When we make mistakes, it is expected we pick ourselves up and move forward. In episode 8 of Queen of the South, there was no excuse for failure. There was only room for survival.
The episode starts with James waking Teresa up again. He doesn’t tell her where they are going when she asks, instead saying “you’ll see.” Almost every episode of this show seems to begin with James waking Teresa up, and it kind of feels like we are all opening a saved file on a video game and starting a new level, with Teresa as our point-of-view character.
She follows James to the black SUV they will be driving today and gets into the passenger seat. Camila walks up to to Teresa and tells her the men from Florida are coming in today to complete a deal with Camila’s crew, specifically James and Teresa. Instead of buying drugs, it gets a little trickier, and that’s when viewers need to be paying attention. They are going to turn $2.5 million into $5 million to finish what they started last week. They will get packages of cocaine from these men, pay them, and later trap them to get the money back. They get the money and the drugs to sell for $2.5 million. Bam, then they will be able to get another shipment.
Camila tells Teresa, “I don’t know everything about you. You only reveal what you want. You’re smart,” she says. “If something happens to you, I lose my leverage…. We all lose if we fail.” They might be going in as a team, but for Teresa, today more than ever before, the pressure is on.
“After all, you’re a survivor,” Camila says. Cue Gloria Gaynor.
We see Brenda drive up to her motel room with the ingredients to make crystal meth. Their room has turned into a full-blown meth lab, with YouTube videos titled “Methamphetamine 101” guiding Brenda’s men along the way. Ricardo, one of the drug mules, processes the ingredients in a bottle and begins to shake it a bit, saying, “It’s as easy as baking cookies.” This isn’t your average bake sale. Later on, we see Ricardo proudly shaking his next round, and it explodes, which sets his head on fire, causing Brenda to dunk his head in the toilet to put it out. Watching this little group make drugs is like watching the Three Stooges.
Soon, we are introduced to the Florida crew — their leader looks like a Matthew McConaughey wannabe. His name is John. He sports a dark tan and tropical leaf-covered button-up shirt. I mean, if that doesn’t scream South Florida, I don’t know what does. They are checking into the hotel, and John is on a phone call with James, discussing the plan for meeting up.
Before the call, James gave Teresa a gun, which she took reluctantly, and gave her several tasks. She is to find out what room they are staying in and plant bugs so James can keep up with their whereabouts. As soon as she finds the room, she finds a maid and tells her she won’t get hurt if she listens to Teresa. She is going undercover and will bug the Florida group’s room disguised as a maid.
Meanwhile, Camila calls Cesar and explains, “Ever since you left, things have been happening to me.” She knows that Epifanio is messing with her. She tells Cesar, who was hiding something from Epifanio when he came to Camila’s a few episodes back, that if Epifanio were to find out, he might have a plan for how to dispose of him as well.
And now it gets crazy. After confirming the completed deal with Camila, James tracks the car and informs his men that the Florida group is getting onto the expressway ramp. John and his guys are pumped that they are now rich, but not for long — outside John’s passenger window, a vehicle with men in colorful luchador masks shoot up the car. It flips over, catches on fire, and explodes on the freeway. I’m not sure how there weren’t any other cars around in Dallas traffic, but it made for a really intense scene anyways. They gun down most of the men in the taxi and grab the suitcases of money from the back. As this is happening, John, the lone survivor of the car, sees James, who shoots him before getting away. Looks like he picked the wrong day to have a cream-colored wardrobe.
He gets back to the hotel and up to his room. Teresa is there, gun in hand and pointed right at him. He comments on her shaking (“Look at you, you’re so scared you can barely hold the gun,”) before telling her he will let her go, as a lone survivor herself, so she can tell her team that he is coming after them.
She tells him to stop talking, and he assures her again he won’t kill her before lunging for the gun on the table in front of him. She shoots him. Teresa. Killed. Someone. She escapes the hotel and James finds her along Lamar. James is surprised once he finds out she shot John. She’s torn up about it. Camila calls and asks if James has her, and he tells her “I just got her, she’s all messed up. We’re coming back now.” James genuinely cares about her but knows it had to happen. Teresa looks in the rearview mirror, and Future Teresa is sitting in the back seat smirking at her. This is her destiny.
Episode No. 9 airs Thursday on USA.
