Mayans MC Comes to a Brutal End With Deadly Series Finale: Who Lived? Who Died? (Plus, Grade the Episode)

The following post contains major spoilers for Mayans MC‘s series finale. Proceed with caution!

Across its five seasons, Mayans MC has warmly embraced its Sons of Anarchy origins, bringing back familiar faces and meaningfully weaving the Sons into Mayans storylines for years. It was only logical, then, to wonder if Mayans might end the same way Sons did, with the death of its tortured protagonist.

But whereas Jax Teller more or less went out on his own terms, serenely guiding his motorcycle into a head-on collision with a semi truck, EZ Reyes’ death during Wednesday’s series finale was significantly more twisted and brutal. And given Mayans‘ penchant for violence, it’s really saying something to call EZ’s demise one of the series’ most stomach-turning scenes.

First, let’s revisit the lead-up to EZ’s death: Earlier in the episode, he had successfully led the Mayans through the final stretch of their war with the Sons. After EZ delivered a rousing speech to his brothers, he and the Mayans and the Grim Bastards descended upon a club where the Sons were partying, and they proceeded to shoot, beat or stab every Sons member they could grab. EZ took the liberty of finishing off big, bad Isaac, who he chased outside and threw down a stairwell.

“This can’t be it,” Isaac begged as EZ stood over him. “There has to be more. I’m not ready for this to be over.” But EZ didn’t care. He shot Isaac in the head, then urinated on his body, just as Isaac had done to a Mayan casualty at the start of this season.

Later, after the Mayans had celebrated their victory, Angel and EZ took a bike ride together, for the first time in a long time. Angel told EZ that, with the Sons war officially behind them, he planned to leave the club life behind and go someplace where he and Maverick could be safe. “I have to live. For him,” Angel said, and EZ, through his sadness, understood.

That night, EZ, Angel and the rest of Santo Padre’s head members gathered around the club table, where Angel tearfully announced his decision to the group. Tranq also suggested patching in Nestor, for the way he put the club above all else and handled the situation with Jess — the presumed rat — earlier in the season. Everyone at the table agreed, and Nestor was brought in to receive his official kutte…

…but the celebration was cut short when Gilly suddenly grabbed EZ and got him in a chokehold, while Nestor and the others held Angel back. Bishop — who had gotten a visit earlier in the episode from Kody/Katie, delivering a message from Creeper — revealed that they all finally knew EZ was the real rat, and they didn’t believe for a second that Angel wasn’t aware of EZ’s deal with the feds. So, in an especially gut-wrenching moment, Angel was handed EZ’s knife, and Bishop demanded that he prove “you’re loyal to the club over blood. If you wanna f—king walk out of here, prove your loyalty to the f—king badge.”

What happened next was tough to watch. EZ seemed to quickly come to terms with his own imminent death, insisting to Angel that this was the only way he and Maverick could truly escape the club lifestyle. “You’ve gotta be strong, Angel,” EZ said through tears. “It’s OK, Angel. Look at me. Tell your boy about me. And you tell him about Mom. Go, and don’t come back, OK? It’s gonna be OK. I’ll miss you.”

And Angel — who had a gun to his head this entire time — did what needed to be done, grabbing EZ by the shoulder and driving the knife into his stomach. He apologized the whole way through, and after Angel stepped back, the rest of the men in the room each approached and took their turn stabbing EZ, until it was finally done, and EZ was gone. Yeesh.

To put an extra-tragic cherry on top of this stabby sundae, Bottles then headed to EZ’s trailer, where Sofía had been waiting all day to tell EZ (oh, gosh) that she was pregnant. But her smile faded when she instead saw Bottles at the door, holding an assault rifle that he used to shoot Sofía instantly. (We were also briefly led to believe that Sally the pitbull had been shot, too. She wasn’t, but that was an unforgivable misdirect.)

In an episode-ending montage, we later saw that Bishop had taken EZ’s place as Santo Padre president — the role he’d wanted all along. “Now. Back to business,” Bishop said as he lit a cigarette, and the others around the table — Guero, Bottles (no longer a prospect, after what he did to Sofía), Tranq, Nestor and Gilly — looked around forlornly.

There was a bright side, though: Angel got out, after all. He and Maverick looked out on the ocean together in the episode’s final scene — and as Angel stared at the water, we found that he’d covered up the Mayans club name on his back tattoo.

Whew! And that’s not all. Elsewhere in the finale…

* In a personal triumph that ended up feeling a bit like a footnote, given the episode’s other carnage, Emily fatally shot Miguel and the family’s bodyguard, who she’d discovered was responsible for killing her sister. And thanks to Emily’s months of planning, and those strategically placed security cameras in her home, she looked blameless in both deaths. Instead, the cameras only showed Miguel collapsing (with the shooter juuust out of frame), followed by Luis collapsing (with the shooter juuust out of frame), followed then by a screaming Emily appearing on camera to hold Miguel’s body. For now, at least, the cops suspected it was a murder-suicide at Luis’ hand.

* With Miguel dead, Deputy Assistant yadda yadda Patricia Devlin was no longer able to put Potter in handcuffs as she’d hoped. Instead, Potter and Kody worked together to bring down the Mayans, and the ATF burst into the Santo Padre clubhouse at the end of the episode, surrounding the building with cop cars and guns and helicopters. “The levee will hold,” Potter cryptically told Kody. “For now.”

* Alvarez’s wife gave birth to a baby boy, and Bishop paid Alvarez a sweet visit at the hospital, where Alvarez worried that he won’t live long enough to see his new son get older than a teenager. “You think I’m doing the right thing, primo?” Alvarez asked Bishop. “I think, for the first time in our lives,” Bishop began, “I know for absolutely f—kin’ sure that one of us is doing the right thing.”

* And finally, Leti procured a handgun from one of her pals and planned to use it to kill “every motherf—ker in a Mayan kutte,” feeling strongly that both Coco and Hope’s deaths could be traced back to the Mayans. But when she arrived at Santo Padre HQ that night, she approached EZ’s trailer (after Sofía had been shot) and could tell something was wrong. Fortunately, sweet Sally had survived the gunfire, and she trotted up to Leti, who decided to put Sally in her car and drive off. Instead of seeking vengeance on the Mayans, she returned to the all-female Broken Saints club, looking appropriately contrite. Plus, Sally gets to roam around with other dog friends now, which is the happy ending we really needed.

OK, your turn! What did you think of Mayans MC‘s series finale? Grade it in our poll below, then hit the comments with your full reviews!