‘Sons of Anarchy’ Creator Kurt Sutter Dishes on ‘Mayans M.C.’ Finale’s ‘Happy’ Twist Ending

Mayans M.C. and Sons of Anarchy fans were in for a major surprise during Mayans M.C.‘s Season 1 finale on Tuesday, Nov. 6, when it was finally revealed who had killed EZ (JD Pardo) and Angel Reyes’ (Clayton Cardenas) mother and spurred EZ’s years-long quest for vengeance.

Warning — Mayans M.C. spoilers ahead.

During the finale, titled “Cuervo/Tz’ikb’uul,” the killer was revealed to be none other than Happy Lowman (David Labrava), who had been a recurring character on SOA during all of the FX drama’s seven seasons.

Mayans showrunner Kurt Sutter spoke to The Hollywood Reporter to shed some light on his decision to name Happy as the killer, explaining that he initially hadn’t planned on having the lethal character return.

“I started thinking about the payoff with EZ chasing the ‘one-armed man’ who killed his mom,” he recalled. “I wanted it to pay off and find out who that guy was, and plug that guy into the bigger mythology. It can’t be someone [EZ]’s seen before. We could criss-cross the mythologies in a way I was good with, because it doesn’t impact the Sons mythology at all.”

Sutter further explained that maintaining the mythology of Sons is important to him, and he wanted to make sure that any Sons character that appears on Mayans does not affect that mythology in any way.

“I’ve said from the jump that there would be intersections with not necessarily secondary characters in importance, but characters who existed at least part of the time on the fringe,” he said. “We get away with that when Happy and Quinn (Rusty Coones) show up, because they were people who came to the club later on, and already existed in the fringe before the people we came to know that represent the Sons mythology.”

Despite Happy’s arrival, Sutter made sure to note that Mayans won’t now become a SOA crossover show due to the fact that when Happy killed EZ’s mom, he had no ties to the Sons world.

“I think it’s going to continue the way it is: they now become part of the external conflict,” he said. “The focus will still be on EZ who is now committing to this life, and at least being in a place of acceptance. Now, we have this cool external conflict for EZ [with Happy] thinking, ‘Okay, now what the f— do I do?’

“I don’t want to misrepresent the direction of the series,” he continued. “But is it a cool way to intersect mythologies without f—ing with what we did in Sons? I think we’re managing to do that. I love when s— happens organically like that, when it’s authentic. It allows me to continue doing what I love as a storyteller, which is making people’s heads explode.”

Photo Credit: FX