#qots season 3
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QOTS Rewatch - Season 3 Retrospective
As always, before moving onto the next season (😭) I want to take a look back at this last one. Season 3 is great. I know I've said season 2 is my favorite (it is, in my opinion, the strongest season overall, tightest in terms of character work and story building), but season 3 is a pivotal season character-wise for Teresa and James both. It's the season of James's redemptive arc and a season that sets Teresa ever further on the path towards darkness. As with the previous seasons, here's what I'll cover:
My Top 3 Episodes
My Top 5 Scenes
Season 3 Episodes Ranked
Teresa’s Journey
Jeresa, DUH
Top 3 Season 3 Episodes
This is too easy:
3: 3x08, El Carro
All three of my top season episodes have in common that they have amazing conversations between Teresa and James, conversations that actually move the needle significantly and help us understand both characters, especially Teresa. This one's conversations in the rabbit car ('so you regret what we did?' 'of course not!') and later in the bathroom at their house ('this is who I am' 'I know, but you don't have to hide from me') left me vibrating when I watched this the first time and STILL make me freak out when I watch them with how incredible it is that this drug cartel show gave us mature and thoughtful and provocative conversations between the characters of the main ship. Mind-blowing. Like they aren't going to play games with each other?!?!?! So fucking refreshing. Anyway, bonus points for the car chase, for Teresa panicking about James in danger, for her conversation with Pote about what was going on with James (in which she barely said anything at all), and for Taza, George, and Lil T all co-starring.
2: 3x05, El Juicio
'Not your favorite???' I hear you cry. No, listen, this episode is only not my favorite because, as a whole, the Camila/Cortez/Loya side story is really boring and takes up way too much screen time. I really resent what this season did to Camila's character, silo-ing her with these two uninteresting male characters all season who barely had anything to do with Teresa's story either. But other than the Camila content, this episode is LITERAL FIRE. The soft Jeresa flirting at the beginning, the iconic showdown with Devon, and James's confession followed by the most beautiful first love scene for a TV ship *EVER* make this episode sooo hard to beat. So hard to beat that only one episode this season beats it, and that is...
1: 3x02, El Colgado
I'm going to confess that this is one of my most rewatched episodes of the series. I find the tension between them here--and its sweet and tentative resolution--soooo compellingly real and complex. That car chase scene at the beginning is funny and hot and bittersweet all at once, with a (terrified and mistrusting) small but mighty Teresa and a (bewildered and utterly transparent) competent as always James trying to confront the trust issues that separated them in the first place while also trying to just, you know, stay alive with enemies coming at them from all angles. Then the soft conversation in the cop car and the final balcony scene while Pote is recuperating is just pure magic. It's incredible. And the Camila story (trying to kill Teresa in Malta) obviously ties in directly to Teresa's so it doesn't feel irrelevant or annoying. As I said: my most-watched episode of the season. Watching Teresa force James to tie himself up and put himself in the trunk while he shakes his head at her is BETTER THAN SEX. I said what I said.
Top 5 Season 3 Scenes
I had a tough time narrowing down this season's best scenes. But after a few elimination rounds, I finally have to concede it's these five. Again, they are all Jeresa scenes. I genuinely think their relationship became the backbone of the show this season, with Camila and Teresa hardly sharing any screentime. But also, no shame, I am just a total glutton for Jeresa content. I also realized that in seasons 1 and 2, I had top scenes from episodes other than the top episodes. Not so this season. Hmmm what does that mean? ANYWAY, here they are:
#5:
The scene: Episode 3x08, the 'so you regret what we did?' 'of course not!' conversation.
What I love about it: The cathartic vulnerability in James's uneasy question, the shocking candidness of Teresa's response, and the fact that in a simple call and response, the agony of the two previous episodes of James wondering where he stands with her instantly resolves. This is flawless writing, with both of them so beautifully in-character.
#4:
The scene: Episode 3x02, the end-of-episode balcony scene.
What I love about it: the softness! James's transparency! Teresa SMILING! The flirtinggggggg. Ugh I can't stand the cuteness. And also, at the same time, I love how clear she is that he'll be working for her, not with her; she is unapologetic about her power and it's insanely attractive to me. And James isn't threatened by it! In fact, he fully accepts it and respects her. It's incredible to witness this dynamic on TV.
#3:
The scene: Episode 3x05, the 'Unholy War' scene, i.e., the showdown with Devon and company.
What I love about it: If I were more objective, I might rank this first, because the combination of the tension, the music, the cinematography, the acting, James's shock at Teresa risking her life for him, and then the incredible resolution with Lil T's phone call and Teresa coolly sending Devon off makes this one of the most iconic scenes in the entire show. But I'm not objective, and my top two slots are reserved for my fave strictly Jeresa scenes of the season.
#2:
The scene: Episode 3x02, from the moment Teresa turns her gun on James in his getaway car to the moment she makes him get in the trunk.
What I love about it: I've basically already said this in my discussion of why this episode is in my season top 3. The impeccable acting shows exactly how rattled Teresa is and reveals how personal his reappearance is, and the clash between her simmer and James being utterly cool and calm under pressure is pure delight.
#1:
The scene: Does it really need to be said? Episode 3x05, THE KISS.
What I love about it: Oh my god. What don't I love?
Season 3 Episodes Ranked
3x02
3x05
3x08
3x09
3x04
3x01
3x13
3x12
3x03
3x07
3x06
3x10
3x11
I don't usually explain my rankings but... the whole is-James-a-mole thing and the Kelly Anne getting 'killed' thing really kinda makes it hard for me to assess the artistic merits of those episodes without my emotional bias. Hence those two being at the bottom. Same goes for the Guero death episodes, though those weren't quite as painful and had good resolution anyway. I can't really explain why 3x03 is so low for me but it's never been a favorite. I love the James/Pote dynamic there, and love King George, but ehhh. It always felt a little heavy-handed to me somehow.
Teresa's Journey
It's hard to talk about Teresa's journey this season without getting ahead of myself because this season really was the crossroads. It's not that she's unrecognizable by the end of it--or that seasons 4 and 5 Teresa have nothing left of "old Teresa"--but something in her hardens by the end of this season so that if you look back at her in seasons 1 and 2 you can really see it. In season 1, Teresa was doing everything she could to get out of the business and escape with Brenda to a new life. In season 2, after losing Brenda, she'd decided escape was futile and by the end, decided she was going to hang out her own shingle because doing that, and fighting for her own power, was the only way she would be able to survive. But she'd also convinced herself that she could do this business a different way, "without all the killing." She could be the person she was in her core and run a drug cartel.
And season 3 started out seeming like that could actually work. She had a vision for her business that was essentially to run it as a legitimate business. This meant not just being financially savvy and entrepreneurial, but also meant ... not just offing people for saying the wrong thing. The problem though is that as her business grew, she acquired enemies: the "traditional" lords of the criminal underworld who weren't interested in learning her rules. They were perfectly content to try to force her to play by theirs. And little by little she was indeed forced to do just that. In the first few episodes of the season she burns an entire fledgling business to the ground--and a significant new business relationship--because she can't stomach the sex trade aspect of the cartel world. But by just a few episodes later, she's using a wedding party as a personal shield because she refuses to clear out of Phoenix where her enemies are trying to get rid of her. And by the end, in her most shocking queenpin-like move yet, she's ordering the execution of someone she loved but who hurt her.
At the beginning of the season, in other words, she's willing to risk her life in order to do the morally right thing. In the middle, she's willing to accept some moral compromises in order to survive. But by the end, she's willing to enforce those moral compromises as a matter of principle. Ouch. And it all happens because of trauma. Every step of her hardening seems to come about as a direct reaction to some new terrible thing. Devon coming for her. Camila coming for her. Guero dying. The explosion and her near death in Bolivia. Someone in her inner circle betraying her. Cortez coming for her. And then... James leaving. Again: poor woman.
The show didn't linger enough, in my opinion, on her decision to order Kelly Anne to be killed. That ought to have been a huge decision she would've agonized over, and she ought to have suffered over it on-screen more than she did, precisely because it would have made this arc clearer. The fact that we don't see her think about it at all after it happens makes it seem as if she moved on from it rather quickly. Maybe that's the point--the fact she can move on from it quickly means she's already hardened--but still I think it could've been made more obvious to the viewers that it was a shocking choice, perhaps by having her talk to James about it.
...which brings me to Jeresa.
Jeresa
James and Teresa's relationship was this season really the only way we had any access to Teresa's inner emotional world. She has moments with Pote, but It's in her conversations with James that we hear her actually talk about herself in a real way--both her visions for the business and her thoughts and feelings about her emotional landscape. (It's exactly this hole that James leaves in season 4). I really feel like I've kind of talked to death about their dynamics this season in my individual episode metas already so I'm struggling to summarize coherently. But obviously a lot in this season is magic for them. They are finally separated from Camila and so their relationship actually has space to blossom. They get to know each other better, live together, learn each other's rhythms and see each other's soft sides. James learns to navigate his personal feelings in the context of her being his boss; Teresa learns to trust him and lean on him in more ways than one.
But through both of these things is a more somber undercurrent because while James obviously loves and respects her deeply, he also still missteps in ways that send her trust issues flaring (pushing back too much or too aggressively; smothering her a bit in his efforts to "protect" her; and never really being able to apologize for the ways he might've misstepped--like locking her in the closet, say, or giving her a tracking device in Tony's gameboy!). And while Teresa obviously goes a long way towards trusting him and letting him in emotionally (which, it's no accident that the breakthrough moment for them comes when James is showing her real vulnerability, something that is so palpable that it's impossible not to trust it and her empathy and love come pouring out then), she can't quiet the voices of doubt fully, leading to the heartbreak towards the end of the season. And this heartbreak, for her, will be another clear step towards becoming Queenpin.
There are so many other elements to their relationship that are interesting this season, like the fact Teresa is finally articulating the lessons James was trying to teach her back in season 1 at the same time as it was his own clinging to her lessons from season 1 that resulted in his own transformation before season 3. "You told me there was no good or bad in this business, right?" she says to try to comfort him. But he doesn't believe that anymore, just when she has started to need to believe it. Or, the fact of his departure, after he'd spent all season trying to get her to believe that he wouldn't leave her, being yet another reason for her to believe everyone will die or abandon her, setting her out further on the path towards becoming Queenpin, even while the very essence of his departure is about staying. But this is so long and I am so tired and I have written about all of those things in earlier episode metas and in reblog recap tags. So I'm going to stop.
Coming up next...
Is season 4. I am not going to do individual episode metas for season 4, and there are far fewer gifsets for each episode than there were in season 3 (there are a bunch for the first two episodes but it starts to taper off). So my hope is to get through this season preeeetty quickly. will do a recap of a few episodes at a time just to talk about important themes. Aaaaand I m going to continue to reblog Jeresa and James gifsets throughout the s4 rewatch, just because this is my blog and I can do what I want, and I don't want a James-less couple weeks here lol. Anyway, just letting y'all know who've been following along that we're going to scoot right along so we won't suffer too badly 😂 Season 4 has some merits and positives, so definitely want to celebrate those, but my Jeresa-possessed soul will also need some moral support to get through it.
#queen of the south#qots#qots s3#2021 rewatch#txt post#qots meta#season 3 retrospective#episode rankings#OH I also just wanted to talk about Camila for a sec#and how she kept drawing parallels between herself and Teresa#and how even the queenpin season opener ('the end justifies the means')#seems to reinforce this idea that we're meant to understand Teresa as becoming more Camila-like in her ways#but I don't really see it#I mean it still seems to me like everything she does is antithetical to Camila#the end *doesn't* just justify the means for her and it never has#and she doesn't just have 'her people' do her dirty work for her#she is in the dirt with them as often as she can be#with all the physical scars to show for it#anyway Camila is delusional#and hopefully off living like a hermit crab somewhere in the desert
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Queen of the South : Teresa and James journey
1x02: James try to save her from the dissipation of the drugs.
1x03: Warning from James that she may not be able to get out. James doesn’t want to end up in jail. Teresa replied: “If I know too much I’m indispensable. If I know too little I’m disposable.” Also, James vouch for her and takes responsabillity for her.
1x04: James told her that he will not be killed by crossfire made for her. White Bentley.
1x05: James shown as a sniper, “learn you cannot run away from that.”
1x06: Cave allegory Plato, Teresa saved James from the cave the time she could see.
1x08: block market James.
1x09: Teresa saved a witness, “it’s never gonna end.”
2x01: Choose between survival and your heart. King George saying that James has debs on Teresa. Also, their first hug.
2x02: First meeting with Kelly Anne. Sniper James. Teresa said that James is a good person, we are n together in this business.
2x03: We learn that James had combat first-aid training and he was ex-military. He saved Teresa from a scorpion bite. Teresa is mentioned as his “piece of ass”. Teresa is not leaving James behind. James told her “play hard to get” and put a hand on her shoulder.
2x04: James will do anything to protect them.
2x05: Bolivia. Guerro telling Teresa, “I know the way he looks at you.” James and Fireworks.
2x06: Bolivia. “Mayocoyotzin” = she who creates herself. “Good Death”, you had to die to be reborn into my family. We learned that James was in Afghanistan. Second hug and they shared a kiss. Guerro told James that he kept her alive.
2x08: Sunglasses break code. James told her it’s not the moment to play hard to get. “Life doesn’t care about what you want. We don’t get to choose.” Marbella? Teresa saved James.
2x10: King George compare Pote to Chewbacca's the single greatest wingman in the universe.
2x11: James saying to Teresa “I’ll protect you & take care of yourself.”
2x12: James doesn’t kill her.
2x13: To live is to die and to die is to begin again. James saying to Guerro that he never missed a target from this distance in his life and he would never hurt her like he did.”
3x01: James saved Teresa in Malta.
3x02: James saved Teresa in Malta a second time, “I was protecting you. You are only alive because of me. Since the first day we meet I’ve been trying to keep you alive”. Conversation about trust.
3x03: Intention with Teresa are good said to Pote. James saved her from a bullet again.
3x04: Doing business together.
3x05: “I will be ready if they come from you” (by James). “You’re still her that’s something” (by Teresa). She saved him. We are in this together. I don’t deserve that. Everyone deserves that. James referred as “Romeo”. First time they sleep together.
3x06: James goest to Mexico to save Teresa.
3x07: Protect us.
3x08: Teresa saying “I know that you are worried about me, but I’m ok. I don’t regret sleeping with you.” She saved James again. Respect goes both way. Teresa asking Pote what he think about James? “He will die for you.”
3x09: We will do it together. Phoenix is theirs. Second time they sleep together.
3x10: Come back to us. There is James and fireworks. El Santos and his baby?
3x11: “If I mean something to you, you will show up.” Doubting my loyalty.
3x12: I will not be there after. He’s leaving. I don’t want to lose you.
3x13: I have to go. It’s been a hell of a ride. I’m gonna miss you. I’ll see you around. You take are of her to Pote.
Waiting for season 5 to stream on Netflx.
#queen of the south#qots#qots season 3#teresa mendoza#teresa and james#jeresa#relationship#love story#teresa x james#james valdez
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everyone deserves that... - 3x05
you deserve that... - 5x02
#jeresa#james valdez#queen of the south#qots#teresa mendoza#peter gadiot#qots season 3#qots season 5
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♛ QUEEN OF THE SOUTH ♛
#queen of the south#qots#qotsedit#jeresa#teresa mendoza#james valdez#*myqots#*myedits#*qotsrm#qots season 3#qots s3 e3#qots s3 e9#guns cw
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Teresa Mendoza: first and last appearances (Seasons 1-4)
#queen of the south#qots#qotsedit#teresa mendoza#alice braga#girl has come a long way since the pilot#and i'm feeling that sweet s1 nostalgia#teresa in flannel will always be my fave <3#time for a rewatch?#qots season 1#qots season 2#qots season 3#qots season 4#mine
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#my FAVORITE badass quote from season 3#teresa mendoza#Queen of the South#qots#jeresa#qots season 3#qotsedit
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Martha Higareda as Castel in season 3 of Queen Of The South
#marthahigaredaedit#qotsgifs#qotsedit#qots season 3#**mine#i love her so much can u tell#love my fierce queen
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Pote : I know you're lying about your car Teresa
Teresa internally:Play dumb!
Teresa out loud: Who's Teresa?
Teresa internally: not that dumb!
#qots incorrect quotes#qots season 3#qots s3#qots s2#qots#pote#teresa mendoza#teresa#queen of the south#queen of the south incorrect quotes#qots crack#source: spiderman into the spiderverse#*
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I’ve followed the fan meltdown all week.... and I just can’t relate... I’ve done an infinite amount of rewatches to see where it’s all coming from, and honestly I still don’t get it...
I loved it... All of it!
It brought all storylines together. Explained and followed through on so much of what was being set up throughout the season, while also reset the board for S4.
Even the James/Teresa separation I’m good with. The way it built up? The intentions behind it (by both the characters in show and the writers)? All of it pure love (by both the characters in show and the writers)... and none of it out of the blue... which is the only thing that would have bothered me. It all makes sense for these people in this story.
And so, I’m happy...
I guess it’s a couple of things that make me OK with the whole thing.
I’m not stressing about a S4. I’ve been following the ratings all season, not only for QotS, but of USA’s summer shows in general. And considering how Colony and Shooter were doing in comparison to how Queen of the South performed? A cancellation makes zero sense.
It might just be the writer in me, but frankly as an audience member as long as I don’t feel I’m being dicked around for the sake of being stringed along, I don’t mind conflict. And this is what makes this show great: Obstacles thrown in the characters’ way aren’t contrived and just there for the sake of the “drama”. It’s all carefully constructed to lead up to something. And in that regard the show absolutely kept up its end of the bargain, so I’m good.
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This is the response of one of the writers and it kinda gives me hope for jeresa😍😍
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Beautiful boy.
I would like to thank whoever decided to put James in a hoodie. You are doing God's work.
#queen of the south#qots#qots season 3#qots spoilers#james valdez#jeresa#peter gadiot#actual puppy#Sinnamon roll
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QOTS Rewatch - 5x09 - A Prueba de Balas
I cannot believe this is my second-to-last episode debrief for this rewatch. This whole thing has taken way longer than I initially planned but also I'm not even ready for it to end! WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY LIFE NOW??? Who'm I kidding, I'll keep rewatching and keep writing fics and keep digging up QOTS gifsets to reblog that I haven't reblogged yet. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, I just have a few thoughts to share about this beautiful episode beyond what I wrote last year after it aired live. When I first watched this episode I had no idea what to make of it; I was so annoyed by all the Kote and trying not to be nervous about the finale and wanting more out of the Jeresa. In some ways, it hasn't improved on rewatch, but in many ways, it totally has. I love this episode on rewatch (it is WAY less stressful knowing it all works out in the end!).
My debrief last year said that some of the things I was annoyed by in this episode -- the prolonged Kote scenes and lack of actual Jeresa conversations -- might be redeemed by the finale. In essentials, that didn't end up happening in the way I imagined at the time. I essentially thought that if (1) Pote ended up dying (or Kote in some other way had a plot twist or didn't get a happy ending) and (2) James and Teresa were revealed to have been plotting a fake death escape all along (or at least for a while), that it would satisfyingly explain both the extended Kote and the lack of Jeresa in 5x09 (and to a certain extent earlier episodes as well).
This only sorta happened, and yet, in my opinion, 5x09 aged surprisingly well. Obviously Kote did get a happy ending and there's a part of me that is still 😒 about it because their story never resonated with me as you all well know. And yes, their scenes in 5x09 are too long. But from a writing perspective, I sorta get it in hindsight; for the fanbase (apparently sizable) that DID love Pote and Kote, planting them in the suburbs and showing Pote adjusting was part of what made their happily ever after feel believable I guess. So even though their relationship does absolutely nothing for me and even though I feel profoundly irritated at how stupid and sexist they ended up writing Pote to be, I on a rational level get that writing.
But other than Kote, I honestly love 5x09's Jeresa scenes. No, we did not get a plot-twist reveal in the finale that ended up showing us substantive flashbacks to Teresa and James working out their plan. That is a disappointment for sure (one that I'm sure I'll discuss in the finale's rewatch posts lol). But we do get a lot of Jeresa in this episode and LOOK AT THEMMM. They are tethered to each other by an invisible elastic thread and literally everything about them in every scene together screams how inseparable they are, how ridiculously in love with each other they are, both of them, and how deeply they rely on each other. Completely openly now. Even before the kiss and the I love yous.
It's so freaking soft and beautiful even though most of their scenes are them working together. The thing is that them working together in synchronicity is where they began and so it's a fitting way to show them together as they near the end, too. It's also important to see how their working relationship is changed now. It's not the hierarchy of seasons 1 and 2 in which Teresa essentially reported to James (well, at least until the end of season 2). It's not the hierarchy of seasons 3 and 5 either, in which James reported to Teresa. Nothing has explicitly changed, but it's abundantly obvious in this episode that they are working together now. Teresa's the leader of the cartel but James is her partner. He may not be co-owner of the business or anything like that but he's not working for her. They are very clearly deciding things together now. She consults with him; he refers to her. There is no longer any kind of hierarchy. Just a very clear mutual respect.
So I don't know. Sure, I would love dialogue between them like we had during the earlier seasons that lasts longer than 30 seconds but it feels like part of the point now is that there is almost too much to say, and yet none of it really needs saying. It'll be said eventually. But how could the show have possibly done justice to the years of feelings they're finally coming around to in a scene of dialogue? It's really hard to imagine. Trust me, I know, because I tried to write the extended scenes fan fic for this episode and the next, and it was HARD. I would've loved to have seen something like what I ended up writing on screen, to be sure, but would it have really felt like it belonged in the penultimate QOTS episode? I don't know. I really don't.
The one thing I do wish is that the balcony scene had had some more dialogue before Teresa kissed James. That scene did feel jarring in how fast it moved after a drawn-out Kote scene about putting together a crib in suburbia. But the juxtaposition to me also in some ways works because it really elevates Teresa and James. If I'm being honest, the episodes in which I really wanted to see more Jeresa conversations were 3 and 4, maybe even 5 or 6 -- but not these later ones. I think their scenes, unspoken feelings filling in all the empty space around them no matter where they are and what they're doing, are completely perfect. I really do. Which isn't to say I wouldn't have loved to see more of their emotional processing but that, I don't know, I'm not sure this is really the show that was ever going to do that. Most of their best conversations historically have been of the angsty processing variety.
So, well, I'll just fast-forward the Kote scenes when I watch this again and I'll be happy. Their love scene, MY GODS, it is incredible. Would I like a scene where James pushes Teresa against a wall and takes charge? Um, yes. Does that supercede the absolute joy I get from their blissful we-might-die-tomorrow-so-what-the-hell soft and sweet sex? No, it doesn't. Their softness with each other is absolutely to die for. I don't think I'll ever recover from it.
So, that concludes my thoughts on 5x09. On to the finale. I can't believe I made it. The end is near 🥺
#qots s5#5x09#2021 rewatch#txt post#qots reaction post#qots meta#I made the point in my original live debrief that Teresa not only didn't have substantive conversations with James#but she also didn't have substantive conversations with ANY other character#so with that in mind it seems clear to me the writers weren't trying to avoid Jeresa#they just decided that moving Teresa in the queenpin direction meant closing her off to other characters#and even though this episode is the final turnaround--she's arriving as queenpin in some ways (her killing Kostya is THE ultimate#queenpin moment) but is also abandoning queenpin once and for all--#it's easy for me to understand how she is still at a loss for words now with her world falling down around her#but her body language and eyes tell us everything we want to know about where she's at and what she's feeling#so thank you Alice for that
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Queen of the South: unanswered questions
- What happened to Ivan, the tech guy?
- Teresa learn to pilote a airplane for nothing?
- What happened to El Santos and his baby after 3x10?
#queen of the south#qots#questions#tv-show#queen of the south season 3#qots season 3#el santos#teresa mendoza
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“And everything's blurry but you
And all that I'm in
Are the parts of my skin touching yours...”
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QOTS Rewatch S3 Recap
Six months (and *cough* 25,000 words of tag commentary) later my rewatch is complete...just in time for Season 4 to start! As always, my episode to episode commentary can be found in my #qots rewatch tag. The rest of my S3 rewatch recap can be found under the cut.
Let’s start with the rewatch traditional--
It’s Been 0 Days Since Jeresa Saved One Another Fandom Break Room Sign:
3x01-3x02: James saves Teresa by swooping to her rescue in Malta
3x02: Teresa saves James by turning on the lights to distract the sicarios searching her car while James is in the trunk. James saves Teresa by jumping through a f-u-c-k-i-n-g window and tackling the sicario. Teresa saves James by shooting the sicario attacking James. Teresa attempts to save James by begging the police to let him go and just take her instead.
3x03: James saves Teresa by shooting Rocco’s man at the bank.
3x04: They both attempt to save the other by volunteering to stay with Mayo. James saves Teresa by sniper shooting the sheriff.
3x05: James attempts to save Teresa by surrendering to Devon. Teresa saves James by risking her life and going for the guns rather than letting Devon take him.
3x06: James saves Teresa by rescuing her and Guero in Mexico.
3x07: James (and Pote) save Teresa from Pecas’ assassin at the winery.
3x08: Teresa saves James by tackling him when he runs toward the about to explode van.
3x13: Gonna go ahead and give James an honorary one for his departure in the finale.
SEASON THREE TALLY: James saves Teresa: 7; Teresa saves James: 4 (and one could argue on an existential level, which is immeasurable really? lol). But the discrepancy does make sense: for the first time, S3 has James’ official job description include saving Teresa. Protecting her isn’t just a hobby anymore it’s a profession ;)
One Thing I Wished I’d Kept Track of on Rewatch: All the times Teresa has said,”I want to make a deal” or the like because she says it a LOT. I love that for Teresa conflict avoidance is fair and logical business dealings.
S3 Reoccurring Trends:
Teresa’s Explosive Season: 3x01 Teresa survives the flash bomb in the Malta Cafe; 3x10 Teresa survives Devon bombing El Santo’s compound; 3x13 Teresa survives Cortez’s bomb in the shipment.
James and Teresa in Police Custody: (Or the one of these things is not like the other): 3x02 we got the classic Top Ten Places to Do Time Jeresa convo in the back of a police car before they both ultimately walk away free; 3x04 Teresa and James are picked up by Mayo and driven to the middle of nowhere together before Teresa is taken away but both eventually walk away free; 3x13 James...rides off into the night in Devon’s custody. Ouch. Let’s hope the “eventually walks away free” is implied.
Teresa’s Cartel Extraction Plan: 3x05 she offers Kelly Anne money and papers for a new life after the Devon winery confrontation; 3x11 Teresa gives Lil T a bag full of cash and her walking papers; 3x13 Teresa sets up a five year exit plan for Taza; 3x13 Teresa doesn’t try to stop James from leaving once he says it is what he wants. Hope her own extraction plan is in the works, the opening scene 1x01 perhaps?
James Digging His Own Graves: 3x04 James is left by Mayo on the side of the road with a dead reporter and shovel; 3x06 James and Pote bury Guero; 3x11 James presumably buries Kelly Anne; Does turning himself into Devon at the end count? Gotta say I was concerned when the isolated meeting place was shot the same as the roadside meet with Mayo.
And of course The Jeresa Trust Carousel: round and round it goes. IMO James entered the season knowing HIS feelings for Teresa and where he stood. This season was Teresa’s journey of trusting James, to admittedly mixed results. You can read my meta about that here, here, here, here, here and here. As we know, James exited said carousel at the end of S3. It’ll be interesting to see what strides Teresa takes trust-wise while they are apart and if that ever results in a second try at a different trust capability level later on in the show?
Related: Things That Make You Go Hmmm... James has saved someone by NOT killing them for Teresa every season. In season one he spared the maid, in season two he spared Guero and in season three he...shot and killed Kelly Anne? OR DID HE. Guess we’ll find out soon!
Miscellaneous Observations and Oh, What Could Have Been:
Still bummed we didn’t get Teresa, James and Camila all in the same conversation together having to quickstep a competing loyalties line dance at least ONCE. Kinda would have liked to see how well James could do-si-do that situation, or at least have to try?
I wish we had gotten some Kelly Anne and King George hijinks–can you imagine the chaotic good energy of THOSE two on a mission together? Or, you know, at least sharing a scene?
If the show refuses to give James any backstory how about giving the guy an El Santo hallucination and see what shakes loose? I’m not picky.
While I’m excited to see what Javier will bring to the story, I couldn’t help but notice that S3 had Teresa losing two female friendships/connections (Kellly Anne and Lil T) and adding two male (Javier and Boaz). All of the S4 promos have been focused on Teresa and....a bunch of dudes. And that can’t be right, RIGHT SHOW?! RIGHT?!
AND MOST OF ALL...THANK YOU
And finally I’d just like to thank everyone who has been along for the rewatch ride with me: all the wonderful gif makers, those who liked & reblogged, those who sent asks or messages. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you all during this long hiatus. It wouldn’t have been the same without you! I’m grateful for you all and the friendships I’ve made since S3. Thank you so much for welcoming me into the fandom! Here’s to a wonderful S4!!
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James searching his room in 3x11 (requested)
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