Recap: ‘Sons of Anarchy’ – ‘Greensleeves’

So you still haven”t watched Tuesday night”s “Sons of Anarchy?” Well you”re going to want to pop your eyes back in their sockets, boot up those tablets and pre-order your copies of “Cocks & Bagels” because it was a doozy. Also, this article contains spoilers, and this is one you”re going to want to see for yourself.

“Greensleeves,” a riff of the legendary song about unrequited love (or prostitution, depending on who you ask) also served as the seventh episode”s title, and fittingly invoked just as much confusion. There wasn”t a viewer left who didn”t doubt Juice was going to be at the mercy of Jax and the rest of SAMCRO after last week”s explosive deal, so imagine the surprise when he rode off on club business from the spot J.T. died so many years ago? I still remember the good old days when a Sons member who did the club wrong would have his ink burned from his back for letting the club down, and was gearing up for a tense interrogation scene of similar proportions. Of course, that would bring us closer to the truth about Gemma and apparently, that”s not going to happen just yet.

Instead, these past couple of episodes have allowed us as viewers to breath a collective sigh of relief where the club is concerned because it seems as though that”s what Jax has been doing. From the moment he confronted Lin about “killing” Tara, his load has seemed lighter. Yes, he”s still bent on revenge (and apparently willing to let Juice prove himself by killing Lin in prison), but he”s calmed down considerably from the guy who drove a carving fork into a guy”s skull in the season opener. As we see in the episode, he”s even at the point of thanking his crew for blindly following him. So we should have all known that a club death was imminent-they”ve gotten away with too much for too long. We also should have immediately suspected it would be the one dude who still had a moral compass left to bite the bullet (or insert weapon of choice here). 

Once again we can indirectly blame Gemma for Bobby”s demise. After all, had she not freaked out over heading to the cabin for mother-son business, Bobby wouldn”t have had to go check on her and he wouldn”t have been riding alone. Just as I was thinking how nice it was to hear Bobby”s pipes again (remember that time he was an Elvis impersonator?), we were treated to one of the most gruesome scenes yet. Turns out Marks wasn”t kidding about the whole eye for an eye threat. I”m just so thankful that the torture went down via a tablet and we didn”t have to watch the whole thing play out frame-by-frame. Sure we're not 100 percent sure that Bobby”s dead, but let”s be real: Bobby is dead. Marks is too brutal to not have had him finished. Pope was his mentor, after all. 

I will definitely miss good old Bobs, but in all fairness there was really nowhere left for his story to go (other than to perhaps give more terrible advice to Wendy). Now we”ll have to see what course of action Jax takes next, and what other tricks this Moses character has to play. Something tells me we won”t be seeing Marks again anytime soon-the man isn”t dumb. And as sad as it is to see Bobby go, it is nice to see someone get the upper hand on Jax for a change.

Then again I suppose that indirectly brings me to Gemma. Lady Macbeth (or Queen Gertrude if we go by Kurt Sutter”s definition) continued her mad lies to everyone but Thomas. In a moment of desperation, thinking that the time had finally come to face her son, she absolved her soul to Tara”s son and wound up accidentally confessing to Abel. Kid is already threatening people with a hammer and beating up children at school, so we know he isn”t going to handle this tidbit well. Could killing Grams be his first official juvie act? Who knows at this point, but at least someone other than Juice finally knows the truth. Here”s hoping it”s a burden actors Ryder and Evan Londo are able to carry through until the end. Given some of the previous scenes I”m not so sure they can, but I definitely want to at least try and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Son of a Gun:

*** Every time they bring up Piney”s old cabin you know something bad is going to happen. 

*** Nero”s dream of selling his share of the club and running off with Gemma is so damned deluded. Is anyone else starting to picture a Nero/Jax showdown towards the end? Who will Gemma root for?

*** I don”t know why this is so fascinating, but what”s up with Thomas always eating crackers?

*** FX missed the boat on an absurd online spinoff featuring Red Woody original productions

*** Since when does Chucky have a crush on Gemma too?! Maybe she secretly serenades all the guys in her spare time.

*** Just kidding about that last point. I actually like Katy Sagal”s singing voice, and thought she did “Greensleeves” justice. I also quite enjoyed her riff on “Ruby Tuesday,” but now you know too much. 

Were you shocked at the Bobby twist? Happy that someone finally got the upper hand on Jax? Frustrated that this Juice thing continues to play out? Sound off below. 

Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX. 

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