Spoilers below for the latest episode of Mayans M.C., so be warned if you haven't yet watched!
Things are getting extremely twisted for the titular brotherhood on Mayans M.C., with J.D. Pardo's EZ trying to balance club life with a love life, and with Bishop still trying to figure out how to thrive as a club without burning everything down around him. Little does he know that Richard Cabral's Coco is holding both a lit match and gasoline, and with veins full of narcotics. Of all the characters that reached points of no return in "What Comes of Handlin' Snakeskin," Coco is the one whose fate was arguably left up for debate when the credits started rolling.
In case anyone thought that Coco spending an entire episode outside of Meth Mountain meant that he was on the up and up, this episode went hard on proving that is not the case. Even with fairly minimal screentime, Richard Cabral has convincingly made Coco feel forever bogged down in the murky depths of addiction, which was an important element of this season's narrative for showrunner Elgin James, so it was only a matter of time before he unwittingly overdosed. That eventuality came into existence in Episode 307, with Emily Tosta's Leti finding her father limp and unresponsive hours after telling him to his face that she hoped he would OD. Speaking with EW about Coco's dark journey, Cabral shed what little light he could on his character's future.
I can't tell you what happens! Humanity has only two options: you can choose to live or to die. That's it, and that's the choice he will be faced with. Up to this point, he's been on a trajectory of death. He's been numbing his pain all this time, so by the end of the episode, he is faced with those two choices.
While there's also no real indication for how Vanessa Giselle's Hope is faring while also passed out next to Coco, I think we can all agree which character viewers are more invested in. Though contrary to what Richard Cabral stated, I don't think Coco is capable of making any real decisions at this point that don't boil down to "Which cushion should I sit on to get high?" He definitely doesn't seem to understand how relatively close he is to death by his own design, since he still only sees his addiction as a means to heal pains both genuine and heightened.
If he does make it back to the land of consciousness, Coco absolutely needs to take inventory of the truly important things in his life - i.e. Leti - and then come up with a plan for how not to continue ruining every relationship in his life. If he can reflect back on his troubled childhood that eventually led to him murdering his own mother, Coco should also be able to recognize that he's essentially setting Leti up to follow the same path. Below, Richard Cabral reflected on his last "conversation" with Leti before he overdosed.
They have this toxic relationship, but she didn't really mean what she said. Being how this relationship is, it makes sense that she would say that. That's a lot for her to carry, and that's the worst when you feel responsible for somebody you love and whatever happens to them. History is repeating itself here, and it's the journey that we're on. Even with all that's going on, though, I think they're there for each other in this twisted, weird way.
Admittedly, it's somewhat easy to view Coco's story from truly harsh and judgmental perspective, since being a heroin-stealing, needle-popping, mommy-killer isn't exactly a textbook definition for heroism. But his patterned behavior is sadly quite relatable to many people across the country who can sympathize with Coco feeling like he doesn't have a light to aim for at the end of his tunnel. And Richard Cabral pointed out that his character didn't exactly enter his parenthood role through the traditional means, and that it isn't helped out at all by Coco's own arrested development.
We have to take into consideration that Coco has been a father for less than a year. Yes, there is generational trauma there, but when you don't know anything different, how do you break that cycle? He's living his life the only way he knows how. People who are traumatized at a young age have to grow up fast. His mother was an addict and a prostitute; what childhood did Coco have? In many ways, he's still a little boy. He's reverted back to this broken innocence that's underneath this hard exterior he built as a military vet and a warrior. He can't be better because he doesn't know better.
So while it doesn't sound like Coco is beating down death's door just yet, it sounds like he'll need to make some massive changes if he wants to survive this explosive season. Or even if he wants to survive the ass-whupping that Bishop is going to rain down on him for not showing up for the club's brawls with other charters.
Mayans M.C. airs Tuesday nights on FX at 10:00 p.m. ET, with episodes streaming on Hulu the day after they premiere.
