Summary
Narco-Saints neatly wraps things up with an all-action high-stakes finale.
This recap of Narco-Saints season 1, episode 6 contains spoilers, including a full discussion of the Narco-Saints ending.
Narco-Saints hasn’t exactly been immune to cliches, but it opens its final episode with the biggest one yet — a nightmare dream sequence in which Ingu imagines himself being confronted by Pastor Jeon and his wife and children hanging from a tree. Grim, and a bit trite, but a reminder of the stakes, I suppose, even if we could have stood to see a little bit more of Ingu’s loved ones throughout the series to better relate to his plight.
Narco-Saints season 1, episode 6 recap
So, the end is nigh, folks. And like any finale worth its salt, this one takes its sweet time in raising the stakes as high as possible and letting the tension mount before anything actually happens.
What we’re waiting on is a joint NIS-DEA raid to capture Jeon alive and seize his drugs, with care being taken to preserve the lives of both Preacher and Ingu. These are straightforward objectives but there are a lot of potential moving parts, especially given that Jeon insists on Ingu remaining behind with him, leaving him directly in the firing line.
Ingu tries to use his time wisely by secretly working with Preacher to try and ensure Jeon remains on-site. Ingu tries to sabotage his car — paying off his mechanic skills, which I’m surprised haven’t come up before now — but he’s interrupted by Jeon’s security. Changho, meanwhile, once again playing the role of Sangman, meets with the Deacon to carry out the “deal”. Changho arrests Sangjun, and they discover the cocaine — in other words, they find smuggled drugs in the jurisdiction of the U.S., so it’s time to take Jeon down.
Despite the NIS managing to get Sangjun to say that everything is fine, Jeon still suspects something, and when the President calls to tell him that the DEA have entered Suriname airspace, the jig is up. Jeon and Ingu point guns at one another. The DEA spec ops team fast-rope in from helicopters. Preacher reveals himself as an agent. And then all Hell breaks loose.
In the initial scuffle, Jeon is able to flee as the DEA begins slicing through his men. Preacher takes a bullet to the leg, forcing him to lag behind a little and get into it with Jeon’s giant ex-prisoner bodyguard, Gallas. Even with a bullet in his leg, Preacher is able to kill him by wedging a broken shard of crockery into his neck.
Meanwhile, Jeon attempts to escape in a vehicle, and Ingu gives chase. The chase is pretty cool and about as action-packed as one could reasonably expect — we’re talking jeep-mounted turrets firing at helicopters here. Ingu is able to t-bone Jeon, deal with his last remaining goon with that judo throw he’s been spamming all season, and fight Jeon to something of a stalemate in and around the boat he’s trying to escape in. Eventually, Changho and the DEA arrive to take Jeon into custody, and the kingpin can’t help but laugh at just how many people have betrayed him at this point.
Narco-Saints ending
When everything dies down and everyone has a chance to take a breath, Ingu and Preacher warmly shake hands in the helicopter, and Ingu is thanked for his service by Changho. He returns to his family for a touching reunion, and six months later, Changho arrives at his auto shop to offer him two karaoke bars courtesy of the NIS. Ingu doesn’t take them, though. He only wants to work for himself now, and besides, too much responsibility would probably keep him away from home for too long.
That leaves him with very little, though, and since the NIS can never officially acknowledge working with him, he might never be cool to his children. But at least there’s an upside. When Changho gets to talking about having visited Jeon, he mentions that the kingpin described the signed baseball still in Ingu’s possession as “the only real thing he’s ever owned.” It must be worth a fortune, right?
You can stream Narco-Saints season 1, episode 6 exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on the Narco-Saints ending? Let us know in the comments.
