ATF agent Jacob Vasquez begins undercover surveillance and befriends David Koresh.ATF agent Jacob Vasquez begins undercover surveillance and befriends David Koresh.ATF agent Jacob Vasquez begins undercover surveillance and befriends David Koresh.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Gary Noesner and Mitch Decker debate their difference in tactics, Decker questions whether Gary remembers what happened in Sperryville. The Sperryville case is the first one Noesner recounts in his memoir "Stalling for Time".
- GoofsEd Wiggins and his media liaison are taken by surprise when they see the "Sinful Messiah" article in the Waco Tribune-Herald. The ATF had actually been aware of the article and tried to stop its publication.
- Quotes
David Koresh: Say, we're having a little gathering here this evening. Love for you to join.
Jacob Vazquez: Tonight?
David Koresh: You bet.
Jacob Vazquez: Oh, man. Y'know, I... I got a long day ahead of me.
David Koresh: Well, we'd love to have you, and your friends, too.
Jacob Vazquez: Well, thanks again for the beer and the pizza. Really appreciate it.
David Koresh: All right. We'll see you around.
[as Jacob heads back into the house, David, Thibs, and Steve turn to leave]
David Koresh: You have a good day, now. One thing we know. Those guys are not ranchers.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (2018)
Rodriguez pretends to be a rancher when Koresh comes knocking and he invites Rodriguez to visit his church. Koresh knows he is a government agent of some kind and it is an opportunity for Rodriguez to snoop around the compound.
The more Rodriguez talks to Koresh, the more conflicted he becomes. Rodriguez sees the group as less of a threat.
However this series is showing in both Koresh and Special Agent Gary Noesner, how belief in institutions can easily be rocked.
Noesner is seeing the FBI becoming a militarized force. Negotiations are seen a way to lure people out in the open so they can be shot dead. Complaining about erratic colleagues is taboo.
Koresh needs to cover up his wrongdoing. He had a sex with a minor and fathered a child with her. Koresh has arranged for Michelle to be married off to newcomer Thibodeau in a sham wedding.
However Michelle tells one of Koresh's other wives she never had a choice as to who she slept with and whom she married. As a minor she was paired off to Koresh and no one raised an objection that she legally could not make an informed choice.
This episode wants to present a human face of David Koresh. He wants to turn Agent Rodriguez, he chides a child in a humorous way for eating ice cream on the sly. He even brushes aside child sex abuse with the inner circle of the Branch Davidians figuring a way out for him.
Even though he has a smaller role, I still think Michael Shannon is the stand out in the second episode. Leguizamo showed more nuance as someone who was out to get Koresh at all costs but is now unsure. However I find that Waco lacks grittiness. There is something unrealistic about this episode, at times I thought I was watching a Lifetime movie.
- Prismark10
- Sep 11, 2019