Sonny is able to get away with being undercover so long because he lives an obnoxiously loud life. He lives on a giant sailboat in the middle of the bay, has a pet alligator, and wears loud outfits. It's of course, perfect cover for a drug dealer.
The increasingly Darker and Edgier nature of the show makes sense when one notes the ever greater number of personal tragedies and losses suffered by our heroes in a seemingly fruitless attempt to win The War on Drugs. Ultimately, it also explains why our heroes quit.
Crockett and Tubbs do a decent job of balancing each other's flaws out. Crockett's street wise and Southern locality means he knows the area very well as well as comes off like a local. Tubbs, however, comes off as more professional and business-related as well as is able to pass himself off as a out of towner. Crockett is also Hot-Blooded while Tubbs is significantly more Consummate Professional. Neither is a By-the-Book Cop, however.
It makes sense why Crockett would choose police work after his failed football career, leaving college without a degree, and two Vietnam tours. He wants an action-based life to do something beneficial that he can't get from most civilian professions, and was probably badly disillusioned with the military after actually experiencing the fall of Saigon and the end of that war. Being a cop allows him to have a much narrower scope of trust.
The Calderone and Revilla cartels are actually fairly accurate Expy of the Medellin and Cali cartels of Real Life fame. The Calderone cartel operates in Florida and the Caribbean while adopting a Working-Class Hero attitude (even though its leaders are Fiction 500), while the Revillas are New York-based and act far more business-like with a veneer of corporate respectability.
Crockett and Tubbs constant Jurisdiction Friction with the CIA and other government agencies make sense due to the time period's own contradictions with the War on Drugs. The CIA is attempting to prop up numerous anti-communist groups and traffic arms to them with drug money being used by them to raise cash. Obviously, our heroes are against both drugs and arms trafficking in their backyard with the port of Miami being a major trading zone.
"No Exit" illustrates the differing priorities of our heroes to the government as while Crockett and Tubbs definitely want to work with the FBI to recover a bunch of Stinger missiles before they're sold to anti-American forces, their priorities diverge when the CIA wants to offer Amato a job working for them despite being a spouse abuser.
"Golden Triangle part 1" and "Golden Triangle part 2" makes this connection explicit as Lao Li is both a drug lord as well as Thailand military officer. His CIA contact supports both for personal benefit as well as political connections.
JB Johnston from "Prodigal Son" may seem like a Karma Houdini due to his use of corruption to protect the Revilla cartel but his bank apparently required the money from them to stay afloat. The destruction of the cartel's leadership at the end of the episode is likely to mean that any previous debts are unlikely to be repaid.
It was noted that Elvis was the former mascot of the University of Florida Gators football team, and was retired after biting a player from the University of Georgia. Considering the bite force of a fully grown bull alligator, just how badly bitten was the player?
"Gator bait" as a phrase has such a dicey, racist background that the University of Florida stopped using it as a chant at football games in 2020. Let's just hope the player Elvis bit was white...
Less so — the actual injury was probably not anything very damaging or Elvis would have been destroyed, regardless of whatever shenanigans Crockett may have pulled to adopt him. Additionally, while Crockett is reckless enough to have an alligator, even he is probably not foolhardy enough to go to great lengths to have an alligator who severely injures humans unprovoked...
Sonny and Rico are two of the best cops in Miami and have dealt with ridiculous amounts of organized crime. How bad will the situation get in Miami without them?
that the University of Florida stopped using it as a chant at football games in 2020. Let's just hope the player Elvis bit was white...