Mayans MC “Our Gang’s Dark Oath” was written by the team of Bryan Gracia and Sara Price, moving up from staff writer, and was directed by Brett Dos Santos, who moves up from First Assistant Director since season one. Things go badly for pretty much everyone in this episode. I found the episode to be a bit disjointed, jumping in and out of almost everyone’s storyline. I also found myself struggling to remember a lot of the history from previous seasons due to the extra long break. I do like the new opener with EZ (JD Pardo) working out every morning…
Bishop (Michael Irby) seems especially on edge and has an “anniversary” coming up – the death of his son? He pointedly tells the club that he’s going to stop focusing on the future – a clear dig at EZ and rely on the past. To that end, he orders some particularly dangers ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ plan to get the heroin where it needs to go – to come in next week’s episode.
Bishop sends EZ to talk to Alicia (Denise G Sanchez) in prison to make sure she isn’t the leak. EZ has a particularly brutal conversation with her, telling her to kill “herself” – or at least all the good parts of herself – before her fellow inmates can do it. Being in prison brings up all EZ’s terrible memories of what he had to do to survive and what it did to him.
EZ ends up spoiling his date with Gaby (Sulem Calderon) when his memories intrude. Gaby tries to get EZ to listen to music, but it has the opposite effect on him than she’s expecting. She also gets an up close look at his OCD. Quiet and absolute control would be two things he’d never have had in prison. Gaby ends the date – and possibly their relationship. It’s too bad because she’s likely the one person who can bring the old EZ back – assuming she doesn’t get killed first. She has certainly done a great job getting Felipe (Edward James Olmos) to come back to life. I loved him calling her to come help clean up the shop – and the discussion they have over music.
EZ confirms what they’d already suspected – Vicki (Elpidia Carrillo) was the one who turned them in. Steve (Momo Rodriguez) goes to bring her to Bishop, and when she runs through the tunnel, she finds Neron (Joseph Raymond Lucero) and Taza (Raoul Max Trujillo) waiting for her. Taza shoots and kills her.
Angel (Clayton Cardenas) deals with Adelita’s (Carla Baratta) return. He finally learns some of what happened. She tells him their baby is dead – but is he? She tells him about being a homeless orphan and being taken in by a brothel. This is by way of complaining about the brothel he hid her in. She tells him that at 11 they told her she’d have to earn her keep, so she took a paring knife and tried to slit her own throat – hence the tattoo on her neck. She tells him she couldn’t face losing control over her body – and when the FBI had her, she had no knife…
Miguel (Danny Pino) continues to be an idiot. Paloma (Mia Maestro) is clearly tired of him. She’s furious when three of her people are killed, and he’s just willing to take it. She walks out on him. When he goes home, he goes off on Emily (Sarah Bolger) because she’s packed up his mother’s things. Erin (Holland Roden) runs between the two, snatching Cristobel and taking him away from his fighting parents. That night it looks like Miguel is going to try to come to bed with Emily, but her finds her asleep with Erin and Cristobel in their bed. How long until he’s trying to sleep with Erin?? He’s just turned into a spineless bully…
Coco (Richard Cabral) has a very bad day. He’s going into withdrawal and Isaac (JR Bourne) and Butterfly (Spenser Granese) show up at the club in the office. They tell him that they want him to get a kilo of heroin for them or they’ll show the club the picture of him shooting up – which will mean the club will have to kill him – no homosexuality and no intravenous drug use. Coco points out that stealing from the club will also get him killed. They don’t care – and give him a tiny taste to get over the shakes. When Coco goes into the bathroom to snort it, Gilly (Vincent Vargas) follows him and tells him they’re done. He’s not putting up with Coco’s drug use.
Finally, it looks like El Palo (Gregory Cruz) is set on revenge against the Mayans. He kills Allesandro Montez (Jacob Vargas) and leaves him on Taza’s bike at the Mayan clubhouse. Clearly, Taza is still paying for his past with Vatos Malditos, and El Palo is doing a good job starting a war between the Sons and the Mayans…
All in all, except for Felipe maybe re-opening the shop and getting on with his life, everyone else had a pretty crappy day/night. Good performances from Irby, Pardo, Calderon, and Trujillo. Baratta continues to portray trauma in a sensitive and nuanced way. Not gonna lie – I’m tired of Emily looking like a victim when she was such a powerhouse last season. Definitely lots of things heating up – is there going to be a war? Can they get the heroin out and buy themselves the time and breathing space they need? Bourne is exceptional as mad Isaac. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
