The season two finale of Criminal Code focused primarily on the Brazilian Federal Police's arrest of a massive shipment of cocaine that was supposed to leave the port of Santos, pass through Italy, and end up in Antwerp. The finale also revolved around two confrontations: one between Suellen and Isaac, and the other between Benicio and Soulless. The path leading up to this was undoubtedly complicated, but the resolution was relatively simple, with a touch of melancholy and catharsis. While both seasons of the series have been a slog to overcome, it doesn't seem like the creators are in the mood to slow down, as they've left the door open for a third season, which has yet to be confirmed by Netflix. Anyway, let's talk about that ending, what it means for the characters, and what we can expect to see in the as-yet-unannounced third season of Criminal Code.
The ambassador's original plan was to bring two tons of cocaine to Paraguay, help Greco (an Italian drug trafficker) get it to Italy, and collect a large sum of money. But the governments of Corumbá and Paraguay seized the cocaine, creating a rift between the ambassador and Greco. In retaliation, the ambassador had Guzmán, a prosecutor, assassinated with the help of Desalmado, who did his dirty work because he needed to help his wife and child. That didn't change anything, as a corrupt police officer in Corumbá used the cocaine as leverage to get the ambassador to fork over a large sum of money. That's where Isaac came in. He had already proven his worth by rescuing the ambassador from prison last season and by robbing Cauboi of jewels this season.
Creators: Heitor Dhalia, Leonardo Levis
Stars: Maeve Jinkings, Rômulo Braga, Thomás Aquino
Isaac claimed that his Phantom Gang could pull off a double heist in Araçatuba and deliver the money the ambassador needed to bribe the corrupt police officer who had the cocaine. The Araçatuba heist went badly. Isaac's brother, Gabriel, was killed. And although Isaac managed to steal the jewels, he failed to get the money. Since Cauboi had abandoned them, there was no way to convert the jewels into cash. This irritated the ambassador, who decided not only to keep the jewels but also to not pay Isaac what he was owed. So Isaac got Djeison, the ambassador's right-hand man, to turn against him, and with his help, Isaac murdered the ambassador.
Now, before dying, the ambassador, following Djeison's advice, had hired Soulless to rob the warehouse where the Corumbá police kept the cocaine. Soulless robbed the ambassador's drug houses to support his family, as his new friend from prison, Cabeca, had convinced him that if he gave him cocaine, he would give Soulless the money he needed to support his wife and child. Greco had also been attracted to Cabeca after losing faith in the ambassador's ability to deliver the cocaine. But when the ambassador asked Soulless to bring it to him, he accepted the job. However, before he could do so, the ambassador died, leaving him without resources. Therefore, Soulless vowed to kill Isaac, as he was the reason he couldn't help his wife and son. Cabeca helped Soulless and Isaac reach a deal, forcing them to steal the cocaine from the police warehouse in Corumbá, deliver it to Greco, and live in luxury for the rest of their lives. Cabeca wanted to reach the level of the deceased ambassador. Isaac wanted to enter the drug trafficking business. Soulless wanted to support his family. Therefore, everyone stood to gain if the heist went well. Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn't.
Soulless, Isaac, the Phantom Gang, and the men Cabeca had organized raided the police warehouse to obtain the cocaine, knowing full well that the Corumbá Police, the Brazilian Federal Police, and the Special Unit agents would overwhelm them in a matter of minutes. But since it was a life-or-death situation for them, they took the risk. Although they managed to secure the cocaine in a truck, almost all of them were wiped out by law enforcement. Soulless and Lobo somehow drove the truck away from the warehouse and to the port of Santos.
Isaac and two of his men fled the scene in a car and arrived at an airport near the Brazil-Bolivia border to meet Guilherme, who would drive them to the port of Santos. Yes, Guilherme wanted to get into the drug trafficking business. Since he had worked for the Banda Fantasma after being recruited by Amaro, he knew Isaac. So they reunited, and this newly forged bond proved beneficial to Isaac and what remained of the Banda Fantasma—because otherwise, how would he have escaped the clutches of the police after such a reckless heist? Incidentally, as Isaac and his two thugs boarded Guilherme's plane, I wondered what would have happened if more crew members had survived the attack.
The script seemed so contrived that Guilherme arrived in a small private plane; it had room for 3 or 4 passengers, and only 3 people made it to the airport? That's just absurd. It would have made more sense for Guilherme to arrive in a reasonably sized plane, only to realize that only 3 had survived. That would have been devastating and shocking. The only thing more absurd than this was Soulless's magical powers of persuasion, bordering on magic, that he used on two Brazilian Military Police officers to make them look the other way as Soulless and Lobo drove away toward the port of Santos.
I mean, I get that Soulless is supposed to be a man of God and the epitome of intensity, but that's just stupid. I guess the writers couldn't find anything to make the drive from Corumbá to the port of Santos interesting. Therefore, they came up with... this! Finally, Isaac, Soulless, Guilherme, and the rest of the heist survivors met with Cabeca, who revealed that the final step of their plan was to load the drugs onto a container ship that would stop in Italy, thus fulfilling their deal with Greco, before traveling to Antwerp. According to the ambassador's original plan, this shipment would have been made using melons. But with the ambassador's departure, Soulless and Isaac had to sneak up on the aforementioned container ship in a speedboat, deliver the cocaine to its crew, and leave. That part was easy, but the rest wasn't.
In the season two finale of Criminal Code, Suellen and Benicio cornered Soulless, Isaac, and Lobo in the container yard after they finished transporting the stolen drugs to the ship departing for Antwerp. Benicio went after Soulless, while Suellen confronted Isaac and Lobo. Benicio managed to kill Soulless, but it wasn't a particularly satisfying conclusion for him, since, in his final moments, Soulless asked Benicio to give his locket, which held the photo of his wife and child, to his son. Benicio had assumed that Soulless, the guy who had killed Santos, the man he had hunted for so long, would be a monster, and it would be right to gut him like a fish in Santos' harbor. But when Benicio realized that Soulless was just a man trying to do right by his family, which reminded him of his relationship with his own son, Samuel, he was devastated.
Oddly, we didn't get to see if Benicio fulfilled Soulless's final request. I don't know if the confrontation between Benicio and Soulless's family is something the showrunners saved for Season 3 or if they just forgot to shoot that scene for Season 2. We saw that Benicio had gotten a position on the Paraguay-Brazil border and that he got along well with Samuel, despite having moved to the Netherlands with his mother and her boyfriend. Agent Vendramin had said that Internal Affairs would question Benicio for "giving" earrings to Luana, an informant who helped the Brazilian and Paraguayan police obtain the first photograph of Isaac. I'm not sure if this border patrol assignment was a punishment for Benicio or if it was a job he took voluntarily to keep Brazil and Paraguay drug-free. But apparently, he hasn't been confronted by Soulless's wife, Monica, and it will be interesting to see how that affects Benicio's newly recovered sanity.
Meanwhile, at the container yard, Suellen managed to kill Lobo, but Isaac escaped. The Port Authority and the Federal Police intercepted the cocaine shipment, and Rossi took all the credit. Suellen seemed very happy that the case was over and that she had time to spend with her daughter, Ahyu. However, her story arc has two unresolved subplots: Xuxa and Isaac. Xuxa killed Assuncao, and he was taken to a Paraguayan prison. Suellen was overcome with guilt for putting Assuncao on the battlefield and sending him to his death.
And that was the resolution to Suellen's internal conflict? I'm guessing that, like Soulless's prison break that led to his confrontation with Benicio, the showrunners have something in store for Xuxa and Suellen in Season 3. Then there's Isaac's need to avenge his brother, Gabriel, by killing Suellen, because she was the one who killed Gabriel. Isaac is having a great time at Guilherme's mansion, which is in an unknown location, probably plotting how to execute the playboy's dreams of smuggling drugs from Bolivia to Brazil. We didn't see him express any distress at not being able to shoot Suellen in the head. I think he's more focused on rebuilding his reputation and his army, which were destroyed by the Corumbá heist. He also needs to take care of Djeison, who betrayed him to the Paraguayan and Brazilian authorities.
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