Summary
The line between cop and crook blurs more than ever in “Trapped” as Pedro finds himself in an even deeper hole than before.
Dom episode 7 opens with a revelation about Pedro that, perhaps more than his strained relationship with his father and bad influence friends, might explain why he has been so susceptible to reckless impulsivity and drug addiction – he has no sensitivity to pain. It’s a physical thing, but that detachment from reality works as a perfect metaphor for a drug addict and allows us to view Pedro through a new lens. When he meets up with Jasmin in “Trapped”, a year sober, and quickly relapses again, it’s somehow even more tragic.
This downward spiral is paralleled by Victor’s exploits in the ‘70s. He becomes disillusioned with the drug business after seeing so much death and trauma and steps away from it, but the pretense of the police force is merely an illusion. His justification that he’s working for them does little to assuage the concerns of his father, who finds his gun and case file and correctly prognosticates the impending ruination of his life. And once he completely gives himself over to the side of the “law”, hunting and killing dealers that eventually come to include Ribeiro, he sees the complicity of the authorities in all that has occurred.
This tees up Pedro’s present-day predicament rather nicely in Dom episode 7. Facing a long stint in jail after a police bust, Pedro is coerced by crooked officer Figueira into helping him rob houses; while reluctant, he establishes a reputation and some notoriety in the press, until at one point Victor recognizes a sketch of him on the front page of a newspaper. Figueira continues to lean on him, demanding more of the split, and forcing him into bigger, riskier jobs. He has no choice but to accept. And, in the midst of the robbery, he has no choice but to sacrifice one of his own in order to escape. How further can one man fall? How much more blurred can the moral line become? These are the big questions raised by Dom season 1, episode 7 ahead of the finale, and they’re certainly compelling ones. How this story ends – unless, I suppose, you’re familiar with the real-life case on which this is based – is anyone’s guess.
