Sure, Clay and Gemma are back together, but let's break down the plotlines one-by-one for the sake of filling y'all in on what happened.
"We're the good guys." Happy's mom is in hospice, and while he's able to keep up with the cost of her care, the meds are killing him. So Piney offers to hook Piney up with a lady he knows in Oregon who traffics in black-market prescription meds. But she supplies clinics, hospices, widows and orphans, so she's a good drug dealer. Sensing an opportunity to appease Precious with burnt offerings and cases of Albuterol for their kid's inhaler, Bobby Elvis rides along with Happy and Piney to the lady's house, where they discover her being terrorized by a gang of meth-addled hill people who want her drugs for their own profit. After Happy calls for backup, the SAMCRO boys manage to shoot up the place, save the drug inventory and teach us all an important lesson about distinguishing between people who deal drugs for profit and those who do so as some sort guerilla action against insurance companies. Or something. The point is, we're supposed to be rooting for this lady and her cases of Oxycontin.
"You two are killing me." SAMCRO rides up to reunite with Gemma. While Clay and Gemma's reunion is very sweet, Jax and Tara's is less so, and he succeeds in getting on Tara's last, fragile nerve. That's when she reveals the whole murdering-the-caretaker thing (at the top of her lungs). Neither Jax nor Clay are too thrilled with their old ladies -- and they're not too happy with Tig, either.
"A child is not a bargaining chip." Despite Father Ashby's pious insistence on this sentiment, we find out he has no problem using Abel as a bargaining chip at all -- and he's using Abel to keep Jimmy O in a state of simmering, impotent fury, as opposed to letting Jimmy O make nice with the SAMCRO boys and consolidate a stronger power base in America. Abel's been packed off to the Irish Catholic black market, where he's hanging out with a lot of adorable babies until Father Ashby decides to deploy him strategically to make nice with SAMCRO. Jimmy O, however, is still lying to Jax about where Abel is, and he's conscripted the VP of the Belfast chapter to help corroborate the lie. He is, however, also searching for Abel on his own.
"Don't let your family slip away." However, that lie is blown right open when Maureen finally succeeds in contacting Gemma and telling her of the baby's whereabouts. Gemma, who was already in a fraught state over having to drop off her father at the long-term care facility, and who was already panicking over not being able find Abel anywhere in Charming, responds to the phone call by clutching her chest and keeling over. Man, if she pulls through this cardiac event, something tells me she'll be taking one well-manicured hand and inserting it into someone's chest cavity to pull out their still-beating heart. I look forward to seeing whom she goes after first.
The exchange of the evening:
GEMMA: [Looking at her wanted poster.] Bitch aged me two years. What's that going to look like? Me, in Canada?
CLAY: We get you settled up in Canada, someplace off the grid. Get you good papers.
TIG: Maybe you go redhead for a bit …
GEMMA: Oh, Christ! I'd rather shave my head.
Another episode, another opening where Jax is smoking and brooding. This time, he's looking over the photos that O'Neill emailed to Juice, and trying to figure out how to connect the dots from Jimmy O to Vancouver to Belfast to death to ... Abel. Since Jax has not yet displayed any flair for deductive reasoning puzzles in two seasons of Sons of Anarchy, let's just assume he'll be starting at all the data points for a while.
Zip! We're in Father Ashby's church in Belfast, where Jimmy O is holding up a newspaper that's got Cammy's murder (and the Real IRA credit) splashed all over the front page. He pointedly tells Father Ashby, "I needed Cammy to go away, not to be splayed out for public consumption." Father Ashby elegantly smacks Jimmy O down with, "The council sanctioned it. They felt the NorCal operation had been ... compromised. By Cameron and Eddy. A message was needed. They put that ... mismanagement on you." Translation: You failed to keep your men in line, and therefore screwed this pooch on your own, boy-o. Don't whinge about it now. Jimmy O rolls his eyes at this and seethes as he says he's righting the circumstances now. "When I return the baby to Jax Teller, it's finished. We all move on." Father Ashby begs to differ: "I think it's best we keep the child here for now. He'll be in loving arms until we know how this all plays out." Jimmy O snorts, "I tell you how it all plays out: A half-mad father and his MC posse rolls into Belfast, kicks up a shitstorm, and alerts every peeler on each side of the wall." Father Ashby piously says, "A child is not a bargaining chip." "My point! This is not about my agenda with the Sons, it's about protecting the progress we've made." And Father Ashby's real issue comes to light: Jimmy O's made some tidy profits while serving the cause. Jimmy O's unrepentant: "It's my bloody efforts that pump cash into our dying fight. You remember that." Father Ashby lies about how keeping Abel in Belfast wasn't his call. Amazingly, a divine bolt of lightning does not cleave the roof in twain and render the lying priest unto a grease stain on the floor. Jimmy O, who is a seasoned liar, knows another one when he sees it. And he threatens to call SAMCRO and give them an accurate Abel Alert for a change. Emboldened by the fact that he can lie in church without facing divine wrath, Father Ashby decides to invoke the Man Upstairs by pointing out God -- and his followers in the Real IRA -- hates people who tell the truth to motorcycle gangs. He stalks off, leaving Jimmy O to wonder why he doesn't just become an atheist already.
Back in Charming, Jax has just rolled into work (ha! As if!) and Clay hands him the phone; Jimmy O's on the other end. The Real IRA operative is conducting his own form of Pascal's wager: telling Jax things that are technically true (Abel wasn't with Cam when he was grabbed and garroted) while leaving out just enough to ensure that God and Ashby's followers don't peg him for squealing. It's a nice finesse job, right up to the point where Jimmy O lies about how Abel must still be in Vancouver. Jax reins in the shouty-shouty and says, "Every word you've said about my kid has been wrong. I'm not going to trust this ... bullshit." Jimmy O then hands the phone to O'Neill, who testifies that indeed, there was no baby on Cameron's body when he was scooped up. Then O'Neill exposits a bit about the Belfast charter's relationship with the Real IRA: They are, in effect, hired muscle who are nowhere near the Real IRA's inner circle. Jax seethes, but there's not a whole lot he can say to this. He hangs up, fills everyone in on what Jimmy O said, and punches a van a few times in anger. Everyone else just stands around because, really, what are they going to say? "Sorry you didn't lo-jack your kid?"
And now we're at Nate's place. Gemma's packing and Tara's helpfully expositing that she got Nate to sign the admission papers for the assisted-living facility, and she'll have power of attorney so she can watch out for Nate while Gemma's on the lam. Tara reassures Gemma that Nate's not being packed off to some cut-rate raisin ranch but, unsurprisingly, this does not make Gemma feel any better about what she's about to do. She asks if the place has a garden, then says reproachfully, "I can't believe I'm sending him off to a goddamn home." Tara says, "He'll be taken care of." Gemma shakes her head and says grimly, "He'll die alone, just like she did."
Back at Teller Morrow Motors, Clay and the rest of the boys head over to Jax and wait for him to compose himself. Jax thinks they stick with "Plan A" -- road trip to Canada -- and they'll scout beautiful British Columbia for the baby. Opie digs out a wad of cash and hands it over to Jax: "Ten grand for Serge's tracker. I sold the Panhead." Jax is stunned that Opie would do this for him, and as he hugs the big lug, we see Clay nod approvingly in the background. Opie hasn't made up entirely for blowing the deal with Lin, but he's made a start. The guys now have a to-do list: Make a gun run for Jimmy O's crew, pick up Gemma, go to Canada.
As the boys prepare to hit the road, Happy waylays Clay and Piney: "I've got a favor to ask. Mom's in real bad shape. I've been covering the cost of the hospice, but the meds are breaking me." Fortunately, Piney can help: "There's a dealer about 20 minutes outside Rogue River. She's a good gal, supplies all the clinics with scrips. It's the only way I can get my emphysema meds. After we make the [weapons] drop, I'll take Hap and hook him up." Clay's for it. Bobby Elvis sidles up to Piney and asks, "That dealer, she got Albuterol? Tiki's going through three inhalers a week. Precious is up my ass." And that's how Bobby Elvis comes to join Piney and Happy. Everyone rolls off. They will, presumably, meet up at Nate's place after running their respective errands.
Once they're on the road, Clay's having trouble with his knuckles. His arthritis is acting up again.
Zip! We're back in Belfast. We learn that Cherry is earning her keep by servicing O'Neill. Alas, O'Neill is not the most considerate of lovers; the minute his phone goes off, he answers it, despite being mid-thrust. "Shite! It's Jimmy. I've got to go," he quasi-apologizes, and heads off to the bathroom to take a leak. When he's gone, Cherry digs through O'Neill's jacket looking for a light and finds instead a giant wad of cash in an envelope. She puts it back, looking thoughtful.
Clay and Jax peel off from the rest of the crew, and Clay barely gets the bike stopped before he grunts out, "Hands." He hasn't been taking his cortisone shots because Gemma's the only one who gets it right, and he can barely hold the grip of his motorcycle. Jax takes off his bandanna and uses it to tie one of Clay's hands to his grips; then he does the same with Clay's rag. Clay exhales, clearly in pain, while Jax gently asks, "That good?" And thus another link in the chain connecting Jax to Clay as a son to a father is forged. I love how it happens in an episode where Gemma's going to have to step in and act as a parent for her father.
Speaking of which, Gemma and Nate are walking arm-in-arm in the garden and Nate -- who is having a brief lucid period -- is telling Gemma that "I tried to make it right ... you and your mother. You probably don't believe that." Gemma says with resignation, "She swallowed us both up. I don't blame you." Nate forges ahead: "She never recovered from Nathaniel's death. Blamed it on herself. I know that burden landed on you. I prayed for your mother, begged Jesus to take away her pain." Gemma says pointedly, "When you turned to God, Rose turned to Rose." Nate looks back, a little shocked at how bitter Gemma seems. He tells her, "Her biggest regret: Losing you." Gemma tries to keep her defenses up, but it's evident that this is something she's needed to hear for years. Nate continues, "Don't let your family slip away." We hear some motorcycle engines in the background and Tig calls out, "Hey, Gem! The boys are here."
Cut to Jax freeing Clay's hands. No soon
er is Clay off his bike than Gemma's running over to him and awwwww! They're clinging to each other, and oh, it's very sweet, and kudos to this show for making an established couple so smokin' hot. While Gemma and Clay are kissing, we cut to Tig watching. Is it "Hooray, Mom and Dad are back together!" or is it "I wish I had something like that" or is it "I wish I were Clay and/or Gemma?" (I sort of suspect that Tig's a little bit in love with both of them.) Gemma then flies over to hug Jax, and Clay rolls over to hug Tig. Gemma asks after Abel and Jax lies about how good Abel is. There's more smalltalk, and Tig -- who has insinuated himself into the family huddle -- warns, "Grandpa walking." Clay asks, "How's Pop doing?" and Gemma gives them a brief 411. She heads off to take care of Nate, and Tig finally hugs Jax hello. He notes that the shoulder's okay so long as he keeps hitting "Grandma's Vicodin," and Clay dryly replies that he may need to hit Grandma's stash as well.Jax finds Tara boxing up stuff and just watches her for a moment. When Tara finally sees him, all she says is, "Hey! Did you just get here?" The only way the contrast between these two and Clay and Gemma could be more obvious is if Tig was hanging in the door, going, "Wow, this is sure different from how Clay and Gemma treated one another." Eventually, there's a little peck on the cheek, but then the two of them move on to small talk. Awkward, awkward small talk. Tara finally asks, "What is it?"
Jax sighs and says, "You want the truth, right? I'm going to tell you what's going on. They're pulling our bail on the church assault. In two days, we're all supposed to go back inside." Tara reels, then picks up the key word in that sentence: "Supposed to?" Jax hands over the surveillance camera photo of Abel and Cam, and quickly fills in the plan: He thinks Abel's in Canada, so they're heading up there to find him; Gemma will be going along for the ride. Tig comes in right then -- ha! Maybe he IS going to comment on the lukewarm reunion these two are having -- and offers to ferry boxes of Nate's stuff down to the basement. As Jax picks up a box, he notes the bloodstain on the bed and begins asking questions. It gets even more awkward when he asks about Amelia's whereabouts, but Tara lies like a champ. As Jax walks out of the room, Tara just shakes her head. This is probably not how she imagined her reunion with Jax at all.
There's been the weapons handoff -- our boys have passed things off to the group of bikers in the chain -- and the SAMCRO guys split up: Bobby Elvis, Piney and Happy off to meet Piney's dealer Honey; Juice, Chibs and Opie off to Nate's.
At Nate's, Gemma's looking over her ATF "Wanted" poster and grousing because Stahl added two years to her age. Clay looks at her over his steepled fingers all, "THIS is your big complaint about Stahl?" Gemma testily asks, "So what's that going to look like, me in Canada?" Clay says, "We'll get you set up someplace off the grid, get you good papers --" "Maybe you go redhead for a while," Tig volunteers. Gemma recoils at the very idea: "Christ! I'd rather shave my head." Ha! Nice Married with Children callback. Also, this makes me wish the show could find a way to work Ed O'Neill into the mix. He wouldn't be the first John from Cincinnati alum on the show (see also: Brian Van Holt, Dayton Callie), and it would be trippy watching him play off Katey Sagal as Gemma. Get on that, casting people! Gemma then asks when she gets to see Abel, and everyone stalls and makes a point of looking anywhere but at her.
Nate walks in right then, and Clay rises to say hello. This oddly courteous display is endearing -- and it is lost on Nate, who snaps, "What are you doing here?" Awkward silence for a moment, then Gemma says, "Clay's here to help me get you settled." Nate scoffs that he doesn't need Clay's help, and adds furiously, "This is what killed your mother!" As he walks out of the room, Clay drops back to his seat with, "Huh. The old man certainly seems to remember me." Jax notes how tense Gemma is, and she tells the boys to stay clear with, "Tara and I will handle it." Gemma stomps off. Tara rises and says, "You have to tell her." Clay takes a sip of his coffee and grumbles, "We'll wait until she's got Nate settled. Spread out the misery."
Piney, Bobby Elvis and Happy have found Honey's place -- and, they discover, so has a crew of gap-toothed hill people who are intent on raiding the inventory and wreaking general mayhem. Inside the house, envoys from deepest darkest Crystalmethistan are tossing the house while a clowder of cats wails in outrage at this invasion of their territory. And possibly in outrage at the way their Human Food Dispenser is huddled on the ground and is therefore unable to dispense the kibble on schedule. Piney pulls Honey up while Bobby Elvis and Happy provide cover. They duck into one of the cats' rooms (I swear, I am not making this up) and Honey explains that yes, the local tweaker entrepreneurs have decided to get into the scrip business and they targeted her. Happy notices they have no mobile service up here -- inconvenient when you're barricaded in a room with only three guns, a rattled pill-pusher and five different kitty condos at your service.
One of the hill people cocks his shotgun on the other side of the door and shouts to Honey to tell him where the drugs are, or he'll toss the place. Honey replies that he can "Suck my ass, you inbred puddle of piss!" Bobby Elvis reasons, "We stay in the room, they find the drugs, maybe they leave." A shotgun blast through the door disabuses him of the there-won't-be-bloodshed fantasy. It turns out that the latch to Honey's scrip room -- which, it should be noted, is stocked with both enormous bottles of pills and cat statues and artwork -- is hidden behind a kitty condo. So Honey ushers them into the land of cat art and meds, and the boys take a moment to gape in appreciation at the whole spectacle. Honey notes, "I got over half a mil in scrip here. Those tweaker scumbags will kill us to get it." Bobby Elvis and Piney are still gaping at the inventory, while Happy has the presence of mind to use the land line to call out for reinforcements from the rest of SAMCRO.
Back at Nate's place, down in the basement, Jax is dropping off the last of the boxes. As he heads for the stairs, Tara calls out, "I want to come with you. To Canada." Jax instantly vetoes that idea. Tara says, "I'm the only one who's not wanted. You're going to need my help." Jax says, "What I need is for you to go back to work. Go back to work." Translation: I don't want to feel responsible for any of your decisions, so go back to an area where I have absolutely no influence whatsoever. Tara quavers, "He's mine too. I want to be with my family." Jax yells, "We're not your family! Do you see how deep I'm buried here? You don't want this." Tara recovers from being told she's not family and shouts, "Don't tell me what I want! I asked for the truth, you gave it to me --" "So you would STAY PUT! You're not coming up north," Jax shouts. Tara shouts back that she is and this really sets Jax off: "You want to be an old lady? Then act like one! DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD! Pack your shit and head back to Charming."
Oh, he has really set off Tara now. She replicates the kinesthetic shit fit she threw in Abel's nursery, rolls out the wheelchair where Amelia was bound, then screams at him, "I just helped your mother kill someone! THAT old lady enough for you?" Cut to Jax all, "What-what-WHAT?" Tara spills the story about Amelia, sort of, claims it was self-defense, and adds that Tig helped them get rid of the body. Gemma comes tripping down in the middle of this discussion with a final box, notices how tense and angry the kids are, claps eyes on the wheelchair, and instantly puts the whole situation together with an "Oh ... shit." Jax asks what happened, and Gemma gives Tara the stink-eye. Tara turns around right as Tig and Clay come down and Clay says, "We gotta go." "I'm dealing with something," Jax says. "Yeah, so are Bobby and Piney," Tig says, clearly implying that club business will always trump lady business. Clay asks, in a lightly menacing tone, "What's going on?" Jax says loudly, "Apparently, our lovely ladies whacked the caretaker. And [points to Tig] this idiot helped them!" Clay immediately looks at Tig and snaps, "What?" and Tig says, "Actually, I just made a phone call." Hee! Clay can only mutter, "Jesus Christ. This? Later." Jax heads up after aiming a "Douchebag" at Tig. And Tig sighs and asks Gemma and Tara, "What happened to, 'Oh, we can't tell Jax anything?' You two are killing me." Again: Hee!
And then there was Tara and Gemma. Tara sinks into the wheelchair and apologizes with, "I lost it. I don't know what the hell he wants anymore." Gemma asks, "What do you want?" and Tara shrugs, "I'm just trying to get ... closer. I want to go with you to Vancouver." Gemma sinks down on the hospital bed (now missing a sheet, I should note. Perhaps Bachman ripped it into strips and wove it into a chemise that he wore home under his leathers) and vetoes that idea. She explains, "We're going to need you in Charming. If Jax goes away for that church assault, and I'm ... God knows where, someone has to take care of Abel. There's no-one I trust more than you. You'll be a good mom." Tara bursts into guilty tears at all this, and Gemma watches her with a "What the hell?" expression. Tara quickly pulls it together -- Gemma approves of this -- and heads upstairs to help Nate get ready. Gemma says she'll come with them -- and if someone sees her, then that's on her.
Zip! We're in Belfast. Maureen is letting herself into her apartment, and we all learn that Jimmy O's already availed himself of her hospitality. He fishes a little -- saying that he knows Cameron came to Maureen to set up a meeting with Father Ashby (seeing as how Maureen is Father Ashby's sister) and that Maureen would be his first choice for nurturing a purloined baby. Maureen goes on the offense -- "Jimmy O'Phelan, the all-seeing, all-knowing wizard of East Belfast" -- but Jimmy's not perturbed. He asks after Abel, reasoning, "He belongs with his dad." Maureen would sooner eat her cigarette than agree with Jimmy O, so she deflects with, "It's not our decision." "But we know whose decision it is," Jimmy O points out. Maureen tries to claim that she has no sway with Kellan, but Jimmy O cuts her off by swee
ping a lot of clutter off the table, then pointing out, "Things? Are in flux, darlin'. The world is changing. And life, and the Short Strand, had better bend to it, or you'll all snap like a twig. You need to decide what end of the stick you'll be holding. I'd hate to see you and your tight wee family out on the street." Maureen whispers that she doesn't know where the baby is. Jimmy O rises and looms over her as he says, "I suggest you inquire. And soon, yeah?" He lets himself out, leaving a shaken Maureen standing there.Back in Rogue River, the hill people have managed, by dint of trashing the rest of the house, to figure out where the three SAMCRO guys, Honey and a few random cats are hiding. The hill people make a deal: "Take what you want and walk away. What do you say?" Bobby Elvis looks at Piney, who says, "Ninety percent of her stuff goes to hospices and clinics." Bobby Elvis chortles, "Then we say [gunfire commences]." Unfortunately, the boys are badly outgunned.
As the rest of SAMCRO pulls up, they behold the hill people walking Honey, Piney, Bobby Elvis and Happy outside, guns at their heads. The lead hill person warns SAMCRO that they better drop their guns or else Piney will be down a head, but the hill people have yet to meet Tig and his ambush from the side. And after the week Tig's had, the chance to wound, maim and mutilate people will be a welcome reprieve. Also, the entire Rogue River chapter of the Sons of Anarchy just rolled up, and they are armed to the teeth. The hill people's leader assesses the situation and concludes, "Shit."
Within seconds, the hill people are surrounded and disarmed, and their leader is asking Piney, "Why in the hell are you doin' this?" Piney grabs the guy's rifle, beats him over the heat with the butt, spits on the now-supine guy's body and says, "'Cause we're the good guys." Piney may be the only member of SAMCRO with an appreciation of irony.
It's all over now, and Chibs has taken it upon himself to see what the hill people have in their van. He and Opie bring over bag upon bag of scrips, and Honey comments, "That's not mine. They must have hit somebody else up too." Jax suggests that she add to her inventory, and Honey shrugs, "It's HIV protocol, steroids ... not my niche." This is the second episode in a row where SAMCRO's tangled with women who have clearly defined career niches. One more and I call it a trend. Anyway, Honey hands the meds over to the boys because they have considerable street value, and giving the boys a little extra revenue is the least she can do. Well, that and handing Bobby Elvis a case of Albuterol -- "You made a crazy ex-wife very happy. Thank you," he says. (I'm betting Bobby Elvis wasn't complaining about Precious's wiring when her crazy convinced her to marry a biker-cum-Elvis impersonator with an erratic income.) She hands over a big case of drugs to Happy for his mom, and he rasps his thanks. "I think y'all earned it," she says, and pats his hand. Then she heads over to Piney. Apparently, he does not get free drugs. But he assures her, if she needs any help, the Rogue River chapter of SOA is only 20 minutes away. Honey wipes a bit of blood away from the corner of Piney's mouth, then kisses him like he's a nurse, she's a sailor, and it's Times Square on V-J Day. SAMCRO breaks into appreciative yowls.
We're now at the place where Nate will be living. Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- he's no longer lucid, which makes Gemma trying to explain what they're doing all the more difficult. As Tara heads inside to check Nate in, he sits on the porch with Gemma and pleads, "I want to go home. Take me home. Please. Please, please, please just take me home, please." Gemma sobs, "I can't." An agitated Nate is led off, and Gemma stands alone on the porch, wringing her hands and whimpering, "I can't" before breaking into gut-wrenching sobs.
Zip! We're in Belfast. Maureen's headed into the church to freak out on her brother. She does not take being threatened well: "My family's going to get hurt because of your dick-fueled power struggle, Kell!" Father Ashby reassures Mo she'll be safe and she says, "What I can't get right is a man of God giving away a wee baby! The child's out there, Kell, with no da, no kin belonging to it. What are you thinking?"
He's thinking of the children, Father Ashby asserts, and tells Mo that Jimmy's hoping to end the Real IRA's association with the Sons of Anarchy because it'll free up his time and resources for recruiting troubled children to the cause. "It's a very delicate situation. We need someone from [the SOA] side to help us with Jimmy. Someone with as much to lose as we do. I think it's time you gave Gemma Teller a call, mother to mother. Let her know her grandson is here." Yes. That will surely unite Ireland -- into a smoldering wasteland of misery and destruction as Gemma rockets across the continental U.S. and the Atlantic on the fuel of her infernal fury, causes Belfast Lough to go up in a plume of superheated steam, then levels the country with a few well-phrased inquiries as to where in the holy hell her grandson is. So, um, well played, Real IRA? For, um, uniting the country? Anyway, Father Ashby will be prevailing upon the SAMBEL boys to provide a working phone number for Gemma.
Speaking of Gemma, she's in her car, still not entirely pulled together, and after sucking on a cigarette, she calls the ATF and asks to be connected to Agent Stahl. Gemma, noooooo!
The shot is of Tara standing alone in the assisted-living parking lot as SAMCRO zooms up. Jax asks what happened and Tara explains, "She just took off. I went inside to check in Nate, and when I came back out, Gemma and the car were gone." Clay asks if Gemma said anything, but ... no. Tara adds that it was a bad, emotional scene, and the whole checking-Nate-in thing broke Gemma's heart. Jax may be slow on some uptakes (cough, cough, Vancouver) but he knows his mama, and he realizes Gemma went back to Charming to see Abel. Everyone prepares to head out again. Jax irritably takes off his helmet and hands it to Tara, and despite his pique, it's very sweet that he puts her safety first. (Of course, when I dated guys who rode, they usually kept a helmet strapped to the back for me, but to each his own.)
Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire," as covered by Katey Sagal, begins playing and we get a montage: Gemma driving through the dark; SAMCRO grimly riding through the dark; Maureen preparing to shut down her shop for the day when McGee comes by to hand her a slip of paper with Gemma's number; Gemma pulling into Charming; SAMCRO nearly to Charming; Gemma entering Jax's house and discovering it empty of Nita and the baby; an adorable shot of Abel trying to get out of a bassinet as he and six other babies wait for a baby broker to finish counting her cash; Nate wandering around his new digs and looking at the slumped figures in wheelchairs with a mixture of pity, horror and resignation.
Gemma pulls up to the clubhouse and runs inside, asking the assorted Crow Eaters and hangers-on if Nita's been by with the baby. Answer: No. Gemma sprints outside, and her phone rings. Maureen says, "It's Maureen Ashby. You know who I am?" Gemma does, and asks how Maureen got the number. Maureen says, "Just listen. Cammy Hayes took your grandson. He was my cousin. He brought the wee one to me to take care of him. Abel's in Belfast." She hangs up. Gemma reels, dropping the phone. As SAMCRO pulls into the parking lot, Gemma drops to the ground, clearly having some sort of cardiac event. Jax shouts for Tara, we hear the lingering lyric, "I have tried, in my own way, to be free," and the screen goes dark.
So! On the bright side, at least there's no more of that awkward lying-to-Gemma about Abel business. But we have to wait to see if Gemma will even be around week. Here's hoping.
Lisa Schmeiser is a reporter and editor in the San Francisco Bay Area. She tweets at lschmeiser and hopes Jax gets reunited with his baby before she has hers.
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