Mayans M.C. has pulled out loads of easter eggs from the Sons of Anarchy basket, yet the biggest one to date is the return of the cryptic Lincoln Potter, played by Ray McKinnon. Potter was a huge thorn in the side of Sons’ M.C. if you remember.
McKinnon played the role of Lincoln Potter as his character debuted on the episode Out in Sons’ fourth season. He was cast as the Assistant U.S. Attorney investigating the Sons.
What we remember about Potter was he was highly intelligent, calculating, and ruthless and seemingly elastic in his ethics to get the goods on the M.C.. Yet he had moments where his character also aided the Sons. He’s a pure wildcard who operates on his own behalf at times.
Ray appeared again last night as Lincoln in the end scene on Gato/Mis in the series’ first season.
Who is Lincoln Potter?
Lincoln Potter is unpredictable in his actual modus operandi and mission. Last night on Mayans, he said to the show’s spirit animal, the alley cat: “Tell me, my fine feline friend, you roam behind those rusty gates. What unspeakable truths lie twisted amongst the scrap?”
That tells you he is on to something and is likely part of the FBI deep-dive investigation into the Galindo cartel and has pieced together the part the Mayans play in this tasty enchilada Kurt Sutter and Elgin James are cooking up.
What is his history with Sons?
Looking back at Sons, Potter was introduced in season 4 episode Out as the Assistant U.S. Attorney with a plan to take down the three targets the FBI had in their sights: SAMCRO, the Galindo Cartel, the Russian mob, and the “Irish”, a rogue criminal group buying guns on behalf of the IRA.
His strategy was to turn the Sons inside out on each other. His Potter tipped Sheriff (Rockmond Dunbar) about Juice’s (Theo Rossi) African-American father, to bite hard at the club’s no brothers allowed history and make Juice feel lesser than.
It worked, as Juice became a rat, and created a cascade of betrayals, deaths, and events that eventually led to his own death.
When he thought his work was nearly done, the CIA swooped in and stepped on his toes to the point that Potter became enraged and left Charming on his motorbike, just as fast and immediate as he was introduced as a character earlier in the season.
What now for Lincoln?
The Galindo Cartel is working hard to legitimize and will become harder to prosecute as a result. This is not lost on the FBI which is putting the screws into EZ and Angele’s dad (Edward James Olmos) and introducing Potter again, who was a catalyst in the SAMCRO/FBI wars.
We can guess that Potter’s return will add more stress to the club already pressed hard between hidden allegiances with Los Olvidados and the Galindos, along with EZ’s compromised position to get intel for the FBI or risk a return to the big house.
What we know as fans of Sons is that Lincoln has a sliding scale of ethics when it comes to getting the target. This means the Mayans are really in for it from every conceivable angle now.
Who is Ray McKinnon?
This Georgia-born star is an accomplished actor, writer, and producer. He starred in O Brother Where Art Thou? as Vernon T. Waldrip.
McKinnon is known for roles on Justified, Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy. His series Rectify earned a Peabody Award and was a huge critical success. It was his first time out as a series creator.
In a Bloomberg interview transcribed by Variety, McKinnon “began paying attention to TV as an art form when The Sopranos and Six Feet Under were in their prime.”
It was the Matt Weiner series Mad Men that became “the coup de grace” that inspired his hand at being a showrunner and creator.
In 2016, at the Television Critics Association press tour, a grateful McKinnon took a moment to personally thank the TV Critics for keeping his show, Rectify, relevant and bubbling in the media.
“Can I just say really quickly two things?” McKinnon asked. “You know, the first season and second, maybe third, probably fourth, we don’t have a lot of people watching the show, and generally, if nobody’s watching the show and the critics don’t really care for the show, the show doesn’t last.”
“So we truly owe a lot to both the tastemakers of this show who got it and also to AMC and Sundance for continuing to let us tell this story,” McKinnon continued. “And not just let us, and not just be a supporter, but be a collaborator in it, and it was an unusual time in television for us to tell the story, and I’m not sure that that time hasn’t passed, and we all feel very incredibly lucky to have been part of it.”
Mayans M.C. Airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.