Ben’s world view just kept expanding, entirely to his detriment.
The former Border Patrol agent discovered more and more about how little he knew concerning how things worked in Mexico on Coyote Season 1 Episode 3 and Coyote Season 1 Episode 4.
As a result, he’s now down one admittedly distant family member, and he’s deeper and deeper in El Catrin’s control.
Now we know why Mark Feuerstein’s role on Coyote was uncredited.
His character Frank didn’t last that long. And to see the lovable Royal Pains star gunned down just added to the shock value.
Of course, Frank’s death is on Ben’s head. El Catrin told Ben to tell nobody about his situation. But wily old Ben thought he could ignore that, even though he knew that the cartel monitored cell-phone communications. Probably including his. Duh.
Ben’s first instinct to warn Jill was a good one. After all, he had to have told her some war stories over the years, so maybe she could believe the mess into which he had gotten himself. Maybe.
But Jill wasn’t available. And Ben knew Frank loves Jill and Katie as much as he does. So, yeah, Frank was the only other choice … within the family.
Still, Frank is a shrink, a man of philosophy. He can’t comprehend the violent world of the cartel.
Frank was humoring Ben as a favor to Jill. Of course, he wouldn’t realize that El Catrin would have men watching every one of Ben’s acquaintances.
At least now we know why Frank’s cell call was so broken up. It wasn’t just bad service. He must have been calling from inside a car trunk as well.
That call, unfortunately, put Ben’s mind at ease. He thought his family was safe and would be fine even if something bad happened to him.
Ben didn’t realize that El Catrin needs Jill and Katie alive to threaten to keep him in line.
Frank, however, was expendable. Sultan even seemed to think Dante had done Ben a favor by making Jill single again.
But by killing Frank, Dante had limited El Catrin’s options.
Having Frank, who was important to Jill and Katie, on hand to torture allowed him to remind Ben of what could happen to those he loved.
A dead Frank was a one-time object lesson for Ben.
That doesn’t mean that Ben wasn’t now carrying a ton of guilt. His pulling Frank into his troubles led to Frank’s death.
That meant Jill and Katie didn’t know what happened to Frank. And Ben can’t tell them without, first, putting them in danger, and, second, admitting his complicity in Frank’s death.
What is amazing is that Ben had no idea how things actually work in Mexico for all his interactions with Mexicans.
It was also hard to understand what Ben’s strategy was when it came to his forced employment by El Catrin.
El Catrin told him to tell nobody. So the first thing he did was to search for a phone to call Jill. Like the old, bald gringo making a phone call wouldn’t stand out to the natives. Plus, he had to know he was being watched.
Then he went back to attempting to resurrect Javy’s burnt-out cabin.
Maybe that was because that’s just the kind of conscientious guy he is. Or he was trying to appear that he was going about his day-to-day business — nothing to see here.
Then he found Javy’s hidden plant gun and decided to abduct the levelheaded town cop and then convince the local pilot to fly him to the states.
Why was he surprised that he got deposited at El Catrin’s ranch? Local cartel head trumps gringo with a handful of pesos and an ancient gun every time.
All that resistance led to Frank’s untimely end.
Speaking of Dante, why is he El Catrin’s heir apparent?
He’s got a hair-trigger temper and screams gangsta. In other words, the mirror image of the Rico suave El Catrin.
I’m still sorting out the Zamora family tree. Dante and Sultan are Zamora’s nephews. So is Juan Doe, revealed to be El Catrin’s brother, father to one of them?
The jefe appeared to be attempting to smooth Dante’s rough edges. That would explain his forcing Dante to consider killing his friend.
Maybe El Catrin would be better off waiting for Maria’s unborn son to come of age then train himself instead. He would be an American citizen and likely would be more mature than Dante 20 years down the road.
Garrett also has gotten dragged into Ben’s mess. Ben has told him little to give him deniability. But that really should be Garrett’s call since it’s his career on the line.
Garrett has already helped to smuggle an illegal seeking asylum into the country. He can plead ignorance about the two cartel members that Ben killed before he arrived.
But now Ben used Garrett’s ID to locate Juan Doe. Since two ICE agents were killed in Juan’s breakout, that could come back on Garrett as well.
Holly, that bulldog of an HSI agent, will bring the heat, first on Garrett and then on Ben.
To follow Ben’s descent, watch Coyote online.
When will Ben ask the right people for help?
How long can he keep Jill and Katie in the dark?
How do you like Holly?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.