Belfast and the Furious

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Boy, the storytelling this season may have gone to shit, but there is some fantastic character stuff going on while the Belfast storyline unravels. (And, to be fair, the story back in Charming, with Tara/Margaret and the SAMCRO B-team is pretty solid.)

So Father Ashby tells Jax that the IRA needs proof of Jimmy O's treachery with the barn bomb, so the Sons set out to find Liam and get him to confess. At the same time, Jimmy and his hench-person are staking out Liam so they can "tie up loose ends." After Gemma and Maureen get Liam's location out of Cherry, they track him down at a warehouse, where Sean Casey (Ashby's guy) tortures a confession out of him. He also rats out McGee, before Jax puts him down. Jimmy's goons finally show up and they storm the warehouse, which the Sons have soaked in gas and set ablaze. So after literally smoking Jimmy out, there's a rooftop shootout. Jimmy escapes, but Clay nabs McGee, and is faced with the sad duty of offing a fellow original club member. He's bummed.

Jax brings the confession to Ashby and the IRA, but they tell Jax they have to deal with Jimmy internally. This, as you might expect, disappoints Jax. Ashby tells Jax they'll meet about it later, and Jax is so frustrated by this turn of events that he goes and starts making out with his half-sister Trinny. Yeah, that finally happened. Luckily, an arguing Gemma and Mo (with Cherry as a most unlikely referee) stumble upon them, half-naked but still technically pre-incestuous. The moms finally decide to come clean. Jax takes it with good humor, but Trinny's pretty shattered by the news.

Jax finally meets with Ashby again, and the good father has quite the bombshell: when John Teller was in Ireland, he confided in Ashby that he didn't want his sons to grow up in the club. Ashby couldn't save Jax from that fate, but he can save Abel. So, yes, Ashby put Abel in that orphanage so that he'd be taken away from Jax -- and the club -- forever. All of this stuff with Jimmy O was... window dressing, I suppose? Jax goes into a rage, stabbing Sean Casey and demanding the address of the convent where Ashby left his son. He gets it, but not before Ashby makes one last appeal to Jax's own wariness that maybe his son should be kept safe from SAMCRO.

Meanwhile, stateside, Salazar's got Tara and Margaret tied up, and he calls and makes his demands to Piney: he wants the Sons to kill Alvarez and steal a quarter-million dollars from him, to hand over for the women. The B-team is divided: Kozik thinks they should take this info directly to Alvarez, but Piney doesn't trust the Mayans nor the truce that was brokered before Clay and the boys left. Tig actually thinks they should go with Kozik, and so we get a tense stand-off in Alvarez's own backyard, where Kozik manages to make a heartfelt, emotional appeal and convinces Alvarez to essentially play dead for 24 hours. When Salazar calls back, they tell him Alvarez is dead, and they set up an exchange for tomorrow. Now they just need to get $425,000 in a day. Meanwhile, Margaret tells Tara the story of her back tat, which isn't much of a shocker (biker boyfriend, drug addict, shit went bad), but really deepens Margaret quite a bit. Who expected THAT to happen?

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Previously on Sons of Anarchy: one season of killer story, occasionally shaky dialogue, and occasional clunky character development. Then one season of across-the-board brilliance including harrowing character beats and some of the tightest storytelling on television. Now two-thirds into this season, the characters are as strong and well-defined as they've ever been, with nearly three seasons worth of development having sharpened them into stark focus. Only that tight storytelling of Seasons 1 and (especially) 2 has given way to an unfocused, saggy Season 3, culminating in a trip to Belfast that maybe should have happened back in Episode 3. Also previously: Gemma and Maureen each had a child by John Teller, though nobody had bothered to tell those kids, Jax and Trinity, and now they're probably going to make out soon; Salazar and his girl got the jump on Tara, Margaret, and Margaret's wicked big back tattoo; Jax struck a deal with Stahl to deliver Jimmy O'Phelan to her, alive; and SAMBEL members Liam and McGee were secretly working with Jimmy against SAMCRO, including Liam detonating an explosion in the barn that killed Chibbs's cousin.

Jax gets a wake-up call from Kellan Ashby (and his goon, Sean Casey), saying he just heard about the explosion. He talks regretfully about greed having pushed Jimmy to go rogue, but all Jax cares about is finding Jimmy so he can get his son back. Ashby sends Casey out of the room, then tells Jax that they first need to find proof that Jimmy actually masterminded the bomb plot. Why? Well, now that Ashby has spoken aloud about taking Jimmy out, it's become an official IRA operation, and thus subject to the Army's oversight. Jimmy's all, "Whatever, so long as I get my kid back." First order of business is getting to someone in Jimmy's inner circle and making him talk. Ashby suggests once they find the guy, give Casey a call -- "He's quite resourceful." We all know that "resourceful" on television means "awesome at violence and torture," right? Good.

Elsewhere, Jimmy and his right-hand goon Donny meet to discuss the current situation and brogue the fuck out at each other, so your poor recapper can only understand every third word or so. Basically, Donny's worried that if Ashby can prove Jimmy has betrayed the Army, his men won't stand by him. Jimmy's indignant -- he pulled these people out of the gutter, they'll stay loyal. Besides, the only person who can definitively tie him to the blast is Liam O'Neill, and they're going to tie up that loose end right away. We all know that "tie up that loose end" means "murder the fuck outta the bastard," right? Good.

At SAMBEL HQ, McGee approaches Liam and asks about the bomb. When Liam plays innocent, McGee kicks the barstool out from under him -- he knows Jimmy put him up to it, and even if he believes Liam's claims of innocence, SAMCRO is going to beat the truth out of him regardless. With this truth hanging in the air, Liam gets scared. What's he supposed to do? McGee tells him to get out and lay low until Jax gets Abel back and they're all back in America. Liam flees, while McGee breaks some bottles in frustration.

Back in the States, Salazar's got Tara and Margaret tied up to a beam in his attic. He wants a phone number for the Sons, and when Tara asks why, she gets a face full of slap from Salazar's girl. Margaret's no dummy -- she knows this is Salazar looking to make his demands. She tells Tara to give them a number.

Jax is updating his brothers on his conversation with Ashby. Clay, already armed with his suspicions, says they go after Liam first. They all pretty much agree Liam had means and opportunity to set the blast, though Bobby cautions that accusing Liam -- an officer -- means accusing all of SAMBEL. McGee's been listening in and now tries to do damage control. His men are loyal, but they're right about Liam, he's turned rat for Jimmy. Clay's pissed that McGee waited 'til now to tell him, and McGee defensively says he tried to give his men the benefit of the doubt. He says Liam's gone into hiding but that what they should do is suit up and put a bullet in Jimmy's head. Jax says that won't get him his son back, per Ashby (it also won't meet the terms of his deal with Stahl, but that looks to be back-burnered this week). They need to find Liam and get the truth out of him. McGee, chagrined, knows he can't convince them otherwise. "So it's the truth we're after," he sighs, with the creeping dread of a man who knows that the truth is no friend to him right now.

Blarney-infused credits. You better look this pot o' gold in the eye, and so forth.

Belfast. The Sons pay a visit to Cherry at Maureen's little bodega. She doesn't believe it when they say that Liam -- her old man, recall -- was the one responsible for the barn explosion. They tell her they just need to find him so they can talk to him. Cherry, who seems less flighty than she used to be -- says she knows what that means. "He'll get his say," assures Clay in his least reassuring voice. Maureen prods Cherry to just tell them what she knows, but she persists -- she doesn't know about hideouts or family members or anything. "The club was his family," she says, perhaps hoping for some change of sentiment. The men all head out, each one glaring at Cherry as they pass, like she didn't get shipped off to Ireland in order to protect their asses.

Of course, with them gone, she's left with Maureen and Gemma, each one camped out at either shoulder. Gemma leads, telling Cherry that Liam was in some way responsible for Half-Sack getting killed. Cherry doesn't believe it, but an improvising Mo backs Gemma up, saying it was Cam and Liam that did it, under Jimmy's authority. I didn't think Gemma could get scarier, but with Mo as her sidekick? Yeesh. Gemma keeps laying it on: Liam was out of the MC the second he turned on his brothers; he left Cherry high and dry. Cherry's reasons to protect him keep falling away. You know, I've always had a soft spot for Taryn Manning, but it was mostly ironic. But I have to say, she's doing a bang-up job here. Cherry finally cracks, telling the women about finding bank account info and a contract for a loft down at the docks. It's barely out of her mouth before Mo grabs her in a choke-hold and hauls her across the room. "Never -- EVER -- lie to the club!" She finally lets her go, then tells Trinny to go find the boys. Gemma takes this all in, like she's sizing Maureen up. She gives her the slightest nod. Maureen returns it right back. Don't fuck with the old ladies.

Elsewhere, Jimmy's got Liam on the phone, and the unsuspecting fuck tells Jimmy exactly where he's hiding out, so Jimmy can go "pick him up."

Back in Charming, Chuckie gets a call from Salazar, who demands to speak to a member. You guys, I couldn't be more dismayed that the office phone at the bike shop isn't rotary. Talk about the one job Chuckie's perfect for (though, to be fair, he's pretty good at punching in Line 2). Anyway, he gets Piney on the phone, and after some posturing about making sure he's speaking to a patch member, Salazar puts the phone to Tara's mouth, so she can confirm he does have her hostage.

Cut to the conference table, after the phone call. Piney's explaining the situation to Tig and Kozik. That is one lonely wood carving. Anyway, Salazar wants them to kill Alvarez and steal a quarter of a mil from his home safe. Kozik thinks they have to tell Jax, but Piney and Tig shoot that idea down. Jax has enough on his mind (and, more importantly, would be helpless to do anything from Belfast anyway). They have to fix this themselves. Kozik says they need to go to Alvarez, get him to play ball. But Piney's against that -- he doesn't trust the truce between their clubs and he really doesn't trust Alvarez. Kozik doesn't see much of a choice, when the other option is whack Alvarez and start one mother of a war. Tig's more practical, worried that Alvarez will refuse to help, but Kozik says Alvarez has a family. "He'll get it." You'd expect Tig to be the one blindly opposing anything Kozik su

ggests, but -- is that mature emotional development I see? Outta TIG? He and Piney don't seem thrilled about it, but they're agreed to go with Kozik's plan.

Belfast. (Well. "Belfast." Make those filters as green as you want to and shoot on the cloudiest day you can manage, you're not keeping that California sunshine away.) SAMCRO helmets up and rides out to find Liam's dockside retreat. When they get there, McGee makes an excuse to hang back -- he says he's collecting his bearings, but really he needs to make a phone call to Liam, warning him to get away. At the same time, Jimmy O pulls up to the adjacent slip, close enough to have a front-row seat to the proceedings. Those proceedings include Liam trying to make a getaway on his bike, only for Jax to make a flying clothesline tackle on him. The boys grab him and haul him inside, and Jax tells someone to call Sean Casey -- "We've got a confession to record." Across the way, Jimmy tells Donny they're going to need at least four more men -- and some automatic rifles. Meanwhile, McGee catches up, and Clay tells him he may need a strong stomach for what comes . Not the greatest news for a guy who's already looking pretty green around the gills.

So that strong stomach thing applies to the viewer too, because once the boys chain Liam up and hang him up like a side of beef in a meat locker, Casey unravels his satchel of tools and begins using them in ways you would NEVER treat a side of beef in a meat locker. Meanwhile, outside, Jimmy's backup has arrived, and they're armed to the teeth. Inside, Liam screams and denies all involvement, which only leads stone-faced Casey to enact more punishment. McGee can't take it and steps out. "This is some medieval shit," Bobby grumbles, while Happy smiles big in agreement. After a few more invasive strikes by Casey, Liam's screams begin to take shape. With the video camera ready to record his confession for the IRA, he wails, "I'm sorry!" It all comes tumbling out -- in thick-ass Irish, so forgive me if I don't quote verbatim. But basically: Jimmy ordered the blast, Liam carried it out, and he didn't tell McGee because he knew he wouldn't have the stomach for it. Clay now steps up: "McGee's working for Jimmy?" Liam nods aye. Clay punches Liam's perforated midsection and demands to know who else. "No one else!" Clay then yells for someone to go find McGee. Jax then asks Casey if he got everything he needs (he did), and then tells him to turn the camera off, before shooting Liam through the heart and ending the poor bastard's suffering.

Outside, crazy guitar music has kicked in, and Jimmy's men are storming the warehouse. Clay orders his guys to lock the doors from the inside. Jax sends Casey off with the tape to give to Ashby. "No matter what," Jax stresses, "he keeps his promise about my kid." Casey splits. The Sons make for the roof. Jimmy's guys haul ass up the stairs and Bobby starts dousing Liam's place with gasoline. Oooh! This looks like fun! Jimmy's men storm the castle and find Liam's corpse. They also find a curiously strong gas smell, and before they can bolt, SAMBEL members chain the doors shut behind them. Jimmy yells for them to get to the roof, but while he's on his way up the ladder, he has to dodge the Molotov cocktail Clay drops down the chute. The loft erupts, engulfing at least one of Jimmy's goons in flames.

Jimmy makes it to the roof, though, where he's immediately swarmed by SAMCRO. Jax is playing it smart, making sure no one shoots the bastard. "It's the priest you wanna be hatin'," Jimmy yells to Jax. "He's playing you, Jackson, he's never giving you your son back!" Before we can figure out if that's bullshit or not, McGee emerges from behind Jimmy and starts shooting at him. Jax -- again, finding ways to keep Jimmy alive without being obvious about it -- yells for someone to grab McGee, since he's a traitor and all. Jimmy's men emerge from the makeshift chimney, and now it's a shootout. Jimmy makes a run for it and hits the stairs down. Jax tries to give chase, but he's too far behind. Jimmy and Donny speed away.

Meanwhile, McGee tries to make it to a ladder and climb down, but Clay catches up to him. The shooting has stopped, and Clay just wants to know why McGee did it. "I'm getting old," McGee says. "This life hasn't given me much in the way of retirement. It was just about the money, brother." Not sure if that's supposed to make it sting more or less for Clay, who steps up to the ledge and tells McGee to hand over his jacket. With ominous, wailing A.R. Rahman/Battlestar Galactica style music swelling in the background, it's not like we don't know what's coming. Clay embraces his old friend, even gives him that old Sicilian "kiss of death" (mixing our criminal cultures, aren't we Clay?), and then quietly as you please, he shoves McGee off the roof. He lands with the softest of thuds. Bye, McGee. You were kinda terrible at being a double-crosser, but we'll remember your mustache fondly.

After the break, Jax and Clay are having a sitdown powwow with Father Ashby and some IRA officials. They thank Jax and Clay for sticking their necks out to get this proof of Jimmy O's treachery, but when Clay asks for info on how they can find him, they tell him it's a matter for the Army now. Jax looks a little panicked and says that wasn't the deal. Father Ashby, mostly inscrutable but I'd say he looks rather abashed, tells Jax that this is how it has to be. Jax stands up and starts yelling, but Clay calms him down. Ashby tells the room, by way of explanation, that he and Jax have some "outside issues to discuss." He looks at Jax, with a "Not in front of company, baby" look, and Jax is left to seethe quietly for the moment.

Charming. Salazar is satisfied enough knowing that SAMCRO is cooperating with his demands that he declines to duct-tape Tara and Margaret's mouths shut. That's awfully considerate of him, since it leaves them free to discuss the odd business of Margaret's wicked big back tattoo. Here's the sitch: Years and years ago, Margaret had a boyfriend who was a biker. She thought she was in love. But he was Bad News Bears, and she was in deep. She gave him money, she bought him drugs, ultimately started dealing for him. Then, on Christmas Eve in 1989, they both OD'd. She survived, he didn't. Tara says she's sorry, but Margaret's not. She leaves the tat there so she always knows that "that shit is behind me." Also presumably because it would be crazy expensive/painful to have a giant-ass tattoo like that removed. Tara takes it all in, pondering.

Clay and Jax return to the Sons, having been unable to track down Ashby elsewhere. Bobby mentions with some urgency that the police found the bodies at the docks, and they're going to come calling, sooner rather than later. Opie says they'll find Abel, catch Oswald's plane tomorrow night, "and get the hell off this moss-covered shithole." Aw, Opie. Talk about someone who hasn't had enough to do in this Belfast storyline. Also, hilariously, Chibs tips his bottle Ope's way and says, "Amen, my brother," to the "moss-covered shithole" line. No love lost for the motherland for Chibbs. Guess that's not surprising.

Jax, frustrated, says he's going for a walk; Gemma snaps her fingers at Opie to go and keep an eye on him. The rest of the Sons disperse too, but Gemma holds Clay back for a minute. She can see what's been weighing on him since they came back from the warehouse. Killing McGee has really taken a lot out of him; he was an Original 9 member and all. There was a lot of history there. And while I'm sure there was -- and for sure the audience was told that McGee was Original 9 and all -- but the show did a pretty poor job of rendering the gravity of that relationship until now, after the fact. If we'd had a better sense of the kind of longstanding brotherhood Clay and McGee shared -- not to mention the way McGee tied into John Teller -- this moment (and certainly the moment on the roof) could have had a much bigger emotional impact. Alas. Gemma tries to comfort Clay, but he's not in the mood to be comforted.

Charming. Piney, Tig, and Kozik roll up on Alvarez's home, the location of which is clearly a super-guarded secret, because his gate is totally unlocked, and he comes upon the Sons while carrying his baby into the backyard. This is not a man who's worried about an attack on his home front -- if that circumstantial evidence doesn't sway you, the panicked look on his face sure will. He pulls out his gun -- so he's not completely free of precaution -- which leads Tig and Piney to pull out their guns, and before you know it, everybody, including Mrs. Alvarez, are going all Mexican standoff. So to speak.

Kozik scrambles to be the voice of reason before they all end up dead. He puts his piece away first, saying this is a "friendly visit." Alvarez hands the baby off to his old lady, but he keeps the guns on the intruders in his backyard. They explain that Salazar gave them the address, that he kidnapped Jax's old lady and wants them to kill Alvarez and steal his cash. Alvarez has a bit of a chuckle at the idea that he's got a quarter mil in his safe. "Two old watches, insurance policies, and my kid's baby teeth," that's all he's got in there. Kozik says they can find the money someplace else -- what they

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 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

ow he heard John's confession for three years, which according to Ashby seems more like therapy sessions, where John spilled out all his pain and regret. "All your father's pain distills into one resolute desire: that his sons never followed his path. He never wanted this life for you." Jax, speaking for the audience, asks why Ashby's telling him this. Ashby says John died before he could follow though on this plan. "I couldn't do anything to save the son, but I can do something to save the grandson." At this point, Jax is yelling (and his American accent is falling away at a rapid pace), and it's tough to blame him, so I'll cut to the chase: Ashby wants to save little Abel from a life in the Club, so he sent him into "the arms of a loving family." Jax attacks Ashby at this, only to have Casey pull him off. Jax manages to grab Casey's knife, stab him in the leg, and retrieve his own gun. He puts it to Casey's head and forces Ashby to give him the address where Abel's at, which he eventually does. When he explains that it's a Catholic orphanage, Jax is horrified. "You filthy Judas ... adoption?!" Again with the revulsion to Catholic adoption. I mean, I saw The Magdalene Sisters too, but really, they can't be all bad. Also, "You filthy Judas" harkens back a bit to the Season 1 days, when the dialogue would brush up against too poetic. This just isn't my favorite scene, let's move on. But not before Ashby plants one last seed of doubt in Jax's mind: "Your father knew the patch was a mistake, and so do you." Oh, Ashby must've gotten the DVDs of the first two seasons. "Look at the violence of the last three days alone. Is that the life you want for your child? If you love him, give him more." Ashby leaves Jax to do some thinking. Some sexy thinking.

week: Watch out, Catholics! Gemma's coming for her grandson!

Joe R wonders where Juice was this week and hopes no one put HIM up for Catholic adoption. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com, and you can listen to him yammer on to his heart's content on the Extra Hot Great podcast.

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