NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Griselda episode 5, "Paradise Lost."
Griselda (Sofía Vergara) is at the height of her success in the underworld and a target of CENTAC, the joint task force created to stop her. As she tries to keep the group at bay, she becomes increasingly paranoid which leads her to make some horrific decisions. In the process, she alienates the people she trusts most.
Here are the highlights of Griselda episode 5.
Griselda cleans house
It’s three years after The Ochoas and Griselda made a deal, and she’s high on the proverbial hog as she’s incredibly wealthy and powerful. Griselda is also literally high on her own supply at a nightclub where she parties with Dario (Alberto Guerra), Carmen (Vanessa Ferlito) and Rivi (Martín Rodríguez), who has become her trusted advisor, much to Dario’s dismay.
Rafa (Camilo Jiménez Varón) approaches Griselda and introduces her to John Roberts (Jeffrey Vincent Parise), a guy who has been brought in to help with The Ochoas supply side of this drug operation. He’s also a friend of Fabio Ochoa (Christian Gnecco Quintero). John tries selling himself but Griselda instantly dislikes him.
Later in Griselda’s office, Rivi and the drug lord talk business as a concerned Dario looks on. Rivi convinces his boss that there’s a leak in the organization feeding law enforcement information. Griselda and Rivi agree they should clean house and eliminate people they have their suspicions about. Dario tries to caution against the idea, but Griselda is unmoved. When Griselda sits in a beauty saloon, Rivi, Chucho (Fredy Yate) and another associate go around town killing Griselda’s own employees.
CENTAC finally gets a win but at a cost
June (Juliana Aidén Martinez) and Diaz (Gabriel Sloyer) sit before Congress, begging for more funding to go after Griselda. Unfortunately, it’s not clear when or even if they’ll get any more resources right away, which is a blow to the CENTAC team.
CENTAC receives some more bad news when Captain Sweetwater (Michael Reilly Burke) informs Diaz that internal affairs received a tip that Diaz was scraping money from one of the seizures CENTAC conducted and the funds were found in his bank account. Furthermore, this information has been leaked to the press.
When Diaz recaps this development for June, she becomes furious knowing that Griselda framed him so he’s removed from the head of the team. Diaz suspects it’s Griselda too, but to avoid the possibility of being thoroughly investigated which could land him in prison, he decides to take a reassignment to another department. When he leaves, June and new face, Al Singleton (Carter MacIntyre), take over CENTAC.
Using the information the department has, a motivated June correctly guesses that the recent murders of Griselda’s employees are reflective of the queenpin cleaning house. The officer further deduces that Griselda now believes her informant problem has been solved after the recent killings. This leads June to plan a raid on Griselda’s Fort Lauderdale stash house. June has a hunch the raid will make Griselda think she still has a leak in her organization and cause La Madrina to do something foolish that CENTAC can arrest her for.
After the raid is conducted, CENTAC does get a surprising witness to come forward to testify against Griselda for her drug crimes, but the raid also results in a two-year-old child being murdered.
A drug-fueled birthday party leaves no one celebrating
Dario’s birthday party is a star-studded affair of the underworld, flowing with alcohol and cocaine. Sadly for Griselda, she overindulges on the drugs and spirals out of complete control, especially when she hears her Fort Lauderdale stash house has been hit. This would leave her in no mood to deal with uninvited guest, John Roberts.
Once she spots him at the party, she tells Dario and Rivi that she questions whether John is an informant for the police and proposes taking him out. When Rivi points out that John is Fabio’s guy, she’s not opposed to killing John, Rafa and Fabio. Dario quickly shoots down her idea.
Then after her son Dixon (Orlando Pineda), who is also high, starts a fight in the middle of the party before leaving, Griselda hears John make the crack, "This whole family’s a six-car f*cking pileup." She wants to deal with him right then and there but is again calmed down while Dario’s birthday cake is brought out.
Dario eventually takes Griselda to the side and tries to talk some sense into her. He points out that she uses too many drugs, is listening to Rivi more than she should and is killing innocent people for nothing. He wants to move away with her and the boys and start over somewhere else. She rejects his idea and refuses to leave while she’s on top of the Miami drug game.
As the party rages on, elsewhere, Carmen returns home from the festivities and is greeted by June. The detective shares that the stash house her team raided had a leasing contract with the name of the company the house was rented to, and it’s Carmen’s. June says she has enough to get a warrant, but came to Carmen hoping she’d take a deal to squeal on Griselda. Carmen rejects the proposal.
Also away from the party, Dixon goes to a nightclub with his girlfriend and fires a gun in the air after seeing another guy get handsy with her. When Dixon and his girlfriend flee, Dixon goes to Chucho’s home and asks for help cleaning up this mess. Chucho isn’t receptive to aid him because his wife and baby are in the house. After Dixon becomes disrespectful and insists Chucho help, Chucho decks him in the face instead. Of course, Dixon would eventually go on to tell Griselda, and she winds up ordering Rivi to kill her very first foot soldier.
As the party continues, things go from bad to worse. Griselda goes to apologize to Dario but finds him with her assistant Estela (Aurora Cossio) looking at family photos. Although the two were doing nothing wrong, Griselda takes exception and grabs the gun she gifted Dario and chases after Estela. Estela manages to get in her car and dash off, but Griselda then turns to Dario’s empty car and shoots it up.
With the gun still in hand, she finds John and makes him strip naked in front of the remaining party guests. She then makes him get on all fours and bark like a dog. Carmen shows up and calms down the situation this time and takes Griselda inside to regroup.
Carmen soon regrets the decision to return to the party, because after she tells Griselda about her visit from June, Griselda becomes irate and tries to choke her death believing she’s an informant.
Griselda’s big regret
It’s the next day and a now sober Griselda has to deal with the consequences of her actions from the party. Mainly, she has to deal with the aftermath of the hit she put out on Chucho. When Rivi attempts to carry out the order, he locates Chucho riding around Miami and opens fire. Unfortunately, he doesn’t kill Chucho, but his two-year-old son in the backseat. When Griselda hears word of this, she’s devastated.
Now what Griselda doesn’t know in the midst of her devastation is that Carmen has decided to take June up on her offer and turn on her longtime friend.
All episodes of Griselda are now streaming on Netflix.
