Thus far, Season 4 of Mayans MC has seen a very different Angel Reyes (Clayton Cardenas). While in seasons past, he’s been the wilder of the two Reyes brothers and arguably more dedicated to the MC lifestyle, that’s no longer the case. Season 4 has seen his little brother EZ rise in the ranks to vice president of his charter, becoming fully invested in the darker aspects of club life.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of Mayans MC, “When I Die, I Want Your Hands On My Eyes.” If you have yet to see the episode, stop reading now.
Angel, on the other hand, has begun to take stock of his life outside of the club. He proposed to Nails (Justina Adorno) after learning she was pregnant with his child and, for the first time, we saw Angel the person, rather than Angel the Mayan. And that version of Angel is able to see how deeply rooted in the club his brother has become–something he never wanted for his younger sibling.
“I think Angel is more surprised and literally afraid of [EZ’s] ascension in the club,” Cardenas told GameSpot. “And I think that’s forced him to bring a mirror up to himself and ask himself, ‘Is this what I wanted with my life? With where my brother’s taking this and heading towards, is this what I want? This is not what I wanted for us. This is not what I wanted for my family. It’s not what I wanted for my brother.’ So I think it’s very much a self-realization moment.”
And while it’s highly doubtful we’ll see him walk away from the club at this point in his life, that self-realization is about to get a lot more disturbing. After all, not only is Coco (Richard Cabral) dead but on the latest episode of the series Nails lost her child through a miscarriage.
Angel hasn’t been informed of this news just yet, but there isn’t a scenario in which he’ll take it well–what parent would? That’s compounded with the fact that, according to Cardenas, Angel saw this child as a sort of opportunity for redemption after being told that the child he fathered with Adelta was dead.
“Having a second chance of being a father, I think that’s the most important thing,” the actor explained prior to the episode airing. “This is something that he’s–not that he’s never had a father but he’s never had a father he didn’t have the father he could look up to. He didn’t have, in that sense, the dream father figure. I think that’s what Angel wanted to be for his son. I think he’s wanting to be that pillar in his life of positivity.”
Now, though, he won’t get that chance. Which Angel will rear its head in the fallout, though? The Angel we’ve come to know this season that wants to build a life with Nails or the old, hardened version that puts the club above all else who we saw a hint of when he hooked up with Coco’s sister in this episode? At this point, it could go either way and both have some serious storytelling potential. However, there’s one thing the show needs to keep in mind and it’s that this story belongs to nails as much if not more than it does Angel.
This episode rightly put a lot of its focus on her experience. It’s something Mayans MC has done time and again, giving the female characters the spotlight they deserve in this male-dominated world. Moving forward, though, she needs to be kept in the front of mind because, however much Angel is going to be hurting, it’s going to be just as bad or worse for her. And given how Mayans MC attempts to keep things as grounded as possible, this is a piece of the story that deserves to be amplified.
Mayans MC airs Tuesdays on FX.
