In Criminal Code season 1, Isaac played a major role in helping the Ambassador escape from prison, and it was quite obvious that in the future they would start working together. But the problem was that, until that time, Isaac was the leader of his own Ghost Gang, and he wasn’t very accustomed to following orders, working for somebody else, or doing things according to the whims and fancies of another person. Probably Isaac would have known that in the near future he would have conflicts with the Ambassador, as the latter was never going to give him equal status or make him his business partner. Isaac knew that the kind of services he could provide were unparalleled, which gave him a sort of confidence to make his demands clear even in front of a man like the Ambassador. That said, I would like to mention here that I am not a big fan of the franchise, mainly because of the scattershot storyline and inconsequential subplots. Even in Criminal Code season 1, I didn’t understand why the creators meandered so much before getting to the main plot. I do not particularly have a problem with diverging from the main plot so long as it is done in a manner that adds a layer to a particular character or maybe justifies their actions. But when it does neither, then it just makes the entire narrative look chaotic. So let’s find out what happened in Criminal Code season 2 and if Isaac and the Ambassador were able to coexist and rule together.
Spoiler Alert
How did Isaac and Gabriel become wanted criminals?
Although we got to know in episode 5 what had happened with Isaac and his brother Gabriel back in the day, and how they became such hardened criminals, I would like to delve into their past so that we get some context about who they were as people and what kind of hardships they had faced in their lives. Isaac’s real name was Diogo, and Gabriel was called Andre. They had a third brother whose name was Maome aka Robson. Isaac, being the eldest one, felt responsible for his younger brothers, and he was very protective towards them. Isaac’s father had abandoned the family, and his mother didn’t have any choice but to go and live with her brother. Isaac and his two brothers worked with their uncle, who, though he pretended to care for them, was just interested in using them for his own benefit. Isaac had gone to give the examination to join the police force when he got to know that Maome, the youngest of the three, had died during a heist. Isaac was livid, and he asked Gabriel why they went without him. But the damage had already been done, and both Gabriel and Isaac knew that they would never be able to get over the trauma of losing their beloved brother. After the incident, Isaac had a falling out with his uncle, and he decided to teach him a lesson. Together with Gabriel, he robbed his own uncle, and told him that one day he would become such a big criminal that the whole nation would get to know about him. No doubt Isaac was a victim of his own circumstances, but that didn’t mean that he had no other option. He could always have walked on the righteous path and not indulged in any kind of criminal activity. But people had not treated him very nicely, and after his brother’s death he just wanted to give it back to them. That feeling of angst, that bloodthirst, fueled the creation of a criminal whose stories were told as if they were folklore.
What problems did Isaac have with the Ambassador’s men?
Coming back to the present timeline, a lot of developments happened at the beginning of season 2, and that too in very quick succession. Firstly, Isaac was finding it very hard to deal with Xuxu, who worked for the Ambassador. The man was a lunatic who was not only extremely reckless but just not ready to listen to anybody’s advice. During a bank heist at the beginning of Criminal Code season 2, Isaac told Xuxu that he was very particular about how he wanted to conduct his business. Suellen and Benicio were trying to locate Isaac and find out what he was up to. They had been successful in figuring out that the Ghost Gang and the Ambassador’s men were going to rob a bank. But before the cavalry arrived, Isaac and his men were able to escape from there with the money. Assuncao, the police officer from Suellen and Benicio’s department, tried to stop the criminals, but he ended up getting killed in the process. Xuxu, even after being told a thousand times to not meddle with the police officers, went and shot Assuncao dead. Xuxu could have easily escaped from there, but obviously, how could he before taking out his anger on a man who had dared to get in his way? Xuxu and Isaac had a falling out after the heist, and the former became hellbent on taking Isaac’s life. But before Xuxu could do that, Suellen and Benicio caught the man and put him behind bars.
How did Gabriel die?
It could be said that Gabriel was Isaac’s moral compass. Whenever Isaac acted a bit recklessly, Gabriel made sure to tell his brother that he needed to calm down and not take any decisions in haste. Gabriel’s partner, Vanessa, was also one of the major reasons why he was so cautious about everything he did. Gabriel wanted the gang to stop conducting robberies. He knew the kind of risks that Isaac took in order to conduct a successful heist. Yes, he was a master planner, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t put his life at risk whenever he went to rob a bank. Isaac had promised him that after doing one last mission for the Ambassador, they wouldn’t need to risk their lives to earn money. Isaac had already thought about what he wanted to do in the future, and how he wanted to expand his empire. But life had other plans for him. During a heist, Gabriel got shot by Suellen and died at the scene. Isaac, in that moment of chaos, had to leave his brother’s dead body behind and escape. Isaac was enraged; he wanted to burn the entire city down. He wanted to kill the cop who had killed his brother, even if it meant making the entire police force his enemy. Vanessa’s life also turned upside down after the accident, and she had nothing to look forward to post her partner’s untimely demise. Gabriel, since the very beginning, was very apprehensive about the kind of risks Isaac was taking, but he supported his brother and in the end paid a huge price for it. Isaac found out that it was Suellen who had killed his brother, and he ordered his men to make her pay for her actions. Suellen was out in a park with her kid when three men out of nowhere started shooting at her. Though Suellen fortunately survived the attack, it reminded her how risky their profession was. She confided in her ex-partner and told him how scared it made her, thinking that her kid could have literally died in the crossfire.
Why did Isaac kill the Ambassador?
The Ambassador used to be this extremely powerful ringleader who was a step ahead of the law. But somehow, after escaping from the prison, he was just not able to successfully execute his plans. Approximately 2 tons of cocaine from his shipment was confiscated by a Brazilian prosecutor named Guzman. It had happened for the first time that the people who were doing business with the Ambassador were losing trust in him. Greco, the man who was supposed to get that consignment, suffered heavy losses, and he gave the Ambassador an ultimatum: if he wasn’t able to deliver the drugs, then he would have to find a new partner. Meanwhile, Gabriel met his fateful end, and Isaac made up his mind to tell the Ambassador that he wanted to be his partner in the drug business. The Ambassador, for a moment, felt that Isaac was actually out of his mind to even propose such a thing. The Ambassador made it very clear that he had no such intentions and that he didn’t need to partner with Isaac and split his profit. That’s when Isaac decided to go against the Ambassador and show him what he was capable of. Isaac made a deal with Djeison, who happened to have been released by the Brazilian government on the condition that he leaked any information related to the Ambassador. Djeison had become the Ambassador’s right-hand man, and actually I felt that had Isaac not approached him, he would have stayed loyal to the Ambassador and tricked the authorities into believing that he was on their side.
Meanwhile, Soulless had also started working for the Ambassador, as he needed money for his family. Soulless knew what he was signing up for, but at that moment he didn’t care about the consequences. It was Soulless who killed Guzman on the Ambassador’s orders. I did not expect that the Ambassador, whose stories had been told in season 1 as if they were folklore, was killed so easily by Isaac. I understand that the attack came as a surprise for the Ambassador, but still it was just a convenient plot twist that I believed should have been executed in a much better manner.
Were Soulless and Isaac able to escape?
Soulless and Isaac teamed up at the end of Criminal Code season 2, and they decided to steal the 2 tons of cocaine that was kept at a police base in Corumba. Suellen and Benicio figured out what Isaac was planning, and though they didn’t have all the details, they knew that the port in Santos would be used to ship the drugs out of Brazil. Isaac and Soulless broke into the state facility, stole the drugs, and loaded them very discreetly onto a cargo ship. They were about to leave the port when Suellen and Benicio attacked them. Both perpetrators ran in different directions, and Benicio went after Soulless while Suellen stayed back to catch hold of Isaac. Benicio killed Soulless at the end, and though it was a victory of sorts, he didn’t know how to feel about it. Soulless, at times, gave the impression that he was a man of God who was just fighting for his family’s survival. Benicio, after killing Soulless, thought that probably he had made him into a monster in his mind when in reality he was just a common man. Meanwhile, Isaac would have definitely killed Suellen had luck not been on her side. Isaac was able to escape before reinforcements arrived. He packed his bags and went to Guilhermo’s place, as he knew that was the only safe spot where the authorities wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on him. Cabeca became the new kingpin of the drug syndicate, and he got in touch with Greco and told him that he would deliver him the consignment and make sure that he did not suffer any losses. Cabeca and Isaac were quite cordial with each other, and they had decided to join hands earlier. But I believe that dynamic will change in the near future. Cabeca had assumed the role of the new leader, and I don’t think he would give Isaac as much importance as he did in the past. As for Isaac, I believe that he wouldn’t stay quiet for long and would once again want to rebuild his empire together with Guilhermo and live up to the reputation that he and his gang once had.
