The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – The episode begins with breakfast at the Comptes, where Roman (Danny Pino) learns Congressman Landon (Nick Barkla) has refused to let Andrew Landon (Cale Ambrozic) date Valeria (Corina Bradley). Although Valeria chalks it up to a racial issue, Roman appears a bit too pleased. Lucky for Roman, Marisol (Tania Watson) is there to quickly steer attention towards their plans to decorate the upcoming weekend. The news report provides a similar distraction but being that it has to do with the rash of killings, it’s not a welcome one.

Elsewhere, Alvaro Gomez (Victor Oliveira) attempts to assure Yolanda (Mayra Hermosillo) that the botched Nestor Cabal (Yul Vazquez) wasn’t an inside job. Although she appears to believe him, as soon as he turns his back, she steals her henchman’s knife and literally stabs him in the back.

Agent Zulio (Michael Chiklis) appears to be just as upset about the same incident when he infiltrates Roman’s trip to buy Christmas lights. After several minutes of disputing the botched attempt, Zulio approaches the more pressing matter of why Roman’s bug hasn’t turned up any usable evidence. When Roman hesitates, Zulio tells him that all he has to do is get Nestor to incriminate himself and he’ll be off the hook.

Against Roman’s better advice, Burton Greenberg (Mark Feuerstein) meets with Ray Dorado (Erniel Baez) to ask for a loan. Thanks to Burton’s nice disposition towards his employees and his fluency in Spanish, Ray agrees to the loan, under the condition that Burton stake the hotel as collateral.

After Zulio’s pep talk, Roman visits Nestor and gets him to admit that the attempt on his life had to do with his control of the cocaine trade in Dade County. According to Nestor, it is the most lucrative in all of Miami. Later that day, Roman is discussing his success with Janice Nichols (Laura Gordon) when they are abruptly interrupted by Yolanda, looking for the manager. Once Roman agrees to bend the rules to help Yolanda, Janice can clearly see he is smitten with Yolanda. Roman casually chalks it up to feeling generous when Janice brings this to his attention.

While attempting to drown his sorrows, Roman notices Yolanda’s meeting. Jeronimo Rojas (Juan Felipe Samper) appears anxious from the onset and Alvaro’s sudden disappearance doesn’t put him at ease. Yolanda fails to distract him by toasting to the group’s other successes, but he eventually storms off in a rage.

Several tables down, Burton’s meeting with Constance (Maggie Lacey) has just blown up in his face. After teasingly rolling out the club’s most expensive champagne and giving Constance a gold membership card, she tells him that everyone knows the Orange Bank Grove Bank is under investigation for money laundering. Before leaving him nearly speechless, she also tells him that he’s having the Mutiny’s book subpoenaed by a close friend of the family.

While Janice and Roman watch Burton’s meeting go awry, Zulio approaches with his own mocking toast. Before leaving him standing alone, Roman says all he cares about is keeping his part in the deal hidden. Zulio promises to do what he can to ensure that happens but doesn’t sound very sincere. Roman finds himself back at the bar but merely for seconds after noticing Yolanda beckoning him to the dance floor. He joins her for a brief dance and appears to enjoy himself but instantly regrets it, although nothing happened.

Marisol’s plans to decorate don’t go as expected. First, Valeria opts out to go driving, and then Roman becomes frustrated when the lights don’t work. Marisol instantly realizes the origins of his frustration have more to do with the DEA and Nestor than anything else and attempts to comfort him. At the same time, it’s revealed that Valeria has actually gone to visit Nestor to watch movies in his home theater. It becomes clear that she enjoys how open she can be with him and even tells him about Andrew. Nestor doesn’t take the news as well as Roman.

Much to Agent Zulio’s surprise, he learns from his boss (Ryan Bannon) that headquarters wants him to keep using Roman as an informant. Surprisingly, Zulio goes to bat for Roman and tries to talk his boss out of it, but according to the supervisor, headquarters is immensely interested in the Colombians and their use of Marxist guerillas in Los Llanos.

After Zulio’s meeting with his boss, a brief scene of the Los Llanos lab is revealed. The operation is as old school as it gets but it is immense and so remote that a road had to be specially paved so workers could commute. This is also where Gilberto is introduced.

At the Mutiny pool, Burton is enjoying a therapeutic session with Gale (Candy Santana) when a very upset Ray interrupts. He’s obviously upset about Constance’s subpoenaing the Orange Grove Bank records. Ray tells him to either take care of her or he will. At nearly the same time Guillermo (Pedro Giunti) escorts Landon to Nestor’s office for a meeting. It becomes immediately apparent that Nestor isn’t happy about the Valeria situation, although Landon plays ignorant. After some slight intimidation, Landon agrees to make things right.

While Roman returns to buy more Christmas lights, Yolanda interrogates Marty Owens (Robert Beck) at the docks. Unfortunately for Marty, he really knows nothing and it takes Yolanda and her goons quite a while to believe him. He does tell her about Roman’s visit. Later that day at the club Roman receives a visit from Zulio, with the news about his boss wanting him to stay on as a CI. Roman doesn’t take this well and even attacks Zulio.

Valeria learns some very interesting things about Nestor when she and Andrew finally go on their first date. At the same time, Burton seeks counsel with Janice who offers the advice that Constance comes at him so hard because she can’t let herself go like Burton does. This eventually leads to him coming up with the idea of spiking her drink with Quaaludes. This goes much better than Burton would have expected until he blurts out the potential of them running the Mutiny together. The problem is that before doing so, she wants him to cut his connection to the criminal elements, which could cause some problems.

Roman sneaks into the Marquis De Sade Suite to dig up information on Alvaro and overhears Yolanda speaking with Gilberto over the phone about him and his connection to Nestor. He realizes he’s in trouble and races home when she mentions that she’s already handling the situation. He arrives home to discover that all is fine until he hears the rumblings of motorcycles in the distance. The slight head start gives him enough time to set a trap and kill the men. After killing them, he phones Nestor to order a cleanup crew up crew. Before the episode wraps, Burton also learns that Constance has been killed and Zulio along with other agents finds Marty Owens dead.

In Memoriam Fernando ‘Boogie’ Uriegas

When the episode wraps, there is a dedication to Fernando Uriegas. I felt that it was fitting to note that he was a producer/production manager for the show as well as several other popular works like Deep Blue Sea, Apocalypto, and Man on Fire. As for the memoriam, I couldn’t find anything on his death. I am not even 100% sure he is dead but I am assuming there wouldn’t be a dedication otherwise. Being that he was born in 1969, he would have been around 50 to 60 years old, so it could have been expected, maybe not.

 

Hotel Cocaine Review

The episode was horrible, but it was entirely too long. That’s been a regular problem with the series thus far for me. I did enjoy the Christmas and family themes. Things are starting to get real now with all the bodies dropping and the fact that Valeria is asking questions about Nestor’s involvement with drugs makes things all the more interesting. I don’t like the fact that the Columbians are being run by a woman but I get it. I must say that she seems just as ruthless as any cartel man I’ve seen.

For such a long, drawn-out episode, I felt the ending was a bit rushed. Roman’s trick with the Christmas lights felt a bit Home Aloneish. I’d have to give the episode a disappointing 5 out of 10.

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