Haven”t caught up on Tuesday”s newest “Sons of Anarchy?” Well snuff out that post-sex cigarette, cover up those chest tattoos and don”t promise someone there will be no more dead bodies, because well … we all know that”s bull. Have you watched this show before?
Indeed, the body count on “Some Strange Eruption” continued to climb, but it was also an episode where very clear lines were drawn and loyalties were established. Sheriff Jarry told Unser it was time to decide if he was one of the good guys. Lin demanded Nero pick between the Chinese and the Sons. And Gemma-worst mother of the year Gemma, had to make a decision of “Mice and Men” proportions that blew up in her face. I”d say that halfway through the final season, it”s all pretty much on track.
The episode opened with another musical montage to remind us of the havoc wreaked on Diosa in last week”s massacre, and notably featured Jax chilling out among the dead bodies just calmly smoking a cigarette. Because, who doesn”t have smokes with dead people? Thankfully the reverie was quickly broken up when a towel-clad Chibs and Jarry were both called to the scene. One obviously to investigate the worst massacre in the quad”s history; the other to continue helping his leader on his mission of revenge.
Unfortunately, Jax is still on the wrong path. Turns out that the Chinese did get a heads up about the guns and the Sons hitting their delivery, and it”s starting to look like a sure thing that the leak was from Indian Hills and Jury. Chalk up another reason for not killing random people, I guess. You might accidentally kill your ally”s son/nephew/protégé/whatever.
After everything Jax has done to take down Lin, did he not expect “blowback?” Or does he just not care? In reality, he probably had little time to dwell on such things because he”s supposed to be grieving his dead wife, but that”s the point. Everything up until now has always worked out a little too conveniently, and it”s starting to come full circle and affect people he holds close. Like Nero.
It”s almost shocking to me that Nero continues to stick by the Sons and Jax despite everything the latter has done. There was a moment were I thought Nero would actually flip, given the position he was put in with his son and the realization that Jax had duped him again. Socking Jax wasn”t just therapeutic for Nero, but for all the viewers out there thinking it was time that someone knocked some sense into the kid. At the very least, the spat was enough for Jax to finally come clean about his motives to both Nero and Baroski, something that really needed to happen already.
In the end, most of us probably knew that Jax and Nero would develop a secret plan of sorts, although maybe not one involving Baroski. Maybe the dirty cop felt bad for shooting the one guy who could help? Either way, Jax confronting Lin was almost comical. No part of me believes that many police officers would band together to kill a bunch of gang members, no matter how shady they”re set up to be. I found myself rooting for Lin to wail on Jax rather than the other way around. Sadly, that was all averted thanks to Unser and his change of heart in giving Jarry intel, and in Jarry turning around and warning Chibs. I”m kind of into those two, if for no other reason than it”s just fun to see Chibs have an actual story. Plus, now Lin knows why Jax has gone insane and might actually work to get to the bottom of this thing. Here”s hoping.
Speaking of Momma Gems, she might be out of the game sooner than we thought. In what was the most gratifying moment of the night, someone finally caught mommy dearest in one of her own lies. The stuff between Juice and Gemma finally got interesting when Gemma messed up by pulling Nero”s name into it all. Juice knew she was lying, giving him enough warning to take control of the situation. Will he actually shoot her? Hard call. The trend Kurt Sutter has established is to just go ahead and kill main characters without a conversation. The fact that we ended the episode on a cliffhanger makes me think Juice is still going to change his mind. Sure he”s completely crazy now, having spent all that time alone, but when he killed the motel employee he was doing it for the jacket-or so he thought. There”s something in him that still wants back in the club”s good graces, and killing Jax”s mom isn”t going to get him there. Plus, if we don”t get to see Jax realize his own mother killed his wife while she”s still alive, I”m probably never watching TV again. OK that”s a lie too. I”ve clearly been watching too much of Gemma.
Son of a gun:
*** If it felt like there was more Baroski than usual, it should be worth noting that Peter Weller directed this episode.
*** Wendy”s face when Jax kissed her cheek was priceless. Oh sweetie … remember when he shot you up full of drugs? You should not be so happy about having this perfect little family potentially together again. You should run. Far, far, away.
*** At least Lyla was appropriately upset by everyone dying. There should have been more tears about losing so many people at once. Instead, the kids just got to spend more time with the remaining whores.
*** Speaking of, it”s no wonder that Abel is finally starting to act out. You don”t want to call out a kid for his acting skills, but they”re not the best. So the scenes where he”s taking a hammer to the wall or asking his dad about protecting people are hard to swallow, even if there”s a really interesting idea behind them.
*** “Sorry the blowback hit you and your family.” I”m surprised #SorryNotSorry wasn”t trending at this point.
What did you think of “Some Strange Eruption?” Do you think Juice will go in for the kill? Will Gemma talk her way out of another situation? What”s Lin”s next move? How low will Jarry go to protect this club? And is Tig “just gay enough?” Sound off below.
“Sons of Anarchy” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.