The ending of Bandidos has everything you’d expect from the genre – a sinister villain, a traitor, fabled treasures, and a last-minute death that might not stick. Episode 7, “The Treasure”, is a capable finale that brings the events of Season 1 to a close while leaving the door open for more, but it’s probably unlikely that the Netflix series will stand out enough to pull in the required viewership to justify that.
In the meantime, there’s plenty to unpack about the hunt for Aj Took’s treasure, so let’s do that here.
Bandidos Season 1 Ending Explained
Who killed Luis and stole the map?
Let us start with some wider context. The plot is kick-started in the first episode by the murder of Luis Fernández de Montejo and the theft of the map he had tattooed on his skin. This was carried out by a sinister villain with a burned face and a cane who is also contextualized in the very first episode.
In flashbacks, we see the genesis of this man’s hatred towards Miguel and his father, Juan. During an archaeological expedition, Juan had attempted to sabotage a private dig that had been trying to uncover an ancient Mayan artifact. In the process, he had set explosives around the site. When Juan was caught and questioned, Miguel created a distraction to save him by tossing a lighter toward a motorcycle leaking gas. This disfigured the villain who would resurface later to seek his revenge on Miguel and Juan.
Who is the real villain?
Burnt-Face Man was hired by Juan’s protégé Ariel, who wanted to steal the Kaan Balam for display in his museum. However, the cane-wielding baddie has such a lust for revenge that he shoots Ariel when he’s told to stand down. He also shoots Wilson, Miguel’s uncle, leading to his death.
However, it remains Ariel who is the real string-puller, having kidnapped Juan and orchestrated everything in his attempts to find the treasure.
Was there a traitor in the team?
Throughout Season 1 it emerges that there is a traitor amongst the group who drugged them all. Naturally, every character could feasibly be guilty, since they’re all dealing with personal problems that would motivate them in different ways – Wilson is dying of cancer and has amassed a big debt for treatment, Lili is being hunted by a very powerful group who want her dead, and so on, and so forth.
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The show runs with the idea that it is Lili who has been playing both sides. She’s the only one to walk away when the gang is trapped inside a cavern, and she meets with Ariel. She seems to be working with him, however this is all part of a longer con orchestrated by Miguel. When Ariel drops his guard, Lili drugs him, and the others get away.
Does Miguel find the treasure?
Aj Took was a Mayan ruler who discovered gold and spent his life amassing as much of it as possible, only to be buried with it. The fortune was lost to history and its centerpiece, a golden jaguar called the Kaan Balam, was never located.
Throughout the series, we learn that the treasure was looted by Spanish conquistadors Francisco de Montejo, Pedro de Alvarado, and Alonso de Alvarado, who locked it in a box that could only be opened by three stone lockets, which each of them possessed. However, this turns out not to have quite been the case. Francisco de Montejo, whose moon stone locket Miguel is already in possession of, planned to take all the treasure for himself. He ensured that his locket alone could open the box, and then he sailed off with it on his ship. However, it sank before reaching port.
Miguel is able to discover the location of the shipwreck and, thus, the treasure.
What happens to the Kaan Balam and the rest of the treasure?
Both Burnt-Face Man and Ariel show up in the nick of time for a final confrontation over the treasure. Ariel shoots and kills Burnt-Face Man. He offers the others a deal – he’ll keep the Kaan Balam and they can distribute the rest between them.
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Lili tries to make off with the Kaan Balam and is shockingly shot by Miguel, seemingly falling to her death. Ariel does indeed keep the jaguar statue, and the rest of the gold is liquidated and deposited as cash into the accounts of Miguel, Octavio, Ines, Lucas, and Citlali. They’re all financially better off, but was it worth the real price?
How does Bandidos Season 1 end? Is Lili dead?
Bandidos Season 1 ends by revealing that Lili isn’t really dead. To escape from her pursuers, she had schemed with Miguel to fake her death, and this is confirmed to have worked when we see a decoy body in the morgue convincing her enemies of her demise.
Wilson left Lili a fake passport before his death, so she is able to create a new identity while beginning a new life with Miguel, with whom she has resumed a romantic relationship. However, despite his recent personal losses and the profit made from the adventure, Miguel is already looking for his next target.
What did you think of Bandidos Season 1 Episode 7 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.
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