Five episodes and exactly halfway through its first season and Mayans M.C. has kept us on a knife edge so far. It’s safe to say at this point that it’s been a boiling pot of secrets, lies, dodgy alliances and deadly characters delivered with a simmering tension and occasional outbursts of violence that fans of show creator Kurt Sutter might have come to expect. Only now, the pot is boiling over with secrets becoming not so secret and situations becoming more dangerous for members of the Mayans and those around them.
Carrying on from the previous episode where we saw an intimidating looking character with the family running prescription drugs and shooting Mexican border jumpers; turns out he’s even more dangerous than expected after EZ recognised him from his stint in prison. Turns out his name’s Cole (Branton Box) and he’s ex-military, ex-special forces, ex-well, everything really and therefore not to be messed with. But as we’ve established, Angel is quite the impulsive schemer so when the ex-military hard man shows up at his house with a severed head in tow (which is certainly an eye-catching opening statement), instead of recoiling in complete shock, Angel proceeds to make a deal involving the rebel groups heroin.
This is telling of what we’ve seen of Angel in the first half of this season of Mayans M.C. He may be very protective of his brother, EZ, but he’s quite clearly manipulative and murderous and without much compassion and empathy for anyone else except for his brother. And possibly, rebel leader, Adelita (Carla Baratta), who helps him, EZ and Coco get out of a sticky situation with corrupt police officers during the episode. Aside from that, Angel seems to be on a path to destruction. Something that a few of the senior club members are beginning to latch onto. But if we’ve learned anything from this potential deadly meet up, it’s that Cole and the group that he eludes to that he’s involved with, are to be treated with respect or the consequences will be dangerous and also pretty final. Could this be the beginning of the end for Angel?
If you were wondering where Angel gets his sociopathic streak from then it’s worth looking towards his and EZ’s father, Felipe. As the show has gone on we have learned a little more each episode and this time we get fed a little more as the agent on EZ’s and the Galindo cartel’s tail’s (Maurice Compte) gets shown a piece of paper clarifying Felipe’s direct involvement with a sinister group involving beheadings and the like. But when Felipe also shows the agent some recent pictures of his family, presumably in a “stay the fuck away from me/us” warning, it proves how serious he is and with the agent left shitting his pants, you wonder what action he’ll take next. Clearly someone not to be messed with, it’s scarily exciting to see what Felipe will do next.
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Another character becoming less worried about the danger she might be putting her and those around her in is Emily. After ending up in hospital after the end of the previous episode after being trampled in the melee that occurred after the slaughtered nun was discovered, a worried EZ pays her a visit and they talk for a few minutes but unfortunately one of Galindo’s clan spots him leaving the hospital prompting a “friendly warning” from Miguel Galindo to stay away from Emily. This is after he has shown him the area he plans to build his empire on and revitalise the town. A show of intimidation and power perhaps. But Emily again proves she has no fear of Galindo after sneaking off to visit EZ later. There are still obvious feelings between them that looked set to explode all over the caravan that they were in, so to speak, until they were interrupted by Angel. But you get the impression that at some point passion will ignite between EZ and Emily, potentially putting the pair in Galindo’s firing line.
So this episode seemed to carry on the character development for the most part and did a great job of showing how reckless Angel and Emily are becoming and how potentially dangerous Felipe will become if his family are messed with any more. This is nicely tied together with Mayans members becoming more aware of the odd behaviour certain members of the club are exhibiting. Along with a short but sweet shootout between the corrupt police and Adelita’s crew of gun-carrying kids. It was nice to see a little more with EZ to. His story taking a backseat to an extent during the last couple of episodes.
Where he’ll end up at this point, who knows, but his journey will certainly be an interesting one.
Mayans M.C is on BBC 2 Saturdays at 22.30. The entire first season is available to view on BBC iPlayer now.