Bus Stop
Episode 4 of The Mosquito Coast begins with Allie and the gang making it to an estate run by a man named Enrique. Determined to keep his identity a secret, Allie introduces himself as David Richardson. Anyway, the family soon make themselves at home, downing glasses of water and settling in for the night. Dina is determined to find out the truth though and presses her Father to divulge exactly what happened to him and why they’re on the run. Just before revealing the truth, a knock at the door brings the maid in. Their room is ready. Enrique meanwhile, heads down to see Chuy who’s not in a good way. The snake bite has taken its toll and Enrique sits with the man, contemplating what to do with Allie’s family. It’s clear they’re being used and Margot senses this too, what with all the guards patrolling outside. Night turns to day and the family set to work keeping busy around the estate. With the water petering out, Allie heads off to help. Once there though, he learns that a special guest is coming to dinner that night – Enrique’s aunt. Before that occurs, Dina and Margot head off to meet Chuy, who’s resting up and on the mend now. He wants to see his daughter and claims if he can arrange that, then it’ll all be worth it. The way he says this is pretty chilling and Margot immediately senses something afoul. She tasks Dina with finding Charlie, who’s off with Hugo examining the gun he found out in the wilderness. A gunshot ricochets through the air though, sending them both hurrying across the complex. Only, guards stop the pair finding Charlie, instead forcing them inside the house. Allie is there too, and the trio are kept separate from their son, who’s still out target hunting. Well, the group don’t get time to dwell as a new guest arrives at the villa – Aunt Lucrecia. With little else to do, Allie tasks Dina with writing a letter for help. That’s probably just as well, as Lucrecia visits Chuy and looks set to cut his tongue out – unless he reveals everything he knows. When Lucrecia leaves, Chuy receives the handwritten letter from Dina, embellishing on how scared she is. It seems to work too, as Chuy heads out into the woods and finds Charlie and Hugo together hunting. That evening, the family are sat down for dinner together – notably missing Charlie but gaining Aunt Lucrecia instead. Apparently she works in pharmaceuticals but Margot presses the family set-up – and exactly what Lucrecia’s role is in all this. Soon the façade shatters and Lucrecia admits she wants to trade up Allie and the family for an inmate. As guards head inside and hold the family captive, Chuy videocalls with Lucrecia and holds Hugo up at gunpoint. This is enough for her to call off the guards, allowing the family to walk out and shoot the tyres of every car in the process. Eventually the family drive up and collect Chuy. Hugo is forced to hand over his shoes too, while the family hug and head back on the road again. Chuy is with them as well, and once they’re far enough way, he takes their car as collateral. Given Allie’s now a marked man, the family are forced to get the bus instead. Chuy holds a gun up to Allie’s face too, berating him and scaring the guy so badly that he urinates himself. Eventually Chuy drives off, leaving this family alone again.
The Episode Review
All that build-up for such a weak ending. The whole set-up with Enrique’s complex and what’s going on there worked really well to serve as a stop-gap to the intense cat and mouse exploits we’ve had these past few weeks. Instead, what we get is 40 minutes worth of build-up before Margot threatens Lucrecia once and they’re all allowed to go. It’s such a shame too and it feels quite reminiscent of The Walking Dead when they introduced the cannibals and made a massive deal over them…only to drop the storyline after three episodes. I digress though, it seems like this cat and mouse chase is scheduled to continue, with Allie and the family back on the run again and this time waiting for a bus to pick them up. We’ve now had two episodes with no police intervention and it seems like they’re miles behind on this investigation. Hopefully we get more of that going forward but for now The Mosquito Coast bows out with another mediocre episode, squandering some promising early potential.
