Tonight is the two-hour season finale of Sons of Anarchy, and if the rest of the phenomenal sixth season is any indication, we’re going to be in for a bloodbath. There’s not many ways he can top the events that have already unfolded this season, but if there’s one thing we can depend on with Kurt Sutter, it’s that he’ll pull something out of his ass that will both surprise and delight/devastate us. As with any season finale of a dark drama (especially one with a body count as high as Sons of Anarchy), we should expect character deaths. But who will die?
Let’s take a look at the most likely possibilities:
5. Eli Roosevelt — This one is based purely on real-life casting news, because I’m not entirely sure what scenario Kurt Sutter could design to kill Eli off at this point. However, the actor who plays him, Rockmond Dunbar, has been elevated to series regular on The Mentalist, which could prevent him from returning next season. On the other hand, Sutter may wait and kill him off early next season. Either way, Eli is probably not long for Charming (and though I don’t want to see him go, I could see a fun scenario in which Unser became interim sheriff again, bringing the series full circle).
Speaking of Unser, he’s not a bad long-shot bet to die in the finale, either. He doesn’t serve much purpose to the show, except as the occasional sounding board. On the other hand, given that Unser has had terminal cancer for SIX SEASONS, it’s kind of fitting that he be the one that survives until the very end.
4. Wendy — This is total wish-fulfillment on my part, because Wendy is basically the only major(ish) character on the show I actively want to be killed off. If the situation with Abel and Thomas is resolved, there really is no reason to keep her around anymore, and an overdose in the season finale would be fitting. Given how many people she’s betrayed, I have no idea how she’s managed to stay alive this long.
3. Nero — This one is dependent upon whether Kurt Sutter plans to resolve the turf war between the Mayans/Byz Lats, SAMCRO, One-Niners, and the Chinese (or what’s left of them) in the season finale, or push that into next season and make it the central arc for the final year of Sons of Anarchy. If it’s going to be resolved, it likely means either Jax or Nero dies, and since Jax is the show’s lead character, it seems unlikely that he’d be killed off (on the other hand, I’d honestly choose Nero over Jax. Nero is the best character on this show). But, Nero owes payback to Jax for killing Darvany, and Nero is also likely to choose his club, the Byz Lats, over SAMCRO, though his relationship with Gemma obviously complicates matters. The two will butt heads, and Nero — by necessity — will be on the losing side. If Jax kills Nero, it also changes a character that’s gradually been redeemed throughout the course of the season from anti-hero to villain, which may make it easier to accept Jax’s inevitable death at the end of next season.
2. Tara — There are ways, I guess, that we could see a happy ending between Tara and Jax, but they don’t make much sense. Jax could let Tara escape for the good of her and the boys, but he obviously feels betrayed by Tara for leaving, and if Jax doesn’t find Tara and kill her, Gemma will. Faced with three difficult options (go back to Jax, go to the D.A., or flee), Tara chose the worst option in last week’s episode, and she’s gotta pay. Not for nothing, but Hamlet’s Ophelia — upon whom Tara is based — died at around the equivalent point in Shakespeare’s play, although it was basically suicide by grief. Suicide is still a possibility, if Jax locates her and takes away the boys and never allows her to see them again.
1. Juice — There’s about a 75 percent chance that Juice dies tonight, though if there’s any character on this show that deserves to live, it’s Juice. He’s not a bad guy, at all; he’s just a incredibly loyal f**k-up. He can be weak and annoying at times, but that’s only because HE HAS A CONSCIENCE. Yes, plagued by his own guilt, he got high and confessed to Nero that he’d killed Darvany, and yes, it was his responsibility to keep an eye on Tara (although, that’s on Bobby), and yes, he’s f***ed up half a dozen other times, but it still blows that it has to be this way. But it has to be this way.
My guess is that Nero kills Juice, which in some messed-up way evens Nero’s score with Jax.
One final possibility is that EVERYONE lives. Maybe that’s what Kurt Sutter is insinuating this this tweet, but don’t count on it.
