Mayans M.C. review: A shocking ending brings back a familiar foe

Mayans M.C. ramps up the action in its latest episode, but the most memorable thing about “Gato/Mis” might just be its shocking ending.

Normally, I’m of the belief that cliffhangers are a cheap and lazy writing tool that’s just overdone when it comes to today’s TV landscape. But when a cliffhanger like the one Mayans M.C. ended on this week so perfectly sets up a new villain while giving fans of an original series an Easter egg they can appreciate, there’s just no room for hate.

This week’s “Gato/Mis” was packed full of high-stakes action that managed to move the plot along while keeping us all on the edge of our seats. Coco (the criminally underrated Richard Cabral) had some family sh*t to sort through, as he so eloquently put it, but because of Bishop’s suspicions, it was EZ who was left playing babysitter to Coco’s kid, Lettie (Emily Tosta). I admit to being unsure of how the writers would handle Coco’s family drama. It adds so much depth to the character and the club, but I was afraid they were setting up Lettie as some kind of girl-with-daddy-issues trope.

Don’t get me wrong, Lettie definitely has issues and most of them do stem from her dysfunctional home life, but damn was it fun watching Tosta stab creeps with screwdrivers for an hour.

Unfortunately for Lettie, one of the men she shanked ended up dying, leading her to seek EZ’s help in disposing of the body. EZ does of course because, if we know one thing by now, it’s that good intentions are this guy’s kryptonite. A stolen ride leads to a dusty car chase with the local police, made all the worse for the fact that a dead body is in the trunk, but EZ manages to get away and earn some goodwill from a grateful Coco, so all’s well that ends well we suppose.

Except, knowing Kurt Sutter, I can’t imagine a happy ending for Coco or Lettie, especially since Bishop is more convinced than ever that Coco’s his mole and Lettie is actually Adelita. I like you, Bishop, I really do, but your deductive reasoning needs some work, my friend.

MAYANS M.C. — “Escorpion/Dzec” — Season 1, Episode 2 (Airs Tuesday, September 11, 10:00 p.m. e/p) Pictured: Richard Cabral as Johnny “Coco” Cruz. CR: Prashant Gupta/FX

While Angel and EZ try to manage things with the club, Galindo and Emily are contacted by the rebels and given an opportunity to get their son back. All Adelita needs in return is a few million pesos. For a while, things look grim for the leader of Los Olvidados. Galindo has a kid on the inside feeding him the location of the rebel base with plans to slaughter the lot of them once he has his son back. But of course, Adelita is too smart for that. Unlike Bishop, she knows who her mole is and she has a plan in place to kill both birds with one stone — or rats, or cats — I can’t keep up with the animal symbolism on this show anymore.

Adelita leads Galindo’s men to an abandoned warehouse, she has one of her kids push the traitor off a roof, and she packs Cristobal’s blanket full of drugs, leading to Galindo’s imprisonment by the end of the episode. As fascinating a villain as Galindo is, there’s a sick satisfaction in seeing the always sharp, appearance-conscious cartel boss sweating it out in a cell with other lowly criminals. He’ll probably be out sooner rather than later, but he’ll have some competition for the show’s biggest baddie when he does because…

Potter’s back!

That’s right, the guy who screwed over poor Juice has returned to wreak havoc for the Mayans. In case your memory needs jogging, Lincoln Potter (Ray McKinnon) debuted on Sons of Anarchy’s fourth seasons. He was an Assistant U.S. attorney in charge of making life miserable for the Sons.

He did that in the worst way possible, pitting brother against brother and being an all-around weird guy. It looks like the more eccentric of his personality traits are still alive and well though, as we end the episode with a glimpse of Potter menacingly staring at the club’s junkyard, having a quick exchange with a clueless EZ, and stroking a stray cat like a perfectly-coiffed Dr. Evil.

Potter might have ultimately failed in his plan to take down Jax Teller, but he did have a bigger goal in taking down the Galindo cartel. Now that Miguel Galindo is in prison, the next best thing would be to cripple the club running the cartel’s drugs. Bad news for EZ and the boys but good news for the rest of us hoping for more Sons cameos before the season is over.

Thoughts From The Table

• Coco’s character is starting to feel a lot like the chain-smoking version of Juice and I cannot handle another Juice right now.
• A special shout out to Emily Tosta, the most interesting new character on the show so far. She stole every scene she was in tonight and I’m hoping the club will ditch it’s “boys only” rule and let her ride. The chick is badass.
• Poor Emily. Just when things felt like they were falling into place, her son is snatched away yet again, this time with her husband in tow. Emily’s exhibited a level of ruthlessness I didn’t expect so I can’t believe she’ll take this latest hit lying down.
• I know EZ is some kind of boy wonder, but I wish the dude would learn his lesson already. Doing a bad thing for good reasons is what go you into this mess in the first place.
• Edward James Olmos is a national treasure but this subplot with Felipe and DEA agent Kevin is dragging things down. I felt compelled to just skip past their interactions to get to the real story, never a good thing when you’re trying to use characters to build out your world. Either give us some meat and potatoes with those two or be done with it.