Sons of Anarchy has had some great seasons (1-2, 6) and some not so great seasons, but no matter how good or bad the season, one recurring character always seems to drag the show down: Wendy Case. Moreover, Kurt Sutter has always been wildly schizophrenic with the character: Her drug use was responsible for Abel’s initial birth defects, for which Gemma tried to convince Wendy to kill herself, only to later — in the same first season — attempt to use Wendy to sabotage Tara and Jax’s relationship. Later, after rehab, Wendy tried to be a part of her son’s life, only to get a speedball injected into her by Jax. Last season, she suddenly had a relationship with a woman, and was used first by Tara to potentially keep Jax away from his own kids, and later by Gemma, against Tara.
Everyone hates Wendy, except when they don’t, and Wendy is always completely sober, except when she’s completely f**ked up. She’s not a character so much as a device Sutter uses to turn the plot.
There’s really no consistency to the character. It doesn’t help that Drea de Matteo is not a particularly good actress, notwithstanding her Emmy win in 2004 for The Sopranos. Unfortunately, that has not kept Kurt Sutter from upping Matteo from recurring to a regular cast member in the seventh and final season of Sons of Anarchy.
From TVLine (spoilers):
Jax’s junkie ex/baby momma Wendy has been a consistent presence on SOA throughout much of its run (save for Seasons 2 and 3), but this marks De Matteo’s first stint as a full-fledged SOA regular.
The upgrade comes in the wake of Tara’s (Maggie Siff) grisly death in December’s Season 6 closer, and suggests that Wendy will play a more hands-on role in the life of son Abel (and maybe Thomas, too?).
I had hoped that, when Gemma sent her off to rehab again, that it’d be the last we’d see of Wendy, but I suppose someone needs to survive the series to take care of the kids, and Chucky is not exactly good parenting material. Or, maybe Jax does what both he and Gemma have threatened more than once and kills Wendy. But if she’s a series regular, we’ll have to wait at least until mid-season or later for that to happen, which means we’ll be unfortunately seeing a lot of Wendy and her struggles with addiction this year.
