In the ‘Mayans M.C.’ recap, the Santo Padre chapter travels north to seek revenge on a murdered brother and the Reyes brothers end up in Charming to pay a visit to an old friend…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Before we get to the recap, it would be criminal not to acknowledge how ‘Mayans M.C.’ paid homage to ‘Sons of Anarchy’ in the latest episode.
While there have been a few name drops and appearances, the new episode on Tuesday night took the Mayans into Charming for the first time since the series started a year ago. The trip to get to the idyllic California town took EZ and Angel past an iconic spot on the highway marked by a sign reading ‘J.T. 11-13-93’.
Keen viewers will remember that’s the spot where John Teller slid into an oncoming semi-truck, which cost him his life. That’s the same spot that Jax Teller visits just moments before taking his own life much like his father in the series finale of ‘Sons of Anarchy’. As Jax said at the start of the series ‘Tellers die bloody’ and this infamous spot is where John’s life ended and his son started his final ride.
The other moment that pulled at the heartstrings was in the closing seconds when Happy returned home to find his barking dog waiting on him inside. Happy called out to the dog by his name ‘Ope’, which is obviously short for ‘Opie’ — a tribute to fallen ‘Sons of Anarchy’ member Opie Winston, who was killed in prison during season 5.
Of course hearing Happy call out Opie’s name was a touching tribute but it was short lived as he soon had a pair of guns pointed at his head with EZ and Angel Reyes searching for answers in the murder of their mother.
There’s a lot to unpack from this episode so let’s get into our recap of the newest edition of ‘Mayans M.C.’ titled ‘Camazotz’…
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In the aftermath of a Mayans member being murdered by a pair of dirty cops last week, the Santo Padre chapter rolls north to Stockton to help their brothers seek revenge. It seems before Bishop was the president in the Santo Padre chapter of the Mayans, he came up in Oakland under Marcus Alvarez and sponsored Medina, who was the member gunned down by the cops when he accidentally interrupted them coercing a drug addict for a blowjob and filming it before murdering someone on camera.
Medina’s death has everyone rocked but Bishop is forced to put his emotions aside to focus on the task at hand, which is avenging the death of their brother. He knows killing cops — dirty or not — is risky business and this mission has to be carried out with the utmost precision or they risk all out war with the police.
Bishop tells Ramos — the Mayans Stockton president familiar to ‘Sons of Anarchy’ viewers — that his charter needs to lay low and allow the out of towners from Santo Padre handle this revenge.
Ultimately, Bishop uses the girl named Hope to set up the cops by texting them that she has the phone with the evidence not only sexually assaulting her but with the footage that shows them killing a Mayan. He wants to lure them into a trap so the club can capture the dirty cops, kill them and leave no trace that this was an orchestrated hit.
Unfortunately, the plan goes awry after only one of the cops — O’Grady — shows up to retrieve the phone while his partner Paulin is nowhere to be found. After a brief standoff, the Mayans are able to take O’Grady without shots fired but that still leaves them in a precarious position in an attempt to draw out Paulin because he’s the one who actually pulled the trigger to kill Medina.
O’Grady finally opts to help the Mayans in exchange for his life and he gives them the address to where his partner is staying in a house owned by his mother. Bishop leads the club members to the house to once again set up Paulin, this time having Hope text him so she can return the phone with the evidence on it.
Sadly while Paulin fall for the text message, the club busts into the house and finds that his mother isn’t out of town but rather standing in her own kitchen.
While the club decides what to do with her, Hope exacts her revenge on Paulin by smashing a glass bowl over his head, which sends his mother into a rage as she goes after the girl. She’s more upset about the broken bowl than her unconscious son but she begins strangling Hope, which in turn causes Coco to shoot her dead.
Bishop chalks it up to collateral damage as they take both bodies to the middle of the woods to finish the job.
When Paulin wakes up, he’s tied upside down with his dead mother staring him back in the face. He never gets the chance to beg for his life because the Mayans open fire on him, riddling the dirty cop with bullets until he’s very dead.
As for O’Grady, Bishop keeps the phone with evidence that he and his partner killed somebody and coerced a young girl into sexual favors while on the job. Bishop orders him to make up a story about Paulin’s death — anything so long as it doesn’t blow back on the Mayans — and he calls on him to check in with the Stockton chapter periodically.
Rather than killing O’Grady, Bishop decides to keep the grateful cop on the job because he could be more useful to them alive than dead.
Old Debts
When Miguel Galindo struck a deal with Lincoln Potter to become a tool of the U.S. government, he was also undermining him by working behind his back with Adelita and her Los Olvidados’ rebels to make Mexico a better home for Mexican people. The plan had been working up until a group of mercenaries were slaughtered, which put Adelita back on Potter’s radar and now he’s pressing Miguel to carry out a new job for him.
Potter shows up unannounced to the Galindo compound and requests Miguel take a trip with him into Mexico.
It seems just recently, seven farmers were cut down by the policia after they were deemed radicals. Miguel argues that the farmers were protesting against tariffs that were hurting their business but that doesn’t matter much to the U.S. government who wanted them quieted.
Now Potter is taking the next step to squash any potential uprising in Mexico by tasking Miguel to besmirch a new local organizer named Paloma, who is gaining strength with the people while preaching politics that don’t necessarily jive with the plans the U.S. has in mind for south of the border.
Potter isn’t ordering Miguel to kill the politician but rather find a way to get her in bed with the cartel so she’s forced to get bloody, which in turn will crush her aspirations to ascend to elected office.
Unfortunately, Miguel has to report this news back to Adelita, who has been helping build up Paloma as a new potential savior to Mexico. The plan to make Potter believe that Los Olvidados has been crushed backfired and now he’s more convinced than ever that it’s Adelita pulling the strings on politicians like Paloma and the local farmers protesting, which could be an even bigger problem for the U.S. government interests in Mexico.
Meanwhile back in the States, Emily is determined to get her park project off the ground and she’s willing to play dirty to do it. Last week, she ran into an old family friend named Ileana, who not only works in the mayoral office but she also happens to be in serious debt to Emily’s mother. Emily is obviously estranged from her parents but that knowledge can serve as leverage to hopefully turn Ileana into an ally inside the mayor’s office to ensure the park bid goes to the Galindo family and no one else.
Emily shows up to give Ileana a drive home where they talk about the fire that took her home and left her in massive debt. Emily then hands Ileana a check for $50,000 to not only help her break free of her mother’s grasp but also give her incentive to work towards the goal of the Galindo’s getting the park project.
Ileana is shocked at first and that forces Emily to realize she’s becoming criminal minded, which is exactly what she wanted her husband to get away from in his career. Emily gifts the $50,000 to Ileana and apologizes for suggesting some kind of backhanded partnership for information to help the park bid go in their favor.
Later that night, Emily receives a call from Ileana asking if she could provide her family with more funding to help them dig out of debt and in return she would help her old friend get the park bid that she so desperately wants. Emily is pleased while simultaneously failing to realize she’s transforming into a criminal in her own right.
The next day, Emily arrives at the mayor’s office where Ileana hands over an envelope with note cards inside describing in detail the competitive bids that will be going up against the Galindo’s to fund the park project. Now Emily knows everything she needs to protect her plans for the park because she can out bid and out promise every other company trying to get a stake in Santo Padre.
And finally, Felipe Reyes gets a call from Dita Galindo after their encounter last week that saw her show up at his butcher shop before he drove her home. Miguel was immediately suspicious why his mother would seek out Felipe Reyes.
Remember to Miguel, Felipe is best known as EZ’s father and EZ was an old flame to his wife Emily. What Miguel doesn’t know is that in a past life, Felipe was a right hand to his father Jose Galindo and the cartel he ran in Mexico.
Dita’s call begins to reveal the true nature of her past relationship with Felipe after she tells him that she dreamed about a beautiful letter that he wrote to her. Later, Felipe digs out an old book that contains the letters he received from Dita that details the two of them were carrying on a secret affair.
Felipe apologizes to his wife’s ashes sitting nearby because the guilt over cheating on her obviously still weighs him down.
Later that night as Felipe is closing up his shop, he receives a visit from Marcus Alvarez, who inquires about his visit with Dita just recently. Marcus knows that Dita’s doctor is nowhere near his butcher shop, which means she sought out the elder Reyes for some reason.
Before leaving, Marcus offers Felipe some friendly advice — if Dita comes calling again, he should ring the Galindo’s to come pick her up rather than taking her home himself. It’s a not so subtle threat but obviously Miguel has no idea the real depth of his mother’s past relationship with Felipe when he was known as cartel hitman Ignacio Cortez.
Get Ready You Mother For the Big Payback
After avenging Medina’s death by killing the dirty cop, the Mayans return to Stockton for the funeral where they will say goodbye to their brother. While there, EZ has a flashback to a moment from his childhood where he was a lost little boy on the ‘Day of the Dead’ while looking for his mother and his brother.
When EZ snaps back from the trip to his past, he sees a pair of the Sons of Anarchy arrive to pay tribute to the fallen Mayan. Happy and Quinn show up to pay their respects but the SAMCRO members being at the funeral gives EZ and Angel a chance to travel back to Charming to pay Happy a visit when he gets home.
On the way to Charming, EZ and Angel pass by the site where John Teller died before arriving in Charming at Happy’s house. When the SAMCRO sergeant-at-arms arrives home, he hears his dog Opie barking rather loudly from behind a gate.
When he walks inside and flips on the lights, Happy is greeted with a pair of guns at the back of his head as EZ and Angel reveal themselves. Judging by the brief preview of next week’s episode, EZ and Angel will be questioning Happy about his involvement in their mother’s death and the results of this conversation could turn disastrous for everybody involved.
If EZ and Angel kill Happy, they risk all out war between the Sons of Anarchy and the Mayans. Then again not killing Happy and finding out why he was actually there in Santo Padre to kill someone in the first place might unleash some old ghosts from their past that could haunt them for years to come.
My money sits on Happy being hired to kill Felipe by Jose Galindo but he accidentally killed their mother instead when she was at the shop when she wasn’t supposed to be there. That truth could ignite a whole other kind of war for EZ and Angel as they seek answers and eventually vengeance on the person responsible for killing their mother.
‘Mayans M.C.’ returns with a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX
