Little Niña Lost

I understand wanting to act out to get your parents' attention when you're a teenager. I mean, kind of; I was boring and straitlaced, personally, but I heard tell of kids who would break all kinds of rules and/or laws because getting punished for them would at least mean that their parents were aware that they existed. Presumably that's what El Paso teen Gina (Cole Bernstein) was doing when she got caught shoplifting a pair of earrings, requiring her father Peter (P.J. Marshall) to bail her out. But if she had hoped she'd use that opening to point out to him that her mother is neglecting her and that she needs him to take care of her instead, it doesn't work; his new girlfriend "isn't used to kids," which means Gina's all on her own.

And, I guess, this is what motivated her to walk to the border, and then over the border, and into Mexico, apparently with nary a passport check. I mean, if you find yourself in a metaphorical pit of despair, you might as well go try your fortunes in an actual one, right? Well...wrong, because if you have no money, no friends, and from what I can tell no phone, you're going to end up sitting on a random apartment stoop, easy pickings for Mando (J.R. Villareal) to invite you up for a beer...

...and start making plans to hold you for ransom.

The conclusion we're meant to draw seems clear, right?

Not so fast! Turns out Mando has a nice sister named Esmeralda, who overhears Mando on the phone and helps Gina to escape.

She tells Gina the tale of The Beast, murderer of eight girls (including Esmé's sister), who could be one guy or could be a hundred: no one knows. She begs Gina not to come back. They enjoy churros.

And when she gets home to Peter's house, in El Paso, things aren't going so hot for him, as she witnesses The Beast totally killing him in a most horrendous way.

In other words, Juarez is safer or at least no more dangerous than El Paso, in this particular instance! And contains churros! Surely there is still a lesson to be learned here, though.