In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, EZ is forced to make a dangerous deal and the identity of the rat is revealed with several bodies hitting the floor before it’s all over…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
There was no way we were reaching the conclusion of “Mayans M.C.” without a few major deaths and the latest episode had the biggest body count yet.
Last week in a fairly quiet episode by “Mayans” standards, EZ finally got revenge for the death of his mother 12 years earlier when he gunned down the man who was hired as a hitman to kill her. That man was none other than SAMCRO sergeant-at-arms Happy Lowman, who was a staple throughout all seven seasons of “Sons of Anarchy.”
There was no way killing a legacy Son wasn’t going to eventually come back to bite the Mayans but how that happened unfolded in a very surprising way at the end of this latest episode.
Before we get there, EZ’s ambitious plans to transform the Mayans into a power drug running operation has finally started to bear fruit but not without a lot of bloodshed along the way. He also has no idea that the LNG cartel is onto him, which led to Soledad ordering a hit on EZ — a mission she handed over to Adelita as a final job before allowing her out of her obligation to serve them.
Meanwhile, Emily’s forced reunion with Miguel has brought her nothing but misery but even at her lowest, it turns out she can still find new depths of hell as we learn when she finally confronts the woman accusing her of murdering her son. That same woman nearly made off with Cristobal last week so there was no way Emily wasn’t going to try to put a stop to her one way or another.
And finally the identity inside the Mayans has been teased throughout the season but despite the knowledge that EZ was the person who initially turned informant to secure an early release from prison, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that secret never got back to the rest of his brothers. EZ believes he’s the savior of the Mayans and if there have to be a few sacrificial lambs along the way, it appears he’s more than ready to send them to the slaughter.
With that said, let’s get to the recap for the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” titled “To Fear of Death, I Eat Stars”…
You Are the Devil
We’re starting slightly out of sequence with this week’s recap because this part of the episode was more encapsulated than all the rest — and that involves Adelita’s final mission for the cartel.
As it was revealed last week, Adelita was ordered by Soledad to take out EZ Reyes, who has suddenly become quite a thorn in the side of the cartel. Adelita has no intention of killing Angel’s brother so instead she enacted a plan that she’s quietly been working on throughout the season.
It turns out Adelita has been gathering poppy farmers to take them away from the abusive and almost slave-like conditions they are forced to live while working for the cartel. Her next move was to take out the key leaders from the cartel but Soledad ordering her to kill EZ forced Adelita to change her planned timeline.
So after kissing Angel and Maverick goodbye, Adelita heads down to Mexico to inform the farmers that she’s moving against the cartel immediately.
At the safe house where the money for the cartel is gathered, Adelita comes in guns blazing, taking out Soledad’s right hand woman but leaving the people counting the cash alone. She then exchanges fire with several soldiers and even takes a bullet in the shoulder while gathering several bags of cash before escaping to an awaiting SUV there to pick up the money.
Adelita kills a few more guards and speeds away with the cash bound for parts unknown.
Back in Santo Padre, Angel wakes up to find Maverick bawling in his bed and he soon realizes that his son is covered in his own vomit and Adelita is nowhere to be found. Angel cleans up his son and calls Adelita but she’s not answering.
He attempts to clean up the mess but when he lifts Maverick’s bed from his crib, he finds stacks of cash hidden underneath. Angel doesn’t have time to question the origin of the money before he heads off to a local pharmacy to find medicine for his son.
Thankfully a mother notices that Angel is looking at adult medicine for his infant son so she leads him to the correct section where he buys one of everything in hopes of making Maverick feel better. Angel then arrives at Felipe’s house where his father is concocting a home remedy to try and help Maverick, who may be running a fever.
Angel comments that Adelita has been gone for hours, she’s not answering her phone or responding to his text messages and he asks if Felipe knows anything. His father responds that he doesn’t know even though he’s privy to the fact that Adelita has secretly been working for the cartel this entire time — he even pleaded with her to tell Angel the truth but she refused.
Still, Angel is convinced that no matter what is happening that Adelita will return home to him and their son by the end of the night.
Back in Mexico, an injured Adelita arrives at a different safe house — this time guarded by a child army brandishing automatic weapons. It turns out, Adelita was looking for Mini — the girl she had by her side while leading a rebel army, who has now been instilled as the new leader of the resistance against the Mexican cartels.
Adelita struggles up the stars with the gunshot wound in her shoulder bleeding profusely but she finaly makes it inside where she’s reunited with Mini. It turns out, Adelita’s plan was to gain the trust of the cartel, find out the inner workings of the operation, free the poppy farmer and then turn everything over to Mini, who would lead her people out of poverty and servitude.
A quick reminder — Adelita’s real name was Luisa but she adapted a new moniker while leading the resistance, which is the title she wants to hand over to Mini along with the bags of cash and the poppy farmers, who will now follow her orders. Rather than react with the gratitude that Adelita is expecting, her former child prodigy knows that the woman that led the uprising against the cartels for so many years has now been taking their blood money.
Adelita: “You really are Adelita”
Mini: “And you are the devil”
With that, Mini pulls out a knife and stabs Adelita repeatedly in the stomach and chest as she falls to the ground. Mini continues stabbing her dozens of times as Adelita whispers Maverick’s name one last time before she falls dead.
In Mini’s eyes, Adelita betrayed the cause when she teamed up with the cartel and there was no going back from that. She had to die.
Back in Santo Padre, Angel returns with Maverick and he finds the house still empty — and sadly he’ll soon discover that Adelita will never come home again.
Don’t Disappoint Me
In an effort to force the cartel out of the drug running game north of the border, EZ made numerous risky moves that involved securing a cook and the supplies to begin producing street level Fentanyl. The gamble has paid off thus far with the Mayans partnering with Cole and his band of special ops soldiers for hire, who are now feeding the drugs in the prisons as well as up and down the coast in California.
Cole told EZ that he had to produce enough quantity to make it worth their while to sever ties with the cartel and thus far the Mayans have followed through every time. In fact, the Mayans have been producing even more Fentanyl that initially expected, which has given Cole the greenlight to introduce EZ to his boss.
His name is Gretton — played by real life Navy SEAL and Brazilian jiu-jitsu enthusiast Jocko Willink — who is snapping the arm of an opponent during a grappling session when the Mayans walk in to meet him.
Gretton applauds the Mayans for all the hard work to get them here and as a reward, he’s handing them the keys to the kingdom — they will now be in charge of the entire drug trade in the prison system from California up through Oregon. The Iron War M.C. and Storm 88 — the clubs made up of cops and prison guards — will now answer directly to the Mayans. In exchange, the Mayans will share half of everything with Gretton and his special ops soldiers for hire.
EZ recognizes immediately that a 50 percent cut is far too much, especially as he seeks to maintain relationships with the other Mayan charters as well as the partnership he’s built with the Broken Saints M.C. where the Fentanyl is being produces. Gretton tells EZ that there’s no negotiating this rate — they’ll pay 50 percent or the deal is over, that’s it, cut and dry.
He also informs EZ that breaking the arm of the person he was grappling was just business after being disappointing in something they did — Gretton then warns EZ to never disappoint him as he leaves the room.
It appears that the next biggest threat coming for EZ’s new partnership will be thanks to the deal he struck with the Broken Saints M.C. after they take in a familiar stray at the start of the episode.
Two of the members riding along the road find somebody beaten and left for dead so they pick the girl up and bring her back to the clubhouse — and we soon discover that person is none other than Letty.
The last time we saw Letty she was being attacked by Isaac after he broke into her house and kidnapped Hope while informing Coco’s daughter that she’s going to do what’s required after her father took something from him. Isaac then took Hope as collateral before handing down his orders to Letty.
It appears Isaac wants Letty to infiltrate the Broken Saints to discover what the Mayans are doing because he obviously wants to escalate the war by destroying the one source of income his enemies have built.
The Broken Saints take in Letty under the guise that she was beaten by an ex-boyfriend and she starts building friendships there after Johnny Panic — president of the Broken Saints — lays out a few rules including no guests can come visit her and she always tells the truth because otherwise she will be broken in worse ways than how they found her on the side of the road.
Obviously, Letty is acting as a spy for Isaac to report back to him so she starts working alongside the Broken Saints to earn her way when she’s surprised to see EZ and several members of the Mayans show up the next day. EZ, Guero, Bottles and the others have arrived with supplies for the next batch of Fentanyl along with payment from the latest shipment.
During a conversation, Johnny can’t help but notice that EZ looks in worse and worse shape every time she sees him and he admits that doing so much bad for the sake of the greater good is really beginning to take a toll on him. It doesn’t take much for Johnny to realize that EZ rarely rests these days.
“Sleep’s for the innocent. Life we’ve chosen, I don’t think we’ll ever rest again.”
~ Johnny Panic
Letty keeps her head down to ensure she’s not discovered and later that night, she finally snoops around the compound where she finds the building where there are numerous cooks putting together another batch of Fentanyl that will soon hit the street. It sure looks like Letty is ready to rat this out to Isaac so she can save Hope but that will undoubtedly put her in direct opposition with the Mayans.
Where does Letty’s loyalty lie? Only time will tell.
Slip and Fall
Following last week’s episode where Emily was terrified that Cristobal was nearly kidnapped, she decides to seek out the person responsible. That is none other than Mrs. Buksar — the mother to Marlon Buksar, the former mayoral office employee who made the ill-fated decision to try and blackmail Emily Galindo, who in turn sent EZ Reyes there to threaten him and during a struggle, Marlon shot himself in the face. The death was ruled a suicide but Marlon’s mother never bought it.
After calling Emily a murderer in front of a grocery store filled with people and then attempting to make off with Cristobal in a park, Mrs. Buskar sits down with the woman she believes had her son murdered.
Emily tries to reason with her while revealing plans to set up a fund in Marlon’s name for suicide prevention but his mother isn’t buying — instead she reveals that she knos Emily had her son killed by her “boyfriend” EZ Reyes and she’s finally gathered up enough proof to bring it to the district attorney. She expects the D.A. will convene a grand jury, which will then lead to charges filed against EZ Reyes and Emily for ordering him to kill her son.
In a fit of rage, Emily grabs a statue and bludgeons Mrs. Buksar to death on her own living room floor. She then call for help from Luis — the right hand man and loyal soldier to her husband Miguel.
With Emily’s reluctant help, Luis stages the scene to make it look like Mrs. Buksar slipped and fell in the shower, hitting her head and dying on impact. Needless to say it probably won’t take a forensic pathologist to figure out Mrs. Buksar was killed with repeated blows to the head rather than one fall on her shower floor but that’s neither here nor there.
At least for now, Emily has dispatched a major problem looming overhead.
Back at home, Miguel is looking for one of Cristobal’s favorite toys when Emily enters the room and just stares at him. He asks what’s wrong but rather than answering, Emily just grabs her husband and they begin kissing before having sex.
Afterwards, Miguel tells Emily that he wants to work to get back to what they once were and he’ll do anything to make that happen. He’ll burn down his entire life if that means restoring the trust he once shared with Emily.
Miguel is obviously desperate to break free of the grip that Lincoln Potter has on him as well so does this mean he’ll strike the deal with the inspector general’s office? That deal involved Miguel going to prison but it would finally tear down the house of cards that Potter has built in recent years — but is he really willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of his family?
Also as much as Emily allowed herself a moment of pleasure amidst a sea of pain, there’s almost no way she would actually fall back in line with her husband, especially not after Miguel had her sister brutally murdered. Maybe Emily has something else in mind — like perhaps pointing Mrs. Buksar’s murder back at her husband?
Blood Must Be Shed
The looming specter of a rat inside the Mayans has been hanging overhead like a storm cloud all season long with full knowledge that it was EZ Reyes, who agreed to become an informant on the Galindo cartel in order to secure his release from prison. When confronted with that reality by Creeper in prison, EZ turned on his brother and got him severely beaten from the guards before being thrown into solitary confinement, which would prevent him from contacting Hank or anyone else in the club.
This week the hammer finally falls on a rat but not the one we all suspected.
It turns out that the Mayans figured out that Jess — the clubhouse bar tender — was the person who actually handed over information to the Sons of Anarchy because her sister is the old lady to the vice president in the San Bernardino chapter. It’s not exactly clear how they discovered her relationship to the Sons of Anarchy but the Mayans set a trap to finally rid themselves of the rat.
That involves Nestor finally making a move on Jess after they had been flirting for weeks and he took her out on a pseudo date to get her alone — and then he pulls out a gun and blows her head off. Hank soon arrives to show this was all a set up to get rid of Jess — and Nestor has no problem doing his job because she was a rat anyways.
Back at the clubhouse, EZ has called a meeting but before everyone puts their phones away, Hank gets a call from the penitentiary. Creeper was finally released from solitary and he makes a beeline to the phones so he can call Hank with the news that EZ was the rat all along.
But just as the call is connected, Creeper is attacked by two more prisoners and they stab him to death — he falls to the ground and the phone gets hung up. It appears EZ’s secret will stay secret for at least another day but it came at the cost of a loyal brother who gave up his own freedom to ensure the Mayans wouldn’t be toppled.
Now Creeper is dead.
In the meeting, EZ reveals to the club that he decided to strike the deal with Gretton even if that means it’s going to hurt the Mayans’ bottom line. He knows cutting the soldiers of fortune in at a 50 percent cut is more than the Mayans can afford but this deal will give them control over the prisons, which means they have the leverage over the Sons of Anarchy.
“There’s no way to defeat the enemy without bloodshed. There’s no way to defeat the enemy without discomfort. Even our own.”
~ EZ
Bishop seems angry that EZ made this decision without calling a vote, especially after his speech that he wouldn’t lead a dictatorship like Marcus Alvarez. Bishop already had a tough enough day after his relationship with Maggie went down in flames after she discovered him in bed with Treenie — the former old lady of another Mayan member, who has now been hanging around the Santo Padre clubhouse.
As angry as everyone seems that EZ made a deal behind their backs, he explains that the benefits far outweigh the risks because this will allow them to control the prison, they will take over the drug running pipeline and that means the Mayans will eventually seize power over all of California up to Oregon and even over to Arizona. This is a means to an end.
The rest of the club also learns that Jess was the rat — and she’s been exterminated but as Hank says, at least it wasn’t somebody inside the Mayans who sold them out.
EZ ends the meeting by telling his brothers that all these recent moves will finally allow them to crush the Sons of Anarchy and put the Mayans on top once and for all. Nothing will come easy but anything worth having will be hard — and the moves EZ has been making are finally about to pay off.
The club decides to celebrate the new partnership but the party gets interrupted when Diaz — the president of the Oakland charter of the Mayans — and his vice president Jinx show up seeking answers after learning that a member of SAMCRO was murdered. Throughout this entire war, the only thing that kept Oakland, Stockton and Lodi safe was the truce struck with the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original in Charming — and as long as nobody from those charters got involved, the bloodshed would stay in southern California.
Happy’s death means that the war will soon come for the other Mayans but EZ decides to pull them into a private meeting where he tells them the moves that have been made.
First, EZ informs them that Happy was in their territory so it was a righteous kill — even if he doesn’t tell them the full story about why he was murdered. EZ then reveals the new partnership he struck to take over the drug running pipeline in California, which now includes the entire prison system.
That means if anyone inside needs protection or wants to survive, it’s going to have to go through the Mayans, which means the Sons of Anarchy will have to come to the table to deal with them. He also knows through Isaac’s actions that the rest of the Sons of Anarchy are undoubtedly growing tired of his antics, which means they were almost certainly cut him off before he’s allowed to escalate this war any further.
In the end, EZ promises that the Mayans will win and the Sons will finally be subservient to them.
EZ then hands over two stacks of cash to show Diaz and the other leaders from northern California that he really does mean business. That puts a smile on Diaz’s face and it appears he’s ready to reform the partnership with the charters in the south but that all changes in an instant.
Just after hugging EZ and preparing to leave, Guero comes out of nowhere and puts a bullet in the back of Diaz’s head. Guero screams that’s for his father — and a quick reminder that Guero is Ibarra’s son — Ibarra was the former president of the Tuscon chapter of the Mayans, who was gunned down by his own brothers in the war of the three kings. Diaz was the one who pulled the trigger and Guero obviously never forgot that.
With Diaz dead, Bishop finally rises from his chair and pulls a gun to kill Jinx as well.
Now the president and vice president of the Oakland chapter lay dead on the floor just seconds after it appeared the wounds inside the Mayans were finally beginning to heal. Guero’s act of vengeance, while justified, may have just ended whatever partnership EZ hoped to build with the charters up north.
Is it possible that Guero killing Diaz was orchestrated or even ordered? Was this all part of EZ’s strategy to weed out any potential enemies inside the Mayans to once again enact Bishop’s original plan to have one king sit on the throne? Is this exactly what EZ wanted?
With only three episodes remaining, it won’t take long to find out — “Mayans M.C.” returns for a new episode next Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
