Is Going Down section of the analysis. This is where it gets really crazy so buckle the fuck in.

The next time we see Amado and Pacho together is in Juárez, where Amado’s operation is finally getting off the ground. Now, I have to ask: why is Pacho here? Evidenced by the ensuing conversation, nothing about it required them to meet up in person. It could have been a phone call, hell, it could’ve been a damn email. But no, these fuckers met up in person. Which prompts the question: what exactly did Amado think this meeting was going to entail? Pacho knew what he was going to say before he got there, obviously. What the fuck did he tell Amado? Much to think about.

Quick aside: if you’re watching this on Netflix, the English subtitles (I haven’t actually looked at any other languages but it doesn’t really matter) for this scene name Pacho as “Pachito” when he’s speaking. For some fucking reason. That’s not his name. That’s not even his government name. His real first name is Hélmer. NOBODY even calls him that. Except, that’s not true. “Pachito” is Amado’s gay ass nickname for him. The only other character who ever refers to Pacho as “Pachito” is Chepe in their season 1 cameo. Other than that incident, it’s a strictly Amado thing. I really can’t stress it enough that Amado calls him that a frankly excessive amount of times and under circumstances that should be inappropriate but Pacho just does not mind. WILD.

It’s not even like we don’t know who’s talking. There are only two people in this scene, no need for clarification. This is just. In there.

(sorry for the busted screenshot Netflix doesn’t play about piracy)

Take that as you will. Whatever.

Pacho then relays the news that the Cali cartel is “retiring” from being a criminal organization (which he says like he’s barely able to convince himself it’s not total horseshit), and you can almost hear the record scratch sound effect reverberating through space and time. The way Amado reacts to hearing this news is straight up greif-stricken, head in hands, about to have a cardiac event, pacing the room like he’s getting served divorce papers or something. Because what do you mean Pacho has to go with the other Godfathers? To prison? In other words AWAY FROM AMADO? After all the shit they’ve built together?? Oh! Okay!

Yeah, Mr. Abandonment Issues did not take that one particularly well. He didn’t even act like this when his kid died 💀 this is what the right baddie will do to you, kids. And he can’t even stop to process it, because he now has to find a new supplier or else the cartel he constructed as a coping mechanism will crash and burn to the ground! AMAZING!

I find the last part of this interaction particularly interesting because it comes up later. Amado asks Pacho where he stands with the retirement, which I don’t know why he’d ask unless he thought there was a chance Pacho wasn’t on board with it, to which Pacho says the Godfathers are like family to him, so he’s going with them (sounds familiar). At this, Amado makes the most “what about me 🥺?” face ever, but he doesn’t push it. And that was somehow one of the most tragic things to happen on this show.

Jump cut to a couple months later (I think), and things are beginning to unravel for everyone everywhere. Hank Gonzalez tells Amado he better have things locked down with Norte Valle in Colombia or else he’s ❌, so Henao walks his raggedy ass up to Juárez and is like “we’re good, but I’ve got a problem with Pacho Herrera,” and Amado is like “Pardon?”

The sinister music queue that starts playing when Amado locks in is truly fucking excellent. I mean buddy literally leaned forwards in his chair and clasped his hands together like shit just got real as fuck, proceeds to tell Henao that Pacho isn’t a problem aka: stay away from him??? To which Henao says some bull roar about “oh what if he gets out and talks” which is like, about fucking what? What if anyone talks? The fuck does Pacho have to do with that 😭?? Henao just wants Pacho dead for whacking Salazar, there’s no ulterior motive lol.

Crucially, Henao informs Amado that Pacho is going to be “dealt with” when he comes back to Mexico. Which he claims is out of respect because “I know you and that guy have your…relationship,” and Amado wastes no time telling him “Yes, we do,” which accomplishes nothing because Henao just tells him that if he doesn’t want any complications with getting his supply, he’d be best not to interfere.

Is this sounding familiar to anyone? As if we have been here before? In the not so distant past? Maybe it was just the wind…

This all finally brings us to Narcos, the original one, where Amado and Pacho see one another for both the first and the last time. Because this whole thing has been sickeningly poetic so they might as well twist the knife on the way out, because whoever was writing this looked into a crystal ball and saw me specifically crashing out over it in the future.

Some care must be taken to pull apart this group of episodes, because Narcos Colombia aired before Narcos Mexico did, therefore we can’t exactly draw one-to-one narrative parallels between them; because the writers didn’t have the context from Mexico to draw from like we do. With that said, what follows is an attempt to align the story/themes presented in both shows to the best of my ability.

Okay, deep breath.

Season 3 episode 3 opens with Pacho meeting Amado in the middle of nowhere to retrieve a shit load of money from him. We get the hug to end all hugs right off the bat, which really did bear mentioning because I felt like I was interrupting something watching that. Right in front of my salad. Anyways, they’re joking with each other like it’s a high school reunion or something, which is like. Stakes, guys. But this is great for Pacho, because his home life kinda sucks right now. Not a lot to smile about back where he came from.

I must theorize as well that Pacho is probably happy to see that Amado is not miserable for once?? He’s had a rough handful of years, and it visibly took a toll on him throughout the time the two of them have known one another. Amado has always been struggling with something, but now he’s smiling and laughing, being cute with Pacho’s little brother, and saying that business has been good lately so he’s got nothing to be unhappy about. We’ve all got that one friend who couldn’t catch a break for years, and then things turned around for them right? It makes you happy to see them happy right 😭??

Well, let’s immediately dampen that mood, because we all watched Mexico, and we know Amado is not out of the dark forest yet. He’s actually kind of in the trenches, but he’s not acting like it. He seems to be pretending that everything is fine, despite being perfectly aware of the fact that Norte Valle is going to be making an attempt on Pacho’s life in the immediate future. Amado doesn’t betray that anything is wrong, though, because this trifling motherfucker has a plan.

Over the next few episodes, Pacho and Amado have this continuous back and forth where Amado asks Pacho if he’s actually ready to retire, and to ditch the Cali cartel and partner up with him instead. When you’ve only watched the og show, it doesn’t really make sense. Amado seems to be suggesting this for no good reason. We have no idea what his actual motives are, or why he’s asking this of Pacho specifically. Why not literally anyone else? Sure we know they’re friends, but doesn’t Amado have any other friends? Why proposition a guy who’s going to be out of the trade in six months in the first place?

Well 😀 we sure fucking know why now.

But before we get to that, we have to tackle the detail of Amado’s proposal itself.

If my count is accurate, when the timelines converge, Amado has asked/alluded/hinted to Pacho that he wants to do something similar to this FIVE. TIMES.

We have 1) the conversation about a conversation from before Escobar died, 2) we have them planning out the meeting with Gilberto and Chepe to create a closer business alliance, 3) we have the actual meeting which resulted from that, 4) we have Amado asking Pacho if he’s really on board with retirement, and now 5) we have THIS.

It’s not very significant in og Narcos for the aforementioned reason, but with the context of Mexico now rolling around in our heads, this whole plot point is OFF THE FUCKING NUT.

It now absolutely makes sense why Amado is asking this, and most certainly explains why he is so attached to Pacho out of everyone. Amado’s life is going koo koo for cocoa puffs. Everyone who previously gave even a shred about him has been violently taken away, he’s double-timing it to catch up with the ways of the new millennium, the DEA once again has his name on a bullet, Hank Gonzalez is yanking his damn chain over every single thing, Vicente is running amok, the Federation he was previously part of has crashed and burned and now his former allies are having public beatdowns left and right, the Arellanos tried to murder him, and now his new product supplier has just told him that they’re going to KILL HIS BEST FRIEND.

His best friend, who has been the ONLY stable presence in his entire life. A life where Amado hasn’t gone more than two seconds without starving for something that will stick around for once. You know who the only person is that stayed constant through all the bullshit? You know who picked him over Félix when the chips were down? You know who believed in him when he asked for time to reorganize Juárez? You know who he emotionally confided in and didn’t use it against him later? You know who’s still talking to him over the phone? Joking with him? Hugging him? Putting in a good word for him with the rest of Cali? YOU KNOW WHOSE STILL HERE DESPITE EVERYTHING?? Pacho motherfucking Herrera.

And the guy who is kind of Amado’s new boss is going to KILL HIM over what amounts to a policy disagreement.

In other words

Amado on the outside: 😎🤪🍸

Amado on the inside: 🫩☠️🚬

Amado believes that if he gets Pacho to team up with him, he can keep Pacho out of reach of the government, first of all. Second, he won’t have to partner with Henao the sleazeball. Third, he can protect Pacho from what Norte del Valle want to do to him.

Does this sound familiar? Does this scenario ring a bell? Because it should. It should ring a bell called PABLO FUCKING ACOSTA.

Amado has been in a position where a higher power orchestrated the death of someone he was close to before, where Amado believed that he could protect that person by teaming up with them and using his own influence to deescalate the situation. Amado wanted to take Pablo Acosta and make a run for it, then go back and convince Félix to stand down. He was ready to put everything on the line for Acosta, but Acosta died anyways. Just like Félix wanted him to. Just like the government wanted him to. When Amado told Acosta that was what he wanted to do, Acosta refused. He didn’t want it to look like he was running (mostly he didn’t want to take Amado down with him).

And based on where we are in the story, with how much power Amado believes he has now compared to when everything happened with Acosta… Yeah, he probably genuinely thinks that he could pull it off ☹️

Saving Pacho would create some problems with Norte Valle, but Amado’s not some weenie hut Jr. As long as he has what he wants, he basically has nothing to worry about (as far as cartel on cartel drama is concerned). Norte del Valle can try to come for them but Amado can just like, surface-to-air missile them off the face of the earth and nobody will really care. He’ll still have the plug, and Henao’s body parts can go in a box.

But. But but but 😔 he also can’t let Pacho know that he’s in danger, because if he does, Amado won’t have any product to move period. And Hank Gonzalez will have his head in a basket, if Henao doesn’t get to him first; and Juárez will probably end up in the hands of Tijuana, which is a fate worse than death because Amado made that place as a monument to all the trauma he’s not going to therapy for.

There’s also a non-zero chance that Pacho survives the attack, but it’s still a loss because that just means he’s alive to go right to prison :b

Additionally, Amado doesn’t tell Pacho the deeper reason for why he wants to team up because he thinks his mistake with Acosta was letting him know that he was trying to save him. He needs Pacho to agree out of his own volition, he doesn’t want to put Pacho in a position where he agrees for any reason other than that he wants to do this. Amado just wants his friend safe and alive with as few problems as possible. If he could just get Pacho on a plane with a direct flight to a nuclear bunker, without kidnapping him, that’d be great!

(Small aside: this was Walt and Mimi’s approach to trying to get Acosta out of trouble safely as well. Sigh.)

But Amado also knows Pacho is loyal to Cali. He won’t roll on them unless he’s really convinced, and Amado tries so hard to convince him. From the minute they meet up on the damn airplane Amado is trying to sell it to him. He even resorts to basically telling Pacho to listen to his heart for god’s sake, like this is fucking Barbie in The Pink Shoes or RENT or something. He brings Pacho to Juárez to show him “the future,” he basically spoils him the whole time and is super nice to his brother because if his plan works out they’ll probably be seeing each other a lot. But on the flip side, deep down he also knows that if his plan doesn’t work out, this will be the last time he sees Pacho in a VERY long time at the least, and NEVER AGAIN at the worst. He just wants to have fun with his friend before they’re separated forever and

It’s so doomed, though, because we all also watched Narcos Colombia, and we know that Pacho won’t roll on the Cali Godfathers because he believes they are the only ones who actually care about him; and he’s seen what happens to you when you have no family. He was disowned by his father for his sexuality as a teenager, forced into a life of crime to support himself, then publicly outed as gay, in Colombia, in the 1970’s, in an attempt to strip him of what little he had. He was then the victim of targeted homophobia AGAIN by Pablo Escobar for like half a decade, meanwhile the guy who destroyed his life was just chilling in Norte del Valle. The Godfathers were the only people who made an effort to protect him from all of that, allowed him to take care of his brother, and gave him some semblance of agency over his fucking life and HE THINKS NOBODY ELSE WILL EVER CARE ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT. BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE EVER HAS.

After Gilberto gets locked up and Cali starts scrambling, Alvaro (who probably doesn’t want to give up his indoor swimming pool or something) tells Pacho to think very hard about the offer Amado made him, and that maybe his thinking is right.

In fact, Alvaro’s words to Pacho are “Maybe he’s right. Gilberto is in jail. Maybe this is fate.”

FATE?!

You mean our good friend from earlier? That fate?? Oh, okay. Yeah I’m sure that wouldn’t mean something sort of important to Pacho when it comes to Amado specifically. No…Totally not.

And the gag is that Alvaro isn’t wrong. It was pure kismet that Fistel and Van Ness happened to see Gilberto in that driveway, leading to his arrest. It was luck that put Pacho in Mexico while that happened, giving him a (sans Norte Valle conspiracy) perfect spot to hide while shit popped off at home. It was fate, perhaps, that Amado decided to ask Pacho to join him again at this crucial moment. I would be asking myself the same question Pacho is probably asking himself at this point. Is the universe actually trying to tell me something? And I would be just about as conflicted.

Because Pacho knows Amado is his friend who only wants the best for him, he knows that. Pacho might not be aware of exactly what Amado is trying to save him from, but he appreciates how hard he’s trying. He knows Amado has the capacity to actually care about people and is probably happy that he’s one of the people Amado cares about; but he also knows that if he walks out on Cali, he’ll never be able to live with himself. Because Pacho understands the concept of loyalty, too, and how shitty it feels to be betrayed, no matter what the reason is. Rock and hard place or just pure selfishness. It doesn’t matter in the end.

Whatever he might have wanted with Amado will always come second to the men he thinks he owes his life to.

So when Amado asks him again, the SIXTH time, Pacho says no, and he knows that he has sealed both their fates by doing that. They’ll truly, one-hundred percent, probably never see each other again in their lives. This is it. THIS IS IT. After everything, this is just. how it goes.

But they’re not done twisting the knife yet, because remember how Amado told Pacho the truth about why he needed a chance to reorganize Juárez? And he revealed his inner pain to make Pacho understand? You do? I hope you do because I spent like 3 paragraphs talking about it.

Guess what Pacho does to make Amado understand why he won’t go with him? He tells Amado about how he was kicked out by his dad as a kid, and that the Godfathers basically took him in as one of their own, and he no longer felt worthless because he has a FAMILY. Who respect him and care about him. Pacho reciprocates the trust Amado put in him at the start of all this, and if that doesn’t feel like a final THANK YOU FOR BEING MY FRIEND, I don’t know what does.

And girl, I’m crying, screaming, throwing up, because where in the seven hells did this come from? You’d think that this is all Narcos is even about with how much I’ve covered here, but no. They just did all this shit ON THE SIDE. With two SIDE CHARACTERS. Who were never even the focus of their own seasons. The writers just decided to throw in one of the most moving stories I’ve ever laid my stupid eyes on, but it doesn’t ever get picked up on by the general public because it’s basically hidden in the damn background like Where’s Waldo, and most people only watched this show to see people shoot each other or be mean to women or something.

Freak Out over ✅

There is one last scene to account for, where Henao’s bitchass calls Amado in the car to tell him time’s up while being a huge asshole about it. Now, there is a retcon going on with this scenario because of the discrepancies between when the shows aired, but here’s my take on what happened accounting for the “official” narrative: I think the implication with this was that Henao was trying to find out if Pacho was alone and unsuspecting, which he presumably was based on Amado not being there. The discussion about the terms of the new agreement are no longer canon, and Pacho’s exact location was never revealed because Amado hung up; but he is still at the very least complicit in the assassination attempt 😔 if only he went to therapy instead of trafficking drugs, smh. Amado then snorts some coke and you know what, that’s pretty reasonable. I’d be doing a lot more than that if I fumbled Pacho Herrera for life. Just saying.

And this is basically the end because we never see these two together again ☹️ Pacho does end up surviving the Norte del Valle attack and goes to prison and dies anyways (🪦) Amado goes back to Mexico and promptly gets eaten alive by his own unresolved trauma empire and dies question mark (🪦🤨).

The final message? Never get into a cartel situationship, that shit will KILL YOU.