Episode Report Card Joe R: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Belfast and the Furious
By Joe R | Season 3 | Episode 10 | Aired on 11.09.2010
need is for Alvarez to pretend he's dead, and get the word on the street so it gets back to Salazar. "You know what happens to my business if my competition thinks I'm dead?" Alvarez says, asking the valid question. "Marcus," says Piney (in what's either a rare show of respect or a show of condescension. Considering we're all in a circle of wary trust right now, I'll venture it's the former), "we just need 24 hours. Then you can rise from the dead, and all them vatos, they go spooky respect with that shit." Alvarez returns to the issue of these three guys storming his backyard, where his wife and kid are. Kozik says it was probably stupid, but they're desperate to save those women. Alvarez glances back at his wife, shared concern for old ladies slowly building an emotional bridge between him and the Sons. "We'll make it up to you, somehow," Kozik assures. "Please." It's certainly interesting seeing how things get done with Clay and Jax across the pond. I can't see them going the "please" route with Alvarez. Not Clay anyway. (Hell, it's miracle enough that Tig has been so level-headed.). Alvarez agrees -- 24 hours. But if they come around unannounced again, "I'll kill all of you." Piney gives him the "Not if I kill you first," look. Truce!Belfast. Jax is moping around the back alley behind Maureen's shop when Trinny comes by to check on them. Oh God, here we go. He tells her he's sorry about McGee, which gives her the opening to talk about father figures, and how her dad was killed in Lebanon when she was a baby. Obviously, Jax has been around the block long enough (and has looked like he looks long enough) to know that daddy talk is, like, the last stop before the train pulls into Humpsville. While a nation screams at their television for SOMEBODY to step in and tells these two fools that they're half-siblings, Jax puts a hand on her shoulder. And they're kissing. And ACK! He pushes her away, and we all momentarily hope he's gotten some divine prescience (or, you know, "From really up close, your eyes look exactly like my father's eyes,). But no, it's just the calm before the storm. The sexing-your-secret-sister storm. St. Patrick, help us all.
Inside, Gemma and Maureen and Cherry are giving a kitchen table assessment of the day's events. Cherry's talking about Half-Sack, though, asking Gemma if he got buried with his patch. Mo has been into the bottle long enough that she looks like a drunken gargoyle, and through her drunken-gargoyle mouth, she accuses Cherry of not properly mourning her old man who just died today. Cherry, who is more and more my hero as the episode goes on, is like, "What for? The guy was a liar and a creep." Mo says she doesn't know the first thing about it. Gemma's like, "Do you?" Mo says McGee told her nothing of Jimmy, she just knew he'd been distant. "Desperate times make men do desperate things," Gemma says, which rankles drunken Mo. What would Gemma know about "desperate times"? Oh here we go ... Nobody has suffered like the Irish have suffered.
Mo and Gemma get into a SAMCRO vs. SAMBEL pissing match, though I guess Mo has the right to be irked that Gemma's guys have pretty much spent the last four days killing off her guys. Her anger's made a smidge less righteous by the fact that she's the one who called them there. Gemma, hilariously restrained, says "I'll assume that's just the drink talking." But Mo will have none of it. Gemma says they wouldn't be here at all if her a-hole brother weren't playing a shell game with Abel's life. Mo: "I should take your right eye for talking shite about a man of God." Can't get pulpier than that, folks. I guess writing Irish characters might well give you the inspiration to write crazy-ass dialogue like that, but a little goes a long way. Anyhoo, Gemma's all "Wouldn't be the first thing you took from me," and Mo's all, "Well maybe if you didn't chew men up like a meat grinder, they wouldn't be overseas looking for some tenderness!" Before I can stop to let that meat grinder metaphor take hold, Gemma lunges across the table and calls Mo a whore, while Cherry is like, "I'm not getting this subtext AT ALL." Both women manage to calm themselves -- Gemma says she needs smokes; Mo says she needs whiskey. Cherry: "I need a new life." CHERRY! My girl.
Speaking of guys and girls who should never be together, Gemma and Mo, whilst grabbing those booze and cigs of which they just spoke, hear a rumbling in the other room. They immediately spring into protector mode -- Mo grabs her gun, tells Gemma to open the door. They do, and of course, it's Jax and Trinny, half-naked and on their way to much, much more. Gemma and Mo don't even have the common courtesy to barf on our behalf. And then they back out and shut the door behind them! Ladies, one of y'all is going to have to sack up, because Jax is certainly about to WITH HIS OWN SISTER. "This is very bad," Gemma notes. "What a slut!" Mo laments. "Yeah," Gemma scoffs. "He is." Gemma then says that "unless we want a three-headed grandchild," they're going to have to share some family history. But where is Cherry for commentary on these developments? I feel like I need her as a roving sideline reporter for the rest of the season, all "I'm not sure what's going on here, but it's fucked UP."
By the time we've gotten back from the break, Maureen has already sat Trinity down and is showing her the photograph of the two of them with John Teller. Trinny recoils when she realizes what this all means. Mo explains that Teller had a family in California, and she thought it better to give Trinny a better story about her father than that, so she picked a local boy who'd died in the service. I also love the moment where Mo says that her family wanted her to give Trinny up for "Catholic adoption." Like it's akin to giving the baby away to roving gypsies. Anyway, Trinny's way more upset about her mom lying to her all these years than the important part: that she nearly did it with her brother! I mean, she mentions it, but where's the Crying Game shower?
Meanwhile, Gemma telling Jax about this is decidedly less harrowing. He's kind of unsettled about this secret life of his father's (one Clay apparently didn't even know about), but he jokes about nearly going into "Tig territory" with Trinny and in general is pretty sanguine about it. And far be it from me to criticize any story development that brings even a half smile to Charlie Hunnam's face, but what was the point of harboring this secret all season if Jax is going to take the revelation in stride like this? Gemma tells him about finding a letter John wrote to Maureen after he came back -- she was 19, and John was talking about making a "fresh start." I suppose this can always come back into play when Jax remembers his existential crisis again, but for now, it's not moving anything along. Opie knocks on the door to say that Ashby's here, and Gemma gives Jax clear instructions that the priest doesn't leave the alley without telling Jax exactly where Abel is.
Charming. Salazar and his girl tells Tara and Margaret that the Sons have missed the deadline to call back. "They're not taking this serious," Salazar huffs, so he's going to kill "the red bitch" to let them know he means business. Tara offers herself in Margaret's place, but Tara's the better bargaining chip. Margaret starts offering them money, at the same time that Tara is able to get her hands on the puta, but she gets a kick to the stomach for her trouble. Salazar winds up to kick her again but she screams that she's pregnant. Margaret quickly backs her up, and this makes Salazar stop long enough for the phone to ring.
Tig says Alvarez is dead and they've got the money. Salazar -- who doesn't seem to believe that his dumbass plan actually worked -- says he'll have to confirm. Tig says the same, and has him put Tara on the phone. Tig promises to get her home, and Salazar threatens to kill her if they're lying. I was certain that Salazar would also mention Tara's fetus to Tig ("The old lady AND her baby are dead if you don't pay up" or something), blowing Tara's cover to the MC, but alas, I'm not writing this show. (And thank God for that -- I'm not sure I'd have had the stomach for half of what went down in Season 2.) Back at the club, the B-Team wonders how they're going to come up with a quarter million dollars by tomorrow night. And while turning Kozik out is a great idea, he couldn't make all that cash in a day. Again, I don't write the show.
So now we come to the Jax/Ashby sit-down, which I'm just going to say, I don't buy it. The season's not over, and it could lead to some really fantastic payoffs in the next three episodes, but this moment -- and Ashby's big reveal -- feel false and small and super un-satisfying. Casey makes Jax hand over his gun as he walks in, which is fine, because Jax is still armed with his scowl. All he wants to know is where Abel is, but as far as Ashby's concerned, it's story time. He invites Jax to sit, as he's about to break a vow, a confidence he's held for twenty-some years. He talks about loving JT like a brother (first time we're hearing this), to which Jax smarts off that it would make sense, since John had a kid with Ashby's sister. Ashby gives a silent nod, kind of a "touche" for Jax being privy to at least one buried secret, then continues, talking about h