In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, EZ rushes to beat the deadline to stay ahead of the cartel and Kate gets closer to discovering the identity of the rat inside the club…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there’s been a common theme amongst “Sons of Anarchy” and now “Mayans M.C.” it’s that absolute power corrupts absolutely and the sins of the past will always come back to haunt you.
That’s exactly what happened to Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman) as he desperately tried to maintain control over SAMCRO, which eventually involved striking a deal with a Mexican cartel. Betraying his best friend and attempting to have Jax Teller’s wife killed was more than enough to remove him from power with his stepson then inserted in his place.
As for Jax (Charlie Hunnam), he was destined to become the SAMCRO president almost since birth but it wasn’t necessarily a role he chose for himself. In fact, Jax was on his way out of the club permanently until the agents working for the U.S. government inside the Galindo cartel informed him that he would either take over as president or the club would be crushed.
In the end, Jax suffered the same fate as his father when mistakes eventually mounted and death was his only escape.
Now as we get deeper into the final season of ‘Mayans M.C.” we’re beginning to see that same fate may be awaiting EZ Reyes.
While he didn’t perish, Bishop suffered from that same ill-fated desire to control everything when he attempted a coup to wipe out the other Mayan kings and seize the throne only for himself. EZ then made a power play of his own when he ousted Marcus Alvarez in order to escalate the war against the Sons of Anarchy.
Sadly, EZ only escaped a long prison sentence thanks to a deal he struck with the American government to serve as an informant to help bring down the same Galindo cartel that once partnered with the Sons. The partnership between the cartel and the government had soured so the DEA was trying to bring them down and EZ was a perfect point man to feed them information.
Now years later after EZ’s deal was killed and supposedly wiped from the system, his past is about to come back to haunt him again after the revelation that the Mayans have a rat in their midst. Given the trajectory of only so many episodes left in the series and the news that EZ was actually the rat when he first got inducted into the Mayans charter, it appears his presidency may be short and rather tragic.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” — directed by series star JD Pardo himself — titled “I See The Black Light”…
No Other Choice
Last week saw EZ make his move against the LNG (Lobos Sonoro New Generation) cartel by taking down one of their cook houses in Mexico, stealing supplies and kidnapping their cook while leaving evidence behind that would point to a rival rather than the motorcycle club. The cook ended up producing a brick of street-level Fentanyl, which is the product the cartel started selling in the wake of losing ai warehouse filled with heroin that was supposed to be protected and distributed by the Mayans.
The brick worth $100,000 and a second in production was enough for EZ to approach Cole — the leader of a special forces unit for hire currently working for the cartel — to offer him a better deal. Cole’s team would abandon the cartel and work with the Mayans instead distributing their Fentanyl while also taking back the prison system.
Cole agrees to listen to his proposal but only if EZ and the Mayans can produce 10 times as much Fentanyl in the next few days or he’ll turn this evidence over to the cartel and wipe them out just like he was hired to do.
With a limited amount of time to produce that much Fentanyl, EZ and the club strike a deal with an Asian importer, who has access to all of the necessary materials needed to cook up a sizable batch. EZ ultimately has to offer up nine crates of the guns stolen from the Sons of Anarchy to get the deal done, which angers Bishop because he knows those weapons would be valuable to them during the ongoing war.
Still, it’s enough to get the new Asian partners on board and soon enough the Mayans are loading up trucks with barrels filled with cooking materials to begin producing a massive quantity of Fentanyl.
Before the group leaves the docks, Hank finally decides to come clean with the information he received from Creeper last week inside prison that there is a rat inside the Mayans Santo Padre charter. He only tells the “inner circle” comprised of EZ, Bishop and Angel and Hank says he absolutely believes the information coming from Creeper is accurate.
Bishop lashes out ready to accuse everybody in the club but EZ tells him to calm down and keep this secret between them for now until they can do some internal digging. Of course, Angel knows that his brother EZ was the rat when he struck a deal to get out of prison.
To make matters worse, Angel sponsored EZ to get into the club and even signed onto the same deal to work alongside Lincoln Potter until the siblings finally found a way to break free from his control. Still, if that information gets out to the club, Angel and EZ are both dead men.
Angel confronts his brother but EZ promises he’ll handle the situation — just like he vowed to win the war against the Sons of Anarchy and help the Mayans take down the Mexican cartel.
Back at the clubhouse, Elio — the cook from Mexico — and Bottles, the prospect, begin cooking up the next batch of Fentanyl. They are now working overtime because they have to turn all of these raw products into sellable drugs in just a matter of a few days.
When the pair decides to take a break, Bottles makes the mistake of telling Lobo — a very disagreeable brother — to watch the garage, which gets him thrown to the ground for daring to command a patched member while he’s just a prospect. Lobo eventually concedes to watch the garage while Bottles and Elio get a snack and a breather outside.
Unfortunately, Lobo disregards his own safety and checks out the cookhouse built inside the garage. He inspects the various tubs and pans with all the cooking material before dipping a finger into a batch like he’s trying to taste the frosting on a cake.
That exposure to raw Fentanyl is enough to seize Lobo’s heart and send him into a full blown overdose.
Bottles and Elio rush back inside to find him laying on the ground, choking on his own bile and spit. Bottles runs to EZ’s trailer to retrieve Sofia, who is a vet tech, but she’s certainly not equipped to deal with an overdose like this.
To make matters worse, Sofia was visited at her job by the father of her daughter — the one she accidentally allowed to drown and die while she abusing alcohol and actually drank so much that she passed out — but she wanted no part in seeing him. Now she’s being drawn into an overdose and trying to save Lobo’s life while ordering Bottles and the other members to call 911.
When EZ gets outside to find Lobo choking and dying of an overdose, he refuses to make the call for help because he knows that would expose the club. So the Mayans stand there and watch as Lobo dies despite Sofia desperately trying to save him.
In the wake of Lobo’s death, Bishop insists that the cooking has to take place somewhere safer and away from the Mayans compound. EZ agrees to the move but that’s going to require him to strike yet another deal.
As for the LNG cartel, Soledad and Miguel Galindo arrive at the cookhouse to find all of their soldiers dead, the product stolen and evidence that points back to Eduardo Villar-Fuentes — the rival cartel leader who partnered with them a couple episodes back. Soledad is livid that a partnership brokered by Miguel has already blown up in their faces and she’s determined to exact revenge.
Miguel isn’t so sure that Eduardo was behind this attack so he questions a little boy left alive after the assault on the cookhouse. The boy tells Miguel that the assailants were dressed all in black but they were speaking English rather than Spanish — and the one who spoke to him had slicked back hair like a movie star.
That’s a description for Angel Reyes, who made the foolish decision to remove his mask and whisper to the boy to stay quiet as the Mayans led the assault on the cookhouse. Now Miguel has at least an idea about who struck at them and he knows it’s not a rival cartel.
Protect the Land
To move the cookhouse out of the Mayans compound, EZ travels back to Salton Sea to visit with the Broken Saints M.C. and their leader Johnny Panic.
She seems very uninterested in whatever EZ is offering them because since the first time they met, he’s only ever tried selling her something without ever trying to be honest for even a second. EZ finally comes clean to her.
“My hands are covered in blood. It’s fucking getting exhausting.”
~ EZ Reyes
EZ then tells Johnny the honest truth — he can offer her M.C. the chance to make real money and have real protection from rival clubs like the Iron War M.C. that continues to come after them for trying to peddle a little bit of heroin in their territory. By setting up the cookhouse there, the Broken Saints will have backup from the Mayans as well as three crates filled with weapons stolen from the Sons of Anarchy.
That’s enough to finally broker the deal as Johnny agrees to partner with the Mayans — although one of her members asks of “Mother” will approve of this deal. Johnny Panic may be the president of the Broken Saints but it appears she still has to answer to a higher power.
Later that day, the Mayans arrive with a truck filled with supplies, Elio the cook and the weapons promised to the Broken Saints to close the deal. Bishop is even angrier now that EZ has given away all of the weapons they stole, which would have come in handy in the war with the Sons.
To make matters worse, the club learns that the Sons have struck at the Yuma chapter in Arizona, wiping out the club’s president, which we witnessed a couple of episodes back when psychopath Isaac Packer held two members hostage while threatening their wife and kids. EZ begins to realize that the Sons of Anarchy are closing down a circle around Santo Padre to cut them off from the rest of the world and leave them vulnerable for an attack that would wipe them out.
As irate as Bishop might be about surrendering the last of the guns, EZ tries to calm the situation by reminding the other Mayans that if they produce the Fentanyl as promised, they’ll not only have an elite special forces team working for them but Cole and his group can supply military grade weapons, which is vastly superior to the guns stolen from the Sons of Anarchy.
Now it’s just a matter of getting those drugs produced in a few days.
After leaving the property, the club members bury Lobo while admitting that nobody liked him all that much but he was still a brother so he deserves a proper burial. Gilly says a few words over his fallen brother — a speech he’s been forced to give more times than he would like after serving in the military.
As we first learned last season, Gilly was involved in an operation overseas that left several people dead and he came home with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he’s never truly escaped. We also saw Gilly reconnect with his former team leader, who was now married to another member named Paul, who lashed out and nearly killed himself in front of his wife and son during a harrowing incident at home.
Paul was forced to seek help while Gilly stayed to try and help pick up the pieces in the wake of his near suicide.
Now months later, Gilly is still living in Paul’s house, looking after his wife and taking care of his son. When Paul (CM Punk) arrives to take his son to wrestling practice as he continues to try and put his life back together again, he accuses Gilly of sleeping with his wife, which goes unanswered.
Elsewhere, Hank is visiting his mother in an assisted living facility where she’s struggling to acclimate to her new surroundings. He tries to get her to interact with some of the other people living there and that’s when he spots a familiar face running an exercise program at the home.
Nails — the former Mayans’ clubhouse regular who ended up sleeping with Angel and getting pregnant before losing the baby — has abandoned her old life and now she’s trying to start a new one on her own. She admits to Hank that it’s really difficult to leave the outlaw life behind because the danger, adrenaline, alcohol and sex are all very addictive but she’s trying to stay on her new path.
Of course, Hank had feelings for Nails and wanted to make a move on her himself until learning that she was already hooking up with Angel, which led to a brief engagement until she lost their baby. This time around, Hank doesn’t attempt to reconnect with Nails other than getting an update on how she’s doing before leaving to return to care for his mother.
As for Emily Galindo, she’s ready to make her move to escape Miguel and go on the run with their son Cristobal again. She orchestrates a visit to the grocery store where EZ Reyes left an unmarked car outside that she can use to escape her husband.
Remember, Miguel hunted down and killed Emily’s sister before taking back Cristobal so now she’s trapped in a marriage where she despises her husband but can’t leave because she would lose her son forever. Emily now hopes to make a run for it again thanks to EZ providing her with a getaway car.
Sadly, Emily’s plans come crashing down around her when she finally breaks free of the nanny and the guard assigned to watch her but a shout of “murderer” rings throughout the whole grocery store. When Emily turns around, she’s confronted by Marlon Buksar’s mother, who hired private investigators to look into her son’s death after he allegedly committed suicide.
A quick refresher — Marlon worked at the mayor’s office in Santo Padre when he tried to put the squeeze on Emily as she attempted to gain control over an agricultural park that she hoped would be a future for the Galindo family away from the drug running operation. When Marlon tries to blackmail Emily, she sends EZ to his house in an attempt to intimidate him — but instead Marlon pulls a gun and ends up accidentally shooting himself in the head during the struggle.
Last season, private investigators found Emily on the run and confronted her about Marlon’s death while accusing her of hiring someone to kill Marlon. Now at the worst time possible, Marlon’s mother lashes out at Emily, which brings her bodyguard and nanny running as they leave the grocery store together.
Back at home, Miguel and Cristobal eat dinner together while Emily sits stoically in silence, almost dead on the inside as perhaps her best and last attempt to escape her husband has failed.
Speaking of Miguel — while he’s gathering evidence that the Mayans may have been responsible for attacking the cookhouse in Mexico — Soledad isn’t so patient waiting for answers. Instead, she orders Adelita to hunt down and kill Eduardo, which she does with brutal precision after breaking into his house and slitting his throat.
As Eduardo falls to the ground gurgling on his own blood, Adelita spots his daughter hiding behind a chair, cowering in fear and crying over the loss of her father. Just before he died, Eduardo spoke out saying “close your eyes” and he was obviously speaking to his daughter, who has now witnessed her father suffer a gruesome death.
Back at home, Adelita is understandably emotional after she suffered through a similar fate when her father was tortured and killed by the Galindo cartel. Now she’s done the same to another little girl, who will undoubtedly never get past the trauma of watching her father murdered in front of her.
Of course, Adelita has never told Angel that she’s still working for the LNG cartel so she can only explain to him memories of her father and the desire to always protect the ones they love. She wants assurances that their son Maverick will be looked after no matter what.
Angel promises to always protect both of them even as he actively works alongside his brother to take down the operation employing the woman he loves to serve as a debt collector and hit woman in her spare time. Something tells me Adelita will soon receive an order to take out one of the Mayans and that may finally force her to come clean to Angel.
Them Rats
Back at the clubhouse, Sofia receives a visit from the father of her daughter, who tried to visit her at work earlier that same day. He tells Sofia that he wrote her every day she was in prison but she never responded.
Sofia tells him that she never opened a single letter.
He basically tries to get Sofia to forgive herself for what happened to their daughter because he’s spent the last few years doing the same. He no longer wants to hate her or himself for their daughter’s death but it’s clear Sofia is nowhere near ready enough to let go of that pain.
Later that night when EZ arrives home, Sofia greets him with a punch as she angrily attacks him for allowing Lobo to die from that overdose. Seeing something so horrific brought back memories to the day her daughter died in the pool and she desperately tried to resuscitate her lifeless body.
EZ apologizes and tells Sofia that the cookhouse has been moved so no more mistakes will happen before then admitting that the club is in bad shape with very few signs of hope. Despite EZ’s outward display of confidence that he’s got everything under control, even he’s struggling to see how the Mayans make it out of this alive, especially while fighting a war with the Sons and a potential battle with the cartel looming overhead like a storm cloud.
Little does EZ know that things are about to get much worse for him.
Kate — previously known as Kody — may have been fired from her job at the FBI but she’s still determined to help Creeper discover the rat operating inside the Mayans. After using her supervisor’s credentials to get into the record room, Kate found the files from the investigation that was led by Agent Kevin Jimenez but the confidential informant’s name had been blacked out and essentially erased from history (just as Lincoln Potter promised back in season one).
But Kate wasn’t giving up so easily so she pays a visit to Kevin Jimenez’s wife to look for answers.
Remember, Jimenez was actually cousin to EZ Reyes, which was partly how he orchestrated the deal to turn him into an informant and negate his prison sentence for shooting and killing a cop. Jimenez was eventually removed from the case and his boss Lawrence Bowen was also in trouble after having his security clearance yanked.
It was all orchestrated by Lincoln Potter, who took over as the case agent in charge of EZ Reyes and by extension his brother Angel Reyes, while seeking to once again strike up relations between the U.S. government and the Galindo cartel. As part of a deal to keep EZ’s informant status a secret — because the information was about to become public — Potter ordered the Reyes’ brothers to kill Jimenez.
In the end, EZ and Angel killed Jimenez and Bowen with Potter arriving at the house with a promise that he would clean everything up like it never happened.
Now as Kate arrives to talk to Jimenez’s wife, it seems she’s gone three years without ever knowing what actually happened to her husband. He just disappeared one day and never came home again with no answers from the government about his real fate.
Kate tells her that he got mixed up with some bad people but she’s trying to find answers — so Jimenez’s wife invites her inside and allows her access to the last of his case files he kept at home. Kate begins listening to the taped conversations between Jimenez and EZ Reyes, which always took place inside Felipe Reyes’ butcher shop.
No identity is revealed until Jimenez gets into a heated conversation and mentions EZ by name. Kate rewinds the tape to ensure she actually heard it correctly as Jimenez calls out to EZ again — and she stares at a photo of the Santo Padre president hanging on a bulletin board she cobbled together of Mayans who had done time in prison that could potentially be the informant working with the government.
Will Kate turn the information over to Creeper to accuse the Mayans’ president of being a rat? Is this the beginning of the end of EZ Reyes? Only time will tell.
“Mayans M.C.” returns next Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX with a new episode.
