By Sobell
Charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent: Well. I don't think I'll be looking at Boyd Crowder with the same perspective after this episode.
Hale the Lesser has finally bowed to convention and grown a goatee so we know he's evil. But he does not bow to SAMCRO when they want to lease one of his properties for their new, classy Hookers'R'Us. Jax offers a deal: They'll help get Hale's Charming Heights development deal greenlit by the city council, and once that's done, Hale will lease them a building.
SAMCRO's methods of coercion include drugging a brownie or ten, delivering them to a councilman, then taking all manner of photos with him in bondage gear and being ridden like Shamu by a drag queen-cum-escort. (Walton Goggins' performance here should land him a spot as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race if there is any justice in this world.) When Jax shows the photos to Hale the Lesser, he offers to set up the blackmail so that it can't be traced back to the mayor. Even more intriguing, however, is his throwaway line that he can bring in a new backer – "the biggest developer in Oakland" – because he's referring to Pope here. (I cannot wait to see why Jax wants Pope on his turf.) Anyway, Hale pretends to some soul searching, eventually gives the nod to having Jax blackmail the councilmember into voting for the project, and agrees to lease his building for the Whoremporium.
SAMCRO is going to start rooting for another potato blight: The deal between The Real IRA and the Galindo cartel finally goes down, but not without an opening act. Gaalan is apparently miffed at Jax on account of the younger man having the nerve to come to Ireland, retrieve his kidnapped son, and deliver the usual quota of SAMCRO death and chaos in his wake. This leads to fisticuffs, which Jax wins eventually, and then during the deal, Gaalan demonstrates the efficacy of his wares by blowing up several of the SAMCRO choppers. Jax plays it incredibly cool, however, which shows how the balance of power is shifting, even if Gaalan doesn't realize it yet.
All we need is love, and/or some really kind bud: So it turns out that Nero is the worst at dumping women, and Gemma is not exactly one to take getting dumped with any equanimity. She correctly intuits that Nero's giving her the cold (tattooed) shoulder because he's going into business with Jax, huffs at Jax to no avail, and ends up having a brief moment of connection with Clay (who is clearly biding his time until he can come up with a quasi-plausible reason to kill Nero). Honestly, the woman just needs a Match.com profile, so she can see what life is like when the man you're dating does not have "felon" checked off on the "extracurriculars" survey box.
However, Gemma is doing better than Tara, who spends most of the episode unraveling as she struggles to reconcile good news on the professional front (her hand is healing) with the hot mess that is her personal life. Perhaps many of you feel differently, but four seasons of feeling conflicted about being a doctor and an Old Lady is about three too many, and it is time for Tara to either embrace all her choices or to go colorfully mad. She's getting boring. And not just because she's smoking enough weed to stone a school of Phishheads.
Home, sweet home invasion: So we've established that the three former nomad members of SAMCRO are utter toolboxes, but if they're behind this most recent home invasion – in which Sheriff Roosevelt's lovely (pregnant) wife Rita is gut-shot – then that's just … ugh. Things are about to get a lot tougher for SAMCRO because the sheriff is going to be on them like Hell's own fury.
Random things worth mentioning: Clay's looking awfully hale, hearty and non-wheezy as he cleans his many guns; Gemma is apparently quite the omnisexual, if the pretty woman in her bed is any indication; Tig's received yet another bite in the ass, making this his third wound to the glutes since the series began.
Lisa Schmeiser is now hoping the season finale features Michael Chiklis dressed as Mae West, but will settle for a scene where Juice helps Gemma sign up for an eHarmony account. Tell her what you loved or loathed about the episode via Twitter.