‘Mayans M.C.’ Cast Discuss Season 5 and Saying Goodbye to the Series [Interview]

FX’s hit series Mayans M.C. is almost halfway through its fifth and final season, and times are rough for most of the characters in the series. 

I recently attended ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, and had the opportunity to speak with JD Pardo (EZ Reyes), Clayton Cardenas (Angel Reyes), Sarah Bolger (Emily Galindo), Emilio Rivera (Marcus Alvarez), and JR Bourne (Isaac) about the final season, what fans can expect, and more.

When prompted, Pardo isn’t shy about what fans can expect before the series finale. Staying true to its roots, the back end of the season will involve much more death, and everyone is open game.

“Look, it’s coming to an end, so there are a lot of pieces that need to be tied up, and you’re going to see all of that happen. It’s going to be a roller coaster. The question, right, is what’s going to happen with EZ and Angel, and what happens to that relationship? I guess the audience is, you know, anticipating not good things, which is good, because then we’ve done our job. It’s gonna be a wild ride. They say it’s darkest before the dawn. It’s true,” Pardo said.

Bolger says the last episodes of Season 5 will see her character in a completely new light, unlike fans have ever seen.

“You’ll see who she is cemented on screen, really, for the first time,” Bolger said.

“It’s not the skin of her ex-love, it’s not the skin of her husband, it’s not the industry that she never wanted to get into. It’s not pretending that she can escape or pretending that she’s free; there’s a level of realism that enters the facade of Emily Galindo this year and the realization of what it means to her to be free. And what lengths she’ll go to fight for that specifically.”

Bolger continued, “I mean, she goes through a lot; she has been through so much in five years, which, god bless them, it’s the gift of the show. It’s the gift of being able to do a million different moments and ideas and create, sort of like a growing person.”

“We grow, the characters grow, the audience gets to grow with us; it’s a special thing, and I think she’s become the person she was meant to be in this season,” Bolger concluded.

Bourne’s character, Isaac, is infamously known to fans for his brutality and savagery. While fans thought the end of Mayans M.C. Season 3 Episode 10, “Chapter the Last, Nothing More to Write,” was the last of Isaac, Bourne says he always knew he’d be coming back eventually.

Coming back for Season 5, Bourne has a new level of empathy for Isaac and his endeavors that he didn’t have for him in Season 3.

“We don’t know that backstory, but clearly, he was an SoA member; clearly, there was a reason that he left. There’s a whole life of this man that, you know, I said to Charles at one point that he’s just a walking, festering open wound of trauma that we haven’t sort of explored, but I’ve absolutely filled in where I could justify the things that he’s doing,” Bourne said.

“So, in Season 5, he’s in this world with these guys. It’s a different headspace for him. His brother is in the hospital dying; there’s something more at stake potentially for him. It’s just a different setting and different circumstances, and it’s not that it’s a new Isaac. It’s a familiar Isaac. It’s an Isaac from history for him.”

“For some reason, I felt more empathetic for him this time around than I did in the third season,” Bourne continued.

Season 5 also marks a significant achievement for Pardo as he gets behind the camera to perform the director role for the first time on Mayans M.C. Season 5 Episode 4, “I See the Black Light.” However, he was initially offered the position to direct back in Season 4.

“I wanted to wait till Season 5 because now that I knew that it was going to happen, I really wanted to study all aspects,” Pardo said. “I wanted to study the time. You know, they have a time for each scene that needs to be shot every day. I wanted to watch directors, how they chose that shot, what they focused on, and what happened when you lose time.”

When it comes to what the ensemble is most proud of, Bolger says it’s her character’s ability to overcome the trauma of her past.

“I’m most proud of Emily for being able to accept herself, her choices, and stop leaning on everyone around her, whether it was turning to EZ, whether it was hiding in the shadow of her husband, or whether it was feigning fear because she didn’t know how to deal with the child by herself. There’re all these reasons why she is who she is, why she continues to live for the cartel, and why she continues to stay.”

“I think the acceptance of herself and her choices solidifies in Season 5, and I am most proud of her for being able to look in the mirror and not hate herself,” Bolger said.

Cardenas says his character’s willingness to be completely honest with himself and what’s important to him is an essential trait he applauds. “I think my character’s ability to walk against the grain and go down the road of the unfamiliar is important. I think that shows a lot of people that it is okay to speak up and do things that are not expected of you.”

Pardo applauds EZ’s morals and that he stuck true to his code throughout the whole series.

“He’s stayed true to his beliefs. The club first, and people might respond and say, ‘Well, but some club members die under his watch,’ and yeah, but they make up the club. It’s the Mayans that have to live, not a character; the Mayans have to live and have to be on top.”

Rivera, who was essential in the creation of the series from the beginning, said he’s proud Alvarez stayed solid till the end.

“He was always a solid guy, you know, he never won, and he wanted to go by the book. Sometimes they’d cross him, so he had to go kill somebody because they crossed him, but he never wanted to kill for the fuck of it. And now, in the end, it shows that whatever he’s going through with the club and stuff, the family was always there, as in my life, in real life.”

After spending an obscene amount of time on a series, it’s understandable for one to want to take a souvenir for memories later down the road, and the cast did just that during their last days on set.

“I got my kutt, my snakeskin boots, and I got my other boots, I got all kinds of shit,” Rivera said.

He continued, “I wear the rings; I have a bunch of them at home. The real one, which I really wanted because there was a scene where I got real crazy on the table and I bent it [the ring] to shit, is gone. I mean, it got stuck on my finger. I hit that table so hard it smashed almost in half.”

“I took every piece of wardrobe. I also went into the clubhouse; there are some photos that we have up in the clubhouse of some of the members, but I thought they were nailed in. They weren’t. They were screwed in. So, I had one of the prop guys come in, unscrew some shit, and took it,” Cardenas laughed.

Bolger, however, had another experience when attempting to take her favorite prop, leaving her with quite the story to tell.

“I wanted my chair, right? I wanted the chair, wanted to frame it, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna send that out to you.’ And they sent it to my old address, so someone else has that now. I do not have it, and I went to the location and tried to see, but someone obviously took it. They’re not gonna keep it. I don’t know what they’re gonna do with it, but that’s what I wanted, and it is not in my possession,” Bolger said.

—

Check out more of our ATX Television Festival coverage here.

Mayans M.C. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

Interview: J.R. Ramirez Talks ‘Manifest’ Season 4, Michaela and Jared’s Ending [Interview]