Palacios is one of Fumero’s hired thugs, helping him kill Nuria and trailing Daniel at various points. However, he lacks Fumero’s appetite for brutality and is clearly dubious about his job; his reticence in the final combat at the Aldaya mansion facilitates Fumero’s death. Palacios’s ambivalence blurs the line between hero and villain and is a reminder that even government “oppressors” can be ordinary and conflicted individuals.