In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, EZ commits to finishing his plan to put Bishop into power, Miguel visits Felipe and the war in Mexico begins to escalate…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
For a split second in the closing moments of the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.,” it appeared the series lead was about to meet his demise.
A season long plan to cut out the other Mayan kings in order to place Bishop on the throne all by himself has put EZ in the crosshairs of the rest of the charter, which nearly resulted in his death on Tuesday night.
It was quite a dramatic end to an episode that appeared to right the ship for the Santo Padre chapter of the Mayans after a betrayal prevented them from completing this same mission previously. Now after successfully transporting a massive amount of heroin across the Mexican border, the club is once again wrought with potential ruin after Ramos and Canche get wind of the plan to cut them out of the Mayan leadership.
Meanwhile, Miguel Galindo’s never ending grief for his mother took a decided left turn in the latest episode after he found a photo tucked away in her belongings that finally revealed her past relationship with Felipe Reyes back when he was known as Ignacio Cortina — a Galindo cartel enforcer and security guard.
As for Coco, his slow descent into addiction continued in the latest episode as he volunteered his services to help his brothers but in reality he was completing a separate mission for the king of Meth Mountain.
And finally, Angel decides to make a permanent move in his relationship with Adelita but his timing couldn’t be worse considering the kind of mental and physical torture she’s been forced to endure for months. It’s tough to imagine his rocky relationship will have a happy ending.
With that said, let’s get to our full recap of the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” titled “Dark, Deep-Laid Plans”…
Making Amends
A night spent with Adelita — or her real name Luisa Espina — has Angel waking up in the morning expecting to find her beside him but a quick reach over to the other side of the bed reveals an empty pillow. That’s when Angel discovers that Adelita has crawled up on the floor, which is probably similar to the conditions she suffered under while being held prisoner by the Justice Department.
Angel quietly sneaks out of the house and goes to pay a visit to his father’s home. When Felipe awakens and finds Angel about to leave, he invites his son to stay for coffee.
Angel comments how Felipe is looking better but he can’t stick around because he just dropped by to grab something and he has to get moving.
Returning home, Angel wakes up Adelita and the two of them sit on the bed together as he details all the ways he’s fucked up his life yet still managed to find someone special like her. He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out an engagement ring, which he obviously retrieved from his father’s house.
Angel believes that he and Adelita can start a real life together — one where she can stop running and finally feel safe. He doesn’t ask for an answer right away but instead leaves the ring sitting on the side table next to the bed as he heads back to the Mayan clubhouse for work that day.
At Angel’s house, Adelita looks through the closets and finds a clean shirt to fashion for her size while doing the same with a belt as she gets dressed for the day. She peruses through Angel’s kitchen and finds all the markings of a bachelor who has lived by himself for many years.
Adelita then goes into the bathroom where she’s tired of seeing the face looking back at her in the mirror so she grabs a set of clippers and begins shaving her head. It’s a cathartic move for Adelita as she is essentially cutting away the past that continued to haunt her and when she’s finished, her shaved head symbolizes a fresh start.
Meanwhile at the Mayan clubhouse, EZ gets an audience with Bishop and explains to him that the plan to instill him as the lone king was well-plotted but no one could have predicted that Vicki would turn traitor on the club. As they prepare to try this dangerous “Bridge of the River Kwai” plan that Bishop suggestion in order to get the heroin across the border, EZ asks for a chance at redemption by allowing him to run point.
Bishop reminds EZ that because of his past record, if he gets busted with this heroin, he’ll be going to prison for many, many years. EZ understands the potential consequences and accepts his role to finish what he started.
When Angel arrives at the clubhouse, he seems almost jovial after being reunited with Adelita, although he doesn’t tell anybody that she’s back. He does tell his brother that he needs to make things right with Gaby after EZ confesses that their relationship has already hit a rough patch. Maybe he’s being seduced by his own love life but Angel suggests that EZ should fix whatever problems are keeping him and Gaby apart — if she’s really that special to him.
Once the full crew has assembled, Bishop assigns everybody to their jobs but Gilly wants nothing to do with Coco but he’s still not yet willing to reveal that his brother in the club is hooked on drugs. Instead, Gilly just calls him a liability but EZ volunteers to take Coco with him instead.
Bishop orders everybody to put the beefs behind them because what they are about to attempt could get everybody killed or in prison if this plan doesn’t work.
Take Me Home, Country Road
As Miguel Galindo continues to struggle with the grief he’s been feeling in the wake of his mother’s “suicide,” he begins going through her belongings that Emily packed up to put into storage. In one of the boxes, Miguel discovers a book and tucked away inside is a folded up photo that shows his mother alongside his father and their two bodyguards standing beside them.
One of the bodyguards is none other than Felipe Reyes.
Miguel rushes out of his house without even acknowledging his wife or child much less the sister-in-law he invited to live with them. He goes directly to Felipe’s butcher shop where he confronts the former Galindo enforcer about this photo.
Of course the reality is Felipe is actually Miguel’s father following the affair he had with Dita Galindo but he swore that he would never reveal that secret to anyone.
So instead, Felipe comes clean with part of the story, which involved him falling in love with Dita but she never reciprocated his feelings.
He does tell Miguel about how much his mother loved to dance even though she was terrible at it and that puts a smile on his face. Felipe also explains that being the wife of a powerful cartel leader forced her to tuck away certain parts of herself, which is why there was so much Miguel didn’t know about his mother before her death.
Felipe promises that Dita was loyal to his father, which is why he was only able to admire her from a distance.
Miguel thanks Felipe for the talk and for the information about his mother. Before leaving, Felipe pulls Miguel into an embrace, which shocks him at first but really this is just the only way a father may ever hug his own son.
Later that night, Emily and Erin are finishing off a bottle of wine as the sisters talk about their past together in high school. During the conversation, Erin admits that she always looked up to Emily as more than just a big sister because she always felt her elder sibling could do anything she wanted.
Unfortunately, Erin saw Emily shrouded in EZ’s shadow during high school but she thought her sister would finally flourish after he went to prison. Instead, Emily ended up with Miguel, who casts an even darker shadow over her and whatever aspirations she might have as more than just a housewife.
The conversation is cut short when Miguel returns home and apologizes to his wife for the way he behaved the night before. He whispers into her ear and Emily tells her sister that they are going to bed for the night.
If there’s been one glaring problem with “Mayans M.C.” season 3 so far it’s that Emily has been relegated to largely a background character after she became a real prominent player in season 2. Perhaps that storyline will develop further as the season progresses but so far, Emily has spent the majority of the season caring for her son and chatting with her sister without any other story developments.
As for Miguel, he may be trying to mend fences at home but his work life is about to take a turn for the worse.
Down in Mexico, Juan Denver is listening to his favorite tracks from the late “Rocky Mountain High” artist when a pair of SUV’s come rolling up. The people from inside emerge and ask if this location belongs to Miguel Galindo — and when Juan more or less confirms as much, the female enforcer in the crew pulls out a giant machete to begin hacking him apart.
When Marcus Alvarez and Nestor arrive at the site later that same day, they find Juan’s body torched along with all of the heroin that was discovered inside the construction equipment that was supposed to be sent to America. The site is marked with tags for Lobos Sonora — the rival cartel that’s been a thorn in the side of the Galindo’s for decades.
Nestor wonders why they burned up all the drugs but Alvarez knows this wasn’t an attempt to steal anything away from Miguel Galindo — it was a warning shot fired directly at him.
When Alvarez and Nestor arrive at the Galindo home, the former Mayan sees his friend finally reconnecting with his wife and he decides not to burden him with this news for now. Instead, Alvarez tells Nestor they will leave and return to tell him what happened down in Mexico in the morning.
Needless to say, the war brewing south of the border is only getting more volatile and thus far nothing seems to be getting Miguel’s attention. Perhaps now that will change.
Bridge Over the River Kwai
When it finally comes time to get the heroin across the Mexican border, Steve the prospect serves as a lookout as a group of children create a distraction with fireworks in order to draw in the Border Patrol, which then gives the Mayans the opening they need to cross over the wall.
The plan involves a pair of trucks and a bridge on each side of the border wall that will then allow a third vehicle to drive over top and land safely in the United States. There’s only one problem — the last time Bishop pulled off this move, President Bush was in office and the wall has been raised by a few feet since then.
That means the matching bridges don’t go to the top of the wall so there’s no way to get over. To make matters worse, the fireworks display only distracts the Border Patrol for so long and they quickly begin driving towards the Mayans.
Bishop is ready to bail on the plan but EZ can’t give up so easily — so he pulls off a couple of spare tires to serve as a prop to raise up the truck just enough to reach the top of the wall. Creeper pulls up and the extra few inches gives the bridge enough space to hit the top of the wall as EZ prepares to drive across.
Before leaving, Coco cuts one of the ties to the tarp covering the drugs as he continues working for his own means after being blackmailed to steal a kilo of heroin to hand over to Isaac and his new “friends” on Meth Mountain.
After boarding the truck, EZ drives up the ramp and then over the wall before landing safely on the other side of the border. The Mayans can only celebrate momentarily as EZ tears off into the desert while Angel pours gas all over the bridge on the American side as everyone flees into Mexico before setting fire to the vehicle.
As the Mayans escape with EZ already gone, the Border Patrol arrives and just finds a bridge on fire and nobody to arrest.
On the way back to Santo Padre, Coco “notices” the tarp has come loose but because they can’t stop driving, he jumps into the bed of the truck to secure the drugs. Before tying down the tarp, Coco snatches one of the bricks of heroin and puts it inside his jacket and then finishes hiding the rest of the drugs as he rejoins EZ in the truck.
Back inside, EZ tries to tell Coco his problems — mostly about Gaby — but he’s not interesting in listening to the boy scout’s latest tales of woe.
Finally, EZ and Coco meet up with Ibarra — the president of the Tuscon chapter — to hand over the drugs so the Mayans in prison can be protected without any further retribution. With the heroin in the right hands, EZ’s plan to cut out the other Mayan kings is one step closer to reality as he and Coco return to the clubhouse.
As soon as they arrive, Coco cuts out and leaves immediately without saying another word.
Inside, Bishop is more than happy with the way things went down, especially now that EZ’s strategy paid off. He congratulates the newest member of his charter and EZ prepares to leave with another plan in mind for that night.
Of course now that the heroin has been dished out to the Arizona charter, Bishop knows that it won’t be long before the other Mayan kings figure out what’s happening and that could easily bring a war to the Santo Padre chapter’s front door. He seems ready for battle but not for what happens next.
As Ibarra arrives back at the Tuscon clubhouse, he’s shocked to find none of his members are waiting to receive them.
A moment later, Canche emerges from inside along with dozens of members of Mayans from their charters throughout Arizona. It seems somebody clued in the other Mayan kings regarding the plan to cut them out and they’ve decided to strike first.
It’s safe to say, a civil war may soon be starting inside the Mayans M.C.
La Familia
It’s been evident for some time now that Taza has deeper ties to Palo — the leader of the now defunct Vatos Malditos motorcycle club — than he’s told anybody about up to this point. While Taza has revealed his past membership in the club and how Palo slit his own little brother’s throat, there’s definitely more skeletons in this closet that haven’t been revealed just yet.
That said, Taza knows he has to get to Palo before he starts a war between the Mayans and the Sons of Anarchy that won’t end until there are a whole lot of dead bodies. In fact, Palo already struck the first blow in that war by killing Montez on last week’s episode and then leaving him gift wrapped on top of Taza’s motorcycle just outside the Mayan clubhouse.
A dead member of the SAMCRO chapter of the Sons of Anarchy would undoubtedly spark a fire that would be nearly impossible to extinguish no matter what back door deals Montez was doing with Palo over the gun running operation. In order to stave off this murder coming back to haunt them, Taza hides Montez’s body in a drum covered with salt in order to dispose of him for the time being before anybody else discovers what’s happening.
Taza then travels to a nearby town where he finds a woman named Lara working as a paralegal.
It seems Taza grew up with Lara in a small town in Mexico and they are bound together by Palo, who happens to be her brother. Taza has come to reunite with Lara in hopes that she could possibly provide information on Palo’s location but she scoffs at his questions while reminding him that she did everything possible to leave that life behind when she escaped Mexico.
While Lara is unwilling to help, we do find out that she has a son named David, who was given his name to honor another David from her past. Judging by the shared reactions, it appears that David was Lara’s other brother and he’s the one who got his throat slit by Palo, which would explain the understandably disturbing past that they all share together.
Later that night, Taza returns to apologize to Lara for ambushing her and he hands over his number while reminding her that she can call on him for help anytime. It’s hard to imagine Palo won’t come calling on his sister at some point in the near future and Taza is obviously hoping for a reunion with his former friend when it happens.
Shots Fired
Following a hard day’s work, Angel returns to his home and he hopes to find Adelita there waiting for him. Instead, he’s disappointed to see that not only has she left the engagement ring on the table but she’s also disappeared on him.
In a fit of rage, Angel smashes a lamp after putting his heart on the line while trying to start a life with Adelita but she’s gone again like a ghost in the night.
As for EZ, he goes over to his father’s butcher shop to speak to Gaby and at first she’s not interested in his advances after their previous encounter ended so badly. EZ begs for a second chance and at least an opportunity to drive her home — and Gaby finally agrees after Felipe allows his son to borrow the truck since she’s wearing a dress and can’t ride on a motorcycle.
On the way to take Gaby home, EZ hands over a gift wrapped box as a present. Inside is a fork — a gesture from EZ after it was previously revealed that he currently only owns a single fork, knife and spoon in the trailer he calls home. EZ hopes this will be another fork to add to the collection so Gaby can come over for dinner more often.
Gaby is still feeling uneasy but the EZ decides to try one more thing to change her opinion after promising a better first meal than the one they were never able to share previously. He pulls up to the street vendor, who was selling funnel cakes and Gaby can’t help but laugh that EZ remember how much she loved those fried carnival treats covered in powdered sugar.
As EZ returns to the truck with a pair of plates in hand and a smile on his face, a Mayan emerges from the shadows with a gun pointed directly at his head. Gaby yells out just in time to warn EZ, who turns to confront the Mayan assassin sent to kill him. A fight ensues and a gunshot rings out but EZ soon stands up and returns to the driver’s seat to check on Gaby.
She’s unharmed so EZ starts the truck and begins to drive away as the Mayan gets up from the ground and fires another shot through the front window. EZ then peels off and drives away in great haste while the Mayan shooting at him gets hit by a van coming through the same intersection.
Finally, EZ pulls down a back alley to make sure Gaby is safe but he’s got bigger problems to deal with now because she’s perfectly fine — but he’s bleeding profusely from his stomach after taking a bullet. Gaby finds her hands covered in EZ’s blood as she can’t help but wonder if he’ll survive the attempt on his life.
Of course, we know from next week’s preview that EZ is still very much alive but this failed assassination undoubtedly stems from his plan to cut out the other Mayan kings and put Bishop on the throne. It’s tough to imagine that Canche and/or Ramos didn’t find out that EZ was the one who orchestrated this particular strategy and he was then made the sacrificial lamb as they sought revenge on the Santo Padre chapter.
Now the war of the three kings has begun and it would appear only one Mayan will be left standing when it’s all said and done.
“Mayans M.C.” will return for a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX
