‘The Mosquito Coast’ Recap: ‘Calaca’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Six of ‘The Mosquito Coast’.
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The vast majority of us out there, understand precisely why it is a bad thing to lie. Simply because we’ve faced the consequences that come with dishonesty, and that put us on the right path… real quick. But sadly, there are plenty of other people out there, who disregard this lesson and lie with impunity because they firmly believe that somehow, someway, their lies will eventually pay off in dividends and/or become a reality and well… it’s best to call those people, downright delusional. Because lies always catch up with us and the harm they cause, always brings about an appropriate backlash and really, this is relevant to our discussion today, because this rough lesson is put on full display in the next episode of The Mosquito Coast on AppleTV+.
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For ‘Calaca’ sees all the lies that Allie Fox has told over the years, come back to haunt him. For while he and Margot were moved to a secure location by the mysterious kidnappers that snatched them up last week, his ‘daughter’ Dina, continued to dig into the big lies that he’s told. In fact, she was even motivated to contact Estelle and Don, the intrepid NSA agents that have been hot on the Fox family’s trail… in order to finally uncover the truth and well, according to Estelle, Dina was indeed ‘adopted’ by force, as was her brother and that awful revelation motivated her to ask these agents for help, an act that was going to bring about all kinds of trouble for Allie. Provided of course he managed to survive his encounter with the man that shares the namesake of this episode.

Because Calaca also wanted some answers and after Allie spent a better part of the day strapped down to a chair lying once again… this mysterious man was forced to resort to horrifying measures to finally get some kind of truth out of Allie. That kind that saw Margot be held at gunpoint and eventually fired upon… with blanks of course. Simply because Calaca believed that a man that was willing to stick to his answer under extreme duress, had to be telling the truth and now we know that it takes the potential death of a loved one to finally get it out of Allie, and his reward for being honest… was safe passage to Guatemala, but at what cost? For Margot had enough of these kinds of shenanigans and is clearly in a detached place in their relationship and there is a chance that the family might not even make it to their final destination.

After all, the NSA was waiting for Allie when he and Margot returned to the hotel, and Bill and his merry band of children spies knew where the family was hiding out as well. Leaving Allie in a stunned place as he watched the fruits of his lies come to fruition. For he lost the trust of his wife and daughter and now there was a chance that his family would die because of his desire to dabble into a world he didn’t understand and for lying to his family that they would be safe and that everything would be okay. But fate apparently shined down upon Allie and his family on this day, and perhaps gave him one final chance to set things right. Since William and the NSA agents duked it out in the hostel of the lobby with their guns, giving the family time to escape into the night in a stolen car.

In the end however, this was an oddly satisfying episode for certain. Simply because, at long last, Allie Fox (or Alec Finn) finally faced a reckoning for his lies and hopefully the horrors he faced here will finally motivate him to tell the truth going forward but even then… such a lesson might be too little, too late. For Margot is clearly done with being his pawn and his fixer and Dina is disillusioned because of the truth. Which means that everything might well fall apart for Allie’s big plans during next week’s season finale and well, everything that happened here should leave us counting down the minutes until said finale. Since the future of this family now stands on the brink of disaster in every way imaginable… all thanks to Allie’s ego and desire for deception. Until next time.      
 
‘The Mosquito Coast’ is streaming now on AppleTV+.

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