[narrating] Best way to make a bad story go away is to come up with a better story and sell it hard. This is one of the cornerstones of American foreign policy, and one we learned through years of trial and error in Latin America, Chile, Guatemala, Panama. Getting caught with your pants down sucks, but if at the same time you give the folks a big win, like, say, dismantling the second biggest drug cartel in the world, well, then nobody's paying attention to the bad story. They're too busy patting you on the back. Risky plan? Yes. But pressure will force you to take risks. It'll force you to do a lot of things.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
How much do they pay you for your protection?
Pay me? [gentle scoff] Let me tell you something, Agent Peña. Maybe it'll make you feel better, but maybe not. We're gonna get them someday. But not your way. For everything you know, you're, uh extremely naive.
[narrating] Look up "magical realism" in the dictionary, and it'll describe a literary style incorporating fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. Colombia is where it began. And anyone who's spent real time here knows why. It's a place where the bizarre shakes hands with the inexplicable on a daily basis. But just like in the novels of Gabriel García Márquez, the weird shit usually pops off at certain critical moments. When the whole place is on edge. When everything's about to change.
CHColonel Hugo Martinez
How long since we heard anything from Escobar? A month? A month and a half?
HMHugo Martinez Jr.
A month and a half, sir.
HHugo
And that whole time you've been in the van listening to static?
HJHugo Jr.
Yes. Waiting. Stubbornness seems to run in my family. It's in our blood.
[Colonel Martinez gives him a supportive smack on the shoulder]
[narrating] All that time hunting him and just like that, I'm looking down at Pablo fucking Escobar. For years I'd been building this son of a bitch up in my head. What a monster he'd be. [chuckles] But here's the thing, when you lay eyes on him, the devil's a real letdown. Just a man. Beard grows if he doesn't shave. Fat and shoeless. You take a good long look at evil, and it reminds you of one-
TTrujillo
[steps in and shoots Pablo one more time] Long live Colombia!
MMen
[men shout in response] Long live Colombia!
[The Cali Cartel has a feast upon learning of Pablo Escobar's death]
All right gentlemen, gentlemen. In the history of every business, there are decisive moments. The first sale, the first million, the first billion and when your rival no longer exists... [makes dismissive wave of the hand] The important thing in these moments isn't how one reacts but how well has one prepared for them. Gentlemen, I have to tell you, we are ready. And we won't be needing kidnappers or bombs to succeed. We will do it covertly, and when they turn to see what happened, we'll no longer be there.
CMCali Members
No sir!
Cheers!! [everybody toasts]
[Agent Pena is brought before a panel of DEA officials, thinking it's a disciplinary committee. The group turns out to be from the Operations department]
JPJavier Pena
What do you want from me?
MSMike Spencer
In 1992, do you know how much cocaine we estimated came to the US from Colombia? 311 metric tons. And in 1993, during the hunt for Escobar, 372 metric tons. Now that piece of shit is on his last leg, every one of his labs has been shut down and cocaine production goes up. Can you imagine what happens next year? Now, the king's dead. Long live the kings. Agent Peña, how much do you know about the Cali cartel?
[at Cartel party] An American named Joseph Kennedy made his fortune selling bootlegged liquor, but he turned that money into legitimacy. His children, great politicians. And one of them was even elected president. Yes, gentlemen, we have been negotiating with the authorities, and soon we will reach an agreement.
[narrating] When Pablo Escobar killed you, he wanted everyone to know about it. But the Gentlemen of Cali they did that differently, too. They wrapped your body with chicken wire and dumped you in the Cauca River. When you bloated and your body expanded, the wire cut you into little pieces - for fish food. Not very "gentlemanly," but it did the trick. And that's all they wanted. You and whatever your beef with them was vanished. Forever. No body, no crime. No murder statistics, no problem. I suppose that's for the best. It makes it easier to look the other way. To let them fucking slide. To pretend that these guys weren't just as evil as the guy that came before them. And to a country that had seen enough of the drug war, maybe that worked for Colombia. It certainly worked for the Cali godfathers. Because God forbid anyone thinks they're the bad guys.
[to Peña] When you sell your soul to the devil, you're not allowed to ask for it back.
[Chepe visits a New York salon that also has a drug lab run by a Dominican Republic gang]
CSChepe Santacruz Londono
Part of being an adult is accepting things that you wish weren't true. Recently, I have had to accept some things that I don't like. I advise you to do the same.
[in the office late at night] You got a partner, right?
CFChris Feistl
Yeah, kind of.
Good. You're going to Cali...
[narrating] Money makes the world go round. Legal or illegal, good guys and bad guys, we all chase money. For the DEA, it's about budget meetings and kissing the right ass to keep the funding flowing. But if you're a trafficker, getting the money is easy. It's holding onto it that's hard.
ASAlan Starkman
You can't put a price on freedom. Though Lord knows I try.
[Agent Pena confronts Bill Stechner about the AUC's sham raid on a drug lab that they just saw destroyed]
So the whole surrender plan is about fucking fundraising! The Colombians get a check and you get to play army men in the jungle?
I'm thinking about the next battle, the one that really counts.
Which means you're willing to lose this one!
The Drug War? Oh, come on, man! We lost it! You were there!
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Narcos pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.