The biographical drama series on AppleTV+, The Big Cigar, comes to an end this week with the release of episode 6, as the story of Huey P. Newton’s brave effort to escape to Cuba is rounded up. In the previous episode, Huey, his partner Gwen, and his producer friend from Hollywood, Steve Blauner, were seen in a terrible fix as the Mexican federal police had reached their small hideout in Puerto Vallarta looking for them. This episode portrays the last leg of their long, arduous, and almost impossible escape from the United States, as their old friend, Bert Schneider, is also here to help them out.
Spoiler Alert
Why is Huey upset with Bert?
The Big Cigar episode 6 begins right in the middle of the action in Puerto Vallarta, with the Mexican federales officers still interrogating the young man at the house, Aldo. Meanwhile, Huey and his friends are still hidden inside the underground chamber in the house, still fearing getting caught and executed. Aldo has to face the worst treatment from the soldiers, as he is beaten up and relentlessly questioned about the whereabouts of the Americans. Even though the protagonist feels that Aldo will give in, the young man is resilient enough to withstand all the torture and not utter any information. Finally, when the torture is over, and the soldiers have left, Aldo lets Huey and the others out of the chamber and immediately explains the next step of their plan to move towards Cuba.
While the original plan was to take a boat owned by a contact named Artie, who would take them forward, this was no longer possible since Artie’s boat was ironically ripped apart by the Christ of the Abyss statue. Therefore, Aldo now explains that he has prepared a local car to take them to Mexico City, where they would need to meet a contact at the Corazon Hotel. He states that this contact can easily help the group move over to the Caribbean coast, from where they can travel to Cuba without any worry. However, Huey, Gwen, or Steve have no idea that the contact they are supposed to meet is the very man who had carelessly abandoned them earlier—Bert Schneider. As the group makes their way to the Corazon hotel a few hours later, it is Bert who greets them, and seeing the Hollywood producer makes Huey immediately upset.
The protagonist tells Bert that his help is no longer needed, and he asks the producer to return to the United States. Bert understands that this cold behavior is simply because he failed his own plan of driving Huey to the Mexican border. While Steve Blauner had taken up the responsibility instead and delivered on it quite well, too, as he still stuck with the group, Bert’s failure had genuinely hurt and shocked Huey, and rightly so. A confrontation between the two men soon follows, and this is where Huey expresses his thoughts and understandings about the entire situation. To Huey, this whole act of escaping his home and settling in the United States is a dire step necessary for his survival. The fact that his partner Gwen has also decided to join him on the run makes him face even more pressure, and so it is in utter desperation that he has set out on this almost impossible journey. Not only is Huey leaving behind the comforts of his life, although there were not too many left considering the FBI’s terrible mistreatment against him, but he also had to abandon his activism. Being one of the co-founders of the Black Panther Party and having to suddenly abandon the group in its most vulnerable state is something that immensely hurts Huey and also makes him question his own dedication to the social movement.
But going by the careless nature of Bert Schneider, it is definitely felt that he is more into the bravado of taking part in the escape of an armed political revolutionary and the image of himself that he can build with this participation. Only a couple of days earlier, he had gone out in search of a car that he would use to drive Huey to the Mexican border, only to get heavily drunk and drugged at a friend’s house and lose all his senses. While his friends desperately waited for him to return with the car, Bert was enjoying himself at the house party, talking gibberish to some of the guests after smoking up and taking a few drugs. Huey and Steve even feared that their friend was caught by the FBI or had even been injured or killed, only to later find out the truth. Therefore, Huey states that he now firmly believes that Bert does not have any genuine concern for his life, and the only reason for his involvement in this escape plan is the sheer adventure that comes along with it. To Bert, this whole situation seems to be like an extended thriller, through which he can get close to an armed activist and be a part of an extremely intense life. The protagonist complains that Bert has no dedication towards actually helping him get out of trouble, and these words hurt the man tremendously.
This is because Bert Schneider does genuinely want to help Huey out of this terrible situation, and he has serious concern about the safety of his life as well. Bert admits that he messed up and that he deserves all the harsh words that are thrown his way, but he begs Huey and Steve to let him be a part of the mission and help them with the getaway. The producer has not only been bringing money to the whole operation, but he has also been resourceful in getting hold of sources who can help the group. Huey tries his luck at getting hold of a different car to take them to Cozumel, but when everyone refuses to help, the group has to let Bert help them. Eventually, Gwen also gives her insight about the matter to Huey, telling him that he must also face his own shortcomings, just like Bert admitted his own, and she reminds the protagonist that he, too, has not always been very helpful to his friends. With time, Huey understood that Bert’s mistake was genuine and that there were no hidden indications of his misplaced priorities. Thus, when the adventure finally comes to an end, the two men no longer have any qualms between them.
What happens to FBI agent Sydney Clark?
Despite the number of setbacks in his way, FBI agent Sydney Clark still remains very determined to catch Huey and bring him back to the United States, or at least get him arrested by the Mexican authorities. In the previous episode, Clark had teamed up with his American contact, Gregory Lipton, who had finally decided to help him out with the operation, despite being reluctant initially. Together with Gregory, Clark finds out about the route that Huey had taken after entering Mexico through the Tijuana border, and he reaches the safehouse that the Black Panther Party activist had used in Puerto Vallarta. Here, they interrogate Aldo, but while the brave young man had been able to withstand the torture of the Mexican federal soldiers, he is unable to bear the American style of torture. Clark and Lipton hold Aldo’s son hostage and threaten to harm him if the man does not reveal the location of Huey and his friends, and Aldo eventually reveals that they have moved to Mexico City with the intention of traveling to Cozumel.
The two men arrive at Cozumel and interrogate the locals about any potential man who can transport people from Mexico to the Caribbean coast illegally, and it is then that they learn about a smuggler in the region, known as the Pirate. Clark pays off the Pirate to inform him about anyone who would want to hire his services in the next few hours or days, as he has figured out the exact plan that Huey is about to follow. This decision brings him success, at least partly, as he gets to know it as soon as Huey and his friends attempt to take a boat away from Cozumel. This leads to a short but intense chase as Clark and Lipton follow Huey, Bert, Gwen, and Steve down to the pier, from where the latter are about to take the boat. Clark had earlier mentioned that his exact plan was to either catch up with Huey and keep him captive till the Mexican police and the FBI came or to lead the Mexican Federal Police force towards the protagonist.
It seems like Clark ultimately tries to carry out both of these plans and fails at both, as he chases after Huey while also having informed the federal forces about the American fugitive’s location. This leads to the Federales general simply shooting Sydney Clark dead, as he sees the FBI agent as a barrier in his path of arresting Huey P. Newton. The general knows that the FBI has no jurisdiction in Mexico whatsoever, and he is also aware that Clark must have dropped all contacts with the FBI at the time, since the American organization would not have allowed the agent to enter the neighboring country otherwise. Therefore, he does not hesitate to consider Clark a threat in his way and shoot him down, which also gives a brief glimpse into the nature of the political relationship between the USA and Mexico. Despite giving his everything to stop the people he considered enemies of his great nation, Sydney Clark lies dead in a foreign country, with nobody to help him or even grieve for him.
Did Huey and Gwen finally reach Cuba safely?
After reaching Cozumel, Huey and his friends meet with the very same smuggler with whom Clark had sided, the Pirate, in order to take them to the Caribbean coast. The smuggler quite evidently takes money from both sides and also ensures to keep his promise to both of them, but the fact that Bert pays him more makes the Pirate turn more favorable towards them. Therefore, he helps them escape the pier amidst heavy shooting from the Mexican Federales soldiers, and Huey and his friends are finally able to get onto the boat. Since Bert and Steve’s mission was to safely get Huey out of any danger and not really to accompany him all the way to Cuba, they bid adieu to Huey and Gwen after some time, as the Pirate continues to take them towards their destination.
Somewhere in the open seas near the Caribbean coast, Huey asks the Pirate to let them off in a dinghy so that he and Gwen can reach the lands of Cuba, which are only a short distance away. The smuggler does not agree with the idea, both because of the extremely strong currents in the sea as well as the Cuban soldiers’ reputation of shooting first and asking questions later. Although the Pirate thinks that this is an absolute suicide mission, Huey still goes ahead with his plan, and his trusting partner, Gwen, whom he had also very recently married, follows suit as well. The couple’s dinghy is dangerously swept over by the high waves, and they both face the risk of drowning and dying.
It is almost a miracle that Huey and Gwen are washed ashore, on the land of Cuba, and their plan of reaching the country is finally successful. The second part of the trouble, as mentioned by the Pirate, is to convince the Cuban soldiers that they are not enemies. Although Huey has a tough time initially explaining who he is, a few letters he has brought along do eventually help. Since the Black Panther Party had socialist revolutionary beliefs similar to those of the Communist government led by Fidel Castro, Huey and Gwen were welcomed to Cuba and given a house in which to settle down. Therefore, the almost impossible plan of escape that the protagonist had set out with finally becomes a success, and he is able to get away from the FBI’s jurisdiction in a country that would be ready to fight for him as well.
What happened to Huey and his friends later on?
The Big Cigar‘s ending mentions what happened to the central characters after the famous escape to Cuba was executed. Bert Schneider and Steve Blauner returned to the United States and continued to produce films, although they did not work together for much longer. Bert eventually won the Oscar for the iconic documentary on the Vietnam War, “Hearts and Minds.” Steve Blauner split from Bert as they dissolved their production company, but he still continued to produce shows and films. Both men tragically passed away in 2011 and 2015, respectively. After falling out with Huey, Bobby Seale left the Black Panther Party, never to return to the organization. Seale continued to work for the advocation of racial justice and economic equality, and he is the only one still living and working at the age of 86.
After spending three years in peace in Cuba, Huey P. Newton had to return to the United States in order to face trial for the murder of Kathleen Smith. This was the same case in which the FBI wanted to immediately arrest him, leading to his escape to Cuba, and he was now acquitted of all charges. Huey was present in the US when his much-loved Black Panther Party was disbanded in 1982. In 1989, Huey P. Newton was shot and killed in Oakland, USA, and while the series does not get into the details of the murder, he was seemingly killed by a member named Tyrone Robinson of a prison drug gang. Despite the change in times and all of the efforts made by the likes of Huey and other Black Panther Party members, racial injustice and police brutality against Black folks still exist tremendously in American society. The Big Cigar ends with a reminder of this, with images from the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, which followed the horrible murder of George Floyd at the hands of a racist and bigoted police officer.
