Dog Got Your Tongue?

S05E13

Sorry, guys – this episode fell well short of the high water mark known as the season three finale. Pbbbbbbbt. That's me using my still-attached tongue to give it the raspberry.

There's a white puff of smoke over Oakland as Auggie is declared the Pope: Jax begins the episode getting needy and emotional with Pope, all, "Once I deliver Tig, you have no incentive to ever talk to me again. Please, ease my mind by making the Charming Heights deal completely locked down on paper. Also, I will have Tig on a silver platter at the location of your choosing in a few hours." Faithful second-in-command August draws up the papers and makes everything nice and legal – so hooray, Lyla! You get a McMansion! – and then Jax takes Tig out to a secluded storage facility Pope owns, then pulls a gun on him, strips him of his cut and hands him over to Pope. But! Then Jax pulls out a gun he had Juice hide on his bike earlier, and he kills many people before letting Tig kill Pope. Immediately after, Tig is all, "What the actual FUCK, Jax?" and Jax is all, "I had to be sure you'd sell it. Also, you're totes okay with framing your former BFF for this, right?" Tig just sobs. Then Jax goes and meets with August, spins a story about how Clay just went bonkers in a murder-y way, August knows this is bullshit, but Jax demurs any allegations of masterminding an elaborate murder plot. So now these two are in business together. And probably plotting each other's deaths, all while vigorously denying that they have the mental faculties to do so.

It's a dog-eat-dog world and Tig's wearing Milk-Bone underwear: It's part of show history that Tig really likes dogs – his entire feud with Kozic was over a dog named Missy, remember? – so watching the ridiculous mini-gang Nero runs with get all hot and bothered over dog fighting really upsets him. He rescues a loser dog who was about to be put down. At gunpoint, since he's Tig, but still, one gets the feeling most people who run dog rescue operations would approve. After Tig endures the unpleasantness at the storage facility (see preceding paragraph), he comes back and, well, who doesn't love a story about a boy and his dog? It is the one feel-good moment in this episode.

The king is dead, long live the king: Clay was finally getting his mojo back right – Gemma coming to Ireland with him! – when he gets arrested for the murder of Damon Pope and three of his associates. What makes it sting: Gemma lies about Clay's whereabouts (thereby setting him up) and Juice is the one who passed along the gun Clay gave him, thereby framing him at the crime scene. The double betrayal hurts perhaps worse than knowing he's going into a prison system where he's got a million-dollar bounty on his head and no club protection whatsoever. As for the new king: Jax and Nero have a conversation wherein it's confirmed that Jax has no intention of leaving SAMCRO. Once you put on the uniform, you play the game…

Free Tara! Wendy confronts Tara with what Jax did to her, and that is when it finally sinks in with Tara that she married a monster. "This town kills everything that you love. Go to Oregon now, before something awful happens to you and your sons," Wendy raves, hair flying and eyes wild, looking for all the world like a mad oracle. And … she pretty much is, because thanks to a string of highly improbable, gift-basket-related circumstances, Gemma realizes Tara's leaving town with the boys and what do you know? Tara gets arrested for conspiracy to commit murder. Now who could have ginned up the false testimony that Tara was planning to hand over a murder weapon? Did you say, "The lady who can testify, truthfully, that she warned Tara the prison guards wouldn't let Otto keep the crucifix?" It's not shown, but come on: Gemma has made it clear she'll do anything to have unimpeded access to her grandchildren. And given how Jax welcomes Gemma into his life with open arms, I'm thinking he's probably okay with Mom's help in sidestepping the touchy discussions he and Tara were having about her career path and her choice in children's guardians.

And finally: Rather than say a thing to Lee Toric, Otto elects to bite off his own tongue. By the end of this series, all that will be left of this guy will be his left kneecap and an upraised middle finger. Lee Toric says sarcastically, "Way to commit, Otto." I love him and hope he sticks around in season six now that I no longer have the cerebral ruminations of Pope to thrill to on a weekly basis.

Lisa Schmeiser reports, writes and blogs in Oakland-adjacent Alameda. She delay-tweeted this episode.

Let's get one thing straight: the bass line on "To Sir, With Love," is one of the most marvelously competent foundations in a pop ditty. It adds a lovely note of fortitude to what is really an elegy, an understated way of saying "I will survive," whether what you're surviving is the regret that you have exposed yourself to alt-rock's premier mushmouth (Natalie Merchant, I'm looking at you and your cover of "To Sir, With Love") or a season of Sons of Anarchy where the battle for Jax Teller's soul has been settled and it's all over save for the losing party's surrender.

So it's fitting that this cover of "To Sir, With Love," has a light, rangy string arrangement that somehow manages to make the goodbyes feel unmoored and untrue -- the singer desperately wants the feelings to be genuine, but knows they're not.

And how fitting that this cover plays as Tara watches Jax sleep, then her face morphs into Gemma watching Nero as he sleeps. She gets up and Nero shifts in his sleep, his tattooed arm transitioning into Clay's black blotch as the old man drinks his coffee alone, a gun by his wedding band-wearing left hand. Close up on his face ... then onto Jax, who is just waking up. Tara's left a note on his pillow -- "Took the boys. Love, T." She has the neatest handwriting of any doctor in the history of ever. That, or she suspects Jax's reading level stalled out sometime during seventh grade language arts. Jax sits up in bed ... and we go to Nero, who is also a tad logy, and noting that Gemma (who has the same handwriting as Tara, because, PARALLELS) has left a note on the lovebirds saying, "You should name them Carl and Carla, <3 Gemma." Then we go to Tara, who is surprisingly meditative as she sees the results of her hand's healing, then to Jax, who is apparently taking the scenic route to Oakland by way of downtown Los Angeles.

Jax pulls up outside a Pope Partners construction project, shakes hands with Pope and August, and says, "It dawned on me: Once I hand over Tig, it might be the end of these little chats. I'm going to miss that. Now that I handed over the coke to the Mayans, the only thing I got left that you want is Traeger." Pope asks, "You don't think I'm going to come through on Charming Heights? No faith, son." August laughs appreciatively. As Jax says, "I'm just following your business model: trust no-one," Auggie's smile disappears. Pope asks Jax what he wants, and Jax answers: a Pope Partners letter of intent locking down his interest in Charming Heights and the conditions Jax stipulated. Pope tells Jax to relax because the deal is moving forward and the paperwork's already started. Jax figures one more piece of paper won't matter: "You're committing to Charming Heights. I'm committing to handing a brother over to murder. That sounds fair to me." Pope eye-rolls a bit but August volunteers to get on the paperwork for the big whiny biker baby. Then Jax makes arrangements to drop Tig off at a Pope-owned storage garage in Middle River, nearby Charming, so that Pope can get his murder on.

By Sobell

Back at Teller-Morrow Motors (to be known as T-M thereafter), we see Juice take a wrapped bundle out of a locker and put it in the saddlebag of a motorcycle. Clay is puttering around, packing for Ireland, and he tells the recently-arrived Gemma, "I'm leaving my tools. Chibs and Tig stole most of my shit anyway." Gemma invents a reason for Chucky to leave and he goes with a French phrase. Clay asks, "What happened to the rhyming?" "I threatened to auction off his hands on eBay," Gemma says, and Clay looks at Gemma with such gooey, goony love for her, it's almost enough to make you forget that he's a lying mass murderer who bounced her head like a basketball on the penalty shot line.

Anyway, these two. Gemma leans in and whispers, "My suitcase is in the car." Clay pulls Gemma close and says, "Thank you. It's going to be a fresh start for us, Gem." Gemma pulls back and says, "Yeah. The honeymoon we never had. War-torn Belfast. Can't wait." Yes, how romantic it'll be to stalk her first husband's second old lady. Truly, Belfast is the city of dreams! These two make plans to meet at Clay's place at 3 PM, but the minute Clay leaves, Gemma looks like she'd rather be doing anything else.

Margaret the hospital administrator is busy telling Tara that all the drama over her hand was just so much side distraction, because she's all better and probably able to go back to doing surgery within six months. Margaret gets all soft-headed with, "I knew you'd heal. You're too good of a surgeon. There's a lot of people you still need to help." And look, one of them is in the doorway now. It's Wendy, who looks like hell compared to her appearances this season but, in all fairness, looks a lot better than anyone forcibly injected with a lot of heroin ought to.

Tara closes the door and Wendy cuts the small talk with, "You have no idea what happened to me last night, do you?" No, Tara does not. Wendy explains, "Jax came to my house last night after Tig dropped me off. Told me to back off from his family, and threatened to tell my work that I came here looking for Abel, high and out of control." Tara mumbles, "But that's not true. People here know --" "Unfortunately, a positive drug test might make it true, 'cause he banged a speedball into my shoulder," Wendy says, and boy howdy, the bruise from Jax's injection is really ugly. Tara is horrified. Wendy agrees that Tara should be appalled. Tara then wallows in a little denial, and Wendy presses in: "Believe it. The MC, this town -- it kills all the shit that you love. You need to get those boys away from here --" "I'm trying to set it up," Tara dithers, and Wendy says, "Trying is never going to get you out. Go to Oregon now before something awful happens to you and your sons. And if you don't do it, I will, because I don't give a shit about cust --" "I'M GETTING OUT," Tara yells. She repeats more calmly, "I'm getting out." "Good," Wendy says. Oh my gosh, how much do I love that instead of folding after her assault at Jax's hands, Wendy has roared back?

Guess who has just figured out that Tara's getting out? Gemma, by way of a gift basket. Seems Tara's new practice sent a welcome basket to Tara -- which seems to suggest the practice is run by morons instead of people who would say, "What does a busy mother of two toddlers want right before she moves? More clutter? Ha!" -- and Chuckie noticed some perishables, so he brought it to T-M, and because Gemma thinks "privacy" is merely a collection of amusing syllables, she read the accompanying card and put it all together.

Now we go to the return of the Nero, where all the people whom he used to watch out for are complaining about These Kid Gangsters Today, and Jax is observing without seeming to comprehend that he's basically looking at the ghost of Charming Future. The upshot to this scene is that Nero would like his biker pals to accompany him to a rag warehouse where his nemesis Dante is, as it's time Dante understood that his brief tenure as the king of the Latino gangs is over.

So, we head to the warehouse, where it turns out that Dante's running dog fights. The SAMCRO boys come in, and neither Tig nor Happy look like they're particularly thrilled with anything they're seeing. Tig, I understand -- remember, this is the guy who once blackballed a fellow brother over a dog-related incident -- but it surprises me that Happy, who seems to regard every other life form on the planet as background dressing, is disturbed by this. (Also, Happy's cut has a patch where, instead of "Men of Mayhem," it reads "The Unholy Ones." What's that about? Is that the Frequent Murderer equivalent of United Airlines Platinum Status?)

As the vanquished dog's owner picks her up and carries her toward the back, Tig quietly and purposefully begins following him. Chibs, who has been watching Tig, alerts Jax, who begins running because why let Tig get killed at 11 AM in Stockton when he's got an appointment with death at 2 PM? The other SAMCRO regulars check the concern on Jax's face and everyone starts quietly heading toward the back.

Outside, the dog owner is putting his whimpering girl in a dirty kiddie pool in preparation for putting her down. Tig stops in the doorway to the back yard, notices the recycling bins filled with dead dogs, and reels, "Ahhhh. You gotta be kidding me." As the dog fighter covers his dog's eyes and prepares to shoot the dog, Tig comes over with his gun and cheerily informs the dog owner that he'll blow his head off. Jax interrupts, and Tig goes all Sarah-McLachlan-for-the-ASPCA on him, "Look at this! This is so wrong!" -- but Jax snaps at him to focus. So Tig cocks the gun on the guy again and growls, "Where's Dante, you piece of shit?" When I paused this scene right here, Chibs was in the middle of a truly glorious eye-roll. It is sort of a mystery why he doesn't quietly leave his cut on the table in church and take off under cover of darkness to start a new life free of these fools. Anyway, the guy spills Dante's location, so off goes Happy to find him, and then Chibs has to pull Tig's choke chain to get him to back off from the would-be dog murderer. But on the plus side: Tig now has a new dog!

By Sobell

As Jax heads back inside, he's distracted by the homeless woman who's petting a stuffed toy horse in the dumpster. Note to long-time viewers: This is the same homeless woman who appeared in Season One ("Abel will help my sons"), first to Gemma and then to Jax in the cemetery during the finale; in Season Two at the church; in Season Three in Belfast, of all places; in Season Four at the park right before Tara's hand was smashed. This time, she's saying, "Of course ... they can live with the case. To be safe, my love. Always." Jax gives her the ol' "Do I know you?" look, then heads inside.

So, within seconds, the aging bikers have used the elements of surprise and regular series credits to subdue the young (guest starring) crew Dante runs. Also assisting SAMCRO: the Mayans! Hooray!

Dante takes a little longer to subdue, but there's a nice bit of close-the-loop storytelling when the woman whose SUV he carjacks turns out to have a pit bull terrier in the back, and this sweet boy does not take kindly to other people stealing his ride. Dante is being savaged by the dog inside the car while Nero leans on the handle and refuses to let him out. "Shit's got to hurt," Jax grins. "We should probably let him out," Nero says, leaning harder against the door. "That would probably be the good Catholic thing to do," Chibs concurs. Then everyone starts laughing.

Jax heads outside and gets the 411 on Lee Toric from Unser. It's an impressive CV: "Harvard education. Ex-Special Forces. Recruited into the U.S. Marshalls in '91. Lots of high-profile arrests, commendations up the yang, as well as a long list of misconduct violations -- excessive force, intimidation, racial profiling. Looks like he was, uh, forced into early retirement. The little sister? She was his only family." Jax takes Unser's notes and stares off into space thoughtfully, perhaps wondering, "Will it take me all 13 episodes in Season Six to break this man? Or have I found a worthy adversary at last?"

Speaking of Toric, he has a front row seat when Otto decides to bite his own tongue off rather than make any statement for the investigation into Pam Toric's murder. As Otto flings the tongue onto the one-way glass, Lee mutters sardonically, "Wow. Way to commit, Otto." Every season, it's a new body part. By the series finale, all that will be left of this guy is a head in a box and an upraised middle finger.

Oh, goody, it's Gemma come to confront Tara about her career choices at Tara's workplace. First off: Where is the guard dog at the front desk to keep the paroles from bothering the expensive medical specialists? Why is it that anyone can waltz on in to Tara's office? And how have more gang members not thought to take advantage of this very easy access to the SAMCRO president's old lady and used it to their advantage? Second off: Is second off a thing? I hope so, because I'm using it. Second off: Why does Tara bother saying anything to Gemma beyond, "Hello," "Goodbye," and "Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you."

Anyway, Tara conducts herself like a moron throughout this entire scene, because not only does she cop to the Providence offer, she admits that Jax doesn't know all the details, and she blurts out her plan to take the boys out of Charming ASAP to the woman who has already amply demonstrated the lengths she'll go to and the depths to which she'll sink to stay in those children's lives. Why Tara didn't just airily say, "Oh, it was a miscommunication. I'll have to call later. It's so awkward!" is beyond me. This way, she ends up in a physical brawl with Gemma and she's got Gemma promising, "You take one step out of Charming and the only place you're going is prison. All I gotta do is reach out to those investigators, tell them you asked me to bring you that cross. I'm sure there's plenty of security footage of us on that lot. And afterwards, you told me exactly what you were going to have Otto do -- kill an innocent to reverse RICO. You had it all planned ... I'd have the satisfaction of knowing you were locked up, getting fist-raped until they were well into their 20s."

By Sobell

There is no way this is going to end well.

Jax calls August and asks him to let Pope know he's running a little behind. Then he walks into the main room of the club house, where Chibs is sewing up the dog while Tig hovers anxiously, and lies about how he just got off the phone with Nero, who has provided a) the name of the breeder providing the dogs for the fights, and b) a request to shut down the operation. "Oh, I'll gut that son of a bitch," Tig promises. Jax says he'll take Tig, and Chibs immediately protests, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have got no idea what the hell you're walking in to." Which is funny because Chibs has no idea where Jax is leading Tig.

When Tig is done, he's shaking a bit, and Jax puts out a hand and touches his shoulder. Tig simultaneously jumps a foot in the air and makes slappy hands at Jax. Cue Jax being all, "Baby, I'm sorry you were scared!" telling Tig that in order to make this convincing for Pope, he couldn't say anything to Tig. "He could have killed me right away, bro," Tig says. "But he didn't," Jax points out. "No, he didn't," Tig says. "Now I need some clean, dry pants." (Oh, he doesn't say that part.) Then Tig notices he's holding Clay's gun. "Is that going to be a problem for you?" Jax asks. Tig looks at him all, How do I answer any question you ask from now on? He may be legitimately terrified of Jax on a permanent and ongoing basis. Tig breaks down sobbing and Jax hugs him for a while, vowing, "It's over, brother. It's over."

If you believe that, I have some oceanfront property to sell you. In Nevada.

Down at the PD, Roosevelt gets a call informing him he'd like to find a body down at Middle River. Cut to him and Cane looking over Pope's body all, "What the --?" Roosevelt's phone rings and Jax asks, "How's your day?" Roosevelt asks, "Did you do this?" Jax replies, "Just working toward that common goal." "Which one?" Roosevelt asks. The one where Clay ends up getting what's coming to him, because Jax leads him right to the murder weapon, AKA Clay's gun. Roosevelt realizes that if he goes along with this, then two things happen: He's using the system to exorcise a personal vendetta and he's putting himself under SAMCRO's power because they'll have something on him. Still ...

The widower swallows hard before shouting his find to the others: "We've got a weapon!

Tara's meeting with Lowen, who has just briefed her on the particulars of Otto's meeting that morning. Tara is both appalled and impressed that Otto bit off his own tongue. Lowen says cheerily, "As gruesome as it was, this is good news, Tara. Otto was the only one who could tie you up with a conspiracy charge. Everything else they could charge you with is a misdemeanor." This would be a fine time for Tara to bring up Gemma's threat, just to make sure there's no way it could happen or to work up an in-case-of plan, but no ... she zones out instead. Then there's some more estate planning, wherein it's revealed that Tara's brain is still floating somewhere around Stockton because she's under the impression that Jax is going to go along with all this too, which ... ha! Noooooooo.

Juice is still humping things around for Clay prior to the latter's departure for the auld sod, and as Juice goes to get more boxes, Clay calls, "I know it was you who found that legal shit in the vent." Juice turns around and -- uh-oh! Giant watery anime eyes all over my screen! Clay lets Juice know there's no hard feelings -- he figured Jax was all up in Juicey's business and Juice didn't have a choice. "We always have a choice," Juice says. He makes one now, very belatedly, telling Clay that he needs to go now. Clay is all, "What--"

And with a knock on the door, Clay understands that he's been set up. Roosevelt comes in with a gun in a bag and says, "This weapon was registered in your name. It was just found. Used in association with the murders of Damon Pope and three of his associates." Cut to Gemma looking theatrically taken aback. Roosevelt asks Clay, "Can you tell me where you've been this afternoon?" Clay says he's been right here, and Gemma can confirm it. And then Gemma proceeds to hammily lie, "he went out for a few hours. Took the gun. Said he had to settle up some accounts before he left. I didn't think he'd kill anyone." There are a lot of expressions in this scene -- Juice's sick self-loathing, Clay's stunned realization that the two people he loves betrayed him, Gemma's feigned grief -- but Roosevelt's weary resignation to playing out this farce may be one of the most heartbreaking. "Cuff him and read him," he shrugs. After Clay's led away, Gemma looks serene.

So, now that the police have made the fastest forensic investigation in history and the Pope-payroll guy has called August to confirm that Clay's prints were on the weapon, the new HBIC turns to Jax and shares the news. Jax is nearly as good as his mother in feigning sorrowful outrage: "When Clay got drummed out of the club, he blamed Pope. Hated that we were in business together. I never thought he would be stupid enough to go after him." August isn't quite buying the Clay-as-lone-revenge-nut theory, pointing out that only Pope and Jax knew the location for the Tig handoff. "Clay must have followed me here? Waited for Pope to leave, trailed me to the garage?" Jax tries. August muses, "Murder weapon, prints, motive, you running late ..." (Remember: Jax established that with August and Pope was surprised Jax was on time.) August notes how nicely it fits together. Jax asks what that's supposed to mean, and August points out, "You locked down a lucrative deal. The man who called the deal that killed your best friend is gunned down by the man you hate most, who now is as good as dead once I put a price on his head." Jax feigns incredulity: "You think I planned this whole thing? Come on, man. You give me way too much credit. I ain't Pope. I'm just a mechanic looking out for my family." August warns him that his organization will be looking into Pope's death, and if they conclude the police are wrong, they'll be looking to extend their "disciplinary" measures to more than one man. Jax says, "If it's any consolation, I'm looking forward to working with you, Mr. Marks." August looks at the man he knows is responsible for his promotion to No. 1 and shakes his head. Once Jax leaves, August tells his number two, "The bounty's on Clay Morrow. I want him dead before his hearing."

Speaking of Clay, Roosevelt watches him in a holding cell and seems unsurprised that he's not feeling any better.

Jax goes back to the clubhouse and effectively tells Juice he's his new daddy now. But once he walks off, the look Juice gives him suggests that the few seasons will see Our Juicey growing up and having a little adolescent rebellion.

Jax then walks over to Tig, who's relaxing with his new dog in his arms, and as Tig pets the dog, we see Jax petting Tig. It is easily one of the most unnerving images this episode's come up with. Over at the bar, Chibs watches, as he always does.

Jax walks into the empty church, sits down at the president's seat, and waits. He's not there long -- Bobby Elvis comes in and says, "I know what you did with Clay. I just talked to Juice and Tig." Jax asks, "What did they say?" "Nothing," Bobby spits. Jax points out, "I kept my word to you and the club. I didn't lay a hand on Clay." Bobby spits out, "It wasn't about being smart enough to hurt him. It was about being smart enough not to hurt him. You had a chance to be different." Jax chuckles. "Maybe I'm not so different." Maybe he's worse.

Nero and Gemma have a talk about the state of their relationship, which ... yawn. They're both warm for each other's forms. That's all you need to know.

Before Nero can pop a Cialis and give Gemma a half hour to remember, he has to have a talk with Jax. Naturally, Gemma eavesdrops. Jax asks, "What do you tell your boy about the farm?" Nero says, "I don't know. I don't know. Those, uh, journals you keep? Those are for your boys, right? What do you tell them?" "The shit I can't tell anyone else," Jax says. He leans forward and says, "You need to buy that farm, brother. We'll help your cousin keep his crew whole. You're so close to getting out." Nero shakes his head and deflects, "So are you, mano, so are you. 'Cause it sounds like you got all your business handled. I'm going to make you another deal. You walk away, I walk away." (Gemma looks alarmed by this.) Jax sighs and gives his answer: "Have a good night."

Cut to Gemma looking somewhat taken aback by Jax's answer. Perhaps she's doing the math in her head: She is fine with "messy" (i.e. criminal), Nero is fine with messy, Jax is fine with messy ... but Tara has made it clear she is not. Time to balance an equation?

Jax comes home, grabs a carton of milk from the fridge and drinks right out of it -- love that continuity detail -- then notices the legal papers on the counter. He finds Tara feeding Thomas in the baby's room and comes in all, "What is the meaning of this?" Tara points out that she's just getting her affairs in order and Wendy's the best choice as the children's guardian. Jax scoffs and Tara says, "You shouldn't have attacked her, Jax." Cut to Jax's face curdling as he realizes that Tara is on to his lies. He asks, "Is that what this is? You trying to teach me some kind of lesson?" Tara laughs and puts Thomas in his crib. She says, "You know, I used to think that if I gave up on the club or on Charming, I'd somehow be betraying you, and I didn't want to do that. And then I realized that my job as your old lady is to be strong when and where you can't be. That's what this is, baby." Jax looks concussed by the notion that Tara thinks she has any right to make any decisions about their family. Tara continues, "I took that job in Oregon. It starts in two weeks. The boys are coming with me. And if you love them, and if you love me, you'll follow us up there." Jax is speechless. He shakes his head, pulls away and tries to quell the murderous rage. Tara delivers the killing blow: "We both know if we stay here, we'll end up like the two people we hate the most. And our boys will be destined to relive all of our mistakes."

Before this discussion can go any further, there's a knock on the door. Jax turns a wounded expression on his face, then goes to answer the door. He tells Roosevelt, "Now is not a good time." Roosevelt knows, but he needs to speak to Jax for a second. He explains, "I'm here for Tara." Jax asks, "What are you talking about?" Tara creeps down the hall to see what's going on, and Roosevelt says, "I have a warrant. Conspiracy to commit murder. Death of Pamela Toric. You're under arrest, Dr. Knowles." In the background, Thomas is crying. Tara shakes her head and says, "No. No. He's crying."

Tara begins shaking and sobbing too. Jax is stunned as Tara is cuffed and led to the car. "Call Lowen," she rasps out. Jax glares daggers as she's led out. Thomas is still crying. "Sympathy for the Devil" comes on and we montage away. Bobby cuts off his VP patch. Tig snuggles with his sog. Nero takes off his rings before bed, and we see he's now sleeping with a big gun at his bedside. (It's a far cry from the season premiere, eh?) Clay's in the van being transported to lockup. He looks like he is done.

Tara is sitting in the back of the squad car. Gemma somehow happens to be in the neighborhood and she gives Tara one fleeting, triumphant look before heading inside. Jax is sitting at the table: the legal papers are all ripped up and Abel -- the kid who was not crying -- is sitting on his lap. Jax looks like he's been hit with a shovel, he's that lost and vacant. But whether it's from Tara announcing her plan to decamp to the Emerald State or if it's from Tara getting charged with conspiracy despite Jax's best maneuverings is anyone's guess. Abel happens to be pulling off Jax's "SO" and "NS" rings and trying them on.

Gemma comes up behind Jax, drapes her arm around Jax much like Tara did at the end of last season, and says, "I'm here, baby." Jax has become Clay 2.0, his son is already sitting in his lap, ready to continue to cycle, and Gemma remains the power behind the throne. And with that chilling image, we finish the season.

I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to read the recaps, to talk about them on the forums or over email, and who tweeted with me. I love getting to know all of you and to read your reactions as we watch along. Y'all are the classiest show fans going. And I would not like to thank FX, unless their goal was to make sure I was the only recapper on the Internet who did not get screeners and thus could not turn around the recaps in a more timely fashion. (If that was the case, FX, then well done.)

By Sobell

ANYWAY. Thank you all for the enthusiastic forum discussion, thanks to my editors who were amazingly patient with my blown deadlines this year, thanks to moderator TWOP Howard for rocking along with us, and I look forward to seeing everyone again in September 2013.

Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter and blogger; she also tweets on the regular.