Mayans M.C.
5×08: “Her Blacks Crackle and Drag”
Directed by Brett Dos Santos
Written by Sean Varela & Vincent Vargas

* For a recap & review of 5×07, click here.
* For a recap & review of 5×09, click here.
“Should’ve California” opens this episode, as Guero and Downer go dump the corpses of Diaz and Jinx. The next morning, EZ’s in the scrapyard doing one of those macho ice baths all the dude bros are into lately. Something tells me there’s a lot more introspection happening with EZ. Then again, EZ has more on his mind than most people, even some of his fellow Mayans. Although Angel’s pretty lost right now psychologically. He’s mentally preparing himself for the fact that Adelita is gone. He doesn’t know quite yet… but, somehow, he just knows. And up at the Broken Saints compound, Leti’s having second thoughts about the place. She’s caught sneaking around but it’s not treated as a big deal. She still manages to get her hands on a set of keys, though. Hmm. At the Reyes home, Felipe receives a visit from Angel, then his other son, Miguel. Looks like Galindo has something he wants his estranged father to see. While everything else is going on, Alvarez gets a call at home, surely about the murders of Diaz and Jinx. So, y’know, as usual there’s TOO MUCH going for the Mayans to handle, as a club and individually. Nobody’s in good shape mentally.

While EZ’s working out he’s surprised by a visit from the Grim Bastards: “Black and Brown unite.” The plan is working since Diaz and Jinx were dumped to look like victims of SOA. But like all the other secrets that have managed to trickle out, will this secret stay secret? Or is it going to tear the Mayans up further?
Poor Leti. She goes back to Isaac and tells him about the Broken Saints’ drug lab setup. She doesn’t want anything to happen to the women, though. Isaac says the Broken Saints should’ve “all been born boys.” When Leti asks about Hope she doesn’t get a response. Isaac just taunts her and then his men lock her out. He says whatever comes next is on her shoulders. That sounds very ominous. Inside the SOA clubhouse, Isaac talks with Hope. He’s trying to make her shoot up but she’s doing her best to hold out. Hope has faith that Leti will come for her while Isaac lies to her. She won’t believe those lies, either. She knows Leti wouldn’t forget her. “I‘ll tear of her wings off in front of you,” Isaac says. What a strange, violent man.
Gilly’s trying to deal with his own emotions when he hears Paul outside yelling. He heads downstairs and outside, where Paul screams at him about raising Gilly’s kid after the latter gave the kid up. The boy didn’t even know that Paul isn’t his biological father. When Gilly beats the shit out of Paul, he frightens the boys, whose only concern is for his beaten dad on the ground. A genuinely messy situation. A while later, Paul and Gilly talk alone. Paul says Gilly is a piece of shit for walking out on the boy, especially after all the awful things they did overseas, like hurting women and children; they’re probably both pieces of shit, in that case. Gilly then drops Paul off to rehab, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work since Paul sees himself as unfixable.
Other messy stuff comes when Miguel and Felipe talk about things openly. Felipe says that Miguel’s father “was a bastard.” He says that Miguel was born out of love. But Miguel feels he was raised on a lie. He feels more for the father that raised him, not the father who conceived him. Felipe sees the value in forgiveness the older he gets, whereas Miguel doesn’t want to forgive him. Miguel says he forgives the father who raised him. And really, neither Miguel’s adoptive father nor his real father are men to be admired; both lived violent, destructive lives that hurt others.

At a mechanic shop, Alvarez pulls his gun on Quinn. He wants to know who killed Diaz and Jinx. He thought there was a truce with SOA. Then he finds out that Happy was killed by the Reyes brothers. Quinn says the Mayans kill each other more than the Sons have killed Mayans. This suggests to Alvarez that Mayans killed Mayans. No telling how Alvarez will go about things from here. He’s raging bad. At the Mayan clubhouse, EZ’s determined not to let “what happened to Creep happen to another brother again.” Tranq consoles the Prez, not realising that it was the Prez who set in motion Creeper’s murder to protect his own secrets. A little later, the club carry Creeper’s casket into the clubhouse so they can say goodbye to him.
Hope is surprised when Leti bursts into the SOA clubhouse holding a girl from the bar hostage. Leti’s equally surprised when the Son watching Hope lets them leave. He even shoots himself in the shoulder to make it look better. One sliver of hope in amongst all the darkness in this episode. Back at the clubhouse, Creeper’s sister talks about her intense brother and the way they grew up. She says he found a home with the Mayans, where he felt “at peace.” She thanks all of them, especially EZ, whom Creeper loved. “You were all his world,” she says before hugging EZ. That’s when EZ gets up in front of everybody and takes responsibility for Creeper’s death, albeit not exactly. He says Creeper died on his watch. He blames himself for not protecting Creeper enough. Also present at the clubhouse is Kody/Katie. She takes the chance to go to the casket and say goodbye to Creeper, too.

In the car on their getaway, Hope forces Leti to pull over on the side of the road. She says that Isaac will never stop coming for her. She knows he’ll never give up, no matter where she and Leti end up. She says she needs to set Leti free, then she steps back into the speeding traffic and is viciously run down by an unsuspecting driver, which leaves Leti in tears. What a horrific moment. Leti’s seen so much tragedy in her young life already, now this; even worse, it leaves her, more or less, alone. She has nobody left to fall back on but the Broken Saints, and will the biker women let her come back?
Taza has also returned from his pilgrimage for Creeper’s funeral. He and Bishop have a brief word outside, as Bishop asks Taza if he found what he was seeking. Taza thinks he’ll never find what he’s looking for, but maybe he will right at home. Bishops says the past is the past. He’s more interested in looking to the future right now, apparently. “What‘s Hell is you can‘t enjoy it with your friends,” he says. Though it’s a bad time for Taza to return, even if he’s coming back regardless. There’s a lot of bad shit on the horizon for the Mayans, and it’s coming down on their heads sooner rather than later.

Sofia tells EZ she’s afraid of the place he’s going because she’s worried he won’t be able to find his way back from the darkness. He plays it off. But she tells him: “You‘re losing me.” At this point, will anything shake EZ from the path he’s put himself and the rest of his club on? Not so sure. EZ’s acting like a man with no future, with nothing to lose, when he could have a good future, if he chose to have one, and when he has SO MUCH to lose with Sofia and his family surrounding him in a time of chaos. Elsewhere, Guero and Bottles the prospect argue over who’ll pump some gas, which ends up in a fist fight and nobody pumping any gas. They’re near their destination when the truck breaks down from an empty tank. They see a fire on the horizon and rush on foot to find the Broken Saints’ compound on fire; the drug lab is ablaze, engulfing everything.