This week’s episode picks up right where we left off. Eleanor stands steaming and shivering in the cool night air, asking the two young men on bikes to help her. Only one stays, and offers her his jacket. Eleanor begins spouting off about grace, and before the young man named Kyle knows it, she pushes him up against a brick wall and runs her hands over his crotch. This is the second time a woman has done this to a man in as many episodes. She tells him that in exchange for his help, she will let him touch her “down there.” Oh jesus, this is getting so weird and it’s only two minutes in.
Kyle takes Eleanor to his house where she helps herself to an entire quart of milk. Kyle fetches her some clean clothes but she only wears pink on Wednesdays, so she sends him off to find her something else. While he is gone, she wanders the dark halls of his home and makes her way into his little brother’s room, where the child is fast asleep. Eleanor hovers about the little boy, making Kyle very nervous. She declares that she can see the light radiating from the boy, and tells a clueless Kyle to say goodbye to his brother. He does and walks away. Eleanor follows Kyle but pauses to look back at the child.
Back at the deserted car crime scene, the dead dog turns out to be, well, a dead dog. But a taxidermied one. Sonya examines Yovani’s corpse and observes that he was stabbed in the neck, but with a weapon other than a knife. To Sonya, it has the calling card of impulse or self defense. On the window, there is a bloody handprint that Sonya believes is a woman’s. Lt. Wade notices a hickey on Sonya’s neck and gives her the third degree about her “personal” day. He already senses that she’s been getting close to Dobbs’ brother, whom he does not trust. Sonya doesn’t crumble in the face of his questions though and confidently asks him, “Would you be talking to me like this if I were a man?” That shuts Lt. Wade up right quick.
Next stop for Sonya and Lt. Wade is a massive taxidermy shop where they question the owner about the stuffed dog. The owner gets spooked and leads them right down into the basement where they find more than they bargained for. He tells the detectives that a man and a woman came in and threatened to cut off his hands and kill his family if he didn’t let them leave a body on the premise. The owner unlocks a container where a dead body, wrapped in plastic and covered with flesh eating beetles, sits propped up.
A hungover Marco wakes up in bed with a woman, but has to hurry out and get to the station. As he stops in a bakery to pick up some coffee and breakfast, he notices a man standing across the street, watching him. When Marco arrives at the station, the man is there, laughing about scaring Marco with his fellow detectives. The man leaves, and when Marco goes to his desk, he finds his chair has been taken. A uniformed officer teases him about it, but Marco does the sensible thing and pistol whips the guy. When the officer tries to retaliate, Marco beats him senseless while the rest of the station stands and watches. Marco offers the officer his gun and screams for the officer to shoot him if that’s what he wants to do. The Capitan intervenes only when he notices Prosecutor Pintado watching.
When Marco goes into the restroom to try and clean the blood out of his clothes, Pintado checks up on him and reminds Marco that they have a scheduled meeting soon.
Back in the taxidermy basement, the body is prepped to be taken to the ME’s office. Lt. Wade shows Sonya a bullet that the taxidermist pulled out of the dog. The body is badly damaged by the beetles, so they will have to use dental records to identify it. Sonya stares at a glass case full of said beetles, cleaning the flesh off a small animal skull.
DEA Agent McKenzie and his partner Agent Rivas arrive at the El Paso police station to meet with Lt. Wade. The stuffed dog happens to belong to the DEA, or at least it did when it was still alive. McKenzie orders all files on the case be sent to his office. He’s looking for something and just like Pintado in the previous episode; he’ll know when he sees it. The body found was an undercover DEA agent, as was the dog.
Sonya brings the taxidermist in for questioning and shows him a picture of Yovani’s body. He identifies Yovani as the man, and describes Eleanor to Sonya. Yovani and Eleanor had wanted the body mounted and posed, but the body was too decomposed at that point.
Lt. Wade does his best to stall the agents while Sonya gets as much info as she can from the witness. She joins them afterwards to debrief them on her findings. McKenzie recognizes Yovani as one of Fausto Galvan’s men. When Sonya describes Eleanor, the brunette with a ledger who seemed to be in charge, the agents get a little squirrely. The agent who was killed was a major asset to the DEA, responsible for some major crackdowns and not surprisingly a target. Lt Wade and the agents decide to split lead on the investigation, with the Agents looking into the death of their own man and El Paso police investigating Yovani’s murder. They agree to work on the woman’s case together. Something doesn’t feel right about this. Like I said, squirrely. Very Squirrely.
Eleanor is hiding out in Kyle’s garage, taking notes in her ledger when he appears with lunch. He’s skipped school and his parents are gone, so she unzips her sweatshirt and offers him a feel. He declines under the circumstances, so she enlists him and his learner’s permit to drive her somewhere.
In Juarez, Adriana and Frye step into a seedy hotel looking for Millie Quintana’s nephew Raul, who supposedly works there. They saddle up to the bar where Adriana orders them two Cokes. After Frye slips the bartender a $50, they are pointed in the direction of Raul Quintana. Raul is performing, very badly, as a drag queen at the bar. When they sit down with Raul, he assumes they were sent to hurt him. Adriana assures him that they are simply two reporters working on a story. Turns out the Quintanas were all deported after Millie’s death, even after they were granted asylum. Raul doesn’t believe that Frye and Adriana aren’t in cahoots with the cops and goes to leave. Adriana stops him and asks about Millie’s involvement with the cartel. Raul is genuinely perplexed by her question, and when Frye pushes it, Raul punches him in the face and leaves.
Det. Cooper (Hi Cooper!) stops by Sonya’s desk to show her some footage of the border crossing. There they find Yovani crossing into El Paso. Sonya, remembering the taxidermist’s description on the woman, points out Eleanor on the footage as well. She tells Cooper not to tell the DEA or Wade yet, and puts out an APB.
Marco sits tossing back shots in a bar, when Pintado tracks him down. Pintado asks Marco what happened earlier with the uniformed cop, but Marco isn’t offering much up. Pintado suggests that it was a good idea, and will make it pretty obvious who to question if anything happens to Marco. Marco thinks that Pintado and his bosses are all bluster and wrist slaps, but Pintado disagrees. Marco asks Pintado to kindly cut the shit and get down to why he is in Juarez in the first place. Pintado pulls out a file and shows Marco a picture of Hugo Marquez, the cop that Marco beat up and was later found dead. He asks Marco what happened, but Marco stays mum. Pintado tells Marco that his police station has a reputation of disappearing young women who ask for their aid. Marco warns Pintado that he’s about to open Pandora’s box.
Frye lays in the backseat of Adriana’s car, eating French fries and nursing his wounds. She brings him aspirin and they are both startled by a knock at the window. It’s Raul, but out of his costume. Raul climbs in the back and apologizes for socking Frye. He had to do it to throw the bar patrons off his scent. Raul thinks he’s being followed since his aunt’s death. He gives Adriana the name of Chuchito, a man who helped his aunt with the money and Raul’s possible lover. Raul hasn’t seen Chuchito in over a week, and is afraid to stop by his house and check on him.
Lt. Wade pulls Sonya into his office to chastise her for putting out the APB without notifying him or the DEA. Sonya practically stomps her foot, saying she did it because the DEA didn’t share their border tapes with them. Lt. Wade is more concerned about getting shut out of the investigation completely. Sonya, who doesn’t handle it well when Wade is mad at her, asks if he’s really just mad about her sleeping with Jack Dobbs.
Speaking of Jack Dobbs, he’s chilling by his cruddy hotel pool when Lt. Wade pays him a visit. Jack offers Wade his hand to shake, but Wade doesn’t accept the gesture. In Wade’s best Texan gentlemanlike way, he tells Jack that “bad doesn’t just happen. It’s brought in,” and advises him to steer clear of Sonya. Sonya, who is taking a bath and dealing with some major inner turmoil, finds a loose tile and proceeds to tear it off.
Marco is startled by the sound of banging on his door. It’s officer Luis and he’s been sent by the Capitan to bring Marco to him.
In Agent McKenzie’s office, he’s meticulously painting monster figurines. In perhaps a throwback joke to his Buffy days (actor Abraham Benrubi played a man Anya turned into a troll) asks his partner if he’s a troll or an ogre kind of guy. For the record, Rivas is more of the Call of Duty persuasion. Talk turns serious, and the agents know full well who they are dealing with Eleanor. McKenzie wants to let the El Paso cops do the leg work in tracking her down. As for Fausto Galvan, they need to tread lightly as to not tip the CIA off and ruin their triumphant capture. McKenzie wants to see Galvan tried and sentenced in the US.
When Frye and Adriana arrive at Chuchito’s apartment, it becomes clear by the putrid smell that something isn’t right. They cover their noses and mouths so they can explore the place. While Frye finds hundreds of bank notes on the kitchen table, Adriana makes a much more gruesome find. A body bag.
Marco is escorted by three cops to an unfamiliar house where they claim the Capitan waits inside. On his way in, Marco crosses paths with the uniformed cop he beat up earlier. When Marco sees the Capitan, he learns that this house belonged to Yovani, who was one of Galvan’s enforcers indeed. The Capitan tells Marco that his lady cop friend is handling the case in El Paso. The Capitan wants Marco to “help her” with the case. Galvan reveals himself to be in the house as well along with another surprise guest: Sebastian Cerisola. Galvan calls in the favor that Marco owes him. Find the girl before the Americans do. Marco doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Marco shows up at Sonya’s apartment where she is nursing a bloody finger, cut up from the tiles. He asks her about Yovani’s case and she reveals that the DEA is also on the case. Marco sighs, knowing that this will complicate things. He tells her the Capitan has sent him to work the case with her, and she’s actually relived to be working with Marco again. Sonya shares her case file with him and they get to business.
In a storage facility, Eleanor and Kyle walk through the darkened hallways. Eleanor asks Kyle to give her the address of the friend he was with that night at the carwash, you know so she can murder him. Err, talk to him. Kyle inquires about Eleanor’s many tattoos and she tells him that they are “marks to remember all the demons I’ve known.” Run, Kyle. She opens storage unit 99, and Kyle is taken aback by a bad smell. A raccoon died in there she tells him. She leads him onto a plastic sheet and once again opens her shirt for him. When he remarks on the fact that he can’t see anything, she pulls him close and promises he will soon see the light. With that, she stabs poor Kyle in the neck.
