Mayans M.C. has confirmed that Jax Teller’s plan at the end of Son of Anarchy ultimately failed. The second season of Mayans M.C. has hit the highway on FX, and there has already been some startling revelations. Amid telling a story of its own about the political strife along the United States-Mexico border, the Sons of Anarchy spinoff is providing a disheartening insight into the fate of Charming’s road warriors in the intervening years.
Developed by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter (who has since stepped down as showrunner), Mayans M.C. was initially positioned as an indirect follow-up that deepened the biker gang mythology without engaging too much with the Sons and the Teller legacy. There were occasional cameos, but nothing especially substantial. That was until the reveal that one of the members of SAMCRO, the founding chapter of the Sons of Anarchy, based in Charming, CA, killed the mother of lead character Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes, an event that led to EZ ruining his life and going to prison.
Coming into the latest season, a collision between the two gangs seemed inevitable, and sure enough aspects of that were put in motion for what will likely be a slow spiral downward. In the meantime, though, we’re learning more and more about what the Sons’ mother charter did after Jax Teller martyred himself for their future.
Jax’s Plan For SAMCRO Failed
In the first episode of Mayans M.C. season 2, David LaBrava’s Happy Lowman is delivering a shipment to bookkeeper and general helper Chucky, whom the Sons lost to the Mayans in a card game. The cargo are handguns, a line of business Jax had dedicated himself to getting SAMCRO away from. Chucky mentions this to Happy, who responds, “Transition’s taking longer than we thought, it’s a lot at stake.”
There are a number of ways to interpret what that means exactly, but the major take-away is that Jax Teller’s attempt to alter the course of the Sons of Anarchy and steer them away from gun-running and into clean business practices didn’t work. Around three years have passed since the Sons of Anarchy finale, a substantial amount of time for a transition to take place. Of course, Happy isn’t joking about the stakes - Jax found that out the hard way. A lot of politicking is required to smooth out relationships in the world of black market weaponry when you decide that you want out. How hard the club is trying remains to be seen, but for now, they’re still doing the one thing Jax hoped they wouldn’t be.
Jax Tried To Get SAMCRO Away From Guns
The entire of Sons of Anarchy revolves around Jax Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, learning about his father’s vision for the club, as written in an unpublished memoir, and understanding that they’ve steered away from John Teller’s ethos. First, he tries to exit the club and have a quiet life with his partner Tara and their child, but then events conspire against him and he ends up staying and trying to find a better path for SAMCRO.
This steers him into the cross-hairs of the Irish Kings of the True IRA, for whom Sons of Anarchy are a vital part of their business infrastructure. Galen O’Shea of the Kings and Jax have a protracted stand-off that ends with Jax and the Sons killing Galen and an excommunicated Clay Morrow as part of a maneuver that shifts business over to Damon Pope and August Marks’ network of inner city gangs. The reprieve is temporary as Jax is reminded that the Sons were supplying so many sides at once they became a lynch-pin of gangland disputes, and now the Chinese and the Mayans need a new supplier.
It’s in finding a new solution that everything starts to dissolve. Jax tries to keep a web of inter-gang relations working, while also taking revenge on the Chinese whom he believes killed Tara, but it all falls apart and Jax tries a nuclear option. He decides to kill the Kings that stand in his way, as well as kill Marks and himself, settling all feuds and letting new deals, including a renewed alliance with the Mayans, take shape. He leaves SAMCRO with their porn business, no longer obligated to do anyone’s dirty work - or so he thought.
What This Means For Mayans M.C.
That getting out of moving firearms is proving so hard is a bad omen for the lead characters of Mayans M.C. and a reminder that the underworld of organized crime and gang violence doesn’t make exiting easy. Jax had to lose the love of his life, his parents, both blood and adopted, and give his life to try and get the Sons of Anarchy on the right road, and it still wasn’t enough.
EZ, his brother Angel, played by Clayton Cardenas, and the rest of their crew in the Mayans are already in a touch over their heads, working with both insurgent rebels and the Galindo cartel, as well as trying to manage a drug trade. In this same episode they kill a group of mercenaries to protect a rebel child informant, a move that is surely to prove costly sooner rather than later. Many of the characters in Mayans M.C. dream of a brighter future, of toppling corruption in the name of the people. The scale here is already well beyond anything the Sons of Anarchy had to shoulder.
The stakes are against Angel and EZ, and precedent dictates they should brace themselves for the worst case scenario. What’s more, this suggests we’ll see more of the Redwood Originals over the course of this season, as a conflict of interest between them and the Mayans becomes known. Just after we hear the Sons are still delivering guns packages, Happy realizes he killed the mother of a Mayan. and EZ tells Angel he knows who killed their mother. The conflict is now explicit on both sides and it’s only a matter of time before the Mayans and SAMCRO are forced to find a solution – just another problem to add to the pile, and another story where nobody gets what they want.
Next: Screen Rant’s Mayans M.C. Season 2 Premiere Review
