There were a lot of bodies dropping in Wolfsangel, last night’s fourth episode of season six of Sons of Anarchy, and none of those bodies belonged to the one man we thought was about to die. But, we got our pound of (bloody) flesh out of the episode, so Kurt Sutter more than atoned himself for the cliffhanger fake-out. The catch? After spending so much time developing certain plot lines, a certain major character death in last night’s episode seemingly dead-ended a few of those strands.
Let’s take a look.
“Brother” Is Jax’s Tell — Has anyone else noticed that, when Jax is lying, he drops “brother” a lot in his exchanges. It was noticeable two weeks ago when he was lying to Nero about killing Arcadio’s girlfriend, and last night, I think he dropped four “brothers” in 90 seconds when explaining to Tig that nothing was up. Of course, Jax had arranged to let August Marks even the score and take out Tig, but in the end, it was only an honor test. Marks was more interested in whether Jax would live up to his side of the agreement than actually killing Tig. Let’s admit that that was a cheap cop-out, but I was willing to let it slide because of what transpired in the rest of the episode.
Meanwhile, don’t tell me that Kurt Sutter is not paying fan service to the new Sons of Anarchy viewers that started watching because Charlie Hunnam has been cast in 50 Shades of Grey.
It should be noted, however, that Jax made an agreement with Marks to talk to the Irish about letting the Marks and the One-Niners take over the gun-running business, and Marks agreed in exchange to forgive the beef with Tig. What’s weird, though, is that Jax didn’t bring up this potential arrangement with the Irish, which could’ve spared SAMCRO a lot of bloodshed.
If Pee Wee Herman Were in SAMCRO — BRING IT, CHUCKY. STRIKE THE FEAR OF GOD IN US.
B*tch Daggers — So now we have a better, but not entirely clear understanding of Wendy’s role in the season. She’s working with Tara, feeding dirt to Gemma, presumably as some kind of misdirection, while Tara works behind closed doors to work out both the divorce and the custody arrangement, should Tara go to prison for her role in the murder of Toric’s sister (although, that may be a moot point). The problem is still that, if Wendy gets custody of the kids, Jax will kill her five minutes later.
How much does Tara secretly loathe Gemma? This look says it all.
OH SNAP. Meanwhile, Unser knows something is up; he’s just waiting for Tara to fill him in. Unser is basically the only guy on this show that CAN keep a secret longer than half an episode.
Unser Will Outlive them All — Kurt Sutter knew his audience would demand SOME blood last night, and I thought at first he was going to sacrifice Unser in place of Tig, but Unser got off relatively easy, with a little Nazi carving into his chest. Look, man: If Unser can survive six seasons with terminal cancer, and skinheads carving up his body, this guy is going to survive anything. Series finale prediction: The bodies of the entire remaining cast of Sons of Anarchy are littered across the screen, and the only man standing is Unser, who is sitting on a bench smoking a joint with a crusty look on his face.
Blowback is a Bitch: Anyway, Unser was the target of a skinheads, who were getting revenge on the club because Clay had killed an Aryan inside prison, and there’s blowback for everything in Sons of Anarchy. Of course, Jax couldn’t leave it alone, so he decided that he also needed revenge. Pumping an old nemesis, Darby, for information, Jax and the Gang eventually track down the neo-Nazis and rough their leader up. But after the events later in the episode, Jax gets the nose flares, and decides to take all their blood-thirsy energy out on the skinheads. It’s not exactly proportional justice, but Jax is not exactly in a proportional place right now.
R.I.P. Dirty Randy’s Spiritual Cousin — Jax is not in a good place because the goddamn Irish keep insisting on using SAMCRO to run guns. Jax tries to outsource it to the San Bernardino chapter, but their President — played by Robert Patrick, and his right hand, played by John Hensley (Nip/Tuck) — bring news that the San Bernardino chapter had voted it down. This would SEEM like a good time to let Galen O’Shay and the Irish know that August Marks would be interested in taking over the operation, but Jax’s pride wasn’t interested in plan Bs.
In the meantime, there’s increasing friction between Jax and Chibbs, who tells Jax that he’s becoming more and more like Clay every day. Jax’s response is to nose-flare at him.
Then, Galen figures out a way to make SAMCRO listen to them by taking out poor Filthy Phil and the other guy that no one cares about. NOOOOOOOOOOO. Why couldn’t it have been Rat Boy? Anybody but Filthy Phil!
I do like that the Irish understand that presentation is important.
Never Trust a Dead Hooker’s DNA — Elsewhere, on the other side of this episode, Nero was taken in for questioning by Eli Roosevelt, who had also impounded Nero’s car and found what Toric had planted from the dead hooker. Eli wasn’t having it, though. He understood that there was something very suspicious about the evidence found in Nero’s car and cut Nero loose, but not before digging up a little dirt on Toric, not that it matters now.
Never Anally Rape a Man When’s He’s Down — That brings us to the HOLY SH*T moment in last night’s episode. Toric, who had framed Nero for the murder of the hooker, was also still trying to get Clay to turn on SAMCRO. What incentive does he offer? A glimpse at Otto, who is as broken as any man could be that’s still alive. Clay took the opportunity to slip Otto a shiv, and instead of using it on himself, Otta stone cold stabbed Toric and then slashed his throat, before being gunned down by the guards.
Otto gets major style points for his departure.
Hey! But wait a second, right? Otto’s dead, which is really a mercy than anything, because that poor guy … but Toric’s death throws a wrench into the series. I mean, WTF? Now, Clay avoids his morning buggerings, Tara may or may not face trial without Otto in the mix and Toric to push it, and now what becomes of Nero, who won’t have Toric around to pin the frame-up job on? Does anyone care about the school shooting anymore? Why develop Toric over the course of so many episodes, if Sutter is just going to kill him off before tying up his loose ends? He’s the focal point for so much of what is going on in this season, so I don’t understand why Sutter decided to kill him now? Also, where the hell is C. Thomas Howell? He had two short scenes? I love that guy. BRING HIM BACK.
Sutter knows what he’s doing, or at least thinks he does.
I guess we’ll trust him. For now.
