‘Queen of the South’ Season 5: Teresa Mendoza Will Finally Wear the White Suit in This Episode
The TV show Queen of the South began with the powerful image of Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga) wearing an all white Alexander McQueen suit. That was a flash-forward. The present-day scenes showed Teresa struggling to escape Mexico and becoming the leader of her own drug cartel. Every season begins with another look at the white-suited Queen of the South, Season 5 included.
Queen of the South co-showrunner Benjamin Lobato spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about Queen of the South Season 5. He promised there was an episode this season where Teresa will finally catch up with the McQueen suit. Queen of the South airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on USA.
‘Queen of the South’ Season 5 fulfills its title for Teresa Mendoza
Lobato knows you’ve been waiting for it, and you’ve been patient. Season 5 is when Teresa Mendoza becomes Queen of the South.
“That’s kind of the hook,” Lobato said. “So coming into season 5, Teresa becomes the queen, the queen in white that we’ve been teasing for four seasons. This had to happen in a way that made sense. She had to embrace that kind of, I would say, darker side of this world and the business in order to become that all powerful cunning queen in white. So that’s been part of the arc we’ve been taking the audience on for the last four seasons to get to this point now.”
The ‘Queen of the South’ Season 5 episode where it happens
Lobato got specific about when exactly Teresa becomes the queen. You won’t have to wait until the series finale either.
“It will happen before then,” Lobato said. “It’s episode seven where there’s a little bit of a coming out party that happens. She appears in her full white suit for the first time which is the suit that we saw in the pilot and the suit that we saw several times in season 1 maybe, the McQueen suit, the white McQueen suit which is gorgeous.”
This already happened before the white suit
Another inevitable aspect of becoming Queen of the South is that Teresa would ultimately get high on her own supply. We’ve seen her using already.
That’s something that was set up in the pilot. Before she gets shot in the opening of the pilot, we see her using. So we knew we had to bring her back to that but at the same time, because Teresa has now essentially said no to her better angels and is now embracing the cartel life in a way that she hasn’t in the past with its unapologetic brutality, it feels like it makes sense that she would now begin to [do drugs]. I don’t want to say it’s crutch. We’re very specific, we don’t want to show her on some drug spiralling out but it’s her way of medicating and to quiet those angels inside of her that are telling her this is not the path and yet she feels in her heart it is because this is the way she believes she needs to survive.
Benjamin Lobato, interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 4/15/21
