In the ‘Mayans M.C.’ recap, EZ and Angel question Happy about their mother’s murder, Felipe finds out some shocking news and Miguel is forced to play by Potter’s rules…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
As satisfying as the first season of ‘Mayans M.C.’ was setting up a new outlaw world away from ‘Sons of Anarchy’, the second season currently underway has been far superior and absolutely addictive.
The latest episode tied together the journey of Happy Lowman from his time as a member of the Sons of Anarchy Tacoma Chapter to his stint as a NOMAD all the way to patching in full time as part of SAMCRO. The loose ends that got tied up involved Happy’s side business where he was paid as a murder-for-hire specialist but one of his hits has now come back to bite him because he killed EZ Reyes’ mother and the future Mayan prospect got a good look at him.
Now nine years later, EZ and his brother Angel have tracked Happy down and they aren’t just seeking vengeance but rather answers as to why their mother had to die.
Meanwhile, the stunning revelation that Felipe Reyes in his former life as Ignacio Cortina — Mexican police officer and drug cartel muscle — not only had an affair with his boss’ wife but that relationship resulted in a game changing piece of information revealed to him in the latest episode that will undoubtedly send shockwaves that will touch just about everybody involved in this series.
And finally, Miguel Galindo’s attempts to play both sides of the fence as he worked with the rebels who were initially trying to take him down while double crossing the Department of Justice, who wants to keep him on a leash, backfired in the worst way possible. Not only did Miguel fail to advance his bigger mission in Mexico but he got his partner captured as the mercenaries hired by Lincoln Potter finally caught up to Los Olvidados leader Adelita.
There’s plenty to dig through in the latest episode so with that let’s recap the new installment of ‘Mayans M.C.’ titled ‘Lahun Chan’…
Captured
As Miguel Galindo continues to find ways to navigate through his relationship between running the Mexican drug cartel, building his legitimate businesses in the United States while simultaneously teaming up with a rebel organization initially created to destroy him and double crossing the Department of Justice, who believe they have him dangling by a string, it’s understandable why he would have a lot on his mind.
Last week, U.S. assistant district attorney Lincoln Potter called upon Miguel to pay a visit to a prominent new politician in Mexico named Palomo, who was stirring up resistance amongst the citizens, which could be remarkably bad for the plans that America has for south of the border. Because he can’t get his own hands dirty, Potter ordered Miguel to get Palomo involved in some kind of business with the cartel, which in turn would delegitimize her in the eyes of the people and thus end her campaign.
It seems Miguel and Adelita have been secretly working with Palomo to make her the public face of the changes they hope to institute in Mexico but now she’s making so much noise that Potter wants her silenced.
So Miguel picks up Adelita and they both travel south into Mexico for a secret rendezvous to meet with Palomo to figure out a way to keep her in power without upsetting the relationship he’s forced to continue with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Along the road, Adelita questions Miguel about all the different directions he’s being pulled and the strain that has to put on his marriage. Miguel assures her that his relationship with Emily is stronger than ever but it’s clear that isn’t actually the case. The tension between Miguel and Adelita once again raises the possibility that the baby she’s carrying belongs to him rather than Angel Reyes as revealed a couple of weeks ago.
Either way, Miguel and Adelita arrive in the small village where meeting with Palomo will take place. Unfortunately what they don’t know is that one of the cars they drove was fitted with a tracking device by the mercenaries, who were hoping to find the rebels involved in the massacre that saw several of their men killed earlier this season.
When the tracking device starts moving into areas beyond the control of the Galindo cartel, the leader of the mercenaries believes they might be onto something so the team gets dispatched to look for answers.
The mercenary team arrives and Miguel is left with few options because he’s somewhere he shouldn’t be and he’s with someone wanted by the U.S. government. That’s when Adelita decides there’s only one option — she grabs a pair of guns and tells Miguel to pretend he traveled there to track her down as a fugitive.
Miguel is forced to play along as he tells the mercenaries that they tracked the rebel leader to this small village and after a brief shootout, they were able to subdue her without injury. Adelita is brought out in handcuffs and handed over to the mercenaries, who will in turn deliver her to Lincoln Potter.
Miguel is disgusted with himself because he not only played into Potter’s hand but now he’s been forced to betray Adelita as well.
Family Secrets
Back in the states, Emily is moving towards the completion of her park project after receiving the inside information from her friend Ileana, who works in the mayoral office and exchanged competitor’s bids for a pile of cash that helped her pay off some debts. As Emily focuses on her planned expansion of the Galindo empire in the U.S., she’s also tasked with caring for Dita, who is going to her first appointment with a new psychologist.
After Dita escaped the last time, Miguel’s men have been warned to keep a close eye on her, which forces the Galindo matriarch to try that much harder to set up a meeting with Felipe Reyes.
She calls Felipe ahead of the appointment and tells him where to meet her. When he arrives, Dita has arranged for a space on the roof where they can talk after paying off her therapist with cash and threats to strip away her business if she dares to tell anyone that they aren’t doing sessions when she arrives each and every week.
Instead, Dita will use these weekly ‘therapy’ sessions to conduct her own business — this time meeting with Felipe to share some news with him.
It seems these two were deeply in love when Felipe was working for Dita’s husband as part of the cartel. Obviously the affair had to end at some point when Felipe fled Mexico with his wife to start a new life in the United States.
What Felipe didn’t know until now is that Dita was pregnant with his child when he fled the country — and that child grew up to be Miguel Galindo.
The shock barely has time to wash over Felipe’s face before he’s forced to leave but now he has to reconcile with cheating on his wife and fathering a child who now bears the Galindo name. To make matters worse, Felipe’s own son was in love with Miguel’s wife and they are actually brothers.
When Emily arrives to pick up her mother-in-law, Dita is all smiles after a great session with her therapist. All seems well until Emily spots Felipe Reyes’ truck parked just around the corner from the therapist’s building.
Later that night while Dita plays with her grandson, Emily does some snooping to find some answers about this mysterious connection. She eventually finds the book in Dita’s nightstand that shows her standing next to her husband Jose Galindo while Felipe Reyes’ is to her right with a gun in a holster, proudly protecting both of them.
Emily now knows the relationship between Dita and Felipe goes much deeper than anyone could have possibly suspected and she’s going to want some answers.
Swoled Up
As the Mayans ride back towards home after Medina’s funeral in Stockton, Bishop and the rest of the club travel through the same part of town that apparently now belongs to the ‘Swole Boys M.C.’. The crew can’t quite figure out why this club of jacked up gym rats riding crotch rockets are eyeballing them so hard but it doesn’t take long for the situation to explode.
On the road out of town, the Swole Boys attack and ultimately knock Riz off his bike before a few shots are fired that scare them away. Before leaving, Bishop hears one of the Swole Boys say this was payback.
Sadly for them a Mayan being knocked off his bike is going to require some vengeance of its own.
Bishop calls on Les Packer — president of the Sons of Anarchy San Bernardino chapter — to meet with them since this is closest to their territory. Packer (played by the great Robert Patrick) wasn’t too familiar with the Swole Boys outside of their reputation as a bunch of juice heads riding bikes but as far as he was concerned, they weren’t an outlaw charter.
Now after starting a beef with the Mayans, the Sons are going to have to keep a closer eye on the territory, which starts with payback for Riz rolling his bike, which could have easily killed him on the highway.
When the Mayans and Sons arrive at the Swole Boys clubhouse, Bishop is actually impressed by the balls of the head of the charter to stand up to them knowing they were out gunned and out numbered. Bishop also figures out that the payback must have stemmed from a different altercation that happened with Angel and EZ when they were traveling north towards Stocked a few days earlier.
While Bishop looks for answers from within his own club, first he has to dole out some payback which comes from Riz firing two bullets into the leg of a random member of the Swole Boys. Bishop considers that an even trade for what happened earlier and he implores the leader of the club to take care of his guy rather than attempting to ratchet up this beef any further.
Packer promises to keep a closer eye on the clubs in his backyard as Bishop and the Mayans head back towards Santo Padre. After two appearances this season, it’s tough to imagine the Swole Boys won’t be popping back up again at some point in the future.
Business Never Personal
Picking up from last week’s cliffhanger, EZ and Angel arrive in Charming where they take Happy at gunpoint before strapping him to a chair to seek some answers about their mother’s murder.
Despite their best efforts, Happy doesn’t blink or budge outside of telling them that this can only end one of two ways — either he’s dead or they’re dead.
Angel punches Happy and even goes as far as cutting off one of the tattooed smiley faces inked on his abdomen to signify each of the murders he’s committed over the years. The torture only stops when EZ asks Happy if he killed their mother under contract from the cartel.
That’s when EZ is forced to share some uncomfortable truths about their family with his brother. EZ explains to Angel that he found the lockbox belonging to their father and that his real name was Ignacio Cortina and he previously worked as a police officer in Mexico. Angel erupts at the betrayal that he didn’t know and that his brother failed to ever tell him.
After a brief fight, EZ and Angel know that they can’t let Happy go or this entire situation will blow back on the relationship shared between the Mayans and the Sons of Anarchy.
It finally takes Angel making a veiled threat to hurt Happy’s dog that the SAMCRO sergeant-at-arms relents and decides to cooperate.
He shows the Reyes’ brother the profile he had on both Felipe and his wife, including their daily routines and where he could find them. It seems Happy was hired through Packer to act as a hired killer for a contract being paid out through the Sons of Anarchy. At this time, Happy was a member of the NOMAD charter, which means he wasn’t local and no one would know him if he slipped in, killed somebody and slipped back out again.
Happy also reveals that his contract was for two people — Felipe and his wife.
When he arrived at the butcher shop, Happy busted in through the back but Felipe wasn’t there that night because he was out dropping of a deposit at the bank. Happy then tells the Reyes’ brothers that when he pulled out his gun, their mother didn’t flinch or even act surprised — she knew this coming for her.
Happy shot her in the neck but then got spooked when he heard cars outside and he was forced to split before carrying out the rest of his job. Because of the brutal nature of the job and the proximity to the border, Happy just assumed this was a contract paid out by the Mexican cartel, although he was never told who actually hired him.
When EZ busted through and gave chase that night, Happy assumed he was a secondary shooter hired by the cartel to clean up his mess. In his head, Happy was being hunted so he fled the area, drove back north and patched in with SAMCRO because he no longer felt safe on the road alone as a member of the NOMAD’s.
So that explains why Happy was ready to abandon his former charter and join up with the club in Charming instead.
As for the contract to kill their mother and father, Happy was only carrying out orders because it was business never personal. Even Angel has to realize that the lines have now been blurred because this is nothing but personal to them, which puts them in a very precarious position.
Things only get dicier when the newest SAMCRO prospect arrives to pay Happy a visit.
When the prospect finally gets through the door, he finds Happy sitting on the couch, his dog in his lap with EZ and Angel sharing beers with him. Happy tells his prospect that he got run off the road by a timber truck and the Mayans’ members spotted him, picked him up and brought him home.
After sending the prospect out to pick up dog shit, Happy and the Reyes’ brothers come to an understanding. Happy is going to reach out to Packer for information on the contract that was paid to kill Felipe Reyes and his wife so that will hopefully point EZ and Angel in the right direction to find out why their mother had to die.
Judging by the revelation made by Dita earlier in the episode, it would stand to reason that Jose Galindo sought to murder the man who fathered a child by his wife and his vengeance was also killing the woman Felipe loved. Now it’s up to EZ and Angel to find that truth.
‘Mayans M.C.’ will return next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
