It’s been a wild season of high and lows on Sons of Anarchy: A fan favorite was killed three weeks ago, and Sutter followed it up last week with an episode that reminded us of when this show had a sense of humor.
Unfortunately, in this week’s episode, he felt compelled to remind us that Sons of Anarchy is very much a nighttime soap opera, and that it can be achingly silly at times. The show is quickly running out of characters we can root for, and if episodes continue to be as silly as last night’s, I’m going to be rooting for them all to die soon.
Let’s get to the recap:
1. The Right Way with the Right People, and There Is No Risk — The most infuriating aspect of an episode that was entertaining but ultimately preposterous was how unbelievably easy Jax settled his beef with Damon Pope. Damon Pope and Jax Teller have a certain mutual respect for each other, which I get. But where is Jax’s pride? DAMON POPE JUST HAD HIS BEST FRIEND MURDERED. Why is he so easy to agree to a deal to traffic in MORE DRUGS just as he’s trying to get out of the drug business? Surely, Jax’s greed is not bigger than his pride? Or is it?
Pope killed their people. He burned Tig’s daughter alive in one of the most brutal murders I’ve ever seen on television. He had Opie pipe-killed. How are they so quick to settle their differences? Worse, the whole scenario has diffused the tension between SAMCRO and what was supposed to be the season’s evil, ruthless Big Bad. Now, he’s more likable than Jax. At least, he’s dispassionate. It’s all business for him.
2. SAMCRO Votes 6-5 to Strengthen Their Relationship with Pope — Even TIG votes to go along. Has he forgotten that Pope killed his daughter? Notice how the votes lined up: The people who have the most reason to hate Pope vote for the proposal, while Clay and the more recent members of SAMCRO — who are trying to pin the home invasions on the Niners — vote against. If I didn’t know that Clay was behind the home invasions, the way the voting went down would’ve raised my suspicions. That was preposterously transparent, and Jax should’ve picked up on it.
3. Carla Blows Her Brains Out — I didn’t get this. What was the point? Where did this turn come from? Did Sutter just think: Hey! This episode doesn’t have enough violence, so let’s throw this into the mix. Gemma and Tara beat up Carla, so Carla forces Gemma to go down on Nero by gunpoint, and when Nero refused, Carla blew her brains out. That entire plot turn was silly and contrived. Why wouldn’t a woman who knows she’s about to take her own life go ahead and kill the people that drove her to it? And of ALL the people in SAMCRO that Gemma could turn to to dispose of Carla’s body, why did she choose Clay, the guy she hates the most? Give me a break.
4. Tara Confronts Otto — Another totally ridiculous contrivance: Tara volunteers her medical services at the prison in order to get to Otto so she can convince Otto to drop his testimony in the RICO case. Otto refuses, and why wouldn’t he? He has no relationship with Tara. She has no leverage, and Otta has no reason to drop the RICO case. Why didn’t she use her access to kill him? She had the means, and he didn’t know who she was. She should’ve injected him with RICIN. Come on, Sutter. HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING FROM BREAKING BAD?
5. Jax and Tara Make Some Alone-Time Plans — When did Sons of Anarchy become the show where the married couple decide to spend some time alone in a cabin? To decompress? You are the president of an outlaw motorcycle club, you run coke and prostitute, and murder people who get in your way. There are no quiet, serene weekends at the cabin. You don’t live in a Franzen novel, for God’s sake. Get your goddamn romance out of my Sons of Anarchy.
6. Rita Dies — I gotta say, after last night’s episode, one of the few characters I have any sympathy for on this show is Eli Roosevelt. He’s the only good person on this show, and now that Ryan Hurst is no longer with us, Rockmond Dunbar (and Ron Perlman) is probably the best actor on “Sons,” so of course, Sutter will probably find a way to kill him off. All I could think, after Eli’s wife died, was “He didn’t deserve this.” If anyone gets to kill Clay, I kind of want it to be Eli now. Hamlet or not, this show needs a hero, and Eli may be the only character eligible. BRING BACK TERRIERS.
7. Unser Wants to Make Himself Useful — I also feel some sympathy for Unser, who seems to have had it with SAMCRO. Who is sick of the whole self-destructive, greedy murdering organization, an organization that, for five season, has used him and rarely, if ever, given back. I’m glad Unser told Gemma off. I’m glad Unser raised his eyebrows at Clay. Unser deserves some reward for putting up with these assholes for so long. He deserves better than being murdered by Clay, as the scenes from next week suggested (I don’t think it’s going to happen, but it shouldn’t even be in play).
8. The Prison Guard Gets His Comeuppance — Again, I get it: The prison guard was instrumental in the death of Opie, and he took a lot of pleasure in killing Opie. But, 1) his wife didn’t deserve to die, and Tig didn’t endear himself to anyone by pulling the trigger, and 2) the prison guard was right. He WAS only taking orders. I still don’t understand why Jax and Tig don’t feel the same passionate anger for Pope as they do a go-between prison guard.
That said, the prison guard’s murder by snow globe was brutal, and done in such a cold-blooded way that I didn’t feel any sense of satisfaction. I only felt disdain for Jax for being such a hypocrite. Also, was this a callback, or is Kurt Sutter’s vernacular limited?
9. The Joel McHale Watch — McHale finally showed up with about three minutes left in the episode to pick up a drunk and sad Gemma in a bar and pull some weird Mommy-spank-me line with Gemma. I’m guessing, since we know that Warren is a con man, that he’s going to play Gemma, Gemma is going to get pissed, and SAMCRO is going to come to her defense. I hope there’s a lot more to it than that, and that McHale advances the narrative instead of being another side-plot diversion, or another character that Sutter creates only to give him someone else to kill off.
10. Clay Is Behind the Home Invasions — Well, duh. Clay is trying to create mayhem within SAMCRO, place the blame on Jax, and then take back control, and he’s faking feeble old man to get them off the scent. It looks like Juice is unwittingly mixed up in the business with Clay’s SAMCRO drones, too.
Speaking of SAMCRO drones, I poked a little fun at the SAMCRO member in the picture below because he’s so seldom used on the show — his role has typically been limited to saying “yay” or “nay” and nodding at the camera — and he sic’d his Twitter followers on me. My apologies, Mr. I Don’t Know Your Character Name: YOU TAKE A PUNCH LIKE A BOSS.
All I know is that, when Jax finds out that Clay’s behind the invasions, he’s going to talk about raining hell down on Clay, and then there will be another deus ex machina will, and Clay will survive another season. Sutter has cornered himself again, creating a monster that he can’t kill off.
