The MAYANS M.C. Team on ‘Escorpion/Dzec’s’ Brutal Twist

[This post contains spoilers for the MAYANS M.C. episode “Escorpion/Dzec.”]

“We found out people like babies!” MAYANS M.C. executive producer Elgin James jokes of the fallout from the second episode, “Escorpion/Dzec,” as Emily (Sarah Bolger) and Miguel’s (Danny Pino) infant son was kidnapped by Adelita’s (Carla Baratta) group.

“Mentally, physically, she is just shattered,” Bolger says of Emily’s mindset in the immediate aftermath of the ambush—where Emily was also attacked. “She is broken to pieces. She doesn’t come from a perfect home…she has a strength to withstand things. But this, of course, shakes her.”

“Not only her relationship with her husband, but when you can’t call the police, when you can’t go to the normal channels, when you can’t do anything to help—it’s the biggest pain one can imagine,” she continues. “And acting that was charged. I was upset every day feeling that level of pain and level of worry. But also maintaining that level of composure that you have to survive to help your kid. It’s that adrenaline: her phone is on her from [that moment on in] every scene [until it gets resolved].”

The Galindos had the chance to get their son back if the cartel backed down, but Miguel realized he couldn’t give in to the demands; he had to retaliate, even if it meant losing his son.

Though the move was against Emily’s wishes, “there’s a power to her that Miguel—like every good husband—should be slightly scared of,” Bolger teases. “I think she’s not going to last very long if someone else is making decisions for her; it’s not her nature. It’s not who she is. I think you’ll see that development in her and in the choices she’s not only made to make, but chooses to make very near in the future.”

One of the choices Emily made? Going to her ex-boyfriend EZ (JD Pardo) to request he let her know if there’s any change in her son’s status.

The duo didn’t end well, but EZ agreed and told her about Miguel’s move. “In any relationship, there’s somebody who’s in it and somebody who’s out,” Pardo explained. “It’s usually the person who gets broken up with and is still pining after that love, asking yourself the question ‘Why did this end?’ And I think for EZ, that just like relationships in real-life, when they come back to you and ask for your help, it’s like, ‘Okay! I don’t care I might die; I’ll help you out for the chance that this may be an in.’ Poor guy, he’s going to realize it just doesn’t work out.”

But with the kidnapping still unresolved by the episode’s end, James admits the ramifications of the storyline wasn’t immediately clear when they developed it. “We almost didn’t realize [the implications],” he says, noting the call was initially made to tie the stories together. “It’s not that we were ignorant of it, but it was like, ‘This is going to happen.’ And afterwards, we were like, oh, wow, that happened. Now we have to figure it out. That’s a huge [move]. How do we allow that to not suck up all of the oxygen from the show? It actually became more of a challenge with everything else going on, and that being ever-present [until it’s resolved], and truthful to the pain and horror.”

But when the time comes, he adds, “it resolves itself in a pretty interesting and surprising way.”

MAYANS M.C., Tuesdays, 10/9c, FX

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