Even when The Bridge moves at a faster clip, like it does in “Quetzalcoatl,” it somehow, paradoxically, maintains its leisurely pace. It’s the kind of show that not only allows you to luxuriate in this world it’s created, but practically insists that you do so. This would be a colossal misstep if the world of The Bridge were less fully-realized, but luckily for us (and the show), showrunner Elwood Reid has really come into his own this season, free from the constraints of season one’s serial killer plot.
“Quetzalcoatl” was all about people going up against forces greater than themselves. Sometimes they succeeded, and sometimes it didn’t work out so well. There’s Sonya decoding Eleanor’s nigh-indecipherable ledger; Fausto challenging the might of not only La Marina but the CIA as well; Linder’s crusade against Captain Robles; and common men and women like Sonya and Hank getting caught in the undertow, trying to make sense of a world – and more pointedly, an America – that could see the DEA trying to capture Fausto Galvan even as the CIA is bankrolling him.
Director Jakob Verbruggen (who directed this season’s “Goliath,” as well as the entirety of Netflix’s The Fall) multitasks excellently, and keeps the episode from feeling overstuffed. He even manages time to fit in a scene of Hank meeting with Elliott (played by FX mainstay Adam Arkin) just to show how unaware the right hand is of the left hand’s doings.
Sonya has decoded the ledger, and deduced that the numbers refer to addresses of businesses used as money-laundering operations. Hank insists on going with her to investigate, and checks himself out of the hospital by doing that thing that all movie and TV characters do where they just fucking rip the needle out of their arm, which looks so painful every time. Their first stop looks to be a payday loan place, which has already been hit by Eleanor and Cesar (speaking of caught in the undertow, remember when Cesar was just in charge of Charlotte’s horses, not muscle for the cartel?). They meet up with Frye and Adriana, who have come to the same conclusion via the documents they pilfered from Joe McKenzie’s garage.
Elsewhere, Linder continues to search for Captain Robles, telling the receptionist at the Juarez Police Department to give him a message: “He can’t run from his past.” “And who are you?” “Oh, I’m his past.” Linder finally catches up with Robles, only to get gutshot for his trouble. This sucked, guys. Linder really grew on me, and his vendetta against the Juarez PD, while certainly tangential, really opened up the insular world of The Bridge. Alas, like Charlotte, Linder was no longer necessary to the plot, and while there’s always a chance he could make a recovery, that doesn’t mean there’s a reason. RIP, you marble-mouthed psycho.
So by episode’s end, Fausto is escaping through the mountains with Marco and Romina (after telling Marco that he was tired of running), and Sonya and Hank are in pursuit of two cars smuggling drugs by using Customs decals. Look at those mountains, at the vast inky expanse of Texas at night: these are too big to be surmounted. They are vast, and we are not.
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