From Dusk Till Dawn: Bondage Recap

Synopsis for 2×05: The Gecko brothers finally call a truce and work together to find Malvado’s headquarters; Carlos, unhinged from the Labyrinth, abducts Santanico and claims her for himself..

Rating: ★★★★☆

The Gecko brothers ride again! Albeit not exactly 100% willing, but damn is it good to see Seth and Richie on the same side, complete with bickering, pop culture references, and calling each other brother at every turn. As enjoyable as the season has been so far, it just hasn’t been the same without the brothers causing mayhem together.

With the obvious changes that have happened since Richie had his change and the Geckos separated, the truce is a fragile one. Richie begins to have visions of Santanico and is more inclined to get the mission done to find her than anything else. Meanwhile, Seth’s realization of the prosperity of the set up the culebras have is similar to Richie’s a few episodes ago. He doesn’t seem keen on bringing down the operation, rather reaping the benefits.

There is some obvious distance between the two brothers, but they still manage to achieve their ultimate goal. After dealing with a crooked cop (“as crooked as a Picasso painting”), clearing out the transport vehicle of the kidnapped girls, and trailing the truck to the actual location of Malvado’s hideout, Jacknife Jeds, it seems even the haphazard plans of the Geckos are more successful together than apart. They arrive with Paloma and the other girls in tow, ready to face down.

 The Geckos are on the hunt, but they’ll have to do it without any help from Santanico. After being shot by Carlos in the head, we next see her chained up in a freezer, nearly naked, being slowly tortured by Carlos. The labyrinth has made him all kinds of mad, and he shares his visions from within the labyrinth with Santanico. They consisted almost completely of Santanico and Richie riding off into the proverbial sunset while he was left behind to age and wither away.

Given that Santanico has been the subject of his abuse for the past couple centuries while also being used by Malvado, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for Carlos’s creepy nightmares. Sorry that you got rejected by the girl you’ve been systematically breaking down and brainwashing, even that couldn’t keep you by your side.

 

But despite his guilting and torturing, Santanico still manages to escape from his clutches after kicking his ass and taking off just as The Regulator busts in. She manages to get the upper hand against The Regulator, and flies off before she is forced to listen to any more of that culebra bull.

And of course, who can forget about the Fuller family drama that almost ended in Kate turning into a culebra herself. Freddie comes in just in time, but rather than spare any niceties, he goes straight to work in tying up and threatening Scott for any information he can get. The scene has less to do about what information Freddie can extract from Scott, and more to do with Kate and Scott’s proverbial nail in the coffin to their relationship.

Although the two have a heart-to-heart that seems to mend some of the broken bridges between the two, when Kate frees Scott from Freddie’s contraptions that force him not to move or else risk being staked, Scott not only escapes, he returns to the cabin where he killed Kate’s friend and massacres the rest of the teenagers before putting them up for show. Kate and Freddie come upon this betrayal, and this is definitely the last straw for Kate. She enlists Freddie’s help in training her to fight culebras, telling him that next time they meet she won’t be merciful.