Netflix’s The Gringo Hunters was a tedious watch, and I won’t deny that the inclusion of so many subplots, that were absolutely not needed, did irritate me. The narrative had potential, but the screenplay was just not able to do justice to the basic premise. That said, let’s find out what happened in the series, what the main plot was, what the agents of the International Liaison unit were after, and if they were successful in achieving their objective.
Spoiler Alert
What happened to Temo?
The International Liaison unit, led by Temo, made arrests almost on an everyday basis, and they made sure that no fugitive who entered Mexico through illegal channels was spared. Temo knew that in order to carry out these missions, he needed reliable and dedicated agents. Archi, Nico, Beto, Cri, and Gloria were the sort of people he could trust, and he knew how dedicated and passionate they were about what they did. Nico was the most hot-headed one out of the lot, and Temo often advised him to maintain his composure at all times if he didn’t want to end up in any sort of trouble. Temo’s personal favorite, I believe, was Gloria, who always went by the book and didn’t give in to her impulses. Temo got to know about a fugitive named Terry Davis, who was on the run. The plan was to track his movements and eventually arrest him and hand him over to Anne, the US law enforcement officer, who worked with The Gringo Hunters quite closely. Something strange happened at the very last moment, as Temo asked his men to go and handle other cases, as apparently he could catch Terry on his own. Perhaps he knew something about Terry, and he wanted to catch the big fish through him. So Temo took Terry into custody, and that’s when it came to be known that the man had a lot of intel that could incriminate Ortega, the police chief, and Father Murphy, who was quite an influential man, who had ties with big businessmen like Joaquin Meyer Rodriguez. But before Temo could do anything, he was killed, after which Ortega appointed Nico as the next commander. Nico’s superior had been killed, and he was just not ready to give up on the investigation, even though he was asked not to interfere in the matter. He felt that it was his duty to identify the murderer of his boss, and he was ready to break some rules to do so. We also came to know that Nico was quite close to Maria, Temo’s daughter, and he could never really make his relationship public, probably because he felt that Temo would not accept it. Nico wanted to find the murderer before he did anything to Maria and her mother.
Who became the prime suspect in Temo’s murder?
Nico, without telling anybody, took Temo’s mobile phone, as he knew that it might hold some evidence that could lead them to the real killer. Now, that was a dangerous thing to do, because if the authorities had come to know about it, they would have considered Nico the prime suspect of the murder case. Nico, at first, didn’t even tell Gloria or his other teammates about it, but then eventually he realized that he would need some help. Nico saw that Temo was being threatened by a man named Rugeiro, and so he decided to find the man and get to the root of the matter. It came to be known that Temo had a gambling problem and was under a lot of debt. Rugeiro was asking him to pay him back his money, but he had nothing to do with him getting killed. Then, all of a sudden, a guy named Tim Patterson came into the limelight, and Nico and his team were told that he was the one behind Temo’s murder. Patterson was caught, but in the process, Gloria and Nico realized that he couldn’t be the murderer because of a number of reasons. They speculated that if he would have murdered such a high-profile person, then surely he would have gone into hiding. When Tim was caught, it didn’t feel like he was on the run or that he had problems telling people where he was staying. But Ortega was hell-bent on making everybody believe that Tim was the murderer, and that Temo’s case was finally solved as Tim had been killed while resisting arrest. Ortega’s lies got caught when he told Nico that Temo’s account had been credited with a huge sum of money since he was a corrupt cop, and I believe it was at that moment Nico knew Ortega was lying. Nico had Temo’s phone, which nobody knew about, and he knew that he would have seen some message if that amount had been credited. From that moment onwards, the investigation moved in a different direction, as Nico wanted to find out why Ortega would have wanted Temo to be killed—what exactly Temo knew that would have made Ortega feel threatened.
Who Killed Terry And Why?
Padre Terry knew that he was in trouble after he heard that Temo had been killed. Terry had a diary in which he had names of the minors who had been trafficked by Father Murphy, and also the details of the buyers. That diary was a gold mine, and the best thing was that nobody knew it even existed. Terry hid the diary in a church during Temo’s funeral, because I think he knew that somebody might try to kill him too. Father Murphy managed to get hold of Terry, though I don’t know if he knew what the latter was up to. I think Murphy’s plan would have been to keep Terry right in front of his eyes, brainwashing him into believing that he was his well-wisher and then gaining access to whatever evidence the man might have had on him. But then, one day, Padre Terry decided to escape and go into hiding. Father Murphy was obviously worried, considering the vote for the development of Nuevo Tijuana was to be held in the near future, and it was important to portray people like Ortega and Father Murphy, who worked closely with Joaquin, as having a clean and honest image. I believe that Father Murphy, realizing that the matter had gotten out of hand, must have informed Ortega about what had happened. Ortega then sent his men and had Terry killed. Terry wasn’t able to tell Nico and his team about exactly what he knew about Ortega and Father Murphy, but once they got their hands on the diary, they got to know what Father Murphy was up to.
How did Nico get Father Murphy arrested?
Father Murphy was a dangerous man, and under the guise of being a priest, he was involved in some serious criminal activities. The man, since the early 2000s, had been involved in child trafficking, and nobody, not even Joaquin, knew about it. Father Murphy had been able to win the trust of people living in the same area where the Nuevo Tijuana project was going to be developed. The slum dwellers obviously did not trust Joaquin when he promised them that in exchange for their land, he would make sure that they had better houses and facilities. It was not such an easy task to convince them, and Joaquin knew that he would have to take the help of somebody the people believed in. Joaquin was already working with Ortega at that time, not knowing the kind of man he was, and then, to increase his headache even further, Murphy came on board. Though Joaquin was involved in a lot of fraudulent activities, I don’t think that he would have collaborated with Murphy if he knew what the priest was doing on the side. Maybe he would not have taken his help as it would have ruined his image in the long run if people came to know the truth. Joaquin never really asked Father Murphy about his personal affairs, and he expected him to handle it on his own and not let it hamper the work they were trying to do. Nico and his team knew that as long as Ortega was at the helm of affairs, he wouldn’t let them arrest Father Murphy. So he played a game; he asked Anna, his US counterpart, to issue a warrant against Father Murphy and arrest him immediately. Obviously the evidence was there after Terry’s diary was found, and so it wasn’t difficult for the US Marshals to initiate a formal investigation into the man. What Nico then did was give all the credit for Father Murphy’s arrest to Ortega, and so the man had his hands tied. On the one hand, he was being lauded by the general public, but on the other, he also knew that Joaquin would sever all ties with him and not team up with him ever again.
Was Nico able to expose Ortega?
The Gringo Hunters, after navigating its way through what felt like hundreds of subplots, finally reached its climax in the 11th and 12th episodes. We got to know that Ortega was the one who had murdered Joaquin’s daughter back in the day. The girl had been kidnapped by a gang named the Mochadedos, under the orders of Ortega himself. Probably Ortega wanted to pretend that he had rescued Joaquin’s daughter and work his way into his good books. But the little girl saw him with the gang members and realized that he had no option but to kill her. For years, Joaquin and his wife had been haunted by the ghosts of their past, and they just couldn’t get over the trauma. Nico found out about it through a man named Armando Valenzuela Ramirez, who once happened to work in law enforcement. He knew that Ortega’s fingerprints were found on the weapon that was found at the crime scene. Ortega had destroyed each and every piece of evidence that could link him to the crime. Armando told Nico that he had no way to prove his claims, but that didn’t mean that Ortega didn’t murder the little girl. Nico, after the entire Terry and Father Murphy exposé, knew that his cover was blown and Ortega would come after him in order to save himself. Ortega had tried to put a mole in the system, but that ploy completely failed after his mole decided to not cooperate with him. That mole was none other than Camila, Ortega’s niece, who had been recruited for the sole reason of leaking information. But Camila proved to be a loyal and honest officer who just didn’t want to side with him even if he was her family member.
Nico realized that the enemy of his enemy could be his friend, and so he took his chances and went to have a chat with Joaquin regarding Ortega’s involvement in his daughter’s death. Then he reunited with Archi and went to their hiding spot because that was where Camila had asked them to go. Ortega was constantly pestering Camila, his niece, to give him some information about Nico and his gang. But Camila just didn’t feel right in doing so. She didn’t want to betray her team members even if it was her one uncle who was pestering her to do so. I believe that Camila was a good person and she wanted to prove her worth to her team. Hence, Ortega held Camila captive and used her phone to give false info to her team. That was the reason why Nico’s team split into two, with one half going to the office and another going to the hideout, and almost played into Ortega’s hands. But pretty soon they realized they had been outsmarted. So, Beto went to rescue Camila, while Cri and Gloria went to rescue Archi and Nico. Ortega showed up at the hideout, with his men, to kill Nico and put an end to all his problems once and for all. They were no match for Ortega’s death squad and I believe that Ortega would have definitely killed Nico if Joaquin’s right-hand man hadn’t intervened and saved his life. In the end, Ortega was killed, and Nico couldn’t be more thankful to Joaquin for saving his life.
In The Gringo Hunters’ ending, Joaquin made it clear to Nico that he hadn’t helped him because he liked him or he wanted to partner with him. He let Nico live even though he was instrumental in the destruction of Nuevo Tijuana because he had revealed the fact that Ortega was his daughter’s killer. After months of hustle, the international liaison unit had achieved what they had set out to do. They wanted to have some downtime, but guess what? Just when they were about to go out, another case came, and they returned back to their office and prioritized their duty towards their nation over everything else.
