And The Truth Shall Set You Free

S05E11

LOVE MEANS GIVING YOUR THUG HUSBAND ULTIMATUMS: Now that Tara (THE WORST) has an inkling that men who spend lengthy periods of time in motorcycle clubs turn out to be savages who murder people with whatever is at hand, she asks her husband – who has recently killed someone with a snow globe, let us remember – if he hasn't maybe done enough to keep SAMCRO from getting wiped out with a RICO case. And could it maybe be her turn to advance her career? Jax stalls and Tara does not miss what this means. Her day gets even worse when Lowen provides sage legal advice that comes down to "Tara is very probably screwed."

Also, this episode shows that Tara has remembered that she's a doctor and she very much enjoys her calling, first showing her enthralled by a surgery and then in ministering to a post-chemo Unser. It's evident she isn't entirely over medicine and into being a felonious old lady. How evident? She takes the job offer in Providence, and stresses that it's a very hush-hush "yes" for now.

REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO WEIRD: Know how Taylor Swift says that we are never ever ever getting back together? Clay wants the exact opposite of that with Gemma. Too bad Gemma's only in it because her son's ordering her to be, and this week, Jax orders Gemma to use her womanly wiles on Clay to produce the paperwork that was in the stolen safe. (Remember, the paperwork will prove that Clay was coordinating the home invasions with the nomads.) That fails. And then Nero – who is off the wagon in terms of gangsta activity, on account of people threatening his new brothel and his presumptive squeeze's son – comes over and can't even process what Gemma's doing, so he's heartbroken.

HOORAY! DONAL LOGUE IS BACK ON MY TELEVISION! Even better, he's beating up Otto. Later, in a meeting, he tells the con, "These few months are going to be the most excruciatingly painful of your sick and miserable life." So … going after the club, then? All signs – this plus him stalking Tara in the hospital – point to "yes." (I will note that the character I referred to as "Nurse Karina" was billed as "Pam Toric." And Donal Logue? Billed as "Lee Toric." And thus yet another enemy borne from SAMCRO's murder of an innocent woman gets rolled into the mix.)

AND YOU GET TO FIND OUT ABOUT RICO! AND YOU GET TO FIND OUT ABOUT RICO! AND YOU GET TO FIND OUT ABOUT RICO!: Romeo informs Clay that the RICO case is dead and indeed, he's working with the CIA. Clay is all, " … I can scheme with this, hold on …" And so he goes to Jax, lays out what he knows (i.e. everything) and warns him that Romeo's super-incentivized to keep the guns flowing. Jax's moves to get out of the gun deal by the killing the RICO case have rubbed Romeo the wrong way. So either that RICO case is coming back or Jax will be taken out and the administration re-installed to return to the gun-running status quo. Clay advises Jax to stick with the current CIA-cartel deal, as "it has a shelf life, and by the time they split, all the legit shit you're putting in place will be in full swing." If this advice were coming from anyone other than Clay, Jax would take it. But since he hates Clay and wants to see him choke on his own face, Jax hurtles toward the spiteful, stupid opposite.

Or does he? Jax lines up Lin to take his place as the gun dealer who will handle the cartel (less a 10% referral fee for SAMCRO), which is extraordinarily smart when you think about it. He's also lined up a few gangs to mule the coke. When Luis and Romeo kidnap him, he tells them as much: "I'm an outlaw, not a suicide bomber," he smirks. Then he goes back to the table and tells everyone ev-er-y-thing. The club votes on whether or not to "hand off the drugs to the Mexicans and the guns to the Chinese." The table's united: They want out.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Jax also leans on Juice to produce the incriminating papers, which Juice does for ten minutes, but then he makes the mistake of leaving Clay alone, Clay moves the proof, Jax punches Juice and Bobby is horrified by the whole thing. So Jax tells Bobby and Chibs all of the backstory regarding his dad, Clay and the damn letters from last year. Having dropped that big fat truth bomb on the veteran club members, Jax leaves. In the last scene, Bobby Elvis takes it upon himself to go talk to Clay – "I'm here to keep you alive."

Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter and blogger. She spent Tuesday afternoon holding up the most recent Entertainment Weekly cover and teaching her daughter to say, "Outlaw biker!" whenever she saw Charlie Hunnam.

Morning in Charming and evidently Jax and Tara have the only two under-fives in all of Christendom who will sleep until 9 a.m., because Tara's up and reading through the job packet that the Providence pediatrics practice pressed upon her. Jax comes in and Tara fills him in: the practice made her an offer, they need a neonatal specialist and they're fine with her hand because Tara can continue therapy up in Oregon. "If we can get through this Otto mess..." Tara trails off. "Which we will," Jax promises. Tara leans forward and says, "I know why you couldn't walk away a few months ago. The club's been your whole life -- you couldn't let it die. I think I fell in love with you even more after that. You're a beautiful, loyal man, Jax." Going by the glare Jax is giving Tara, he knows there's a "but" coming... and here it is: "But ending RICO saves SAMCRO. And whatever happens with Clay, you have put the MC on the right track, you've done everything you wanted to do, baby. It's your turn now. We can move on. And after yesterday, I... I can't help but feel like this is some kind of last chance for us."

Somehow, that manages to slide over Jax's head -- I blame the pomade -- and he murmurs, "We don't have to make that decision now." Actually they do, as the practice needs an answer by the end of the week. Bafflingly, instead of saying, "Go for it! I'll get the prospects to start wrapping the china," Jax wants to talk to their lawyer first to see what the odds are on Tara getting nailed for accessory to murder. Tara says flatly, "Okay, baby." I think Jax just told her everything she needed to know about where his loyalties really are.

Chez Gemma and boy, is the morning after awkward. Clay tries to ease the tension over morning coffee with, "I'm aware we don't just pick up where we left off. Maybe this is a chance for us, Gem... to do it different. No lies, no secrets." "Maybe," squeaks the woman who is lying about why she's back with Clay in the first place. That said Gemma's not above using Clay for manual labor, asking him to put back the boxes of LuAnn's stuff and inadvertently providing the pieces of the puzzle as to how Jax is getting rid of RICO (i.e. nullifying Otto's testimony).

Well, that was fast: Lowen's at the Teller-Knowles breakfast table (that must be a hell of a retainer the club has her on) and it's not looking good, on account of Tara having forged all the documentation to see Otto in the first place, which could suggest that she was in on Otto needing a weapon from the go. As Lowen outlines the many ways in which a prosecutor could nail Tara's bottom to the wall, Chibs looks over at Abel in the living room, watching TV and completely unaware that Mom might be headed to the hoosegow. Thomas begins crying and Tara rises to go tend to him. After she goes, Jax confirms with Lowen that Otto's brand new felony charge does indeed destroy his reliability as a witness and therefore kills the testimony that the RICO case is built upon. Lowen is sort of taken aback that Jax is asking about this, pointing out, "This could unravel for Tara, Jax. She could do serious time for this." Jax shoutily requests that Lowen "make sure that doesn't happen." Lowen snaps back, "I manipulate the law. I don't write it." She's off, probably to go eat her feelings with a Sausage McMuffin and regret her life choices.

Jax's subsequent heated conversation with Bobby and Chibs lays out the stakes in tonight's episode: the cartel is not going to be too happy that their leverage went bye-bye and the club is not going to be too happy when they find out what Otto did. So Jax has to placate a bloodthirsty bunch of people who can behead people with impunity, then deal with the cartel. (Ba-da-bump!)

Meanwhile in the pen, two guards open Otto's cell door and let in... why, it's Donal Logue! Star of the lamentably brief FX series Terriers and brother to the talented Karina Logue, who played the nurse that Otto murdered last week. Which would probably explain why this mystery man is busy hitting Otto with a pipe, then with his bare hands. The guards... seem to have gotten distracted. This is apparently epidemic among the California penal system, yes?

Jax rolls into T-M, notes that Rat's driving Unser to chemo in the T-M tow truck, and then lightly menaces Juice about the whereabouts of those legal documents Clay is sitting on. Then he barges in on his mom and tells her to start working a new angle on Clay, one in which Gemma beguiles Clay to hand over the "legal shit" that was in the stolen safe. Gemma would like to know why she's expected to drop everything and do this today, and Jax tells her she doesn't need to know. "You are hiding way too much shit under the table, Jax. I'd like to know what I'm walking into," says Gemma with a ghost of her old bossiness. Jax just gives her the stone face. Gemma continues, "I know Tara's up to something at Stockton." This causes Jax to break: "How do you know that?" "I brought her a cross yesterday. From Luann. Why is she working there?" Gemma asks.

Jax decides to level with Mom: "The reason I didn't kill Clay after you gave me the letters? The Feds are holding a RICO case over our heads and Irish guns are the only thing holding them at bay. I needed Clay alive to keep Galen invested." Gemma says, "Jesus Christ! [drink!] How did we make RICO?" and it's telling that she still calls the club "we." Jax tells her about Otto turning and explains that Tara was working the Otto angle at Stockton and then Otto got stabby. And once Clay finds out that his Irish leverage is gone... well, the clock's ticking.

Speaking of Clay, he's hosting Tig at his house. (The coldness in Tig's face is something to see; when he decides you're dead to him, you're dead to him whether or not he's been able to kill you.) The two men sit at Clay's table and Clay asks, "You happy?" Tig gives him an incredulous look, and then asks, "Really? Really? I've got an Elks Lodge full of opening day p***y, and you want to have a quality of life chat?" Clay chuckles, then gets serious: "I miss you, Tiggy." And God bless Ron Perlman, but his delivery totally reminded me of the wonderful Anchorman scene where Champ Kind says, "I'm a mess without you. I miss you so damn much. I miss being with you, I miss being near you. I miss your laugh. I miss your scent; I miss your musk. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together."

By Sobell

Jax decides to level with Mom: "The reason I didn't kill Clay after you gave me the letters? The Feds are holding a RICO case over our heads and Irish guns are the only thing holding them at bay. I needed Clay alive to keep Gaalan invested." Gemma says, "Jesus Christ! [drink!] How did we make RICO?" and it's telling that she still calls the club "we." Jax tells her about Otto turning and explains that Tara was working the Otto angle at Stockton and then Otto got stabby. And once Clay finds out that his Irish leverage is gone... well, the clock's ticking.

ANYWAY, Tig is staring fixedly at a point just beyond Clay's eyebrows and it's evident he wants nothing more than to grab Clay's jaw and beat him to death with it, especially since that jaw is flapping around making noises about brotherhood. Tig shuts that down and Clay redirects, "I do miss having you on my right." "You killed that, not me," Tig points out. Clay gets to his thank-you-for-being-a-friend spiel and says, "I will never forget that." "Yeah? I'm trying to forget that. We done?" Tig replies. Clay gets to the point: should Tig get "tired of watching your president suck up to the guy that burned your daughter alive," there may be a future for him after SAMCRO if he teams up with Clay. Tig refrains from pointing out that Jax's relationship with Pope is the only thing that's keeping him from meeting the same fate as poor dead Dawn. Instead, he gets up and wordlessly lets Clay know he won't be at his right again.

By Sobell

Tara is watching a surgery on the monitor, looking beautiful and transfixed as she peers at the screen. Then she looks at the surgeon using both hands to prep a tool and the rapt gaze gives way to something a lot less certain.

So! The New Best Little Whorehouse In Charming is open for business, and not that I've ever patronized one of these joints or talked to anyone about their visits to one, but I'm thinking that the clientele may not be so keen on mingling with one another? Eh, whatever. Anything to generate an excuse to show lots of women wearing WhoreMart's Fall 2012 line. Lyla is working an adorable Valley of the Dolls look as she dominates the room in her wheelchair. Jax beams to see his BFF's widow as the queen prostitute in his new business venture, then learns from Lyla that Nero's out back having a vigorous exchange of ideas with his former crew.

Long story short: Nero's old crew is not too happy that he's got a whole new business line outside the old 'hood and they're shaking him down in the hopes that he'll hook them up with SAMCRO for guns. Since this does not fit in with Nero's plan to stay free of the life while making that farm-in-Mexico grubstake, he's resistant to the idea. There's some shouting and then it's Mexicans vs. bikers in a shoving match, and Bobby fires his gun to get everyone's attention. "Do you think this is the way to get the town to embrace our legitimate business?" he asks. "Dude, you just fired a gun," Happy points out. Ha! I love me some of that weirdly non-lethal, neat freak assassin.

Jax asks Nero if there's any good reason why he shouldn't sell Reynaldo and the rest of his pals the hardware, and Nero protests that if this two-bit crew gets guns, then they'll get pushy and ambitious and thing you know, it's... well, any episode of the Sons of Anarchy with the gang violence. Jax and Bobby are like, "Look, we sell them guns once, this is all over." Nero reluctantly agrees and sets up a sale to take place in an hour.

Clay pulls up to TM and sees Chucky hustling file boxes for Gemma; she's got a bee in her bonnet over paperwork as pertaining to Thomas or so Chucky says. As Clay heads over to Gemma's work area, Juice discreetly heads off to Clay's.

As Chuckie drops some boxes, Gemma directs him to put more in the shed. "Indeed, indeed, I do the deed/he said, she said/ with buoyant speed," Chuckie replies. Hooray! This show needed a character who added a touch of Seussian whimsy to the dialogue. I look forward to Chuckie giving Hop on Pop a spin sometime. Anyway, the point to this scene: Gemma is trying her feminine wiles on Clay to get him to help her "find" the paperwork for Thomas, on account of how it's his birthday in two weeks, and perhaps there's a copy in the T-M files? Clay says gently, "Hey, we can call the county. We can get copies." Gemma hams it up as she says, "It's not the same as the original." Clay gives Gemma a piercing look, one that lasts just long enough for the audience to wonder if he's twigged to her ruse, then takes a call that requires him to leave. As he rolls out the door, he calls to Gemma, "I hope you find it." Gemma is left stewing in irritation over how poorly that went. I do think it's kind of hilarious in light of the whole "Baby, let's never lie to one another again!" scene that Gemma and Clay immediately went back to lying to one another. I expected it from Gemma -- she's with Clay on false pretenses, after all -- but that Clay reflexively covers his ass with Gemma suggests that Jax's plan to use his mom was either a bonehead move or an extraordinarily subtle and cruel punishment for her driving his kids while stoned.

Although Unser reels as he heads to the door, he insists on opening it for Tara and they toddle down the hallway veeeeeeeeery slowly. He asks about Tara's hand and she grouses that it's healing slowly. "Don't give up on that. Staying positive is the best cure," Unser says. "Reeeeeeally," Tara states dryly. "Shit, I hope not. If it is, I'm screwed," Unser replies and they both crack up. Then he has to take a seat, because he feels so bad. Unser then asks, "What's wrong, sweetheart? I know my Stage IV charm is magnetic, but that ain't why you come to see me." Tara laughs at how easily Unser called her out, and then lays her existential crisis on his frail shoulders: "I think of you as being this kind of watcher, the kind of guy that's seen it all, beginning to end. I guess I need a little impartial perspective. [Unser takes her hand.] I love Jax. My boys. I love being his wife. And I've embraced the club and the guys, and... I'm okay with the life." "Seems like you've left yourself off that list," Unser prods. Tara gets an "A-ha!" look on her face, then breaks down as she says, "I used to love... being a surgeon." And before she can go any further, poor Unser's had to sprint past her to toss his cookies. As Tara hands him a tissue, she asks, "You okay?" and the two of them end of laughing at the sheer absurdity of that query. Unser says, "Let's go feed the little people, okay?" Still laughing, they walk arm and arm down the hall.

(I will admit, there is a part of me that wants Tara to toss both kids in the minivan and drive until she hits Jefferson.)

That phone call Clay took was from Romeo, which we can infer from the fact that Clay's meeting with Romeo in a demo yard right now. Romeo is none too pleased to inform Clay, "Otto killed a nurse last night and RICO's dead." Clay swears, and it's small consolation when Romeo flips open his federal ID to tell him, "You were right. We need the guns for bigger game and the coke to pay for it." Since killing RICO signals that Jax wants to end the deal, Luis would like to make sure Clay works with them to ensure that the deal remains safe. Romeo: "We're going to take him out, and anyone who stands in the way." Luis: "We suggest you make your move back to the head of the table before your charter evaporates." That hits Clay, but not how these two think it does. Clay tells them, "You know, getting rid of RICO ain't about guns or drugs. It's about getting rid of RICO. Charter's gotten used to all this cartel cash. Jax knows that. Let me speak to him. Leave him be." I find Clay's mingled feelings toward Jax to be utterly fascinating -- the resentment over the passing of the torch, but the lingering paternal love he can't compartmentalize.

So Jax, Chibs, Happy and Tig have reluctantly torn themselves away from the whorehouse mixer for this one-time gun deal and it should surprise nobody who has ever watched this show that the whole thing is a cock-up that ends in gunplay and car chases. What makes this one special, however, is that the Sons are in a magnificent 1980s-style station wagon and they make that sucker fly like it's the General Lee. I now want to see a spin-off about a gang that eschews motorcycles for station wagons and terrifies a small town because they keep clogging the road with their land yachts.

Anyway, the whole thing is an enormous adrenaline rush for all the Sons, which explains why they insist on their hard, dirty, dangerous lives. For the kicks, man. The kicks! To quote a just-winged Happy, "I am rrrrrrrapturous!"

In the scene, Chibs is busy picking glass and whatnot out of Happy's scalp and Jax is filling Nero in on what his passel of idiots pals were up to. He warns, "One thing I don't want is these half-bright cholos starting a war outside Charming." Bobby mutters something to Jax about Lin wanting to meet now, while Tig stares daggers at Clay. Jax is about to roll out, but he promises Nero he'll be back in time for a brainstorming session what to do about Gang of Idiots. As he walks out, Clay asks, "You give me a minute?" and Jax tosses off, "No." (It is my second-favorite "No" on TV; the first is at the 1:15 mark on this video.) "You really should," Clay says and that stops Jax in his tracks. He consents.

They're in Jax's office now and Clay lets Jax know that Romeo told him what's up with Otto; also, he's totally up to date on Romeo's CIA ties and the RICO case dangling like a sword over the club's tender neck. "I know that's why you didn't kill me," Clay says. "Yeah. My mistake," Jax replies, and really, this should be one of those Behold The King In His Power moments, but I am terribly distracted by the poster directly behind Jax, because it is in such spectacularly bad taste it's practically come back around to "good" again. It's like the zombie corpse of Herb Ritts took a photo of pantsless woman on a motorcycle, then handed a print to someone taking a Photoshop for Dummies class and said, "Hurrrrrrrrrrrugh! Arrrrrrrrrgh! Braaaaaaaaaaaaains! Also, put in some spot color just to make this look like a fancy illustration." I mean, I'm sure Jax is still talking, but I'm just riveted by how awful this thing is. Somewhere, there is a Spencer's Gifts where even the stoned cashier is all, "I cannot believe anyone bought that"

ANYWAY. Clay is busy giving Jax a heads-up that he's likely to die if he comes between the cartel and its need for an unobstructed guns-and-blow pipeline. He also adds that he turned down the cartel's offer to fill the leadership seat that would be so tragically vacated. Clay adds, "You and me, we sat in that tow truck a few months back and you told me how you wanted out, you wanted something better for your boys. That we were gonna make some back and move on -- "That changed when you murdered Piney and tried to kill my wife," Jax brightly rebuts. "This isn't about me and my mistakes! It's about you and the one that you're about to make," Clay says. Jax just smirks in his general direction. Clay explains, "The CIA/cartel thing has a shelf life. And by the time they split, all the legit shit you've been putting in place will be in full swing. But for you, you got to keep Romeo in place. Make your bank, son -- "STOP. Calling me son," Jax says. Anyway, Clay urges Jax to stick to the original plan, Jax tells Clay, "I've got a different plan. I'm tired of being crushed under the weight of greedy men who believe in nothing. I have to change that."

Clay reports back to Romeo that Jax did not accept his sales pitch, and asks for more time. Once Romeo hangs up the phone, he tells Luis, "He couldn't do it. Make the call." Dun-dun-DUN.

Jax lets Bobby know that Clay knows everything, and then they zoom off to go make a deal with Lin. Meanwhile at the clubhouse, Gemma takes a break from mothering a post-chemo Unser to try and throw Nero a few bones and keep him on the line until she plays out this Clay thing. Because Nero's not an idiot, he asks, "Is there something I should know here?" Gemma lies unconvincingly that there is not. Clay comes out just as Nero gives Gemma a goodbye peck, which should make for some awesome pillow talk between the deposed king and queen of Charming later. As Unser watches Clay watching Gemma, he offers sympathy in the form of a joint. Clay takes it.

Over at St. They Have The Budget To Keep Non-Operating Surgeons On Staff?, Karen of Providence Medical Practice has swung by Tara's office and, long scene short, she's going to take the job! "I want to move forward with the offer." But she's going to keep it quiet for now, citing a need to let her husband, the "small business owner," come to grips with the idea of leaving Charming. Okay, with that small step, she may be on the road away from being THE WORST.

We're in the pen and nobody has bothered to help Otto change into an un-bloodied shirt. That's understandable, given how casually Otto kills prison staff. ANYWAY. He's in an interrogation room when a nattily attired Lee Toric comes in. Lee says, "I know you want to die. And you will. But before that happens, there are a few things we need to do." Otto laughs, "RICO's dead, bitch. I ain't giving you shit, whoever you are." Lee says, "This isn't about RICO and I'm not a Fed. I'm just a citizen." Otto's smile slips from his face and he asks what Lee wants. Lee says, "I do want something. When a man is forced to put away what he does, sometimes he forgets who he is. Thank you for giving me something to want, Otto." Otto leans forward, almost beseechingly and then Lee leans down to snarl, "These few months will be the most excruciatingly painful time of your sick and miserable life." Then he goes, leaving Otto to contemplate exactly how that's going to work.

Nobody will be seated during the riveting "Juice tosses Clay's house!" sequence. Not even me, as I'm off to get a Diet Coke. See you scene. (I kid: Juice finally figures out the papers are hidden in the air duct.) (Totally not kidding about the Diet Coke.)

Meanwhile, at a conveniently empty Chinese restaurant, Lin and Jax are ironing out the particulars of Lin's exciting new business venture supplying guns to a Mexican cartel. In a smart move on Jax's part, he's asking for a 10% referral fee. Lin actually goes for this. And with one conversation, SAMCRO's out of the gun-running business with the CIA.

Before anyone can dig into the fortune cookies, Juice calls to tell Jax about his discovery of the papers. Jax orders him, "Put 'em back where they were. Then go to TM, get Tig and Chibs to bring Clay to his house. Me and Bobby will meet you there. Clay does not get left alone in that house. You understand?" He hangs up, collects Bobby and heads back to Charming...

... But at a conveniently empty stoplight, Jax is abducted cartel-style. Off the van speeds while Bobby yells incoherently.

And now, poor dumb Juice is left trying to explain to four angry older men why he's all called them to Clay's place on Jax's say-so, especially when Jax is standing them all up. Fortunately, Bobby's got a phone so he can call in and tell everyone that Jax has been kidnapped, and they all storm out... leaving Clay alone in his house, just as Jax asked that he not be and able to notice the poorly reinstalled air vent in his ceiling. Juice, you poor dumb dummy. Death might well be a release at this point.

Bobby's also called Nero to ask if perhaps any of his former acquaintances have taken it upon themselves to kidnap Jax and make a point about the prudence of giving them what they want on the gun-sales front. Nero then heads over to Gang of Idiots' house and makes some inquiries at the point of a shotgun -- killing three out of the four people present and saying, "You vatos wanted me back? Odele, I'm back."

Meanwhile, Jax has been ziptied to a chair in an empty room. He is fuming when Romeo and Luis come in, but manages to quip, "You know, if you wanted to me, a phone call would have done the trick." Romeo tells him, "We needed to remind you of how easy it is to disappear." Jax smirks, "And yet, here I am. Ohhhh... I see the cartel side of you wants to chop my head off, but the fed side struggles with the felony whacking." Luis says, "Actually, both sides are okay with whacking. One just has paperwork." Hee! Also: Who knew the Galindo cartel was so big into forms filed in triplicate? Ba-da-bump! Jax then tells them, "You don't know shit. You think I'm just going to cut ties with the cartel without lining up something else? I'm an outlaw, carbon, not a suicide bomber." He then lays out the deal: the Mayans will handle the drugs up through northern California, the Niners will push the dope east to Reno and Henry Lin will be pulling in guns from the Middle East. Someone call Thomas Friedman -- the underworld is totally flat! Also, Jax is going to get to leave, upright and under his own power.

Cut to Jax in church, explaining to the club, "They held it over our heads. If me and Bobby told anyone about the CIA hookup, they'd crush us with RICO. Every charter. The Sons of Anarchy would have been dead." As are the "r" noises in the preceding exposition; it's sort of adahahble how, five seasons in, Charlie Hunnam still has problems with American consonants when Jax gets emotional. "So I put all my energy into finding a way out," Jax continues. Bobby says, "Otto killing that nurse was his way of reversing his statement. Wiped out RICO, but pushed the game forward." Jax tags in, "Romeo panicked. That's why he picked me up cartel-style, trying to convince me not to walk away from the deal." Clay would like to know if Jax was convinced. Jax pins Clay with a look and says coolly, "No. He was. You see, that's what I've been working on: Getting the Mayans to take over the coke mule and Lin to cover big guns. Romeo signed up. This means we can walk away from drugs and the cartel!" Filthy Phil is a tad surprised that Jax set this up behind everyone else's back. I don't know why: the triple-crossing Jax did with the Russians, the Irish and the ATF (Season 3) has shown the man has a capacity for squeezing a lot of sneaky planning under the radar. Jax says Bobby was in on this too, and Bobby is all conciliatory, "We're not going to do anything unless the club is behind it." Jax warns everyone that leaving the cartel means a short pay cut, but the whorehouse revenue should eventually make it up, as well as future deals. Chibs calls for a vote. It's unanimous -- everyone wants out. Jax smashes the gavel and everyone files out. Clay holds out his hand and shakes Jax's: "Well done." Jax replies, "Not yet." As he leaves church, Gemma flies over to hug him, and Jax uses the opportunity to tell her to get Clay over to his place and keep him there until he can get there. This scene has echoes of the final scenes in The Godfather, where you see how casually Michael Corleone exploits family ties to advance the Family business.

Jax goes and has a toast with the other club members who are not Clay, then tells Bobby, Chibs and Juice, "You three with me... it's time for show and tell." Well, I hope he enjoys presentations about a whole lot of nothing, because that will be what's coming up. Tig is a tad nervous about being left out and Jax tells him he doesn't need him yet. "You still love me, Tiggy?" he asks. Tig blinks, slowly, before answering, "I love you, boss." He then kisses Tig on the cheek. (Anyone who doesn't think of the exchange at the end of The Godfather here -- "Can you get me off the hook, Tom? For old times' sake?" "Can't do it, Sally..." -- has not watched enough Mob movies.)

By Sobell

Tara is walking out of the hospital daycare with the boys. Donal Logue is sitting there, just watching her leave...

By Sobell

Clay's sitting down in his old bedroom, watching Gemma prep the cortisone for him and he mumbles, "Can I ask you about Nero?" "I have a needle in my hand," Gemma reminds him. She really is good at deflection. Clay fishes about the whole smooch goodbye and Gemma claims, "It was never anything real. It still isn't. No more questions." Clay's phone rings and he checks the readout: "Juice. It's the fourth time he's called." "It's never too late to adopt," Gemma says wryly. Clay is not going along with the joke. Instead, he gives Gemma a look that channels all the sincerity he can muster and tells her he loves her. Gemma looks at him, and you can see all sorts of emotions playing across her face -- regret, sadness, caution -- before she summons something like pity and says, "I love you too." There's a knocking on the back door and Clay says he'll handle it.

And oh, awkward alert! It's Nero, who is looking quite rough on account of his busy day of shooting his former gang brothers. Nero rasps out, "I just wanted to know if she heard anything about Jax." (Oh, Gemma. Not even a text to this guy?) Clay's all, "Oh, did she not say anything? Jax is fine. Also, it had nothing to do with your people." Nero is reeling and Gemma happens upon Clay hanging in the doorway and Nero having a nervous breakdown on her back step. She shoos Clay away, then turns back to Nero. Once he's inside, he tries to pull himself together -- "Ghosts, baby, ghosts. Some very familiar ones." Gemma says, "I don't know what's going on, but now's not the time -- "Yeah, yeah. I guess we can't stop the inevitable," Nero says bitterly. He would like to know what in the hell is going on and naturally, Gemma can't tell him. You can tell that Gemma would love to spill all that's going on, but has to settle for making the Bambi eyes at Nero instead and telling him she loves him, and really, it's enough to make you feel really bad for the Companionator, because a scant two or three weeks into knowing Gemma and she's already caused him to lose his business, his sister, his reformed-gangster ways and now, very probably, whatever good sense he had left.

Meanwhile, over at Clay's, Juice is freaking out because Clay's moved everything out of the air vent. Jax facepalms and explains to Bobby and Chibs that the nomads had given Clay back all of the legal papers in the stolen safe and he was going to use those papers as "proof" that Clay had orchestrated the home invasion scheme as part of his PR offensive, "Jax Teller: Worst SAMCRO President Ever." As this drags on, I find myself more and more skeptical as to why "proof" actually matters. Since when has anyone in this club ever waited for proof of anything? There's a whole host of dead women who can bear testimony to the SAMCRO way of shooting first, asking questions later. And then Jax gets all upset that Juice left Clay alone in his house -- upset like right hook to the jaw upset. Chib manhandles Juice upwards, not too gently and then hauls him out the door. But for all that Chibs is angry at Juice for being... well, Juice, Bobby is furious at Jax. Eyes snapping in outrage, he quavers, "You enlisted him in your war on Clay. That's why you didn't want to bring the rat to the table." Then Bobby natters on about proof again, blah de effing blah play out the plot, and urges Jax to move on and maybe not piss all over the club by letting his hate for Clay get the upper hand. Jax is all, "OH, YOU THINK THIS IS JUST ABOUT THE NOMADS?" and drops the Maureen Ashby/John Teller epistolary business on Chibs and Bobby, concluding, "Clay killed my old man. Maureen put the letters in my bag when we left Belfast. Tara found them, gave them to Piney. Clay found out. That's why he killed Piney. That's why he tried to kill Tara. Clay was the one that ordered the attack on her. He's responsible for what happened to her hand." Cut to Chibs looking all, Oh, holy smokes... and Bobby looks like he's just been concussed. Jax drops the mike and exits, leaving the two older men to think over what they've just learned.

By Sobell

And it looks like Bobby has decided that none of it matters anyway. He's headed to Clay's place and tells him, "I'm here to keep you alive." Which... for someone who is all about proof and doing right by the club, seems like a weird move, on account of how Jax has actual proof that Clay killed JT and tried for Tara, and yet it's apparently okay that Clay did these things? Is there some sort of statute of biker crime limitations? Ugh, this show. I love it but it drives me bonks sometimes.

Lisa Schmeiser is about to go have some pie.

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