Welcome to our weekly breakdown of the minutia of Kurt Sutter and Elgin James’ Sons of Anarchy spin-off, Mayans MC. While Kimberly Ricci provides her always excellent coverage of the series (here’s her write-up of this episode), here we’re going to endeavor to look deeper into the episode and excavate some of the details viewers may have missed, callbacks to Sons of Anarchy, and posit questions explore theories about the direction the series.
1. Let’s dispose of the obligatory: I don’t think anyone needed it spelled out for them based on their repeated appearances in the episode, but the title “Rata/Ch’o’ is Hispanic and Mayan for rat. However, have we talked about how bad the CGI is on the title critters on this show?
2. I’m not entirely sure where the Riz storyline is going, but given how well Kurt Sutter and Elgin James have paid off most of the storylines this season, I assume that the tunnel will play a more integral role to the story than setting up a bare-knuckle brawl between Riz and Angel, as well as taking the heat off of Coco for a couple of episodes. I think the crucial piece to come out of this is the decision by the club to strip Riz of his title as club secretary. Electing Angel into that role might give Angel more say when alliances have to be chosen. Or maybe it was all an excuse for a cage match.
3. There are only two episodes left this season, and while it doesn’t get a ton of play, I assume that the identity of the man who killed EZ’s mother will come out this season, and that this person will play into the larger overall storyline. To be honest, however, I genuinely do not have a clue as to who it could be. We are left wondering both about the killer’s identity and his motive. I assume that EZ’s mother was not the target — unless she was caught up in something we don’t know about — but that EZ, Angel or Felipe were the target. But who has an ax to grind with any of them? It’s someone who appears to have worked at Cooley’s Cantina, and who has the license plate 4PCI487. That’s all we know.
4. The deal that Miguel is eventually forced to agree upon with Potter is fascinating. Basically, Miguel gets everything he wants out of the deal — the Galindo cartel maintains all its turf, and Potter will help them clear the way for their land deal. The only wrinkle? Galindo has to help the American government maintain the status quo in Mexico, which means stamping out Neozapatism. In other words, Galindo has to take down Los Olvidados. What Potter doesn’t know is that Miguel has already struck a deal with Los Olvidados, and now Miguel intends to use the 2,000 person army of the rebels to … take down Potter?
Miguel hates Potter right now for forcing him to sign that deal. But Adelita also used Miguel’s baby to force him to take a deal. There are no good people here. The question is: Is the Galindo cartel better off with the support of the DOJ in America or the support of the rebels in Mexico?
5. The Mayans will face a similar predicament, and EZ is in the middle of both sides. He’s running drugs for Galindo, who will want the Mayans to play neutral third-party between the rebels and the cartel. However, EZ also has allegiances to the DOJ through his plea deal and allegiances to the rebels through Angel/Adelita. But there’s yet another wrinkle where EZ is concerned, because Emily now knows that he’s working with the feds, too.
EZ is f#*!ed.
6. Speaking of Adelita, Felipe repays his debt to the priest for helping him get out of Mexico by warning Rodrigo that Adelita is going to kill him for giving up her family to the cartel. Rodrigo — who had been working with Adelita to take down the Galindo cartel — is now seeking the help of Nestor — the Galindo henchman — to take out Adelita. The question is 1) does Nestor not know about the deal between Galindo and Adelita, or 2) does he know and is he working against Galindo? Maybe Nestor is working directly with Devante to undermine Miguel? There’s a lot to wrap our brains around now.
7. Matters are only further complicated when whiz kid EZ stupidly breaks a taillight putting Celia’s body in the trunk of his car, and he and Angel are pulled over and arrested because there’s a dead body in the back of their car. I assume that Potter and the feds will help EZ out of this jam, but it will mean that Angel finds out about EZ’s preexisting deal with the feds. I’m not sure where that puts their relationship, though. Angel is working against his own club to help the rebels, while EZ is working against his own club to help the feds. They both have the same agenda — Take down the Galindo cartel — they’re just coming at it from different angles.
At this point, I don’t know how any of this ends without a huge Mexican standoff where everyone dies. We need a chart to keep up with all of the shifting alliances. The Mayans are pulled between Galindo and the rebels. Galindo is being pulled between the rebels and the feds. The Church is being pulled between the cartel and the rebels, and EZ is pulled between the Mayans, the rebels, the feds, and Emily. It’s a mess right now.
