Last year, “Narcos” became a big international hit for Netflix, depicting the rise and fall of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar with a mix of bilingual drama, artistic license and documentary-style narration and archival footage. With new episodes out Sept. 2, now is a good time to get on board. Here’s a quick primer on the big characters from Season 1, as well as some newcomers for Season 2.
In Season one, we saw Pablo Escobar’s (Wagner Moura) slow rise to the top of the Medellin Cartel, often accompanied by the phrase “Plata o Plomo” — “Silver or Lead” — that he would use to coerce authorities into accepting bribes. His mild-mannered exterior was erased over time as he rose to power through violence, but now the series picks up with him on the run from his personal prison, La Catedral.
Much like Escobar, the kingpin’s wife, Tata, has a seemingly quiet personality that slowly gives way to a more dangerous side. She pushes Pablo to go to greater lengths to increase his empire, and in Season 2, she begins taking a bigger role in the cartel to ensure her family’s safety.
The events of the series are relayed through the perspective of DEA agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook), who works with his partner Javier Pena (Pedro Pascal) to bring Escobar to justice. Though their attempts to capture Escobar haven’t yet reached the shadiness of other drug war tales like “Sicario,” Murphy and Pena do end up doing some reckless and questionable things that result in innocents (and one cat) getting killed.
That might change in Season 2, as Pena crosses paths with Los Pepes, a violent death squad consisting of drug dealers Escobar had wronged over the years. Pena makes a pact with them to bring down Escobar, further blurring the line between police and criminals.
Another major figure in Steve Murphy’s life is his wife, Connie (Joanna Christie). In Season one, she was Steve’s conscience, calling him on his more questionable actions. However, after her attempts to save a pregnant member of a guerrilla faction from getting killed by the cartel failed, Connie is now all in on the fight to bring down the Medellin drug lords.
As if all that weren’t enough, Murphy will also have to deal with Claudia Messina (Florencia Lozano), a new DEA head who is taking over the Escobar operation due to the task force’s failure to make significant progress. Will she be another force dragging him to the dark side?
Outside the DEA, another person trying to bring Escobar down is Horacio Carrillo (Maurice Compte), who is already well past the line that Murphy and Pena are in danger of crossing. He’s now willing to go to ruthless lengths to put the cocaine kingpins in the jail, or worse.
Escobar is also being chased by Judy Moncada (Cristina Umaña), a rival dealer who wants revenge against Escobar for brutally killing her associates.
The closest thing “Narcos” has to morally upstanding authority is Cesar Gaviria (Raúl Méndez), the President of Columbia, but even he has his limits. He negotiates an uneasy peace with the cartel that results in Escobar turning himself in to be imprisoned at La Catedral, but in the season finale, he finally gets fed up with Escobar’s demands and orders a special forces unit to kill all of his men.
