[Editor’s note: The following includes major spoilers for Season 4 of Mayans M.C.]After the war with the Sons and war amongst themselves, the loss of club members, the fracturing of relationships, shocking revelations, and shifting dynamics, the Season 4 finale of Mayans M.C. left scorched earth in its wake and an uncertain future for Santo Padre. EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas) will have to figure out how to move on and move forward, and decide where their individual paths will ultimately lead them.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Emilio Rivera (who plays Marcus Alvarez, El Padrino of the Santo Padre chapter of the Mayans M.C.) and Kim Coates (who returned as Sons of Anarchy fan favorite character Tig) talked about how hard it was to say goodbye to Richard Cabral (who plays Coco), as an actor and co-star, how Tig ended up making his return to this world, Coates’ requests for guesting on Mayans, the hospital scene, shooting the kill switch moment, what could come next for the show, and what a possible Marcus/Tig spinoff could look like.
Collider: Emilio, this finale starts with a funeral. What was it like to have that moment to say goodbye to Coco? How does Marcus feel about everything that happened? How do you feel about everything that happened?
EMILIO RIVERA: That was a real sad moment for me because Marcus sent Coco to go take care of some stuff for the club, and it didn’t turn out good. So, Marcus was hurting, seeing his daughter hurt. He didn’t have anything to say, even though he should have said something, but that moment that I gave her was very heartfelt.
What was it like to find out about that storyline, and what would happen with that character? Did you know any of that was coming?
RIVERA: Somewhat. You know some things. Sometimes people just wanna do something else, which hurts. When I sent Coco off, I knew that was our last day together, so I broke. When we were doing that scene, I broke, and he broke. I just got up and walked away, and we had to start over again. Richard Cabral was a friend of mine before Mayans, so it was actually me telling him goodbye for good. It was a tough scene for me.
KIM COATES: Honest to God, Emilio, those moments where you’re saying goodbye, and it’s the last scene that you’ll work together, you’re not saying goodbye in the scene, but you know it’s the last scene, ever, those are the toughest. When I did Sons of Anarchy with Kenny Johnson, who played Kozik, and we read the script where he was gonna go and get blown up in the minefield and not come back, ever, I knew when it was our last day on set together and I made sure that I put my arm around him. I fucked around with him and put him in a little headlock, and he kept smacking my hand away. But when you look at it now, and you see that last moment, before we cried in the clubhouse together, as men drinking a whiskey to Kozik, we did have a moment. So, to hear you, Emilio, and to know that he was such a big part of the show, like Ryan Hurst was when we finally put him away on SOA, and I know you as an actor, and it doesn’t get any better than you, so for you to feel that stuff and be real with that stuff, and for the other actor to receive and to feel that, I can’t wait to see that scene.
RIVERA: What happened was that we did it a couple of times, and by the third time, I said, “Oh, fuck, I can’t do this again.” I did it, but I started crying, so we had to reshoot it again. And as I watched that scene, I could see it was the last take because I could still see the tears in my eyes, and I wasn’t supposed to telegraph what would happen. Marcus didn’t know Coco was gonna die. He was just sending him to do a job. But I could see it in my eye, at the time.
One of the things I love about this show are those moments.
RIVERA: You just never know when it’s gonna hit. You can read it one way, but then when you’re with the actor in front of you, you don’t know what the circumstance it is, and you don’t know how it’s gonna read or how they’re gonna react. You’ve just gotta take it in and listen, and then go with that. I love acting. Acting is therapy for me.
Kim, when and how did this whole conversation happen, as far as you appearing on this show? Were you surprised?
COATES: I don’t know if I was surprised, but I was certainly getting tired of trying to answer, “Are you gonna be in Mayans?,” so I just stopped answering. When we passed the baton onto (co-creators) Elgin [James] and [Kurt] Sutter in that first season, a few years ago, it was with love and with, “Go get it. Go get your story. Go mine that story and do your thing.” But I’d be naive to think that Sons base of bikerdom or fans wouldn’t wanna go over there and check it out for what Mayans was gonna be. I knew Tommy [Flanagan], as Chibs, did a guest spot for one show. I knew Emilio was starring on it. I knew Montez and Chucky, and a few of the other boys, were on it, here and there, and that was great. I never really thought about me coming on, but I knew that I didn’t die as Tig Trager and I knew that bikerdom world of Charming was still very much alive. I was doing a big movie in Georgia, and I was almost wrapped. I was about to come back to L.A. and my people said, “Are sitting down?” I said, “I’m sitting down.” They said, “Mayans has called.”
I remember getting very tingly excited about it, but I was dead serious and wasn’t fucking around when I said, “You have to tell Elgin yeah, but there’s gotta be some stuff. I’ve gotta work. I don’t wanna do a little cameo, just to be in a back alley and to be at a table and say, “Stop fighting.” And I said that I’d love to work with Emilio. So, to get the script and find out that the stuff I had to do was mostly with my brother who I’m doing this interview with was mind-blowing. And then, the hospital scene was so creepy and weird and funny and dark, and so Tig-esque.” Emilio knows Elgin way better than me, but for that guy to direct the episode, to write the episode, and to give me a ton of love by going, “Is this good enough? Is this all right?,” and for me to go, “This is perfect,” I couldn’t have been happier to put that cut back on and ride my motorcycle that I’d kept since the end of the show. And then, putting on the bangles and my knife and my belt was pretty cool for me.
RIVERA: I told Kim, “You’re gonna love Elgin.” And I told Elgin, “You’re gonna love Kim.”
COATES: And he was dead right on.
Did you have a moment where wondered it you’d be able to find Tig again?
COATES: No, I don’t think I had that. I looked very similar to the way I did when I played Tig. I cut a few things, here and there, but I really just slipped right back into it. I played the guy too long to worry about whether I could slip into him again. And like Emilio, I’ve been riding my whole life, so I didn’t worry about riding. I just wanted to be nervous enough, excited enough, and not be afraid to fail enough to kill the scenes that I was in. I was just happy to be there.
I loved the scene in the hospital because it really is the perfect encapsulation of the show, of the whole world, and of who Tig always was, as a character. It has that inappropriate humor that Tig has. What was it like to do that scene? How many times did you have to strangle that poor guy, from like every angle?
COATES: That was Greg [Vrotsos], who plays Terry. He’s a really, really good actor. I was actually quite surprised that my filming on Mayans started with Emilio. That was the big scene. That was the killer scene. That was me and him, two old warriors who’ve known each other, forever and ever. That was two old guys, having a smoke and talking about, ‘What does this all mean now?” I’m glad we did that first because I got to slide back into it. I put my cut back on, I put my knife on, and I had that bad posture. I had my hand on my knife and I just got right into that. Emilio and I were basically bear-hugging it out in his big Winnebago, going over our lines and giggling, like a couple of school boys, and it was great to do that with him first and to get that familiarity of Alvarez and Tig back on the screen. By the time I did that hospital scene, it was just icing on the cake. That was just the stupidest, most beautiful, creepy, funny, violent scene, ever, and very Tig-esque.
RIVERA: That was a good one.
Emilio, because of Tig, Marcus finally learned that all of the stuff that was going on with Sons had been about Montez, which he wasn’t even aware of. How did it feel for him to be fighting a war when he didn’t even realize what that bigger picture was?
RIVERA: That’s a very good question. Marcus was away with the Galindo cartel, so he didn’t know a lot of things. Hopefully, we’ll get at least five more seasons, so he can find out everything that’s been going on. Even though they throw him out of the club, he’s still wondering, “What else are they hiding?” As me, Emilio Rivera, watching the show, I know what’s happening, but Marcus Alvarez doesn’t know shit.
COATES: What was great was the honesty that these two men are giving to one another. There’s no hiding. Tig is like, “Didn’t you know this?” And Alvarez is like, “No, I didn’t know shit.” It’s all man-to-man, honest, old school shit, and the shit is about to hit the fan. That writing was beautiful.
RIVERA: It’s that respect between Emilio Rivera and Kim Coates, but also between Tig and Alvarez. It was beautiful. I got home and told my wife what a beautiful day it was. I was so happy that day. And then, when I went to go ADR to add the words to it because it was very loud out there that day, it was even better. When I got home again, I told my wife how good it was. It was like too old buddies talking. We hadn’t lost a step.
COATES: Not a step.
As the viewer, it makes you nervous when somebody is coming back because you don’t know how they’ll fit in and how it will feel, but I couldn’t have imagined it turning out any better than it did.
RIVERA: Thank you. Same here. As far as scene-wise, I know the caliber of actor that Kim is, so I knew that part of it was gonna be good, but it came out better. It was just so natural.
COATES: It’s so true. And they kept every single line. They even showed Tig flying away on his bike, which was great. I just loved the whole thing.
Emilio, what was it like to shoot that scene in the finale with the meeting around the table that EZ calls the kill switch vote for, and for Marcus to have his brothers vote him out as President?
RIVERA: I did that about six times. I did it rough. I did it mean. Elgin said, “I’ve got it, so do whatever you wanna do with it now.” I did that scene as a broken down man. That’s how I finished it, with Alvarez hurt so bad. I didn’t know which one they were gonna keep, but for the last one, I did it like they’d already killed my whole family. They had already gotten what they needed, so I did that last one just for me. I was already so emotionally heated up that I wanted to use that madness and turn it into tears, so I did. It was a good cleansing for me. It was a good way to end it for me.
What do you think Marcus even thought of EZ, in that moment, especially since it feels like he didn’t see any of it coming?
RIVERA: He gave him the bylaws, which was this big old book to read, and he actually fucking read it. He shouldn’t have given him that book. That’s where the kill switch came from. If you wanna throw out the President, you need the votes, and he used the kill switch on Marcus. EZ pisses him off. That guy has lost his mind. EZ got a taste of blood, and now he really likes it.
And if that wasn’t hard enough, there was also that last moment with Alvarez taking off the cut and walking away from the bike.
RIVERA: I forgot about that part. That’s right, I did that too.
I was so ready to defend Alvarez and just burn it all down for him.
RIVERA: Thank you so much. Let’s go fuck everybody up. It was a long scene and everybody got a chance to vote, and the guys he thought weren’t gonna vote against him, voted against him because everybody wanted to go to war while he was trying to think of a different way out. That was good. We shot the shit out of that.
How do you think all of that will play into next season?
RIVERA: I don’t know. I was pissed. I actually got the script on the way the premiere, so I was in the car on the way over there and I was reading the script. I was reading it going, “I live, right?,” and then I read that part. At the premiere, I was like, “Why are you guys kicking me out?” And they gave me an answer that I really liked. I can’t repeat it, but I’m good. I think it’s gonna be okay.
If nothing else, I’d watch a spinoff with Marcus and Tig.
RIVERA: They can open up a shop.
COATES: One hundred percent.
I’d totally watch that.
RIVERA: They could open up a strip club/motorcycle shop. That would be great.
Mayans M.C. is available to stream at Hulu.