In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, EZ tries to balance his outlaw life with the one he’s leading outside the club, Miguel discovers disturbing information about his mother’s death and the Mayans prepare to strike…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s been evident since the start of “Mayans M.C.” season 3 that EZ Reyes would eventually be forced to choose between the outlaw life he’s adopted and the one he’s been trying to build outside of the club.
There was no better evidence of that then the latest episode as EZ attempted to introduce Gaby to his family during a disastrous “brunch” after she revealed that she had been accepted to nursing school in Lodi but was questioning the relocation to northern California because it would take her away from the life she’s building with him in Santo Padre.
Of course, deep down EZ knows that Gaby leaving and starting a life away from this black hole town would be better for her but he also doesn’t want to let go of the first woman he’s loved since Emily.
By the end of the episode, EZ’s choices may finally come crashing down around him as his two worlds collide and there may be no going back now.
Meanwhile, Miguel Galindo has spent much of this season distraught by the death of his mother Dita and the questions surrounding her apparent suicide. He’s struggled to comprehend his mother taking her own life but when those closest to him begin to feed into that paranoia, he begins looking deeper and deeper for answers and that may lead to him tearing everything down around him.
Coco was also dealing with the fallout from his overdose while Angel’s life has started to implode after Adelita bounced on his marriage proposal after telling him that their child together had died. It turns out Angel might have another baby on the way and that could create all sorts of internal strife with the club and the man who is actually in love with the mother of his unborn child.
More secrets are revealed this week when we finally discover what Taza has been hiding this entire time as Palo prepares to make his final move against the Mayans when he goes to Mexico and visits a rival cartel to the Galindo family.
There’s a lot to unpack this week so with that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” titled “A Mixed-Up and Splendid Rescue”…
No Hope
Picking up where last week left off, Letty tries desperately to wake her father up after Coco and Hope decided to do all of the heroin, which resulted in both passing out on the couch together. With white liquid seeping from his mouth, Coco is unresponsive when Letty attempts him to raise from his drug-induced slumber but eventually Hope wakes up instead.
She quickly reaches into her purse and grabs a needle presumably filled with Naloxone, which reverses the effects of a heroin overdose, and she jabs it into Coco’s leg. A moment later, he finally wake ups and then spits up whatever was left in his system.
Letty is understandably upset not only that her father is now a junkie but his new girlfriend seems to be feeding that addiction. When she confronts Coco about his issues, he says that it’s time to get clean and sober but he can’t do it alone so he’s going to trust in Hope to help him along the way.
When Letty finally confronts Hope, she confesses that she will try to get clean, which isn’t exactly the most reassuring promise that this won’t end badly for everybody involved.
In the end, Hope does what Letty expected when she leaves in the middle of the night and abandons Coco when he needs her most. Now the question remains will Coco be able to stay on a path to recovery or will he simply seek out the woman who led him down this road in the first place.
Stranglehold
Miguel Galindo has been struggling under the weight of his mother’s suicide all season long to the point where he’s all but ignored his wife and child while secretly carrying on an affair in Mexico. As all of this has been happening, Miguel has also largely lost track of his business where the Lobo Sonora cartel have not only reformed but started to come back at him through numerous murders while also targeting many of the locations where he stores his drugs.
It seems like Miguel is finally starting to feel the haze lift from his mind after reconciling that his mother was just not a happy person and she faced true turmoil in the wake of the fire that claimed their home at the end of season 1. Following a conversation with Felipe Reyes that gave him a bit more insight into his mother’s psyche, Miguel seemed satisfied with the answers he had received about her death.
He even began packing up her room to put the rest of his mother’s belongings into storage.
But Miguel’s attempt to move past the tragic loss of his mother comes to a crashing halt after he receives a call from the medical examiner’s office telling him details about the examination on Dita’s body. While she was obviously burned, the medical examiner informs Miguel that the cause of death was actually strangulation after one of the bones in her neck was found broken during the autopsy.
That sets off a whole new kind of rage inside of Miguel to find answers about his mother’s death so he turns to Maria — the housekeeper who cared for his mother and his family until Emily fired her at the start of the season. Maria’s loyalty was always to the Galindo family and nobody else.
When Miguel arrives, he asks Maria if there was anything strange or noticeable happening with his mother just before her death.
Maria comes clean that Dita had some sort of dealing with the Reyes family and his wife was also involved. Before she died, Dita told Maria that she was terrified of Emily and in the case of her death, Miguel should look closer at the woman who shares a bed with him at night.
How much of what Maria is true remains a mystery or if this is what Dita told her before she changed her plans, which then led to her own death.
Remember last season, EZ called upon Emily to look into the Galindo family bank account records to find out who wrote the checks that paid for a hitman to go after his mother and father. In the end, Emily discovered that it was Dita who signed off on the payments and she eventually came clean about ordering the hit to kill Felipe and Marisol Reyes because she couldn’t stand the thought of the man she loved being with someone else.
Eventually, Dita came to terms with her crime of passion and she asked one of the Reyes’ boys to kill her as repentance. EZ took it upon himself to seek vengeance for his mother’s death by killing Dita and then burning her as she had requested.
Of course, EZ has no idea that his father Felipe had been involved with Dita for many years and the result of their torrid love affair was a son named Miguel Galindo.
After Miguel visits Maria and receives this information, he heads over to see Nestor and ask him if there was anything strange happening around the time that his mother died.
Nestor then reveals that on the night that they found Dita’s body, Marcus Alvarez noticed motorcycle tracks near the site but he kept it quiet until they could investigate. Obviously, Marcus recognized that the motorcycle tracks meant someone from the Mayans could have been involved in Dita’s death but he kept that from Miguel until now.
After returning home, Miguel walks into the bedroom where he finds Emily alone, reading a book. He removes the book from her hands and then takes off her glasses without saying a word. Considering everything he’s heard throughout the day, it certainly appeared that Emily’s life was hanging in the balance but rather than killing his wife, Miguel ends up tearing her clothes off and they have passionate sex instead.
During the sex, Miguel actually places his hand around Emily’s neck but he soon relents before they both fall into each other’s arms. Afterwards, Emily is blown away by what just happened, not knowing as she lays her head on Miguel’s chest that he’s actually crying at the same time.
Meanwhile down in Mexico, Palo — the last remaining member of the Vatos Malditos motorcycle club — is making his next move against the Mayans and the cartel that fuels them.
He arrives to visit El Banquero, who is the new leader of Lobos Sonora, and the person who is best served to dish out vengeance on the people who went after Palo’s club.
After witnessing El Banquero behead a Mexican police officer with a hacksaw, Palo then has two minutes to explain how exactly he can benefit Lobos Sonora in this ongoing war with the Galindo cartel.
At first, Palo offers vengeance for an uncle that the Galindo’s killed many years earlier but El Banquero can only scoff at that suggestion. It turns out, El Banquero was molested by that uncle and all the Galindo cartel did was get rid of him before he was old enough to take vengeance on his own.
Palo then turns to the next offer to make El Banquero even richer by helping him take over Miguel Galindo’s entire territory. That perks up El Banquero’s ears and he’s ready to hear more from Palo about this plan.
It’s unclear what Palo has in store but he’s already killed a member of the Sons of Anarchy earlier this season and they had a side deal as well regarding the gun trade that was supposed to go through the Vatos Malditos in Mexico. It seems entirely possible Palo wants to get Lobos Sonora involved in that deal, which would then cut out the Mayans and the Galindo cartel.
Either way, trouble is coming for Miguel Galindo and he doesn’t even know it yet.
Secrets and Lies
Ever since Palo first arrived, we’ve known that he had some kind of past connection with Taza, the current vice president of the Santo Padre chapter of the Mayans. There was some secret big enough in the past that Taza was willing to kill one of his own brothers to keep that hidden.
The truth was finally revealed this week when Taza receives a visit from Palo’s sister Laura, who he had confronted earlier this season in an attempt to track down her brother. When they spoke previously, Laura had mentioned how she never got past Palo killing their brother David, but we never completely understood the connection between all of them.
It turns out, Taza was in a relationship with David when they were all living together in that small village in Mexico but in those days, being a gay man had no place in that life.
When Laura found out about Taza and David being together, she’s the one who told Palo about it and he sought vengeance by killing his own brother for being gay. Laura has been carrying around that guilt ever since but Taza forgives her for whatever happened in the past.
He also explains that after David died, he never had any desire to love again because the only man he cherished was gone. Laura hands over a cross that belonged to David while telling Taza that her brother would have wanted him to be happy even if they weren’t able to be together.
The fact that Palo knows Taza is gay is the big secret that he’s been terrified will be revealed, which is why he’s been willing to do the terrible things he’s done in order to cover it up. As we witnessed during “Sons of Anarchy” when it was discovered that Juice had a Black father, he did everything possible to prevent that secret from coming out because he knew it meant the end of his time in the club if not the end of his life.
Sadly, motorcycle clubs like these carry arcane rules that will have one member willing to kill to prevent his Black father from being revealed while another has committed murder so he’ll never be discovered as gay.
Now that the truth has been uncovered, Taza has to deal with the possibility that Palo will still come back to haunt him while revealing the secret of his past life to the club.\
One King
There wasn’t much club business in the latest episode outside of a lone meeting held with the members of the Santo Padre chapter along with a few charter presidents arriving from Arizona. It seems in the wake of Ramos being killed, Canche has taken full control and he stripped Ibarra of his patch as the president of the Tuscon chapter and he’s now blaming the Santo Padre chapter for choking back to the heroin deal, which would benefit their brothers in lockdown throughout Arizona.
Canche has also gotten some of the club members fired up and looking for vengeance after telling them about Santo Padre striking back at Stockton and ultimately killing three members of the club including the president after they took a shot at EZ Reyes.
Bishop believes there’s only one way to deal with Canche and that’s to send him to the forever sleep the same way that Ramos went a week ago. Everybody agrees that once Canche is gone, the rest of the club members will get in line to support Bishop as the one true king of the Mayans.
Now it’s just a matter of getting to Canche and dispatching him just like Ramos.
Family Feud
The majority of the story this week revolved around a number of familial issues outside of the club, which included EZ, Angel and Hank.
First things first, Stephanie aka “Nails” — the bartender who has spent most of the season hooking up with Angel — is caught vomiting in the bathroom by Hank, who has been crushing on her this entire time while also teaching her how to be a tattoo artist.
Nails comes clean to Hank that she’s pregnant with Angel’s baby but he already made it clear how unimportant she is when Adelita returned and she got kicked to the curb. Hank offers to help her with whatever she needs, which includes being a father to her child if that’s what’s necessary.
Nails hugs Hank and says that she doesn’t deserve him.
Later that day, Hank delivers some groceries to his mother’s house and he explains to her how he’s met someone and he wants to bring Nails to their Thursday night dinner so they can meet each other. Hank’s mother seems overjoyed that her son finally met someone special but little does he knew his plan to settle down with Nails is about to go completely awry.
Back at the Reyes’ house, EZ and Gaby are preparing food for a brunch so the entire family can sit down together and enjoy a meal. EZ is doing his best to provide Gaby with the same kind of family life in Santo Padre that he experienced with her parents when visiting Lodi.
Of course, EZ also gets blindsided with the news that Gaby has been accepted into nursing school but the college is in Lodi, which means she’d have to leave him and Santo Padre behind.
When brunch finally starts, Felipe just wants to eat and Angel arrives late after he’s been suffering through the morning while getting rid of the last remnants that Adelita left behind when he tosses her prison uniform into the trash. Angel is still drinking and staring at the photo of his child that he’ll never get to meet and arriving at this family dinner is the last thing he wants right now.
As soon as he sits down, Angel is already mocking EZ for trying to pretend that this family is a tightknit group held together by bonds of love. He then turns his attention to Gaby, who is wearing an apron that previously belonged to his mother.
Angel lashes out after Gaby tells him that she’s not quite sure about leaving Santo Padre in order to go to nursing school in Lodi because that would mean leaving EZ behind. The idea that Santo Padre would ruin another person’s life is too much for Angel to take and he more or less tells Gaby she’s fucking crazy for even considering staying for EZ.
“You think there’s any happy endings in this town? In this house? Ask the last lady to wear that thing”
~ Angel
Angel ends up pouring his beer all over the table before getting up and leaving while EZ attempts to salvage the rest of his day with Gaby.
He takes her to a bridge where Gaby brings up Emily and their previous interaction as well as the comment that she’s “pretty” was likely side-eyed bit of racism towards a Latina woman. Gaby then explains her own fears about staying in Santo Padre after seeing EZ get shot and nearly killed but he makes an empty promise to her that it will never happen again.
Back at Angel’s house, he calls Nails to come over for a booty call but when she arrives, there’s another topic that needs to be addressed.
While he’s upset that she’s about to break up with him when they’re not even a couple, Nails finally comes clean that she’s pregnant with Angel’s baby. Considering the loss he just suffered with Adelita and their child, Angel is suddenly overwhelmed with joy as he embraces Nails and the baby they’ll eventually welcome to this world
That moment also manages to snuff Hank’s plans to make Nails a part of his future.
As for EZ and Gaby, they finish their day together by going to get ice cream but the late night snack is interrupted by a call from Bishop. He tells EZ that he has a plan in order to go after Canche and he wants to know if Santo Padre’s newest member is ready to finish what they started together.
EZ answers by assuring Bishop that he’s willing to do whatever the club needs of him.
Inside the ice cream parlor, Gaby is waiting in line with a pair of racist assholes start shouting at her about her immigration status and asked to see her papers. When the situation becomes too uncomfortable to take any longer, Gaby walks out of the ice cream shop where she runs into EZ and tells him that she changed her mind.
It doesn’t take EZ but a second to look inside and hear the taunts from the two men who were harassing Gaby. He then charges into the ice cream shop and begins to thrash the two racist assholes but when Gaby tries to pull him off, he accidentally elbows her in the face.
When a group of cops swarm into the ice cream shop to place EZ under arrest, he’s only concerned about Gaby’s well being and he ends up hitting one of the police officers as well. Finally, EZ is subdued and placed under arrest while Gaby sits in stunned silence on the ground with her nose bleeding as she watches the man she’s falling for get arrested for the very thing he promised would never happen again.
EZ lives in a violent world and that makes those kinds of confrontations unavoidable and by extension it then touches everyone around him. Now that Gaby has seen this kind of bloody retribution up close and personal on two different occasions, after explaining to EZ that the reason her family left Mexico in the first place was to avoid this kind of violence, it seems likely she’ll soon flee Santo Padre for a better life in Lodi.
As for EZ, he’s been attempting to live a double life all season long and pretending that they won’t eventually collide. As he was previously warned, attempting to go in two different directions is a good way to get to nowhere and that’s where he’s ended up.
Only two more episodes remain this season with “Mayans M.C.” returning for a brand new installment next Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.