It Starts On The Page: Read ‘Griselda’ E5 Script “Paradise Lost” By Doug Miro, Giovanna Sarquis & Ingrid Escajeda

‘Griselda’ is a tragedy. But there’s no singular tipping point where it all falls apart. Her story is a death by a thousand cuts. And the last cut happens here.

We always wanted the episode to be about her paranoia. A fear both true and imagined borne from the endless battles she’s fought to get to the top. As a woman in the drug business, Griselda’s adversaries are endless and part of her ‘flaw’ is inescapable, apparent the moment she enters a room. That wears you out eventually, seeps into how you see the world and elevates every fear. It’s also why we designed her ‘fall’ more as an unraveling. Even as she ‘rises’, she’s pulled apart at the seams — right up to Arturo’s death at the end of episode 4, a lasting wound which sets the stage for this.

The fact that this episode is a culmination of a long build- up led us to the idea which defined its structure — that it could take place on one night, around one event. There were many great party scenes on ‘Narcos’ but never an entire episode devoted to one. Here it made perfect sense. In real life, Griselda unraveled in an escalating series of parties which descended into drug fueled deviance (and did give Dario a golden gun!) More importantly, we felt her building fear would feel more claustrophobic and potent over a single night and in one location. Also the party, celebrating Dario’s birthday, seemed the perfect way to establish the joy of being on top, the warmth with her family and friends, only to become something uglier — a manifestation of the monster pursuing her, released here by her son’s behavior, spiraling suspicions of her rivals and, of course, that free base pipe. In the end, we see her consumed by the power she sought and the fear which drove her to seek it. Her last mistake, the final ‘cut’, is the most damning. The identity Griselda always claimed to cherish most was being a mother, and Johnny Chucho’s death undoes that facade while foreshadowing the price she’ll eventually pay for all she’s done.

Of course, there’s one other benefit of the party — it is a universal and visceral event which further roots our audience in Griselda’s shoes. Maybe you’ve been to a party that got a little out of hand? Where you woke up wondering ‘what the f happened?’ Ok, not quite like this! Still, the point is we all want to be at this party — until we really don’t. And that shift is how we hope to give the viewer a little taste of all the ‘careful what you wish for’ Griselda is eating.

So that’s how one episode built around one event came to be a singular, emotional and hopefully thrilling snapshot of Griselda’s journey. A celebration of her family and the mountain she’s climbed which becomes a wildly disconcerting drug fueled paranoid thriller.