If you haven’t watched the final episode of Queen of the South, turn back now, this article contains spoilers for the finale of Queen of the South.
The American crime drama, Queen of the South, aired its last episode of Season 5, “A Prueba de Balas”, on June 9, 2021, becoming the show’s most enthralling and explosive season yet. The series premiered on June 23, 2016, on USA Network. The series centers around Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), a poor Mexican woman who becomes wealthy by building a vast drug empire. The new season came out to throw more challenges at Teresa Mendoza’s drug empire, but the drug queen managed to navigate them all well enough. That was until the ending of episode 9 in which Teresa gets shot by a sniper which left fans fearing for the end of the character ahead of episode 10.
Is Teresa Mendoza dead on Queen of the South? The second to last episode of the USA drama also had fans worried that the show would conclude with her passing.
Is Teresa Mendoza Dead?
In season 5, Teresa’s main concern is that Russian cartel leader Kostya (Pasha Lychnikoff) wants her dead. Teresa is also seen reconciling her romantic relationship with James (Peter Gadiot). Though he is recently been critical about Teresa’s approach to getting what she wants, The two cannot deny their feelings for each other and their long history.
As they are confessing their love for one another, James offers Teresa a gun with two bullets to use against Kostya. Instead, she manages to get rid of him by poisoning the rim of his tequila glass. A shooting breaks out once Kostya’s men realize that he is dead, but Teresa escapes. She expresses her desire to get “out of the business,” once and for all.
When it seems like finally, Teresa may get a happy ending hovering over the dangerous situations every time, she gets betrayed by James. James encounters Devon Finch (Jamie Hector) one last time after Teresa has fled to Belize. He’s been working with the CIA agent to try to protect Teresa where Devon requests that James complete one final mission before he can let him go.
“Teresa isn’t a threat,” James tells Devon. “She just wants to be left in peace.”
Devon says that Teresa can’t be left alone.
“You know what has to be done,” Devon ominously tells Teresa’s love.
From the very beginning, a flash-forward from Season 1 shows Teresa getting shot. The moment ends up happening in real-time in Season 5, “A Prueba de Balas,” and James is revealed to be the one who is behind the weapon. The shot appears to hit Teresa in the stomach, and the episode concludes with her falling to the floor with blood coming out of her mouth.
The series finale reveals that Teresa is alive
According to the season finale, it certainly seemed that Teresa was dead. She even got cremated and her ashes spread. Although until the end of the episode, when we fast forward three years, we learn the truth. Teresa wanted to get out of the business for that she hatched a plan.
Before moving to Beliza, along with her team she created this plot to deceive Devon, knowing the conditions that Devon has put on James. James was instructed by Devon to kill Teresa doing so he could spare her a much more painful death. What Devon did not know was that James’s betrayal was just a ruse that Teresa and Pote (Hemky Madera) were in on.
In the end, James, Pote, and Kelly Anne (Molly Burnett) returned to a safe house where Teresa had been hiding, and Pote tells her that there’s nothing she needs to worry about, and she is finally free. Teresa sees her old self disappearing and relieved for her new life as they all sit for a worry-free family dinner.
Teresa concluded by saying “That Teresa did die, but she wasn’t murdered by an enemy or a rival, she was killed by me, a money-changer from Culiacán who defied all odds to survive. And if either prison or death were my options, what do you know, I chose life.”
