Welcome to our weekly breakdown of the minutia of Kurt Sutter and Elgin James’ Sons of Anarchy spin-off, Mayans M.C.. While Kimberly Ricci provides her always excellent coverage of the series (here’s her write-up of the the latest 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. The titles of the other episodes this season referred to Mayan Gods, but Muluc refers to a Mayan zodiac sign meaning Water, Rain, Offering. I have no idea how it relates to this particular episode, however.
2. Before we get started, this billboard was terrific (you can’t see it, but the website name on the billboard is www.jc-lockedandloaded.com. HA!)
3. That was not my favorite visual of the episode, however. That honor belongs to Potter, who apparently just sits by the phone and neatly arranges candy. This is a very Potter thing to do, and if he survives the season, I’d like to see a Potter spin-off, to be honest. I could watch an entire show about Potter using shady, unethical means to take down sympathetic “bad” guys. Ray McKinnon could even write it himself, because in addition to being one of the best character actors in the business, he also created and wrote one of the most underappreciated series of the decade, in Rectify.
4. Meanwhile, I like the occasional callback to Sons of Anarchy, but this one was awkwardly shoe-horned. This is how Happy responded when asked if he could help them track down Alvarez.
5. Happy is in the episode because he has information from Packer to relay to EZ and Angel about who hired him to kill their mother. All he has, however, are wire transfers from Sonora, Mexico, which indicates that the Galindo cartel may have been behind the murder of their mom. However, note that EZ also says that Galindo was under the thumb of the DOJ at the time of his mother’s murder. Meanwhile, match that to Potter’s question for more information on Felipe Reyes at the end of the episode. I think that Potter and/or the DOJ may have been behind the murder of EZ’s mom.
6. The meat of the episode concerns the abduction of Alvarez by the mercenaries, who believe that Miguel may have been behind the aborted abduction of Adelita. It’s unclear whether they were acting on their own or for Potter, although the fact that Potter called them (and got no answer) at the end of the episode suggests that they were acting on Potter’s orders. In either respect, Alvarez took a beating and didn’t give up any information before the Mayans arrived and killed all the mercenaries in a surprise attack.
7. One interesting footnote here, however, is that in an exchange between Miguel and Potter’s assistant, Miguel tries to find out if Potter is responsible for abducting Alvarez. The assistant, however, proves to be useless, and Miguel says as much. “F**k you,” she says. “Yes you have,” Miguel responds in a way that suggests he meant that literally, as in: Miguel sleeps around on Emily, and may be using a sexual relationship with Potter’s assistant to gain intel on Potter.
8. In the week’s other storyline, Emily learns she was outbid in her effort to build the agri-park, and she’s furious about it because she knows that the assistant of the woman she paid off tipped the Chinese off to their bid. She tries to solicit Miguel’s help, but Miguel is in a meeting with the Mayans and humiliatingly chases her out of the room. Emily, in turn, seeks EZ’s help, who goes to the house of the assistant, Marlon, and tries to get him to admit to accepting a bribe from the Chinese. Marlon refuses, reaches for a gun, and during a scuffle, Marlon shoots himself in the head. Conveniently, it looks like a suicide, and the fact that he has reason to kill himself — accepting a bribe from the Chinese — may make this easy to cover up. EZ couldn’t have planned that better.
9. Next week’s episode looks good, but also it looks like another side-diversion.
