In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, Bishop puts EZ’s plan into action, Coco faces the consequences of his addiction and Emily begins to realize her home life is falling apart…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If there’s one thing we learned that was abundantly clear through seven seasons of “Sons of Anarchy,” it’s that secrets always find a way to bubble up to the surface.
Through two seasons of “Mayans M.C.” much the same has been true but the latest secret could lead to a huge internal explosion in the club as Bishop seeks to take the reins over the entire charter thanks to a suggestion from his newest patched member Ezekiel Reyes.
In the two-episode season debut last week, Bishop and the Santo Padre chapter of the Mayans felt the brunt of the club’s decision to go against orders to exact revenge on the Vatos Malditos, which largely put a stop to the gun trade that was supposed to be taken over from the Sons of Anarchy. Add to that, the club’s heroin trade has also been nearly cut off thanks to the increased presence of the Border Patrol with less and less leaks allowing drugs to be brought into the country from Mexico.
That eventually leads to a tense standoff between Bishop and the other two Mayan kings — Ramos and Canche — and that’s when EZ reveals his plan to make Santo Padre the most powerful chapter in the entire organization.
He suggests bringing in a massive shipment of heroin, dishing out supplies to a different Arizona chapter that would cut out Canche and ultimately dethrone him from power with the same thing happening to Ramos in Northern California. The end result would be three kings reduced down to one with only Bishop left handing out the orders.
Of course best laid plans rarely play out as intended, which Bishop and EZ find out the hard way this week.
Elsewhere, Coco continues to struggle with his drug addiction, which is only exacerbated after he ends up at a place called Meth Mountain and there’s no chance that can be a good decision on his part. And then there’s Emily Galindo, who has grown distant from her husband Miguel as he struggles to face the reality of his mother’s “suicide.” Little does she know that he’s carrying on an affair with another woman, which only furthers the growing tension inside the crumbling Galindo empire.
With that said, there’s a lot to unpack from the latest episode so let’s recap “Mayans M.C.” titled “Overreaching Don’t Pay”…
Smack Down
The episode opens with a flashback to Coco’s youth where his mother was a heroin addict, who actually instructed her son on how to inject her with drugs between her toes as she sought to get higher and higher every day. That’s certainly a toxic relationship that eventually saw Coco murder his mother but it also speaks to the kinds of addictions that have haunted him since he was barely old enough to walk.
Fast forward to present day and Coco is waking up from a drug induced slumber after he was smacked on the head with a baseball bat after attempting to rob Oxycontin away from the dealers on “Meth Mountain.” Just when it appeared he was about to get gunned down, a girl named Hope recognized him and he only got knocked out rather than killed.
When he wakes up, Coco finds Hope injected him with a needle — obviously giving him a taste of heroin — and he dozes back off to sleep. After the drugs have finally coursed through his entire body, Coco busts out of the trailer, pukes and then prepares to escape Meth Mountain when he meets the leader of the group — a creepy yet enigmatic man named Isaac.
It’s almost like Isaac is speaking to Coco in tongues as he rambles his way through a hazy diatribe that leaves the wayward Mayan confused and disheveled. When Isaac hands Coco back his gun, he points the weapon at him before being disarmed a few seconds later.
Isaac then hands Coco back his gun for a second time and he fires it into the air before sprinting as fast as he can back to his car on the edge of the property. It appears Coco is graduating from Oxycontin to heroin and that’s not going to be good for anybody.
Back at the clubhouse, EZ is laying out his ambitious plans to bring 200 kilos of heroin across the border in one giant haul that will then be doled out to the Arizona charter, which in turn will then supply the prisons where their incarcerated brothers will be protected. It’s a dangerous idea but EZ is confident that he can pull it off and Bishop is definitely on board — perhaps because he knows if this all works out, he’ll be the last king standing and there’s little doubt that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
When Angel finally rolls into the clubhouse, it’s after he’s spent the morning with another woman in his bed as he continues to screw to forget Adelita and their baby boy he may never meet. Angel gets a drink at the bar when he speaks to Nails, who was his other side piece, and she’s questioning him about where he was the night before and perhaps if he’d want to go on a date that night to see a local band.
It’s obvious that Angel sees these women as just a way to forget his problems for a night or two rather than looking at any of them as potential girlfriend material but the feels aren’t mutual.
A little late to the party, Angel then hears the plans being put into motion by Bishop while agreeing with EZ’s strategy to eventually put him on the throne. Some of the other club members aren’t quite as confident with this particular action but Bishop warns them that EZ is seeing the future and they need to let go of the past.
First things first, Bishop needs to consult “El Padrino” himself Marcus Alvarez in order to get this massive shipment needed to keep the club up and running and he takes EZ with him to seal the deal.
Across town, Alicia — the girl tasked with bringing the drugs across the border last week, who was arrested after she attempted to run when stopped by border agents — is receiving a visit from Vicki — Riz’s aunt and the woman who runs the brothel that benefits the Mayans and contains a tunnel running from the U.S. side of the border over to Mexico.
Vicki has already just about had her fill with the Mayans intruding on her business but Riz being killed last season might have been the straw that finally broke her back. Add to that, Alicia is now in jail looking at a 10 year prison sentence for carrying heroin over the border and she’s quickly running out of options.
Rather than rotting away in prison while her children are raised with no mother, Vicki tells Alicia that perhaps she should tell the cops who ordered her to bring the heroin over in the first place. Of course, Alicia sees that as a death sentence because ratting on the Mayans almost guarantees she’ll never get to go home again but Vicki is steely in her resolve.
She wants vengeance for what happened to Riz and by the end of the episode, she might just get it.
Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Back at the Galindo home, Erin is settling into her new surroundings while Emily is adjusting to having her sister back in her life again. Of course, Miguel is just as cold as ever to his wife while preparing to leave to handle business that morning.
Erin jokes with him about his business, which Emily doesn’t find all that funny but Miguel is almost expressionless as he says goodbye to his son Cristobal and barely kisses his wife before leaving for work.
That’s when Erin suggests taking Cristobal for some ice cream just to get out of the house and have some fun. Emily balks at the idea because they don’t have a security detail right now and Cristobal isn’t allowed to have actual dairy.
But Erin eventually convinces her sister to take them all out for ice cream and while they are enjoying some frosty treats, she can’t help but tell Emily that she looks stressed out from a lack of bedroom action happening at home. Emily is embarrassed that her sister is bringing up her sex life but in reality, it would seem she hasn’t shared a marital bed with her husband in quite some time.
After finishing their ice cream, Emily and Erin are confronted by a local Santo Padre couple who toss a milkshake on their car in the parking lot. Emily is shaken as the man shouts at her for ruining this town and tearing Santo Padre apart after bailing on the agro-park construction that was supposed to supply jobs and a thriving economy.
Emily is ready to just drive away in shame but Erin is a bit more confrontational than her sister.
She curses at the walrus-looking milkshake tosser and then she throws what’s left of the ice cream on his car before kicking it as he drives away. When Erin gets back into the car with Emily, she sees her sister’s head buried into the steering wheel.
But rather than raising up out of anger, Emily just bursts out laughing at her sister’s insults as she berated the man for throwing a milkshake at them. A second later, Cristobal smiles and reminds his mother why he’s not supposed to have dairy in the first place.
Later that night when Miguel returns home, Emily attempts to bridge the gap between them by showing up in their bedroom wearing next to nothing before caressing and kissing him. She sits him down on the bed and begins to take off his pants but Miguel shuns her advances, pushes her back and just leaves the room.
Emily is understandably stunned and it appears her sister’s perception about the icy state of their marriage was more intuitive than she wanted to imagine. It doesn’t help much that Erin also noted that Miguel doesn’t share that same look of pent up sexual frustration on his face, which hints at his activities outside the home.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Bishop and EZ head over to see Marcus Alvarez to ask about transporting the heroin across the border as he begins putting the plan into motion to freeze out the other Mayan kings. Of course, “El Padrino” thinks this is just Bishop conceding to Ramos and Canche to supply them with heroin to offset the lost profits from the gun trade they were supposed to pick up from the Sons of Anarchy.
It not easy for Bishop to lie to Alvarez, especially with a certain tragedy hanging overhead.
Alvarez mentions to him that it’s the week of a particular anniversary and Bishop does his best to play it off as if he forgot the date, but it clearly bothers him. More on that later.
In the end, Alvarez agrees to put together a heroin shipment of 250 kilos and Bishop orders EZ and his brother Angel to organize the drop today because he’s not waiting any longer to orchestrate this takeover.
EZ organizes with Angel and the two of them head over across the border before meeting up with a contact on the other side named “Juan Denver” and he loves speaking in lyrics from the “Rocky Mountain High” singer. Much to Angel’s chagrin, EZ actually plays along as they finally arrive at a construction site with a ton of materials including some concrete highway barriers.
A quick look at the manifest and EZ figures out that these were the materials that were supposed to get shipped across the border for Miguel Galindo’s agro-park. When Juan Denver starts smashing through one of the barriers, it reveals heroin hidden inside.
That explains why Miguel’s drug trade is suffering just as much as Santo Padre because his grand scheme was to use the agro-park as a conduit for his cartel business but now both have been shut down.
EZ and Angel help pick up all of the heroin before heading back to the border.
Meanwhile back at the club, Coco returns and Gilly confronts him about his recent behavior, which has been erratic at best. He confesses to getting hooked on the pills he took to help with the pain following his eye injury but he promises the situation is under control and he’s putting all that behind him.
Later as the club members await word from EZ and Angel, they find two members of the Sons of Anarchy have arrived into town.
Happy and Montez from SAMCRO have made a courtesy run to Santo Padre to inform the Mayans that Les Packer’s cancer has put him out of commission for the time being. With him absent, Happy has been tasked with running the San Bernardino chapter of the Sons of Anarchy and he issues a not so friendly warning that if any of the Mayans come rolling through SOA territory, they need to give them the heads up first.
Bishop fires back that this visit was made without the same courtesy being paid but Happy’s not interested in hearing him — especially after the Mayans blew the gun trade that was supposed to get SAMCRO out of that business once and for all to fulfill Jax Teller’s dying wish. Montez warns the Mayans that actions have consequences, which speaks to the dead members of the Vatos Malditos in Mexico.
Before leaving, Happy and Montez pass down word that this new edict comes with Chibs’ blessing.
The tense meeting ends with Happy and Montez rolling away while Hank can’t help but wonder if this warning was dished out thanks to the dead Reaper they left in Mexico after gunning down the rival club. Bishop doesn’t believe that’s the case and he’s not too worried about Happy because ultimately he’s a blunt instrument that the Sons use to swipe down on an enemy.
He can’t say the same for Montez, who Bishop recognizes as a crafty member of the Sons of Anarchy and he’s definitely onto something. Remember, last week Montez received a call from Palo — the leader of the Vatos Malditos — about some kind of plan they were putting into motion together that certainly didn’t sound like had SAMCRO’s blessing at all.
While this creates a whole new problem for the Mayans, Bishop has bigger problems to deal with right now and that’s heading over to Vicki’s brothel to meet up with Angel and EZ to retrieve the massive heroin shipment from Mexico. When they arrive, Vicki is not happy to see them but they quickly brush off her demands and tell her to close the brothel because the girls have the night off while they conduct some business.
EZ and Angel eventually arrive with the shipment, which is then carried outside and loaded into a truck as Gilly acts as a lookout while the rest of the club packs in the heroin. Coco is looking at the shipment with obvious thoughts of taking a brick for himself but he doesn’t do it.
Just when it looks like the shipment will be completed, Gilly spots a convoy of Border Patrol trucks headed straight for the brothel. With only two minutes to do something with the heroin before they arrive, Bishop orders the drugs back down into the tunnel and crossed back over the border so there’s no signs that this ever happened.
Steve — the hapless prospect who can’t seem to do much of anything — does manage to drive the truck to intercept the cops briefly to give the Mayans more time to finish moving the drugs back into the tunnel. The club members then scurry away into the night when the Border Patrol finally arrives at Vicki’s house.
Bishop knows this was his one shot to get the necessary drugs to fuel the prison pipeline in Arizona and begin the eventual takeover from his fellow Mayan kings. Now the prison is bone dry, Mayan members inside will almost certainly die as a result and he’s looking at a situation where his friend Marcus Alvarez may soon realize he’s been betrayed.
Night Off
Following the disastrous attempt to procure the heroin, the club disperses to deal with the fallout on their own before the entire club faces the consequences if they can’t get the drugs back over the border sooner rather than later,
Angel decides to give Nails another chance and invites her to go home with him while EZ heads back to his father’s house where he finds Gaby has been there taking care of him again. As much Felipe wants to play the curmudgeon, he struggle to stay that way around Gaby, who is like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.
Even when he insults her tamale recipe, she just laughs him off while revealing that she’s currently studying to be a nurse. Felipe then tells her that EZ was two-years into pre-med on his way to becoming a doctor before tragedy struck their family and he was sent away to prison for killing a cop after his own mother had been murdered that night.
When EZ arrives, he picks up Gaby to take her home and says goodbye to her. Rather than waiting on him to pick up on the cues, Gaby finally grabs EZ and gives him a kiss as these two continue to grow closer.
As for Bishop, he sits outside a home drinking from a bottle in a paper bag and that’s when Mayor Antonia Pena emerges from inside. She tells him to get in there before the neighbors call the cops and he remarks at how a light outside the house is flickering.
She then reminds him that it’s been that way since before he left.
Judging by this interaction it would appear that Pena is Bishop’s ex-wife and considering the painful anniversary mentioned by Alvarez earlier in the episode, that almost certainly seems to point to a lost child that broke them apart. There will be more of this in the future but for the first time, we’re really beginning to learn more about Bishop’s past where it seems he was once a husband and perhaps even a father.
As for Coco, he succumbs to his own thirst for more as he returns to Meth Mountain where Hope injects him with more heroin as his addiction takes hold yet again. While Coco is passed out and high as a kit, Isaac shows up to take some photos of him laying there on the bed. He then hands over a small bag of drugs to Hope as a reward for her help.
What exactly Isaac has planned is unclear but it can’t be good for Coco, especially if this is evidence that will soon be used as blackmail against him.
Finally, Angel retires to his home where he engages in some naked foreplay with Nails but just when it looks like things are getting hot and heavy they are interrupted.
Adelita has not only crossed the border back into the United States but she’s made it all the way to the home of her baby’s father — and she finds Angel consoling himself with another woman. That’s going to be an awkward conversation once everybody gets dressed again.
“Mayans M.C.” will return for a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
