Mayans MC recap: Galindo gets strong-armed again in episode 8, “Rata/Ch’o”

In the eighth episode of Mayans MC, a deal with massive implications is struck between Miguel Galindo and Lincoln Potter, inadvertently creating a huge problem for EZ.

For the second week in a row, Miguel Galindo is cutting deals with the opposition. Once again, he’s doing so under duress, given a promise that the deal is truly going to work in his favor.

Last week, Adelita strong-armed Galindo into working with the rebels. Her pitch was focused on the fact that cartels and the violence that comes with them cannot be stopped, but can be controlled. Miguel, an educated, smart leader, took the deal, wanting to clean up his business and knowing that the rebels could help him in many ways.

This week, Miguel was presented a very similar deal but with extremely different ramifications. Lincoln Potter and the Department of Justice arrested Galindo and Emily in the last episode. They kept them in holding, threatened them with unattainable punishments and eventually, strong-armed Miguel (his second time in a couple of days).

Potter’s set up here was brilliant. He provided Emily with an out, choosing between Miguel and Christobal. She was shown a picture of Christobal in less-than-stellar conditions and told that she would not get him back unless she corroborated evidence that Potter had on Galindo. That evidence was transcripts from EZ, who had been informing on the cartel as part of his deal.

While Emily was struggling through this decision, Potter went to Miguel, offered him a deal for cooperation between the two parties, while explaining to him (and showing him) what Emily was choosing between. Miguel, being collected and smart, knew that he had no choice but to take the deal and keep his family in tact.

Potter’s deal is similar to Los Olvidados, but with one key difference. Potter wants to “control” the flow of drugs, violence, etc that comes with the cartel. The key difference in the deal he offered Galindo was that he wants the rebels gone. Los Olvidados pose a problem for him, as they have no structure and provide no way for him to control them. Little does he know, Miguel is now working with them as well.

As the Galindo family leaves the DOJ building, Miguel vows that he is going to use the rebels to get back at Potter. Somehow, being strong-armed for two straight weeks has provided him a position of power between the three parties at play. Now that he’s pissed off and hell-bent on getting back at both of them, there’s little stopping him from pitting the two against each other with no repercussions from his end. Miguel controls the narrative here.

What does all of this mean for the Mayans MC?

A big takeaway from this episode is also that Emily now knows what EZ is doing. Thankfully, she is level-headed enough to know this isn’t something that should be discussed with Miguel and she’ll likely talk to EZ about it first.

For EZ, though, the situation is murky. He doesn’t want anyone knowing, let alone the wife of the person he is informing on. Still, it seems like Emily is going to discuss this with him at some point in the next two episodes before doing anything drastic.

Jiminez told EZ and Felipe that he could be exposed and EZ figured the Mayans would know immediately. He went against Jiminez’s advice to run, as it would put his brother Angel in danger. Instead, he went directly to the club to face his punishment.

Thankfully for him, Emily ain’t no snitch. He doesn’t know that she is the only one with the information at the moment. He’s on thin ice, but chances are he’ll be alright.

Coco’s mom

After brutally murdering his mother in the last episode (it’s okay, she wasn’t a very nice person), Coco was left cleaning up his mess through most of the episode. After a profound talk about life with EZ (and perhaps a few too many tokes of that left-handed cigarette they were smoking), Coco seems okay with his mother not being around anymore.

His plan is to bury her in the desert because “she hated it there.” But not all goes well when Angel and EZ are tasked with transporting her to the burial grounds.

In perhaps her last act of revenge, Coco’s mother breaks the tail light of Angel’s vehicle after he sees a rat and drops her dead body, her head cracking the light. EZ and Angel are pulled over by their police friend, Frankie, after his partner notices the light out.

Unfortunately, Frankie is with a very fresh new officer who has yet to learn the way things work with the Mayans. After Angel mouths off to him, he has the two exit the vehicle and when he opens the trunk, well, the troublesome look on Frankie’s face shows that this might not be an easy clean up for our two brothers.

Mayans MC business

The Mayans MC stayed busy throughout this episode as well. First, dealing with Riz (Antonio Jaramillo). Riz was caught last week helping Mexicans cross the border through the cartel/MC’s underground tunnel system. He did this without the club knowing about it.

Instead of doing anything too harsh, the club took Riz off of his duties at the brothel near the tunnel’s exit and told him that the club now gets a cut of the profits they make.

He had some choice words for Angel, who informed the club about his side dealings, but the two settled their differences in a cage match. At the end, both seemed to be okay with each other and all was well with the MC.

Felipe had the decency to pay a visit to the priest who sold out Adelita’s father, warning him that she was on her way for him. Felipe said that they are now even, as the priest was the one who gave him his new identity.

Chances are things aren’t going to go well for the priest in the coming episodes, as his security team is the Galindo cartel, who now work with Adelita and the rebels. We wouldn’t be surprised if offers this piece of information to Adelita as an act of good faith in light of their new deal.

We can also expect Emily to confront EZ at some point in the next two episodes, leaving her to choose between keeping her husband around or protecting her

one true love

friend EZ. Either way, the final two episodes of season 1 are sure to be shocking.

Mayans MC airs Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX. Missed an episode? Catch up on FXNetworks.com.