Griselda recaps: All 6 episodes explained

Sofia Vergara stars as Griselda Blanco in Netflix's riveting crime drama series Griselda. The six-episode miniseries premiered on January 25, 2024 and follows Griselda as she leaves Colombia and travels to Miami, Florida with her young sons in the hopes of making a new home for herself. There, she slowly builds up her own powerful cocaine empire and becomes immersed in the dangerous drug trade.

Below we're recapping all six episodes of the Netflix Original series. Spoilers ahead!

Skip to an episode:

Griselda episode 1 recap: "The Lady Comes to Town"

The first episode of a show is always one of the best episodes, and this goes for Griselda too. When we first meet our titular character, she's shown huffing, puffing, and limping as she enters what looks to be the front door of her house. As she looks for the bathroom, she holds on to the side of her waist as if she's been injured. Once she arrives in the bathroom, she then pulls down her pants to reveal a gaping wound on her waist. She patches up the wound and then takes pain meds before staring into the mirror with a tiresome look. The Griselda title card then pops up on the screen.

A phone rings, and a sleeping woman named Carmen picks it up. Carmen is at her house in Miami, Florida. Griselda has called Carmen to ask for her help. Based on how Griselda talks to her, they've known each other for a while.

Griselda explains to Carmen that something happened between her and a man named Alberto and that she needs a favor. While we watch Griselda's side of the conversation, Griselda is shown packing things into a bag. She tells Carmen that she and her kids will be coming to Miami, so she needs a place to stay. Carmen doesn't get the chance to give Griselda her decision because Griselda thanks her and then hangs up the phone. Griselda will be arriving in Miami with her kids in the morning.

She gathers all three of her kids, who are boys, and they throw their bags in the car before leaving the house. We find out that they're leaving Medellín, Colombia, and it's the year 1978. As they make their way to the airport, we find out that Alberto is Griselda's husband. She tells her sons that she's getting a divorce from him. We know the names of two of her sons so far: Dixon and Ozzy.

Finally arriving in Miami, Griselda and her kids make their way to Carmen's house. Griselda tells Carmen that she'll only be staying until she gets on her feet and finds a place. Once Carmen leaves the room, Dixon asks Griselda how she knows Carmen. She explains to them that they met her before Colombia. She tells them that she and Alberto used to hang out with Carmen when they would go to New York.

The show then cuts to Griselda and Carmen having dinner at a restaurant, where we find out that Carmen was once married to a man named Reynaldo and now owns her own travel agency. Griselda tells Carmen that she looks up to her for divorcing Reynaldo, "coming out," and starting her own business. She tells her that she'd like to start a business of her own too, and that she's officially out of the drug business. This is when we find out what Griselda meant by "coming out." She and Carmen know each other from working in the drug business together. Carmen then offers Griselda a job at her travel agency to help get her on her feet.

Griselda arrives back at Carmen's house and looks in the closet for her bag. She opens the bag and takes out some drugs. Could this mean Griselda was lying to Carmen? Is she not done with the drug business? The next morning, Griselda sits at her desk at the travel agency, smoking a cigarette. She then calls a man named Arturo. Arturo is shown overseeing a bunch of workers as they make drugs. During their phone conversation, we find out that Arturo is an old friend of Griselda's back in Medellín. He was also her and Alberto's accountant in the drug business. Arturo informs Griselda that some people are looking for her, but it's unclear who those people are at the moment.

Griselda then tells Arturo that she escaped from Medellín with a kilo of cocaine and needs to sell it so that she can start a new life in Miami. Although Arturo disagrees with her plan, he knows he can't stop her. According to Griselda, there's a place called "The Mutiny" in Miami where all the drug activity happens. She plans to go there to sell the kilo.

Later that night, she arrives at The Mutiny and sets her sights on some men who seem to be the people she needs to be in contact with to get the kilo sold. She intentionally bumps into one of the guys to set her plan into motion. They sit down and have drinks, and Griselda offers the man some of her cocaine. She then talks her way into conversing with the man's boss, whom Griselda really wanted to talk to since she arrived at the club. We find out that the man Griselda was initially talking to was named Johnny and Johnny's boss is named Amilcar.

Griselda tries to convince Amilcar to buy her kilo of cocaine, but Amilcar doesn't take the bait because he doesn't see it as a good business move. He then tells her to leave his section in the club. As Griselda and Johnny leave the club, Johnny physically assaults her and takes her drugs. The show then cuts to a flashback of Griselda and Alberto arriving at Alberto's brother's house in Medellín. This flashback shows what led up to Griselda leaving Medellín.

In the flashback, Alberto tells Griselda they lost more drug shipments in New York and that his brother Fernando wants his money. Since they don't have the money, Alberto tells Griselda that in order to pay off their debt, she has to sleep with Fernando. Although Griselda doesn't want to do it, she ends up going through with it anyway. Then, we cut back to the present time, where Griselda finds Johnny, beats him with a baseball bat, and takes back her drugs. She also tells him to get her a meeting with a guy who could possibly buy her drugs.

Later that day, Johnny shows up at Griselda's job at the travel agency to tell her he set up the meeting for later that night. He also rats her out to Carmen about selling drugs. A furious Carmen tells Griselda she's fired and that she wants her out of her house by the end of the night. But Griselda manages to convince her to let her stay until the next day. Later, Griselda goes to a local diner and talks to one of the employees she befriended a few days before. She asks him to pretend to be her bodyguard for the night, to which he agrees.

Griselda and her pretend bodyguard show up at the meeting with the drug dealer. We find out that the drug dealer's name is Eddie. Griselda manages to convince Eddie to buy her drugs for $20,000, and they celebrate. But their celebration is cut short when a gunman enters the room and starts shooting. The gunman is revealed to be a member of Amilcar's crew. Another person in Amilcar's crew enters the room and steals Griselda's drugs, but he lets her go free. Everyone is killed inside the room but Griselda and her pretend bodyguard. Griselda takes her purse that's filled with the money and leaves the establishment.

The show then cuts back to the flashback after Griselda has slept with Fernando. She asks one of Fernando's men to drive her somewhere. He takes her to a bar, where she meets up with Alberto to tell him that she did what was asked. They argue, and Griselda tells Alberto that she's done with him and will be leaving. Alberto tells Griselda that she won't get far in life without him, and then Griselda shoots him in the face, killing him. She also shoots at one of Alberto's men, but he's able to shoot back, and a bullet pierces her side. This is how she got the injury we see at the beginning of the episode. Griselda gets in a car and drives away.

Back in the present time, Griselda returns to The Mutiny to meet with Amilcar. This time, she manages to get him to try some of her drugs. Although he likes them, Amilcar tells Griselda he doesn't need them because he already has a supplier. But Griselda tells him that now that he's taken over Eddie's territory, he's going to need a lot more drugs. She informs him of her previous experience in drug trafficking, saying that she moved cocaine from Medellín to New York for 10 years. In the end, Amilcar seemingly agrees to give Griselda a chance. He tells her that if she manages to bring in more drugs next month, he'll make her his supplier. They shake on it, and then Griselda walks away with a smile on her face.

Written by Crystal George