By Sobell
A lot of plot points got set up this week, just in time for the back stretch of episodes that will take us to Christmas. Let's review the developments:
Juice, squeezed: Roosevelt breaks the news to Juice that Jax has figured out who is the rat at the table. Juice takes it about as well as can be expected. Back at the club, Chibs reluctantly confesses to Jax and Bobby Elvis that he knows what leverage Roosevelt and the Feds used on Juice: "His old man's black." Jax gives Chibs a look like, Wait, we still think this is a thing? and Bobby Elvis speaks for us all with, "You've got to be kidding me." Anyway, the guys can't really bring themselves to kill Juicy just yet – besides, it will be bad for business – but after things calm down, Jax says, "We bring him to the table, let him hang himself." Jax then has a talk with Juice where he claims he can give Juice a "pardon" for his actions and keep the whole mess from hitting the table, and all it will require is for Juice to get back the legal documents Clay got back from the nomads' "invasion" of his house. This task will be made considerably harder by the fact that Clay's playing Juice like a harp: "I'm exhausted, son. Just watch my back, please."
Mother stands for "comfort": Tara goes completely off the rails this episode. Well, we knew it was going to be bad when she violated the cardinal rule of infant parenting – "Never wake a sleeping baby" – by frightening the slumbering Thomas into wakefulness so she could feel useful/needed/wanted while she comforted him. But then her brainlessness sinks to new depths of irresponsibility. She brings Otto a crucifix of LuAnne's – conveniently forgetting that a cross is basically a collection of sharp points – and Otto uses it in his agreement to make his RICO testimony go away. How, you ask? By stabbing that nice Nurse Karina in the neck, thus guaranteeing that his testimony gets recanted/discounted, coming as it does from a known psycho killer, and that Tara gets tagged as an accessory to murder.
Clay Morrow, criminal mastermind: So not only has Clay managed to figure out all the plot twists from last season – RICO! The Galindo cartel in bed with the CIA! – he manages to plants seeds of doubt with Romeo regarding Jax's honorable intentions and sets up a side deal with Romeo in case things with Jax head south.
(Also, Gemma seduces Clay with a cartload of groceries, and it is awful, because she's crying, and we all know that it's not because she's so happy to be back in Clay's big meaty arms. At this point, I am kind of rooting for Nero to figure out what's going on, and to beat Jax into the middle of season.)
This just in: Jax is a lying liar who lies! So the MC prez is busy lying to all sorts of people, but the most startling one this episode was T.O., because he promises not to kill T.O.'s cousin (who was involved in killing Opie) and ends up shooting the guy in front of T.O. Here's hoping that blowing up a 20-year working relationship was what Opie wanted as part of his legacy!
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent writer, reporter & blogger. She wishes she could dispatch prospects to go on Costco runs for her.