Queen of the South Season 4 Episode 4 Review: La Maldición
Christine Orlando
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Teresa's day started off pleasntly enough as she woke up next to Eddie on Queen of the South Season 4 Episode 4, but it ended with a nightmare.
Unfortunately for Teresa, she was wide awake.
On Queen of the South Season 4 Episode 3, Teresa had been far too quick to cut Marcel out of the business, as she had no real proof that he had ratted her out.
Teresa usually takes more time to make important decisions, and this knee-jerk reaction felt out of character which is probably why it's lead to a horrible downward spiral.
Forming alliances in New Orleans has proven difficult, but enemies have been easy to find, and just when Teresa had a stable deal with Dumas, she threw it away on nothing more than a hunch.
Pote: It’s a la maldición. A curse.
Teresa: It’s a declaration of war.
I don't know if I believe in curses, but things certainly went from bad to worse quickly for Teresa, and tanking her deal with Marcel was only a part of it.
Regretably, Chicho wasn't very covert at tailing Judge LaFayette who took offense at having Teresa poke into his personal life.
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The fact that the Judge is paying for hookers is probably one of the worst kept secrets in New Orleans anyway, so if that's the only information Chicho got, I doubt it will do Teresa much good.
And the judge has far more insidious plans as he spelled out in this Queen of the South quote:
Once this prison’s complete we’ll do a clean sweep of the city. Ms. Mendoza, Dumas, and all the rest of the riff-raff in our city will forever after call this home.
Judge LaFayette
The biggest criminals of all are the ones who get rich throwing other people in prison. Judge LaFayette is happy to make money off of Teresa's operation but won't hesitate to publically wrap himself up in the moral high ground and throw her in prison when he has the chance.
That LaFayette decided to turn the tables and have Teresa followed wasn't a surprise, but that he was able to get to the door at Pote's was. Doesn't the front gate have a security system? Why aren't there cameras monitoring the grounds?
I couldn't believe that Kelly Anne opened the door for the judge and the detective. If they had chosen to try and force their way in, Manny would have started shooting, and everyone, including Tony, could have ended up dead.
Sadly, LaFayette now knows where to find Teresa's weak spot.
As much as I don't think it's smart for Tony to be staying at Pote's, I love his interaction with Kelly Anne.
Teresa doesn't have the time to spend with Tony, but Kelly Anne is good at being consoling without sugarcoating their reality.
Sometimes life can get real dark and it can get hard to tell the difference between reality and a nightmare. You know I have nightmares too. I’ve been sober for six months and I keep dreaming that I relapse and it feels very real. You see, I got a second chance at life just like you did but we’re still trying to figure out how to run away from our past as we’ll do anything to do it. Close your eyes and envision something different but then your eyes open and we’re still stuck with ourselves. So every morning I wake up and I pray to my higher power for help to accept the things I can’t change and for courage to change the things I can. You can’t run away from your past, okay. It’s a part of you, but the darkness, the nightmares, you’ve got to lock that away, cause it isn’t real and it’s only going to hurt us if we let it.
Kelly Anne
Also, the relationship between Pote and Kelly Anne is one of the highlights of the show.
Pote obviously cares a great deal for Kelly Anne; if he didn't she wouldn't be alive right now, and he certainly wouldn't have eaten her horrible huevos rancheros with ketchup!
Javier may have been having an even worse day than Teresa.
He was clearly feeling guilty for losing his temper and killing Rene, not because he gave a damn about Rene but because he knew it would cause trouble for Teresa.
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Was Javier planning on telling Teresa what happened, or was he trying to cover it up in the hopes that she'd never find out?
You know the one thing I can’t figure out, primo? Why are you here? We were kings in Mexico, you gave all that up to come work for Teresa? Now you’ve got your head so far up her ass I can’t tell where you start and she ends.
Boaz
Javier's conversation with Boaz was both insightful and oddly heart-warming given that the two men were dropping bodies in the swamp for the gators to eat, calling each other names, and rehashing their murderous pasts.
And I loved Boaz's take on the bird watcher turned witness that they had to hunt down and kill.
Only gringos would sit around all day watching birds.
Boaz
But as much as I wanted to believe that Boaz would be there for Javier because they're family, that reasoning didn't hold true for the brother whose head he blew off.
Let's hope things go better for Javier, but with Rene's body still in the trunk of the car being towed, it's not looking good.
As Javier and Boaz were frantically trying to cover up Rene's murder, another one was taking place.
Once again, Teresa made assumptions that weren't true, and they led to the very thing she's been trying to avoid -- more violence.
It's difficult to blame Bobby for fighting back and trying to escape considering Pote was looking menacing as ever and holding that meat cleaver.
There was a moment when I feared that George was the one who took the bullet, and I'm grateful that wasn't the case. I'd be heartbroken if George got killed.
But how will Teresa untangle this web of murder and bad decisions? Is there any way to repair her deal with Marcel now that Bobby is dead with his blood splattered all over Teresa?
I'm hoping that Teresa will find a way to patch things up with Marcel because they may end up needing each other to help fend off an attack from LaFayette in the near future.
Check back next week to see if the gators continue to be well fed and for my review of Queen of the South Season 4 Episode 5.
Until then, you can watch Queen of the South online here at TV Fanatic.
C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
