An Eye For an Eye, and an Eyeful of Ass

S05E01

One of the themes that Kurt Sutter's been developing over the last four seasons of Sons of Anarchy is that it's hard to climb out of the ruts that our forebears wore into our lives and hearts. And one of the cleverest ways that Sutter's done this is by basically structuring the show to mirror the wearying, repetitive process of striving for something new and falling short. So every season is basically shaped like this:

-- The characters are struggling with one or more pre-existing situations set up in the last episodes of the prior season.

-- One of these situations suddenly escalates owing to a development in the first episode of the season.

-- A SAMCRO bystander is gravely affected by a player in the escalated situation.

-- The remainder of the season shows the club dealing with long-running problems and the new, exclusive-to-the-season foe.

-- The solution to the exclusive-to-the-season conflict sets up the catastrophic event and the victim in the season.

With that in mind: The show starts with Jax channeling his father by writing down his hopes and dreams for Abel and Thomas. He then leads the club on an arms run, right into the Antagoniste Du Season's ambush. Oakland gangster Damon Pope, as it turns out, is super-pissed that any of the Sons are upright and breathing in the wake of his daughter's death, and announces the first prong of his attack against the club by setting his guys on the club and their truck, starting off the season with a big, fiery bang.

Jax deals with the club's longstanding deals -- guns with the Irish, drugs with the CIA -- in a surprisingly competent manner, while Roosevelt comes by the clubhouse and establishes that there's been a wave of home invasions targeting SAMCRO-adjacent people.

Meanwhile, Gemma decides to get over Clay by getting under someone else. Specifically, she gets under Nero, a former gangbanger who now runs an escort outcall service conveniently located on the outskirts of Charming and yet never referenced until now.

After Gemma makes the walk of shame home, she has a sad little conversation with Clay (who is totally milking the lion-in-winter act, by the way) that more or less sets up the idea that Gemma and Clay are going to be spending much of the season screwing with each other. I think we need a forum thread to launch the betting pool on how many episodes it's going to be before these two have angry, arthritic hate sex.

Speaking of Clay, he 'fesses up to the club about killing Piney. Well, he admits that he killed Piney, but his narrative bears no resemblance to what actually happened. Then Clay tearily claims that he lied about it for the club, because he so cared about making sure the Irish deal went through, and tells everyone that Opie did the shooting. (You can imagine the expression on Tig's face here as he realizes that once again, he's murdered an innocent woman because Clay's a lying liar who lies.) Jax and Clay then meet privately and each puts the other on notice: I know you're up to something.

Finally Gemma's day hits bottom when she discovers that Tara -- who may as well get a tattoo reading "Gemma 2.0" -- has performed an end run regarding the kids' daycare and tells Gemma that she has no intention of allowing Gemma alone time with the kids. Gemma's spiral down is going to be long, slow and erratic this season; this is one woman who will not be willing to turn into the biker equivalent of the Queen Mum.

We have a few scenes establishing what a hardass Pope is -- say goodbye to the One-Niners' Laroy, as he's now naught but a bag of bloody pulp, and say goodbye to a few nameless One-Niners who get shot just to make a point about how casually homicidal Pope is.

Then we see that Pope's not that casual about murder at all. He takes it very seriously, and very personally: A cop on his payroll picks up Dawn Traeger -- remember, Margeaux with an X -- and uses her to lure Tig to Oakland. There, the cop and one of Pope's right-hand thugs physically constrain Tig and force him to watch as they douse Dawn with gasoline and set her on fire.

(By the way, Kim Coates knocks it out of the park as a man who, having murdered plenty of other people's daughters, is forced to reckon with all that pain he caused when he watches his baby burn to death because of him. Alas, Kim Coates will never get an Emmy nod for this.)

Worth recalling: Approximately five minutes into the first episode of the first season, a policeman on the SAMCRO payroll opens a metal locker in a just-burned-down stash house and reveals two young women who have been burned to death. (We find out later Tig had been sleeping with them.) That discovery sets off this exchange:

CLAY: (waves his piece) Two in the back of the head, quick and painless.
JAX: It ain't easy being king.
CLAY: You remember that.

Five years on, Jax is SAMCRO's president and more women have burned to death on his watch. One wonders if this season, Jax'll remember that it ain't easy to be king.

Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter and editor. She'll always talk with you about this show on Twitter and she blogs at Penny Wiseacre.

Previously on Sons of Anarchy...

If you're just tuning in now because you heard that Charlie Hunnam peels for his art every week, I'm sorry, you're just going to have to settle for Jimmy Smits. And you are probably wondering what's going on with all these clothed people. May I suggest reading this recap of the first two seasons, this recap of the third season, and the following paragraph? The rest of you, skip ahead.

Last season on Sons of Anarchy: The club members who had gone to jail at the end of season three were released to the custody of a musical montage. They quickly figured out that things had changed in their short absence: Tara had already had her baby by Jax Teller; the new sheriff, Roosevelt, had no truck with a town full of racist bikers; Opie had finally decided to make an honest woman of his porn-star girlfriend, and they had the most awesome biker wedding.

Oh, and Clay decided that since he and Gemma hadn't really been keeping up on their 401(k) contributions, he'd finance their retirement by dragging the entire club into running drugs for a Mexican cartel whose idea of employee incentivism was to randomly decapitate people. Jax, naturally, goes for it. He tells Tara that this is because he also wants to retire and leave the biker life behind, but he is afraid to do so unless he is clutching a security blanket woven with several hundred thousand dollar bills.

Of course Tara swallows this fiction, quite possibly because she's addled from the sleep deprivation that attends raising two children under age four while also maintaining a high-flying surgical career and attempting to keep Gemma penned within the boundaries of polite civilization.

(pause for rueful laughter here)

Gemma, however, is going to get the ball rolling on the events that will ultimately turn everyone inside out: she learns that Tara has damning letters that Maureen (John Teller's Emergency Backup Old Lady) sent to Jax, freaks out all over Clay, and he decides that since Tara knows Clay and Gemma killed John Teller, she's got to die. In the course of Clay's quest to kill Tara, he contracts for her killing, but the attempted abduction is botched, leaving Tara with a broken hand. Remember, this is a woman who was a surgeon.

Clay also kills Piney. Opie finds out, goes to kill Clay, misses the shot and Clay lies to everyone else and claims the One-Niners did it out of pique over the drug running. Naturally, this sends Tig out on a mission to avenge his father figure/BFF and Tig manages to kill the daughter of a prominent gangster, because if you want to make sure the wife or girlfriend of a gangster dies by accident, Tig's your guy.

So! Time to introduce three new bikers, courtesy of the fact that the Nomad charter is disbanding for some reason I either cannot recall or was never mentioned. The three guys who will be filling out the table until such time as their usefulness to the story is outlived are Frankie Diamonds, Go-Go and Greg the Peg (so named because of the prosthesis on his left leg.) Clay comes wheezing into the table, all dramatically infirm and totally channeling Piney with his little oxygen canister and air of sullen impotence. Anyway! Nomads voted in with no drama whatsoever, Bobby's return hailed by his brothers and then Jax moves on to his business: "I've asked Bobby to be my VP." Tig asks, "What about Ope?" because I guess nobody at Piney's thing noticed Opie's total bitchface or Jax's suffering air and figured that those two were on the outs. Jax says, "I think Ope's going to have to step away from the club for awhile. Too much damage done to his family." The "BY THIS CLUB" part is tactfully left unspoken. Jax continues, "He's having a hard time not putting that pain on SAMCRO." I like how "putting that pain on" is the new "correctly blaming."

Clay takes that as his cue to speak up. He rests his head in his hands for a moment -- we see that he's still wearing his wedding ring -- and says he's got to confess something: "The Lobo cartel did not kill Piney. I did." Tig looks shocked. Chibs, however, does not. Jax is not even bothering to disguise the "What fresh bullshit will you be shoveling today?" look. Clay spins it out: He and Piney had their beefs, he went up to the cabin to try and work out their differences, they got drunk, firearms came out, they wrestled and an unfortunate gun accident happened. But Clay lied for the good of the club, you see: "I figured if the Irish or the cartel learned there was an internal beef in the club, they'd pull the plug on the deal, so I put it on the Mexicans. I planned on telling everyone as soon as the heat was off." We cut to Jax looking around the table, darkly amused by Clay's tale and his brothers' willingness to buy it. Clay then craftily says, "But Opie found out the truth before I could say anything. He's the one who shot me." Cue the ripples of shock and outrage. Clay continues, "I lied to Jax, told him it was black." Tig is absolutely stunned and he stammers out, "Why'd you lie, man?" Clay pauses and Jax dryly says, "You were protecting Ope." He picks up the story, pointing out that since Clay needed an ambulance, they needed a plausible story. Chibs doesn't look like he's buying this. Clay sorrowfully says, "I don't blame Ope for trying to kill me. I only wish I could explain to him what happened."

We then cut to a brief and intriguing scene where Clay tries to get on his bike and discovers his arthritis is too severe. He can't ride.

Goodman's summoned his cleaner, and lowered him into the storage area. He makes the mistake of turning his back on Tig, who struggles up to a sitting position, and quietly informs Goodman, "You're dead, n*****. You're all dead." Goodman, who clearly thinks there's no call for this sort of bigotry in Obama's post-racial America, strides over all, "You kidding me with this shit?" and goes to kick Tig again, only to discover, far too late, that Tig was expecting him to do that. The bereaved father then kills the accomplice to his daughter's murder with his bare hands, grabs the detective's piece and shoots the cleaner for good measure. And then Tig collapses into wracking sobs.

There's an impromptu strategy conference at the Knowles-Teller kitchen table. Everyone quickly figures out that Pope bought off those witnesses, and he did so in order to get Jax, Tig and Chibs inside the prison system, where presumably they'd all meet the kinds of gruesomely imaginative deaths that would make the former writers of OZ recoil in horror. The boys have to figure a way out of this -- and in a hurry, as there are sheriffs at the clubhouse looking for the three wanted men. Gemma urges the guys to run and she's got just the spot; Tara is opposed. Jax backs his mom's play, to his old lady's disgust, piously bleating that it's the best thing in the long run for the family. Everyone leaves Tara alone to fume in the house. Gemma stops to give Tara an "I won" look, because that's how she rolls.

We go into the episode-ending musical montage. Unser is feeding Gemma's bird now that she's off doing God-knows-what (and whom) in the evenings; he clucks about how he misses Gemma too. The boys head out to their new hideyhole. Rat watches TV on the couch as Tara sits, smokes a joint, and ignores Thomas crying on the baby monitor. (So that's how you ignore the nerve-shredding baby cries -- smoke some really good pot. Why aren't the child care books sharing that?) We see Clay drinking alone and Opie slapping a For Sale sign on his bike, then walking off while his club brothers watch. Then we see Tig sitting on the edge of the still-smoking metal locker, rocking back and forth as his tears flow.

Cut to Damon Pope buying ice cream for a neighborhood full of kids. "Who wants some ice creeeeeeeam!" yells out the man who killed at least two people today, if not more, and although he laughs as he hands out the treats, once the kids scatter, all the life goes out of Pope's face. Revenge hasn't provided him with any closure, it would seem.

By Sobell

Jax manages to maneuver assorted guns and drugs deals to a point where he thinks he and the club are free and clear to get out of all manner of lethal and shady business when we get the surprise reveal of the season: the cartel agents Jax is working with are actually with the CIA and they're closing in on the gun-running operation. So the government wants SAMCRO to stay in bed with the Irish -- and the Irish will only work with Clay, so Jax's planned killing of Clay (which he was prodded into by a really pissed off Gemma) is going to have to wait. Also, Jax can no longer leave the club.

Other items of note: We find out Juice's father is black, which is supposed to be a big enough deal to justify him working as an informant for the sheriff and for a federal RICO investigation, then suddenly it's no longer relevant. And Gemma and Clay are dunzo after she flips her shit over the drugs thing and Tara's near-death and Clay expresses his disagreement by punching her repeatedly. Lyla and Opie split up, to the general shock of... nobody.

And there you have it. Let's get started on season five!

Jax is riding his bike and narrating: "Something happens at around 92 miles an hour. Thunder headers drown out all sound. Engine vibration travels at a heart's rate. Field of vision funnels into the immediate. And suddenly, you're not on the road, you're in it, a part of it. Traffic, scenery, cops -- just cardboard cutouts blowing over as you pass."

We see him sitting on a truck's cab as he writes this down, continuing narration as voiceover. Jax writes, "Sometimes I forget the rush of all that. That's why I love these long runs. All your problems, all the noise, gone. Nothing else to worry about, except what's right in front of you. Maybe that's the lesson for me today. To hold on to these simple moments. To appreciate them a little more. There's not many of them left."

So! He and the boys are still running guns down to the cartel and getting back drugs in return. And we switch over to Clay, who's slowly easing himself down onto a couch in his new bachelor pad while Juice fusses over the placement of tchotchkes in the background.

Jax carries on: "I don't ever want that for you. Finding things that make you happy shouldn't be so hard. I know you'll face pain, suffering, hard choices, but you can't let the weight of it choke the joy out of your life. No matter what, you have to find the things that love you and run to them."

By Sobell

And now would be as fine a time as any to cut to a scene of utter debauchery, culminating in Jimmy Smits as naked as the day he was born -- I swear, half of America could draw his ass from memory -- and pounding Gemma from behind. There are worst ways to rebound, one supposes.

Back to Jax's VO. "There's an old saying: That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I don't believe that. I think the things that try to kill you make you angry and sad." Cut to Tara in a bubble bath, smoking a joint and ignoring the gun she has placed on a little tubside table.

"Strength comes from the good things: Your family, your friends, the satisfaction of hard work. Those are the things that will keep you whole. Those are the things to hold on to when you're broken," Jax finishes. And, oh my, if he isn't turning into a regular John Teller with the biker philosophizing.

Chibs and Tigs come by right as Jax finishes. We see that they're all at a truck stop, resting before the push on their gun run. A lot lizard scampers by to ply her trade but alas, the boys aren't buying what she's selling. Except for one: apparently, Happy is not present because he's made a friend and she has something of an oral fixation. Jax is all, "In this skankhole?" and Tig gallantly says, "There's nothing wrong with the occasional skank." I cede his point; I often use a similar rationalization when ordering my semi-annual Domino's pizza.

As Jax walks off, Tig leans in and asks Chibs, "Hey, what do you think he's writing in those little pads?" "It's a children's book," Chibs deadpans. Then he gets all sergeant-at-armsly with everyone and the club rolls; they're riding around the truck with all the guns in it.

But because this is Sons of Anarchy, we are but a musical interlude away from something big and violent and loud happening and... there it is! The One-Niners are still carrying a grudge over that whole accidental vehicular homicide, so they attempt a very deliberate vehicular homicide of Filthy Phil. His truck is run off the road and the Niners descend on it with automatic weapons, then with fire. Within seconds, Jax and the rest of the miraculously flameproof, bulletproof middle-aged bikers have managed to fend off the One-Niners and drag all 800 pounds of Filthy Phil from the burning truck cab. Jax affects the biker version of "Leave the gun, take the cannoli" (leave the guns for later, take the blow now), then dramatically walks into a beautifully framed shot where he's standing alone and glaring as the truck burns behind him. I am sure that is in no way symbolic.

Credits! Which now include some hoo-hah about John Teller, a scant five seasons into the mess his manuscript launched back in season one.

Morning has come to Charming, as it does in nearly every episode and we see that Jax is trying to walk his talk about holding on to his family: We get a shot of morning life at the Knowles-Teller household, where Jax is feeding a fat and happy Thomas while Abel sits and giggles, leaving Tara plenty of time to get ready without someone clinging to her calves. The two grown-ups have a little catch-up chat, the upshot of which is that Rat is about to become a new houseguest, which can only mean good news for the family food budget, as Rat looks like he lives off cigarette butts and not the mixing bowls full of Cap'n Crunch that Filthy Phil inhaled.

Jax then mentions that the club is doing Piney's "thing" today and graciously tells Tara she doesn't have to attend. She says, "I can't. I'm training my new replacement. Starting my new duties." Tara's delivery here is a pitch-perfect imitation of the condescending venom Gemma splashes out when she's feeling particularly bitter. Jax softly says he's sorry and Tara snickers before composing herself and saying, "Yeah, me too."

This is Jax's cue to step up and he comes over, dangling Thomas and saying, "I don't know how we do this, Tara. I don't know where it all goes, but we do this as a family. I can promise you that." Tara's placated, so Jax snorgles his boys, prepares to head out the door, then provides the opening for a bit of exposition: Tara has decided to put the boys in day care at the hospital, something which Jax was for, in theory, but wanted to delay until he had time to construct the underground, lead-lined chamber in which he planned to contain his mother and her nuclear fury once she learned she was no longer the boys' primary caregiver. Tara's all, "Well, an opening came up and fortune favors the prepared, so have fun breaking the news to your mom. Toodles!" Jax is all, I... do not even have the energy for this right now.

Speaking of Gemma, she's just discovered that she's awoken in a room decorated with Pier One by way of the Chicken Ranch. Why doesn't anyone ever wake up in a nicely decorated room, I ask you? Is it because people with exquisite design taste spend their nights reading about Ray & Charles Eames and so the odds that they'll pick up biker grandmas are pretty low?

ANYWAY. Gemma takes in the room, the two young women passed out all over each other on the couch, the fact that she has no effing idea where she is and, understandably, decides the only reasonable thing to do when Jimmy Smits comes into the room is to pull her ladygun on him. He raises his hands and asks, "Was I that bad?" Gemma barks, "Who the hell are you?" Jimmy Smits replies, "Wow. Really? You came home with me last night. This is my place." He readjusts his wifebeater and we see the impressive scar on his sternum. Someone knocks on the door and the ever-cool Wanda De Jesus comes in (seriously, I love her), assesses the situation and says, "Let me guess: J-Date?" "Something like that," Jimmy Smits deadpans. Anyway, Wanda De Jesus isn't here to judge. She's here to round up the two naked young women, who have morning "dates."

By Sobell

Gemma has just realized that the reason she woke up in a place that looks like a Thai cathouse is because she woke up in something equally taste-defying: a central California cathouse. "You a pimp?" she asks. Jimmy Smits smiles, "I'm a companionator. I bring folks together. I'm all about the love." Gemma is horrified because "I did a spic pimp." Jimmy Smits is slightly more sanguine: "I did a drunken cracker MILF." That would be GILF, technically, but these two are still getting to know one another. Anyway, Jimmy Smits offers her Advil and coffee, which truly makes him a prince among drunken hookups, really.

Cut to Clay getting a phone call from Gaalan, who is justifiably nervous about SAMCRO's ability to run guns if their trucks keep getting set on fire. Clay's on it, which gives Tig, Chibs and Juice time to gossip about what a sad and wheezy old man the former president's become now that he's lost the love of a good woman and at least one lung lobe. Juice is totally mother-henning Clay right now, and Clay is letting him, which both Chibs and Tig find moderately unnerving.

Gemma has managed to pull herself together enough to creep downstairs, where she discovers that Charming's premier outcall service looks unnervingly similar to a cosmetic dentistry office. Nero's reading the paper -- we see a headline focusing on the rash of home invasions in Charming, so there's a subplot for the season -- and we finally find out that Jimmy Smits is going to be named "Nero Padilla" for the purposes of this show. We find out that Nero and Gemma's drunken assignation came about once they bonded over their heart ailments, and then Gemma fishes with, "You're surrounded by barely legal pussy. What the hell are you doing picking up old broads? You got some kind of granny fetish?" Nero introduces Gemma to the radical concept of keeping one's personal life separate from one's professional life, then gallantly adds, "Me, I like a little more patina on my precious metal." Nero continues to throw charm at Gemma, and she's all, "Do I tell him a about the homicidal biker I'm still married to, or do I wait until our second hookup?" (And since Gemma handed him her number, you know there will be a second hookup.)

Cut to Unser and Gemma chatting and really the whole point of this scene is to establish that Gemma's turned into such a mess, she's completely blanked on Piney's memorial. The old queen of SAMCRO, the one who hectored everyone into coming to biker family dinner, would have never forgotten.

And now we segue into a scene between Clay and Gemma, in their old bedroom. Clay is rifling through a box on the dresser as Gemma comes in. He is hunched over and looks ten years older than he did at the start of last season. Then again, so does Gemma. The two stand silently in the bedroom for a moment, then Gemma hands over a ring Clay was looking for. She spits, "Don't take any of the photos." As she leaves, Clay says tremulously, "Can we talk? Please? Two minutes?" Gemma will give him that. Clay breathlessly drops to a chair and leans against a wall before he says, "I know you want me dead. That's why you gave Jax those letters. Shit I did, it's the move I deserved. I'm not a complicated guy, Gem. I'm not like JT. I sink my teeth into a goal, I see it through. It's the soldier in me. All I could see was the endgame, the money. The shit with Tara, me lying to you? Just part of the mission. I'm not going to insult you by saying I'm sorry -- there's too much damage for that. But your involvement in John's death, the stuff he says about you in some of those letters? I take that to my grave. I-I don't expect you to forgive me, but at least I know I did one right thing. I love you, Gem. I always will." Gemma begins sobbing, and when Clay comes up behind her to offer a comforting hand, she lays him flat on the ground. Completely dry-eyed, she says, "You don't ever lay a hand on me again."

I don't know about y'all, but I am very much looking forward to watching all the ways these two are going to try and make each other miserable this season.

Jax is conferencing with Romeo and Luis, explaining that Galen's latest hissy is over "our black problem," and Luis snarks, "Yeah, hard to spin 'killing an innocent girl' in a good direction." Jax sighs that he knows, and trying to deal with rampaging gangsters isn't exactly his idea of moving things along. "I need to get to Pope and make things right," Jax says, and presses Romeo to help make it happen. After all, he reasons, the sooner SAMCRO settles this unfortunate business with Pope, the sooner they can go back to running guns to the Irish, which means the sooner Romeo and company can wrap up their gun-running cases with the cartel. Also relevant to this scene: 1) In order to keep the whole Otto-ratted-on-Bobby thing quiet, it's going to be necessary to bring Bobby into the know on this whole cartel situation -- but nobody else in the club is to know any of the details. (I enjoy how Jax's leadership of the club requires him to lie by omission to a group of people who do not take kindly to anything other than total transparency from their brothers.) 2) Jax has figured out that the feds had a current mole in the club, something Romeo absolutely does not deny. (Again, handy way to separate Jax from the rest of the club by forcing him to live with the knowledge that one of his brothers is a rat.)

Romeo says that Jax should keep the guns and drugs flowing, and he'll keep RICO off Jax's back. Jax calls, "When are they off my back for good." "When I don't need you anymore," Romeo says. Jax's entire demeanor changes as he calmly threatens, "I wouldn't dismiss me that easily, commander Parata. You had no choice but to play your CIA card. It gave you leverage and kept us in line. But it also gave me a big stick. Now, I'm sure Galindo's crew embraces Uncle Sam's help, but how would the street react to that? Anyone around here finds out you're doubling up as a Fed, your sway in Cali ain't shit? Your coke demand dies in a day." Romeo says, "Looks like we need each other." That was a little too easily conceded. Remember how Potter said SAMCRO's ultimately on the losing end of this whole thing? I suspect we're going to look back at this scene later and wince for how wrong Jax is about everything.

But for now, let us rejoice in the fact that Bobby Elvis walks among us once again. Yippee!

Here is a sign as to far SAMCRO has fallen: Sheriff Roosevelt can waltz onto the clubhouse patio, razz Tig, Juice, Chibs, Filthy Phil and Happy about their churning leadership and let them know he'll be sniffing around the rash of home invasions that seem to be bedeviling SAMCRO hangers-on... and the boys can't do squat. In fact, Roosevelt is able to get Juice to the side and quietly tell him, "If this Pope thing spills over into Charming, I expect you to tell me. Good faith gesture." Thus does Juice key into one of the dominant themes in this series: There is no such thing as a buried secret.

We are now down by what are presumed to be the Oakland docks (per the cranes in the background) and Damon Pope is meeting with a few very nervous lieutenants of Laroy's. He is not at all happy with the boys, because a few weeks ago, he had told the One-Niners to keep their homicidal impulses in check and now, "I just got a call from the military arm of the Galindo drug cartel wanting me to sit down with Jax Teller. Do you know how hard I have worked to distance myself from that element?" The young lieutenant does not, but he has decent survival instincts, so he fakes it. Biting off every word with exaggerated calm, Pope says, "Your need for 'street cred' is making my life difficult. It stops now." The lieutenant protests that perhaps Pope should be conveying this message to Laroy, as Laroy is the one making these calls. Cut to Pope's bald second-in-command, August, shaking his head and smirking with undiluted schadenfreude. Pope heads back to the car, telling August, "I'm too close to this, August. No loose ends." August is on it. He beckons the One-Niner lieutenant and his friend closer, and then opens the door to a submerged metal storage locker. He opens it and the One-Niner looks at the moist pile of human parts contained therein and asks, "Shit, man, is that Laroy?" August cheerily replies, "Most of him. Little bitch was screaming so loud, I... I kind of lost my shit. Congratulations! You're in charge." The One-Niner protests that really, he was never on the gangster fast track, but August isn't having any of it. He heads back to Pope's car with, "Rise to it, brother. With great power comes great responsibility!" The One-Niner quakes to his friend, "I ain't no Spider-Man, n****."

Oh, Clay, you deliciously evil genius. This version makes you look like a victim of the Winstons, older and younger, and you can still sit on the letters and deploy them later when Jax screws up. And when Clay nobly calls for a vote on whether he needs to stay or go, Jax is all, "Yeah, let's sit on this vote and let everyone digest the news." The minute he bangs the gavel, Tig bolts. Everyone else is fast behind him. Jax softly asks Clay to stay and once they've got the room to themselves, Jax asks, "So -- what are you doing?" Clay self-righteously says there's a lot of truth he can't tell, so he's going to tell what he can, goshdarnit." Jax is not buying it for a minute: "Mea culpas aren't your style. What's the play?" Clay sighs, "I'm out of play. I'm just trying to do what's best for SAMCRO." Then he goes on the offensive by trying to put Jax on defense: "What's your play, son? I get why you stopped Opie, but what you found out about JT? How come didn't kill me?" Jax tells Clay that so long as the Irish is happy, Clay's alive -- it's what's best for SAMCRO.

Then Jax walks out into Gemma's snit fit. She is not at all happy that Tara's put the kids in daycare and she's not happy that Clay is still drawing breath and frankly, Jax could not care less. Fortunately, Nero's on the line and throwing some of that companionator charm her way. Gemma's positively giddy at being wooed.

Back at the Oakland docks, August is asking the One-Niner I shall now call Spider-Man and his friends for their weapons in advance of the Pope/SAMCRO meetup. Then August pulls Spider-Man aside and spins a line at him: Pope has decided that nothing SAMCRO offers will ever meet the "Sorry we killed your daughter on a farcical lie" metric, so Pope would like Spider-Man to take this special, shiny gun and use it to kill Jax Teller. Spider-Man looks like he keenly regrets all of his life choices leading up to this moment.

SAMCRO rolls up and meets with August, and the bikers who are present -- Jax, Chibs, Bobby Elvis and Happy -- reluctantly disarm. They learn that Laroy's no longer in charge and that Pope would like these two crews to work things out. Jax enters in good faith; Spider-Man decides now would be a fine time to pull the gun. And that is when he discovers the gun is empty. Jax promptly beats Spider-Man into the ground and has to be pulled off the young man. As August props up Spiderman, Jax says, "I thought you pulled weapons." "I did," says August, and promptly blows out Spider-Man's brains. He then shrugs, "[Spider-Man] didn't really want to be in charge anyway," then turns over leadership of the One-Niners to Spider-Man's friend in the striped shirt, whom we learn is named Tyler, and tells Tyler to pass along the new and lasting peace between SAMCRO and the One-Niners. Chibs asks of August, "What the hell is this?" but Jax is the one who answers, quietly, "This is Pope letting us know he's the one who decides who lives and dies." Spider-Man joins Laroy in the metal locker.

Clay is sitting in his new bachelor pad, brushing off Juicey's mother-henning, when Tig comes in. The old sergeant-at-arms sits down and says, "I... uh... murdered an innocent girl." Clay refuses to take any responsibility for that with, "The lie was to protect Ope and the club, not you." Tig points out, "I was with you in the hospital every day for three weeks. You should have told me the truth, Clay." Clay claims he didn't know how. But before this conversation can get anywhere near sincerity or resolution, Tig's phone rings. It's an Oakland detective who claims to have stopped Dawn for a DUI. He's got a brother-in-law who's a Grim Bastard, so in some sort of biker solidarity move if Tig picks up Dawn himself, they won't charge her. So this conversation's on hold until Tig gets back from O-town with his squiffy daughter. As Tig leaves, Clay looks at a photo of himself with Tig -- both men very young -- then sighs.

We have a short scene where Roosevelt and his deputy deliver some exposition: They have witnesses that confirmed Tig's the one who killed Veronica Pope, they have witnesses that have confirmed Jax and Tig's shooting at a One-Niner on the road, and they are not all that keen on letting a bunch of homicidal bikers stroll around randomly shooting up people without consequence.

Tig pulls up to the Oakland yards and meets up with Detective Goodman, presumably of the Oakland PD. And now, Tig learns the hard way that you can't just trust some random dude on the phone to say he's palsy-walsy with the Grim Bastards and have him do right by you, because, in fact, this cat's on the Damon Pope payroll. Tig is cuffed, the cuffs are attached to a chain, and he's walked over to the metal locker where the remains of Spider-Man and Laroy are. The locker is currently closed.

Pope's car pulls up and Pope gets out. Tig says, "Ah, goddamn it," but there's no real rancor there. He's maybe a little miffed at being so stupid to fall into this, but utterly unsurprised -- and perhaps feeling like a little of his guilt will be erased if the father of his latest murder victim kills him.

Damon asks him, "Do you know what happens now?" "You kill me," Tig says. "That'd be too easy," Pope says. He nods to Goodman, who opens the locker.

We see Dawn Trager inside. Tig leans forward and his entire demeanor changes. He's pacing the chain like a fearful animal, calling Dawn's name with a blend of worry and denial, helplessness and panic. And it gets worse. Because here's the thing: Dawn isn't dead. She had been unconscious, but she comes to once August covers her in gasoline. Tig begs, in a low, resigned voice, "Please. Not her. Please, kill me. Not her. I am begging you. Kill me. Please." Damon says, "You know my pain, Mr. Trager," then flips his lit cigar into the locker.

By Sobell

We then cut to a brief and intriguing scene where Clay tries to get on his bike and discovers his arthritis is too severe. He can't ride.

By Sobell

Night has fallen at the Knowles-Teller household and Gemma's there, second-guessing all of Tara's parenting decisions as payback for having the daycare surprise sprung on her. Tara says, "Let's be honest: I don't think you're up for the task [of caring for the kids]. You have every right to be distracted, you've been through a lot --" "Just say what you mean," Gemma snaps, and Tara's all, "Fine. I smell weed and alcohol on your breath every morning." Gemma is taken aback but rallies with, "I don't smoke or drink in the morning." Which means that the amounts in her system from the night before must be truly formidable. Tara says as much. She adds, "Until you pull it together, I don't want you alone with my boys." God's Fierce Mother does not take it well when other mothers assert their protectiveness, but Tara could not care less.

Jax, Bobby and Chibs come in right then -- visiting the kids was apparently high on Bobby's post-prison to-do list -- so Gemma and Tara provide a convenient audience for Jax's phone call from Unser. The upshot of the call: the county's just issued arrest warrants for the murders of Veronica Pope and that One-Niner, and that's just too bad to Jax, Chibs and Tig. As Jax clicks off the phone and turns to face everyone, Tara speaks for everyone with, "Oh, God. Now what?"

We then cut to a brief and intriguing scene where Clay tries to get on his bike and discovers his arthritis is too severe. He can't ride.