The sixth season of Sons of Anarchy wrapped on Tuesday night with a bloody and brutal season finale that saw the hard-to-watch death of one major character, and the surprising death of a minor one. In effect, it wrapped up the season’s major storyline involving Tara, but there are still a lot of threads hanging headed into the seventh and final season. Below, we take a look at ten of the biggest open questions as we reflect on the sixth season and move toward the seventh.
1. Will there be a time jump next season? Yes, a small one, according to Sutter. “I don’t want to lose the weight of what’s happened, so there may be a little bit of a time [jump], like we did this season, which was a few weeks.” (via)
2. Which guest characters will be back next season? Jimmy Smits will definitely be back, rocking the Cardigan; Peter Weller will be back, because there are still things left to do with the Stockton business; Sutter would like to have Kim Dickens back, as well, and they are currently in negotiations to have CCH Pounder (District Attorney Patterson) return.
3. Speaking of Patterson, will Jax be charged for Tara’s murder? “Procedurally, what would happen,” Sutter says, “is they would bring Jax in and place him in custody and question him extensively. We’ll see what that all looks like [next year].” However, he says, “I don’t know if [Patterson] feels like Jax is the one who killed Tara. I think she may think he’s the one who killed Eli.” (via)
4. Will Unser ever die of cancer? According to Sutter, “It’s not that I planned it this way, but the guy who should have died the first season is maybe gonna be the only guy left standing at the end of it all.” (via)
5. Why Did Juice Clean Up the Crime Scene for Gemma? — It was just Juice being Juice, according to Sutter:
“I think Juice is doing exactly what is expected of him in that situation, meaning if a brother or an old lady, especially someone of Gemma’s stature within the club, was in trouble with law enforcement, it would be expected that he would put a bullet in the back of this guy’s head and then get rid of the evidence … I don’t necessarily think there was a lot of forethought.” (via)
6. What will Wendy’s role be next season? — According to the will that Tara drew up, and that Jax unknowingly signed, custody of Thomas and Abel should transfer to Wendy upon Tara’s death (or imprisonment). How that will play out? Who knows? Probably with Wendy’s death.
7. Who will be President of SAMCRO in the final season? — In the sixth season finale, Jax handed the presidency over to Bobby (skipping over Chibs, who is currently VP). Will Bobby maintain that position, even if Jax doesn’t go to prison? Will there be any tension between Bobby and Chibs (Chibs didn’t say anything when Jax named Bobby the next president, but the camera did linger on his face an extra beat).
8. Whose side will SAMCRO be on in the gang wars? Obviously, the Mayans, the Chinese, and the Byz Lats (along with Nero) are joining forces against the One-Niners, but does SAMCRO necessarily have to pick a side? They are out of guns, after all. On the other hand, without Nero’s support, the “legitimate business” may fall through, and SAMCRO may need to get back into guns, which would not only mean their own battle with the One-Niners, but more tension with the Irish.
9. What’s the end game in the final season? Will most of the cast die? Who will be the last standing? Probably Gemma and Jax, and the final episode may be about their beef, especially once Jax finds out that Gemma murdered Tara. Sutter confirms in his interview with Vulture:
I think that the mother-son bond has always been the catalyst in terms of the family dynamic on the show, and the love and the hate and the push and the pull of both of them. It just seemed right having those two standing at the end, figuring out not necessarily who wins but, you know, where does their relationship end up? So it will definitely, just by the fact that they’re the only two left in the family, it’ll be about the two of them.
10. Who will survive the final season? — In the play, Hamlet, upon which Sons is loosely structured, there was one survivor, Fortinbras, a relatively minor character who ended up inheriting the throne. Who could that character be here? The one who inherits SAMCRO? Ratboy? Chucky? Happy? Wendy?
