‘Mayans M.C.’s Creator Breaks Down That Crazy ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Twist

All season long Mayans M.C. has been flirting with the world of Sons of Anarchy, occasionally showing viewers a beloved fan favorite but largely telling its own self-contained antihero story. That changed in a substantial way in Season 1’s finale. But despite the possibilities of that huge twist, creator Kurt Sutter wants viewers to know one thing — this is still EZ’s story. Spoilers ahead for Mayans M.C. Season 1, Episode 10 “Cuervo/Tz’ikb’uul.”

Much of Mayans‘ final episode focuses on EZ (JD Pardo) and Angel (Clayton Cardenas) as they have to do the unthinkable. To avoid being charged for a murder they didn’t commit, these brothers are tasked with killing EZ’s longtime semi-ally, DEA agent Kevin Jimenez (Maurice Compte). They complete these orders and save themselves, but Angel has one more request for EZ. He has to retire and leave the Mayans for good.

Naturally this murder mission comes from Sons of Anarchy‘s resident weirdo federal agent, Lincoln Potter (Ray McKinnon). But Potter’s orders were far from the only SAMCRO connection lurking in the shadows of the Mayans‘ finale. After spending an entire season sorting through flashbacks and wondering who murdered his mother, EZ finally recognizes the killer. And it’s none other than SAMCRO’s Happy Lowman (David Labrava). This revelation comes just as EZ defies his brother to pledge his loyalty to the Mayans and the Mayans make a new deal with SAMCRO, requiring the two clubs to work closer together than ever before. To say that it’s a less than ideal arrangement is a drastic understatement. But it’s also a plot twist that Mayans‘ co-creator Kurt Sutter never anticipated.

Sutter knew he wanted Mayans to incorporate flashbacks, a narrative device he never used in Sons of Anarchy. From the series’ first episode, these flashbacks serve as a sort of shorthand for EZ’s remarkable intelligence and the life he could have pursued if it wasn’t for his mother’s murder and his own quest for vengeance. But the creator didn’t want EZ’s flashbacks to become like Jack Teller’s manuscript — a cool framing device that gets lost in the course of the series.

“I ultimately didn’t have a bigger arc for [the manuscript]. So that’s why I ultimately had to let it go because I felt like I had to sort of force it in and that device no longer served us,” he said. “When we’re doing the flashbacks I had that awareness of ‘This is a potent thing. This is who this guy is, it’s how he thinks.’ And it’s something if I’m going to use it, I can’t just abandon it to a certain degree.”

Sutter and his writers wanted to make the story told through EZ’s flashbacks mirror what was happening in the current narrative. But even with this structure in mind, the showrunner didn’t know this season’s biggest secret, the identity of the hooded killer. Sutter referred to this mystery as Mayans‘ own one-armed man. “I wasn’t sure who it was going to be, and I was sort of waiting for the narrative to move forward because I didn’t have to make that choice right away,” he said.

But when Potter’s deal started to come together in the writer’s room, Sutter started to see his murderer. In Mayans‘ finale the devious DEA agent makes an unusual deal with the Galindo cartel. The cartel agreed to create two businesses — one that will be knowingly monitored by the Feds and a second shadow business that will work with the rebels. That second business requires guns, which would means a visit from the boys in Charming. While sorting through which Sons of Anarchy members should appear in the finale, Sutter finally settled on his killer — Happy Lowman (David Labrava).

“I knew also I wasn’t going to bring in major characters because I didn’t want to fuck with the Sons mythology,” he said. But Happy fit the bill. He was a known hitman who wasn’t influential enough to affect the politics of any Sons of Anarchy chapter in a major way. And most importantly he was a known nomad. Eight years ago when EZ’s mother was murdered, he wasn’t affiliated with SAMCRO. EZ seeing Happy for the first time in Mayans‘ finale was completely believable.

“The facts and the logic all hooked up. And it was cool because it protected the mythology of Sons,” Sutter said. “It really sort of came together piece by piece, and it was one of those things where I had the thought of, ‘Oh of course that’s what it is.’”

“Now I just have to figure out what I do with that,” he added.

But despite this major revelation of cross-club betrayal, that doesn’t mean we’re looking at a biker war. “Look, I don’t want to suggest or mislead people that Season 2 is going to be about Charming, and it’s really not. It’s going to be what the show is. It’s going to be about EZ and his relationship with now the club, his brother. What will happen is that that will become an external tension.”

For now Season 2 certainly plans on addressing how this revelations will affect the Mayans’ relationship with SAMCRO. But it will also focus on other major sources of drama such as how EZ’s relationship with his brother has changed since he’s defied Angel’s orders to leave the club. “It’s not going to be about the Sons vs. the Mayans. It’ll be about EZ and how he rectifies that memory and that awareness,” Sutter said.

Where to watch Mayans M.C.