This article contains spoilers for Season 1 and 2 of Narcos.
If you haven’t tuned into Narcos yet, you’re really missing out. It details the infamous Medellín drug cartel and follows the rise and fall of Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and the Drug Enforcement Agency agents hunting him. Beginning with the early days of the battle to the progression of an all out war between the DEA and cartels, we see the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar.
One pretty great advantage we have when it comes to this type of show is we have actual history to refer to. Spoiler alert: Pablo dies. (Fun fact: the scene, the last one shot for season 2, was staged in the same location in Medellín where the real Escobar was gunned down in 1993.) That’s just in the books and Netflix marketed the second season as the drug lord’s last. They even talk about it in Breaking Bad.
Even Walter Jr. knew. Come on. Were you surprised?
Pablo may have met his maker, but there is still plenty of story to be told. After all, it’s called “Narcos” not “Pablo.” Executive producer Eric Newman told Entertainment Weekly: “[This] show has always been about cocaine, Newman said. “We purposely did not call the show Pablo Escobar or Medellin … If somebody wants another season of the show, we would sit down and draw from the pretty massive amount of real estate and research that we’ve done and do something kind of cool.”
So the big question — where do they go from here? Because the business of cocaine certainly doesn’t end with the demise of Pablo. The closing episodes of “Narcos” brings the rise of Escobar’s successors: the Cali Cartel and its top men, Helmer “Pacho” Herrera and Escobar’s former partner, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. These men conspired with Escobar’s enemies to undermine his operation and stole his turf in Miami, and ultimately had a hand in his annihilation. If we follow history, the Cali cartel rises to be the most powerful drug ring in the world. Quite possibly this could prove to be even more interesting than the first two seasons. The Cali cartel was intricate, even bigger than the Medellín cartel, and one of the world’s most powerful crime syndicates in the 90s.
Unfortunately, the Cali Cartel will end up with the same fate as Pablo Escobar. The DEA took the syndicate down within two years. “Narcos” Season 3 will likely feature the end of the Cali Cartel and will move on to a Mexican cartel in season 4. Sorry for the spoiler. Don’t blame me. Blame history.
Narcos Season 3 is coming 2017.
