In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, Bishop wants answers after the club’s heroin transport nearly gets busted, Angel reunites with Adelita and Palo strikes back at the Mayans…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there’s one thing to always remember when watching “Mayans M.C.” or its predecessor “Sons of Anarchy,” it’s that the people in both of these clubs are ultimately outlaws.
Case in point, Taza betrayed his own club by killing a brother in Riz last season just so he could protect his own history with the Mexican bikers known as the Vatos Malditos, which then ignited a bloody war that left at least one member of the Sons of Anarchy dead and buried in the desert.
The butterfly effect of that payback ordered by Bishop has already resulted in serious blowback as the once strong bonds between the Sons and the Mayans are suddenly being ripped apart. To make matters even worse, Bishop and the Santo Padre chapter are now at odds with their own club as the other Mayan charters are feeling the financial squeeze from losing the gun trade that was supposed to get set up in part of a deal brokered with the Vatos Malditos, who are now all dead minus one very revenge minded former president.
Of course there are plenty of other problems plaguing members of the club including Coco, who suddenly graduated from Oxycontin abuse to full blown heroin addiction and that’s not going to be good for anybody.
Elsewhere, Miguel Galindo has been unable to move past the tragic “suicide” of his mother Dita and that has affected every other facet of his life. His business is crumbling as the Galindo Cartel continues to lose ground in Mexico and his relationship with his wife Emily is falling apart even faster while he carries on a secret affair with a politician south of the border.
And finally, Angel got the surprise of a lifetime a week ago when he was about to bed down with a woman only to find the mother of his child sitting in his living room just waiting for him to come home.
That’s where we pick up this week and there’s a lot to unpack so with that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” titled “Our Gang’s Dark Oath”…
Knives Out
After he obviously asked Nails to exit his house, Angel tries to talk to Adelita, who is almost catatonic ever since she was released from imprisonment by the U.S. Justice Department. He asks about her condition but Adelita isn’t interesting in talking much given the torture she endured under the watchful eye of Assistant U.S. Attorney Lincoln Potter. Finally, Angel asks her about their baby and without much care or compassion, Adelita finally answers back that he’s dead.
Following a hot shower as she let the grime and dirt of months of abuse wash off of her body, Adelita finally emerges to sit down to talk to Angel, who wants to know about what happened to their baby.
That’s when Adelita reminds him that in order to save her months ago, Angel stashed her inside a brothel but he has no idea the emotional turmoil that stirred it her.
It seems after her family was butchered by the Galindo cartel when she was a child, Adelita ended up being taken in by women at a local brothel where she cooked and cleaned and tried to survive as best she could. When Adelita turned 11 years old, the women at the brothel told her it was time for her to really earn her keep.
Rather than allow strange men to have free reign over her body, Adelita grabbed a knife and slit her own throat, imitating the exact fate that happened to her family. In her mind, Adelita felt it was better to be dead in the ground and reunited with her family than to allow anybody to have control over her body.
Adelita then tells Angel the horrific truth about what happened to her while Potter was holding her captive for months.
“You want to know what happened in there with Potter? I couldn’t get my hands on a knife.”
~ Adelita
She then tells Angel that he looks like a man but yet he’s just a little boy grown tall because he still hasn’t been able to grasp the weight of the consequences attached to every choice he makes. Later that night, Angel lays in bed with the woman he loves and asks if their child was beautiful and Adelita answers him yes as they attempt to find some sort of catharsis in their shared suffering.
Rat Catcher
Following a hellacious night that saw the Mayans almost get busted transporting 250 kilos of heroin across the border, Bishop wakes up on the couch of his ex — Santo Padre mayor Antonia Pena.
It seems these two were in love many years ago and they had a son named Aidan. Sadly, Aidan died — the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown — but Bishop returns to his old house every year on the anniversary of their son’s death, which doesn’t sit too well with Antonia’s new girlfriend.
Bishop laments about how their son would be in the fifth grade after talking to Marcus Alvarez and his wife and realizing that their daughter was about to enter the seventh. He wonders why it is that Marcus and his wife were able to survive the outlaw life yet Antonia finally had enough of him?
But Antonia isn’t interested in a trip down memory lane much less drudging up pain from the past. In fact, she tells Bishop that she won’t be seeing him at Aidan’s grave later that day because she needs to move on to the future instead of constantly getting mired in the past.
Needless to say, Bishop can’t reconcile with his son’s mother moving past the anniversary of his death.
After leaving her home, Bishop returns to the clubhouse already agitated as he tries to sort out the details from the heroin transport from the previous night. He’s convinced that Alicia — the woman who got busted at the border carrying heroin for them from Mexico — must have taken a deal and turned on them. That’s the only way he can imagine that Border Patrol got a beat on their heroin transport.
But EZ disagrees — he knows Alicia wouldn’t rat out the club because she’s got too much to lose by turning traitor. Alicia’s husband and children are still on the outside and if she turns rat, there’s nothing that would stop the Mayans from seeking vengeance on her family.
Instead, EZ offers the suggestion that perhaps Vicki — the brothel owner and Riz’s aunt — is the more likely culprit. She was already angry that the club discovered and started using the tunnel she had going over to Mexico and Riz’s death has only exacerbated her anger towards the Mayans.
Taza tends to agree that if anyone has a grudge against the Mayans right now, it’s probably Vicki.
Bishop orders EZ to go to the prison to see Alicia and see what he can find out while the rest of the members will begin working on a dangerous plan he called the “Bridge On the River Kwai” in order to bring in the heroin that’s currently sitting just south of the Mexican border.
Now he doesn’t offer any details about what this particular plan of action entails but the book and the film “The Bridge On the River Kwai” is a fictitious account of a real railway bridge that was built during World War II. In the fictional version, a group of British prisoners of war are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors while Allied forces are currently plotting to destroy it.
While Bishop acknowledges that this plan is highly dangerous and almost suicidal for everyone involved, he believes this is the only course of action that could get that much heroin across the border right now.
Later that day, EZ arrives at the prison to visit Alicia, but he’s first haunted by flashbacks from his own experience behind bars where he was viciously beaten after first arriving to the day he sought vengeance by stabbing another inmate to death. When Alicia finally arrives, EZ tells her that they’ve put some money into her account but then not so subtly asks if she’s talked to anybody — and she’s smart enough to understand what he means.
Alicia promises that she’s said nothing to nobody and she’s made no friends inside because she’s been spat on and had her food stolen by fellow prisoners. She does confess, however, that Vicki was irate seeing her behind bars and that tells EZ everything he needs to know about the rat.
When he reports back to Bishop at the clubhouse, EZ reassures him that Alicia didn’t turn on them but as further proof, he tells the Mayan president that she was still wearing the general population uniform. If Alicia had turned traitor, she’d be segregated and under Federal protection, which means she’d be separated from the other prisoners and likely not allowed to see anybody, especially a person she would eventually have to testify against.
That tells Bishop everything he needs to know.
Steve the prospect arrives at Vicki’s brothel and tells her that she needs to come to the clubhouse with him because Bishop wants to speak to her. She asks for time to grab her coat but in reality she takes a go bag and jumps down into the tunnel to make a quick getaway.
But as soon as she reaches the bottom of the ladder, Vicki is greeted by Creeper and a second later her head is blown off thanks to a bullet delivered by Taza as they were waiting to see if she would run. Sure enough, Vicki was the rat and now she’s been exterminated.
Losing Ground
The volatile situation in Mexico is only getting worse now that the Galindo cartel’s former rivals — Lobos Sonora — have risen again under a new name, Lobos Sonora New Generation.
If you remember back to “Sons of Anarchy,” when Clay Morrow first got the club in bed with the Galindo cartel, they were at war with the Lobos Sonora cartel in Mexico. Galindo was buying weapons from the Sons in order to fight that battle south of the border. Eventually, the Galindo cartel wiped them out but obviously the Lobos are back.
Governor Palomo finds that out the hard way after she arrives at a bridge where three of her staff member have been hanged to death with the Lobos Sonora sign tagged on a nearby wall.
When Miguel Galindo arrives later that day, he can only think about kissing Palomo but she’s not even remotely in the mood for romance. Instead, she insults Miguel as a weakling for failing to live up to his end of their bargain by keeping order in her province by wiping out the Lobos.
Instead, Miguel has just been lamenting the loss of his mother while his cartel is quickly losing ground in Mexico and now Palomo is starting to pay for it. She leaves and he’s no closer to figuring out an answer on how to deal with this latest threat.
When Miguel finally returns home, he finds several boxes packed near the front entrance and he discovers that it’s his mother’s belongings. It seems Emily took it upon herself to begin packing up Dita’s things since months have passed after her death.
Miguel lashes out and begins screaming at his wife while she’s clutching onto their son. Finally, Erin emerges from the pool, takes Cristobal away from Emily and admonishes Miguel for shouting and scaring his own son. That night, Miguel opens the door to his bedroom to find Emily, Erin and Cristobal all sleeping soundly together and that’s a strong metaphor to show just how much he’s been on the outside looking in ever since his mother died.
Miguel ends up back in his mother’s room crying himself to sleep as the pieces of his life continue to fall apart.
Born of a Broken Man
Felipe Reyes finally emerges from his bout of depression by returning to his butcher shop where he finds a whole lot of rotting meat and a bunch of work that needs to be done in order to open for business again. He calls on Gaby to lend him a helping hand and she continues to raise his spirits while dancing around the shop as she cleans up the counters and the work space.
She remarks looking at family photos how much EZ looks like his mother while helping Felipe get ready to go back into business for himself. It’s not exactly clear where this particular storyline is going but it’s enough for now that Felipe has gotten out of bed and he’s starting to return to some sense of normalcy.
As for Gaby, she ends up going on a date with EZ later that night with plans to have dinner back at his trailer.
The only problem is EZ doesn’t have much food to make for her and he currently only owns one fork, one spoon, one knife, one cup and one bowl. That’s not exactly the makings of a great dinner party.
Instead of eating, Gaby entertains EZ by sharing some of her favorite music with him before the two of them end up kissing and falling onto his bed. It appears things are about to get serious when EZ flashes to the moment when he choked the life out of Dita Galindo and then back to the prison when he stabbed another man to death.
Judging by his reaction, it seems EZ doesn’t believes he deserves anything good in his life because of all the evil he’s committed. Of course, Gaby sees right through him when EZ attempts to pretend that nothing is wrong.
She then reminds him that despite his reservations, she’s not some fragile flower that will just fall apart because he’s got a few skeletons in the closet. In fact, Gaby remarks that she barely knows anything about EZ other than his real name is actually Ezekiel. Gaby also tells him that she’s had to endure some horrendous atrocities in her own life and he can’t pretend like she’s just not ready to learn about his past sins as an excuse not to tell her.
In the end, Gaby asks EZ to take her home while informing him that this one way relationship isn’t going any further.
The Past Ain’t Through With Us
The fallout from the Mayans’ attack on the Vatos Malditos continued to unravel this week after Palo summoned his old friend Montez from the Sons of Anarchy to come visit with him.
As revealed earlier in the season, Montez — who was officially patched in as a member of SAMCRO back in season 6 when Bobby Munson was recruiting new members for the club — had some kind of side deal with the Vatos Malditos that allowed him to make some extra money as part of this gun trade that was being organized. The original plan was for the Vatos Malditos to handle transport through Mexico to then hand off the weapons to the Mayans as they took over the Irish gun trade from the Sons of Anarchy as part of Jax Teller’s final wish.
Sadly getting this gun trade transferred was easier said than done and now things are even worse after the Vatos Malditos struck at the Mayans and the Santo Padre chapter fired back by wiping out the entire club. Now the last man standing is Palo, the former president of the Vatos Malditos and he’s seeking his own brand of vengeance.
Montez arrives at an undisclosed location to meet with Palo to find out what happens next.
Palo reminds him that his cousin Tommy — a full patched member of the Sons of Anarchy — was gunned down by the Mayans as part of the slaughter that took out all of the Vatos Malditos yet there’s been no retribution whatsoever. Palo knows that Montez is keeping that a secret because if the Sons find out about Tommy being in Mexico, they’ll likely figure out that he was working a deal behind their backs.
That’s why Montez has just allowed the rest of the members of SAMCRO to believe Tommy just disappeared.
He promises they will reach a solution but when Montez turns to grab some cash from his wallet to hand over to help Palo survive, he instead has a plastic bag wrapped over his face while the last breath is sucked from his lungs until he’s been suffocated to death.
Meanwhile, Coco is facing his own set of problems after keeping secrets from his club as well.
As he begins to endure the shakes from withdrawal without any heroin in his system, Coco is summoned to the office at the clubhouse where he finds Isaac and Butterfly waiting to see him. Isaac — the all too creepy leader from Meth Mountain — is there to command some assistance from Coco and he’s got some blackmail to ensure the job gets done.
Isaac knows there are two ways to guarantee Coco will get murdered by his own club — if he’s gay and if they find out he’s shooting hardcore drugs. Isaac then produces the photo he took a week ago where Hope was injecting him with heroin after Coco returned to Meth Mountain.
To fulfill his end of the bargain so the club never finds out about his drug use, Isaac commands Coco to get them a kilo of heroin from the Mayans’ stash. Of course, Coco knows stealing from his own club is another way he can get executed but his options are limited right now.
To tide him over, Isaac hands over a small pouch of heroin and tells Coco he has until Friday to deliver their product.
Things only go from bad to worse for Coco when he wanders off to the bathroom to snort his latest fix when Gilly busts him. Gilly tells Coco he’s finished but even that doesn’t get him to put down the drugs as he continues to snort another line while wondering how much longer he might even be alive.
Finally, Taza returns to the clubhouse to tell Bishop that Vicki has been dealt with — the rat is no more.
He tells Taza to go home and get some rest because he’s going to need it as his plan to bring over the heroin across the border is happening soon and he needs everybody on point. Taza leaves the clubhouse but he hear something strange in the distance.
He then looks over at his bike and he sees a body laying across the seat.
Taza runs over to find Montez’s dead body laying on his motorcycle with X’s crossed over his eyes and a praying hand patch sitting on his chest. A dead member of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original being found at a Mayan clubhouse will undoubtedly ignite a bloody war that could reach every charter across the country.
And Taza knows without a doubt that this was Palo setting them up to die.
“Mayans M.C.” returns with a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX
