In the “Mayans M.C.” recap, EZ gets a promotion and then volunteers to take on a dangerous job to help out the Yuma chapter, Adelita returns and Emily goes to see her son…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Following last week’s two-episode premiere for “Mayans M.C.” season 4, which included a four-month time jump after the civil war inside the club finally came to an end, the latest installment continued to show the divide between the various charters despite Marcus Alvarez’s best attempts to bring everybody back together under one roof.
After his failed attempt to wipe out the other Mayan kings, Bishop was demoted to vice president of the Santo Padre chapter while Alvarez now sits at the head of the table. The Santo Padre chapter is now forced to welcome members of the Yuma charter to their table each and every week, which doesn’t sit well with Bishop but many of the other members are trying as best as possible to heal old wounds.
EZ might be the bridge between the charters considering he seems to be the one person willing to hold a conversation with a member from the Yuma chapter — a member named Manny, who got introduced during the battle at the clubhouse where he got stabbed in the neck by EZ before being thrown off the roof.
Now months later, Manny is the one who reaches out to EZ to try and mend fences much to the chagrin of Bishop, who wants nothing to do with these interlopers in his clubhouse.
Meanwhile, Yuma has been thriving thanks to a partnership they brokered with the Lobos Sonora New Generation cartel — a newer version of the cartel that previously appeared on “Sons of Anarchy” — and thanks to the pipeline of drugs, that charter is making money hand over fist. Unfortunately, none of that cast is flowing to the other charters and Santo Padre is starting to feel the brunt of no business coming their way.
An attempt to fix that is offered in the latest episode but to absolutely no one’s surprise, that ends in disaster.
There’s a lot to dig into this week so let’s recap the latest episode of “Mayans M.C.” titled “Self Portrait in Blue Bathroom”…
The Future Starts Now
The episode begins with a trip to Mexico where El Banquero — the leader of the new Lobos New Generation — is testing a couple of his employees with the tense standoff ending after he shoots one dead and offers the other a raise for showing truth and loyalty.
El Banquero is then called to a meeting with his sister, who calls him by his real name ‘Ignacio’ while berating him over avoiding coming to see their mother. She also complains to him about his accountant Randall, who is currently on the other side of the border in the United States where he’s under indictment from the Federal government. To make matters worse, Randall is the only person with access to the vast financial fortune amassed by the Lobos cartel with money stashed across dozens of different bank accounts.
While his sister has urged him to get an assistant to help Randall just in case something happens to him, El Banquero has remained loyal to the person in charge of his finances. He’s also set in motion a plan to bring Randall home to Mexico and he’s tasking the Mayans with the job to get him back across the border.
Of course, El Banquero mentions that if the Mayans fail, he’ll clip each and every one of their wings and leave them dead in the street.
Back in the U.S., EZ is trying to adjust to life where he’s sharing his trailer with a dog but he returns home to find that Sally has torn apart his bed and just about everything else she can sink her teeth into. EZ decides he’s not ready to be a dog father so he returns Sally to the shelter at the same time a family is trying to hand over their dog because she’s getting too old and needs more care than they want to give her.
Sophia — the shelter employee who introduced EZ to Sally — tries to reason with these people to take the dog to a no-kill shelter before finally lashing out at them. Finally, Sophia’s boss intervenes and tells her to take a break, which leads her to another interaction with EZ.
EZ attempts to tell her that something is wrong with the dog because she chewed up everything in his trailer but she explains that Sally is just anxious and scared, which means he needs to show more patience and understanding as she learns her new surroundings. EZ decides to keep the dog, while simultaneously attempting to flirt with Sophia, who seems less than interested in his advances.
During the conversation, Sophia mentions she has a daughter who was also anxious but the way she speaks makes it sound like perhaps her child may have died. Either way, it all seems to point towards Sophia being a new love interest for EZ at some point this season.
When EZ returns home, he finds a visitor there waiting for him.
The man’s name is J.J. — he’s the shot caller from prison who helped EZ stay safe while he was incarcerated and he’s the same person who left the note at Felipe Reyes’ house last week. JJ has come to reconnect with his old friend from prison but EZ can’t be certain why this impromptu visit is taking place.
JJ explains that he’s been struggling on the outside ever since his release and now he’s got two kids on top of everything, which means his responsibilities are even deeper. JJ continues to talk to EZ about his exit from prison after he got an early release despite a conviction for shooting and killing a cop.
EZ’s release was actually secured thanks to the deal he struck with the Federal government to serve as an informant as they went after the Galindo cartel. He eventually nuked that deal after gaining some invaluable intel on Lincoln Potter — the overly ambitious assistant district attorney who has continuously been going after the Mexican cartels ever since he first appeared on “Sons of Anarchy.”
But now that JJ has come to pay him a visit out of the blue, EZ can’t be for sure that he doesn’t know about the deal that was struck to get him out of prison. JJ promises he’s just there to see an old friend from prison but EZ knows there’s more to this story than he’s hearing so far.
For now, EZ has to put that on the back burner because church is starting after Canche and the rest of the Yuma chapter arrive for the meeting.
It’s there Canche tells them about the job he brokered with El Banquero to get his accountant over the border from the U.S. into Mexico. It’s a dangerous mission, especially considering the Border Patrol and militias that constantly work that area but EZ volunteers for the job and he also calls on his brother Angel to help as well.
Angel seems less than enthusiastic, especially given his mood after he got ripped by Coco outside after he asked for help when he was dealing with his addiction problem and the older Reyes brother had his own issues to deal with rather than assisting a friend in need. Angel still seems hesitant to volunteer for this job but then Manny — the Yuma member making friends with EZ — offers his assistance as well since he knows the area through tribal land in Arizona that will help them get across the border.
All of this sends Bishop into a rage because he can’t believe members of his charter are so willingly bowing down to the demands handed to them by the Yuma president who wanted them all dead four months earlier. Bishop then makes the grave mistake of questioning Alvarez’s leadership, which results in his vice president’s patch being taken away from him.
El Padrino has spoken. pic.twitter.com/d0O9zh9MIR
— Mayans MC (@MayansFX) April 27, 2022
In an act of solidarity, Taza removes his patch as well but he’s still out the outs with Bishop no matter how much he tries to back up his former president. Even when Taza talks to him later, Bishop blows him off and spouts a homophobic slur back at him for his troubles.
As for the vice president’s job — Alvarez toss the patch the EZ, who will now serve to his left on the table.
Just about everybody is shocked by that move but Alvarez has faith that members like EZ and Manny are exactly what the Mayans need right now. Later when Canche and the other charter presidents try to convince Alvarez that the Santo Padre chapter should just be disbanded, he insists that the charter can be saved because he sees the future in EZ and Manny leading the way.
Alvarez expects they’ll get this job done for El Banquero to help his accountant cross the border and that will begin to build a bridge between the charters along with their new cartel employer.
As for Tranq, he’s still dealing with his own conflicted feelings as he’s served as Alvarez’s inside man to deal with the rest of the Santo Padre chapter after the insurrection. Tranq hasn’t felt whole with the club in quite some time and this week he deals with even more emotional turmoil when thinking about his former prospect Steve, who took his own life back in “Mayans” season 3.
Tranq ends up returning Steve’s kutte to his mother, who is still mourning her sons’ tragic death while his sister can’t even stand to be in the same room with him. That night, Steve’s mother tries to scrub out the blood from her son’s kutte while Tranq is devastated after saying goodbye to another brother.
Family Affair
Following her absence in the season premiere, Adelita returns with her location in New Mexico after she discovered that her child with Angel was still very much alive after threatening Lincoln Potter, who eventually gave up the information.
Now it seems Adelita is searching for that child with the family who got the baby taken from her while she was still in custody with the American government.
It seems that Adelita is following the family that adopted her child because she’s trailing behind a man holding a suitcase after he exits out of a lawfirm before getting into his car to go home. When he arrives at home, the man opens the door to the sound of a crying child just as Adelita pulls off across the street.
It would appear that Adelita has found her baby and the family currently raising the child.
Speaking of family — Nails is still trying to play house with Angel, who seems to grow more distant despite her best efforts to actually make a home with him. With Angel away on club business, Nails starts putting together a crib for the baby and that’s when Felipe Reyes arrives with a present for her.
He gives her a blanket that his wife made for his sons and now he’s hoping that she’ll use it for the baby she’ll share with Angel. Felipe then starts putting together the crib with Nails slightly confused about his arrival, especially given the strained relationship he seems to share with both of his sons right now.
Meanwhile, Emily is still living in parts unknown but she buys a bus ticket while constantly looking over her shoulder. She eventually boards a bus bound for Covington, Kentucky — a city on the northern most border of Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnati.
When Emily finally arrives there, she’s greeted at an apartment by her sister Erin and her son Cristobal. It seems Emily stashed them both there while she moved to an entirely different city in hopes of keeping Miguel Galindo away from finding either of them. Emily lives in paranoia every, single day that Miguel will eventually come back for them, which is why she has gone to such great lengths to keep Cristobal out of his reach.
Following their visit, Emily prepares to return to her one bedroom apartment but not before going over emergency plans with her sister. It seems Emily has set up safety deposit boxes filled with cash and passports that would allow her sister to take Cristobal and leave the country to flee for Oslo, Norway if a time ever comes when she doesn’t arrive on schedule to see them.
Emily refuses to lessen her precautions as she runs her sister through the routine with Erin laying out in detail what she will do in order to protect Cristobal from his father. Of course, Erin fully believes that Emily will arrive on schedule next week to see her son but it’s still a precaution both have to take because they never know when or if Miguel might return.
South of the Border
Back at the clubhouse, EZ, Angel and Manny are shocked when Randall arrives in his chauffeured car along with numerous bags of luggage that he expects to take with him across the border to Mexico. To make matters even worse, Randall failed to tell anybody that his son Noah is also part of the package to get him into Mexico.
While EZ and Angel want no part of the responsibility of taking a kid with them in a hike through the desert just to get into Mexico, Canche arrives and promises safe passage for everybody involved. With Randall threatening to call El Banquero to tell him the Mayans have refused to help, Canche assures him that they’ll get both him and his son across the border.
Later that night, Creeper drives the van as close as he can get to the area where EZ and the others will lead Randall across the border but the conversation inside turns rather creepy. Randall gives hints that he likes more than just the pretty women who will be awaiting him in Mexico while Noah is essentially mute without saying much of anything until finally prompted by the Mayans speaking to him.
The long walk through the desert isn’t easy, particularly with Randall wanting to stop constantly to rest, but they are trying to get to the border before sunrise. Unfortunately during the latest rest stop, EZ and the others hear gunshots in the distance, which means a militia or even worse could be nearby and that makes this trip all that much more dangerous.
While Angel suggests pushing forward, EZ and Manny agree that it’s probably best to stop and get some rest with hopes that whoever is firing those guns will move on without ever seeing them.
As they rest on the rocks and dirt, Manny talks to Angel about becoming a father for the first time while relaying how much he loves his own daughter, especially considering what family means to him. Manny explains that as much as he loves the club — and he would gladly die for the Mayans — his daughter will always come first.
That’s when he brings up Alvarez’s own past with his family while referencing events that happened back in “Sons of Anarchy’ season 1. Alvarez’s oldest son Esai was a member of the Mayans and he was tasked with carrying out two hits at his father’s request.
Esai was supposed to kill Ernest Darby, leader of the Nordic white supremacist gang, and Clay Morrow from the Sons of Anarchy. Both hits got botched and the targets got away unscathed but Esai didn’t because as retribution, Alvarez offered him up as a sacrifice for the damage done.
Happy Loman ends up stabbing Esai in the back of the head after his father gave the OK for the hit.
None of that makes much sense to Manny, who says as much as he loves the Mayans, he would never harm her for the sake of the club. Perhaps this is Manny just speaking truth but it certainly seems like he’s attempting to introduce some doubts about Alvarez’s leadership now that he’s back at the head of the table for the entire M.C.
Manny ends up offering Angel some advice about fatherhood, which EZ interjects and says relaying wisdom to his brother is usually his job. They all laugh as Angel mocks them both for sounding like boy scouts in stereo.
Later that night with everybody asleep, Angel wakes up and finds that Randall and his son are missing but their luggage is still nearby. He turns on a flashlight to go look for them and he finds Randall and his son behind a nearby bush.
It turns out that Randall is a pedophile and he’s been sexually abusing Noah, who may or may not actually be his son — the Mayans just assumed that but either way it’s a horrific scene that Angel stumbles upon as Noah cries while Randall tells him to stay quiet.
Reacting to the atrocity he’s just discovered, Angel pulls out his gun and shoots Randall in the chest, which brings EZ and Manny running to find what’s just happened. Angel has killed the only person with access to El Banquero’s off shore bank account information, which can only serve as a potentially deadly situation for the entire Mayans M.C.
Still, it’s tough to blame Angel for his actions after seeing what Randall was doing to this poor child.
The fallout from his actions will be far reaching as they now have to deal with the reality that Randall is dead and somebody is going to have to answer for it.
“Mayans M.C.” returns next Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on FX.
