Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Pablo Escobar pursues a seat in Congress, using his popularity among poor voters and Valeria Vélez's support to present himself as a public benefactor. His lawyer Fernando Duque helps arrange a political opening. Gustavo worries that public office will endanger their business, but Pablo imagines the election as the beginning of a much larger political career and pushes ahead with the campaign.
Murphy and Peña seek the police photograph that can connect Pablo to an earlier drug arrest. People associated with the case are killed, forcing the investigators to protect the photographer and his negatives. Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla then displays Pablo's mugshot in Congress. The exposure destroys the respectable identity Pablo has been building, and Lara follows it with further public attacks on the traffickers' businesses.
Pablo resigns while claiming that Colombia's established politicians have shut out an ordinary man's representative. Lara refuses to be silenced and rejects Murphy's suggestion that American officials deserve credit for his decision to speak. Although he accepts a protective vest, he is killed before leaving for a diplomatic posting. Murphy confronts the cost of an investigation that helped expose a criminal but could not protect the man who challenged him. Pablo's attempted political ascent ends in retaliation against his opponent.