It looks like an emerging theme for this season is “Never underestimate what a parent will do.” In an episode full of juicy quotes, the following lines and developments stood out …
“The run we've been on the last couple of years, any direction is a better direction.” – Bobby Elvis, commenting on SAMCRO's likely future under Jax.”
The club's on edge because a newspaper has linked the gun used in the school shooting to SAMCRO. Everyone is aware of how this only hurts them in Charming, and the Byz-Lats are even more nervous and prone to stupidity than usual. Right as SAMCRO is persuading them all to stay calm, a car mows down one in spectacular gooey style and it's all reactive gang BS, all the time.
Barofsky – who is trying to keep Patterson off his back – promises to find the hit-and-run. But the Byz-Lats get there first, SAMCRO gets there second, and while everyone's got their guns out, Jax notices the pictures of a little boy and realizes: This is the grieving father of one of the children killed by Matthew Jennings. He's overcome with guilt and manages to get everyone out of there whole. So it's the cops who storm the place minutes later that get the guy dead by his own hand. Patterson is heartsick over it; she sees the death as collateral damage from the gangs.
Speaking of Patterson: Nero cuts a deal with Patterson – the finest care in the land for Lucius plus incarceration close enough to his son so they can visit – and tells her he was the one who supplied the gun that led to the school shooting. Patterson is almost into it because it provides a scapegoat and takes heat off her, but the two things happen. First, Roosevelt comes back with the CSI work proving that Toric killed Erin, so that will throw a wrench into any deal Nero might make. Second, she's shaken by the clusterflock of the week (see above), so she goes into Nero's interrogation room, slams down a folder full of photos of the slain children and thunders, “You're trying to do right by your kid? I want to do right by these! You're too proud, too stupid to do the right thing! If you cared about these kids, you'd tell me everything, the whole truth.” Nero protests that he's not saying another word without his lawyer and Patterson snarls, “You don't need a lawyer. Toric killed Erin Byrne. You hold on to these [photos of dead children] and you think about them every time you visit Lucius. And know that if we believe in the same God, debts will be paid.” She leaves him to look at the pictures of the children.
“What drives you is bad history. It ain't real. And it ain't what's best for those boys.” – Unser, to Gemma, because he gets to spend the episode telling people how it is.
Gemma knows everything – OF COURSE – and she basically tells a version of the truth to Roosevelt. In one of the show's nicer moments, Roosevelt and Unser confer about the whole Gemma-Tara thing, and Roosevelt asks Unser what call he thinks he should make. Unser's all, “Dude, I am retired for a reason,” but does note that Charming and SAMCRO derive some sense of their identities from one another, and if you cut out SAMCRO, the town unravels.
So, Gemma walks free and Tara plans not to press charges. Unser delivers a delightful come-to-Jesus talk, but Gemma's determined to do things the hard way, i.e. try to get Wendy as her wedge to discredit Tara and skirt the boundaries of the restraining order to try and see Jax. (Why she's allowed within ten feet of that hospital, AKA the workplace of Margaret Murphy, is a mystery.) We'll see how soon it is before she turns to her relationship with Clay as leverage to get back in with Jax.
“It breaks my heart that you had to become something so wrong to do what you thought was right.” – Unser, to Tara, after a fraught conversation over her scheme to permanently bar Gemma from her children's lives.
Everyone seems compelled to lay some heavy truth on the woman whom they think miscarried a mere 24 hours ago. Unser calls Tara out on her whackadoodle plan and its human cost. Lowen asks Tara what the hell just happened and gets stiff-armed; (though we do discover that Tara's had a separate cash stash for some time, smart girl.) Bobby begs Tara not to give up on Jax, noting that he's the kind of guy who needs to be with someone, and since the club's up against all manner of mayhem, Jax having a stable home life is more important than ever. And then Jax asks Tara if she ever regrets coming back to Charming. Looking down at her sleeping baby boy, Tara says, “A lot of things I'd do differently, but no. He makes it all worth it.”
Then it's Jax's turn to twist the blade in Tara's heart: “I just feel so far away from you now. I know it's my fault. Please, just tell me, how do I get back? Please let me back in.”
With all those heavy trips being laid on Tara, it's fortunate she has no idea what a crappy day Wendy had. The events of the past week or two have finally broken her. She picks up some drugs, she attempts to connect with Tara and only gets a faceful of Jax telling her to stay out of his family's lives, and then Gemma visits Wendy and tells her, “You backed the wrong horse. I'm giving you a chance to change your bet. Help me prove what she's done.” When Wendy asks her to take the drugs, Gemma refuses, saying that Wendy has to do it on her own to prove that she can be trusted. Cue Wendy shooting up. That act of sabotage – ruining her own recovery, torpedoing any notion that she's a decent guardian – is all the sadder when you think how it's the only way a powerless-feeling woman could take control of her own life again.
This show and its themes of control and loss! You're killing me here, Sutter.
THE QUOTE OF THE WEEK:“Let this eat into your brain, Mother. You're never going to see my wife. And you will never see my kids again. Grandma is dead.” – Jax, to Gemma.
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.
Jax is playing with Thomas's toes as the baby chills in a high chair the morning. And I know we're one sentence into this recap, but indulge me this observation: You can tell which of the Teller-Knowleses had the punishingly lonely upbringing with the dead mother and drunk father, and which had the upbringing where physical affection is freely bestowed for no reason whatsoever, because Jax is so much more tactile in his affection for his children than Tara is. I love it when the actors carry out their characters' backstories in even the smallest details.
Anyway, Jax is parenting his kids this morning, and what does it say about his life that managing a preschooler and a baby is the most calm and Zen part of his day? He makes Tara some tea and brings it to her in bed, then promises that he'll be home to dote on her all day after he takes the kids to daycare and checks in with the club. Tara is pretty much nonresponsive until he gets to the door, then she calls out, "What are you going to do about Gemma?" Jax shrugs, "Don't worry about her. The restraining order keeps her away from you and the boys." Tara points out that there's an entire club of enablers to bail out Gemma, but Jax doesn't care.
Inside the sheriffs' station, Roosevelt brings over a coffee for Gemma and tells her, "You haven't given my sheriffs anything yet and we need more information before we can process you." Gemma spits, "You got everything you need. Eyewitness saw me kick my pregnant daughter in the stomach." (Note that she refers to Tara as her daughter. Truly, Gemma and Tara illustrate the saying, "The opposite of love isn't hate -- it's indifference.") Roosevelt asks, "Is that how it went down?" Gemma leans in and says, "I'm the dirty biker whore with a record. She's the good doctor. Does it really matter what I have to say?" Oddly, Roosevelt thinks it does.
Gemma tells him, "Jax's ex found out that Tara was setting up a will. Some kind of legal shit that would give custody of the boys to a stranger. Margaret Murphy. I went down there to confront Tara. She baited me. Hit me. I checked myself and I did not hit her back. Then she threw herself on the edge of her desk and started screaming that I kicked her in the stomach. I would never hurt that baby."
Roosevelt listens to this and notes that the eyewitnesses also have axes to grind with Gemma. Then he asks, "Why would framing you be worth causing her own miscarriage?" Gemma, of course, has figured all that out too. Because it's handy when the show's creator is in love with you and has granted you the wisdom of Athena and the Helen of Troy-like ability to send men to war in your name.
Wendy, meantime, is having a hard time with her complicity in this scene and she's scored some heroin? Meth? Whatever. The point is, she's not planning on staying sober.
Jax strolls into the sweet shoppe. Because I am now super-paranoid that Rat's a government agent, I am going to go out of my way to note that he's just done some maintenance on Jax's motorcycle, and I bet he's put in a tracking device or something. ANYWAY, Bobby and Chibs are both looking awkwardly paternal in Jax's general direction and Jax says, "I don't want to talk about it," immediately before saying, "Look, the shit that went down between my mom and Tara was crazy --"
It turns out the club graybeards aren't looking so unhappy because they're sad about the ladies fighting. It's because the San Joaquin Tribune's lead story is "LOCAL GANGS TIED TO COUNT OF AQUINO SHOOTING," with the dek: "Byzlats, Sons of Anarchy May Have Supplied Gun to Shooter's Mother." At the risk of getting too inside-baseball here: you just know the Web editor for the paper is busy flogging the graphics department and the lone programmer on staff to make an interactive graphic introducing all the main players and reeling off everyone's arrests.
Patterson is showing the same paper to Nero, who asks, "You trying us in the court of public opinion, counselor?" I get the feeling Nero doesn't read his news online, so he's probably blissfully unaware that the breed of feral goats more commonly known as "newspaper site commenters" have already convicted him and sentenced him to being frozen in a space mirror like General Zod. Anyhoodle, Patterson coos, "Although it's just media speculation, I'm afraid this unfortunate leak is going to cause a great deal of outrage. It'll force me to satisfy the people's need for action, which means diverting a heavy police presence into Byz-Lat territory." Nero nods appreciatively and quips, "That's good. Maybe you can get our garbage picked up on time." Patterson reiterates that it's going to be awfully hard to run around being felonious with cops all up in their business and adds, "Who knows? Maybe we'll pick somebody up who doesn't have your loyal fortitude and feels the need to save his own skin by corroborating this story." And by subtly pointing out that Nero's leverage is going, Patterson has tightened the screws on Nero and let him know that he'll be taking his chances in court if he doesn't roll on the Sons.
Honestly, I think Nero should sell everyone out. He's likely to live a hell of a lot longer -- not only will his chances of being gunned down decrease dramatically, he'll also reduce the odds of a Gemma-induced heart attack. His relatives will no longer be dying in spectacularly dumb ways, the mortality rate among his employees might drop… I'm not really seeing a downside here.
Meanwhile, Tara's taking advantage of having the house to herself to read the newspapers. Unser's come by to pay a call. He is not here to ask about her health. Unser opens by picking up the Teller-Knowleses' copy of the paper -- I have always loved how the members of SAMCRO are avid supporters of the local media -- and commenting on how it's complicated times for "all of us." Tara arches an eyebrow as if to ask, "Define the parameters for 'us.'" Then Unser paces around, obviously uncomfortable with where he has to take the conversation, and Tara says, "Just say it, Wayne." Unser proves that you can take the pension from the cop, but you'll never take away that problem-solving brain: "I got you that restraining order request before everything happened… coincidence? Or part of the plan you couldn't share with me."
Tara says, "I needed to have protection in place. We both know she's dangerous." No, actually, only one of you knows it. The other persists in living in a delusional fog about what Gemma's capable of. Unser is now trying to wrap his brain around a world in which Tara engineers a pregnancy (or "pregnancy") and goads Gemma into an attack specifically for legal protection against her. He manages to get out, "I can't imagine you'd do anything that might actually harm your own baby." Tara gives Unser an open, unguarded look and says, "No, I wouldn't… what I did gives me legal precedent to separate my kids from Gemma and the club. I know how brutal it seems, but it was the only way."
Rather than focusing on the two children who can still escape the grim future of a life an outlaw MC, Unser's fretting over Gemma's potential legal troubles. He says angrily, "Gemma is locked in a cell, sitting with the weight of a dead grandchild. Appreciate you making the call now." It's cute that Unser thinks Gemma is actually gullible enough to buy what Tara was selling -- cute and dismaying that someone who really ought to know better doesn't. As Unser huffs off, Tara reminds him why she did this: "I did it to protect my kids, Wayne. I know how much you care about her." Unser turns back and says, "I'm not upset about Gemma, doc. I'm upset about you. It breaks my heart that you had to become something so wrong to do what you thought was right… I'm afraid I can't help you no more."
Coming from one of the world's leading Gemma enablers, the finger-wagging moralizing is a little rich. (But it is a good scene for Dayton Callie.)
Jax is now holding chapel and discoursing on the state of modern journalism vis-à-vis the leading story in the local fishwrap. Bobby will do damage control with Hale and the Charming Brahmins, such as they are, but Tig raises a salient point that the Byz-Lats are the bigger problem since Nero's inside and Arcadio is missing (cough cough, dead by SAMCRO, cough cough) and -- this is something they all seem to be missing -- their titular head is named FIASCO. Nothing good comes from having a guy named Fiasco running your joint. Chibs lobbies for the club to head out to Stockton to do some Byz-Lat handholding.
And there's also the matter of having to interview some new talent for Caracara today. Bobby says cheerfully, "I can handle that." Cue Chibs miming masturbation under the table while Tig grins and Bobby says, "What? I'm manager of operations." Juice replies, "You totally just made that up." "They won't know that," Bobby replies serenely.
Also: Irish. Which, whatever. It's not relevant to this episode and I'm tired of discussing it.
Then Jax closes out chapel with a little speech: "I appreciate your concern about my family. You don't have to say anything. I can feel it. I love you all for that. Now let's get to work." (The other guys are all, "Thank heavens that's over. Hallmark has not really mined the 'I am so sorry about your old lady's medical drama' niche yet.'")
We're at the sheriff's office, where Roosevelt is telling Unser, "Gemma doesn't think she was pregnant. Suggested Tara set her up." Unser lies/deadpans (liepans?) "I wouldn't know." Roosevelt fixes Unser with his Horus-like gaze and presses: "But you knew that Tara wasn't going to press charges." "I… had a feeling," Unser hedges. He asks, "Anything criminal on your end?" Roosevelt stares at Unser as if to determine where he fits in this puzzle, and then makes a sideways feint: "What would you have done?" Unser says quickly, "If no one pressed charges, I'd handle like a 10-16. Let the family work it out. Keep an eye on 'em." Roosevelt is wearing the ineffable half-smile of a man who has just figured everything out. "That what I should do?" Unser chortles, "It's your jurisdiction, sheriff. Use your best judgment. And tell Gemma I'll be downstairs if she needs a ride." Roosevelt asks, "And what makes you think I'm going to cut her loose?" Unser shrugs, "Uh… Tellers. MC. They're so deeply woven into the fabric of this town. On some level, you know. Same way I did. You rip them out, Charming unravels. Never looks the same." Unser leaves before Roosevelt can ask, "And how would that be a bad thing?"
So we're in Stockton and Jax is trying to put everything into perspective for Fiasco. Understandably, it's a challenge because -- and I cannot emphasize this enough -- he is dealing with someone who has amassed the kind of CV that warrants the name FIASCO. Anyway, Fiasco's second, Gomes, seems like an eminently reasonable man, so what happens should surprise nobody:
A giant baby-blue sedan comes speeding down the road at the collection of bikers and Byz-Lats. Everyone scatters except for Juice -- who stands there, practically daring the car to hit him, because of the death wish everyone in the club is ignoring -- and then the car swerves and turns Gomes into so much ground Byz-Lat. So now the gangsters are going to be vowing revenge and Jax is all, "Shit! Now I have to set some of my guys to babysit this crew. Also, I have not noticed that Juice is perhaps hoping for suicide by cop."
Now we're in Unser's truck. He's driving, Gemma's in the passenger seat. She asks how he knew she was getting out; Unser plays it cool by shrugging that he didn't know for sure. We learn Tara's not pressing charges, which would seem to undermine the case for a restraining order? Gemma then somehow channels a wounded puppy and turns big, soft eyes on Unser before saying, "I may not have earned this, Wayne, but I want to know the truth. I promise, I won't turn it on you. Did you know about any of this?" Unser quickly and vehemently says, "No! I just know she's just doing what you would do, protecting her family from what --" "Tara framed me for the killing of her unborn baby," says Gemma, completely uninterested in what might drive her purported "daughter" to do such a thing. She continues, "That pregnancy was bullshit and you know it." Unser testily asks, "You want the truth or not?" Gemma quiets and he takes that as consent. Unser says, "Your control over those boys, your family… it ain't healthy --" "I am just doing what any mother would do --" "Just let me finish!" snaps Unser. Gemma sullenly quiets. Unser continues, "What drives you is bad history. It ain't real and it ain't what's best for those boys. I'm sorry this happened to you. I am. You got a lot of love in you, Gemma. Sweet, deep love. I've seen it. But it's so wrapped around secrets and hate, I don't know if you can find it anymore."
And after that incisive personal appraisal, all Gemma can say is, "So… what? I just let her destroy my life? Take away my family? Is that the payback for all the secrets and hate?" Which just goes to show that Gemma is never, ever going to be capable of self-reflection because on some level, she is absolutely terrified of what she might find if she did a moral inventory. Unser rolls his eyes at the dramatics and says, "You gotta couple of roads in front of you, sweetheart. One of them is… real slow and probably very uncomfortable, but eventually leads back to those boys." "And the other one?" Gemma asks warily. Unser replies, "It's the road you're already on." Silence descends in the car.
We're back at the Teller-Knowles place, where Lowen is uneasily eying Tara, because it has finally sunk in that oh my God, she's now in Jax and Gemma's sights and those people are capable of murder. Lowen says, "The case we built, I doubt any court would award custody to Jax or Gemma," but she doesn't seem too happy about this, quite possibly because, like other people, she is really freaked out by the idea of Tara manipulating folks via a miscarriage. Tara is snippy and reminds Lowen, "Plausible deniability and payment is how you defend me best." But she knows she lost another ally because, again, people are surprisingly judgey about the idea that you might force a miscarriage in order to get your way within the law.
Then Tara has a ridiculous scene where she talks to herself in the mirror. I didn't buy the whole "I have to give myself a pep talk" when it was Gemma talking to herself in the mirror earlier this season, I don't buy it now.
And now, the delightful scene where Barofsky and Patterson spend an entire conversation chatting politely about what they can do for one another -- Patterson can redistrict police coverage so the San Joaquin sheriffs cover Barofsky's fiefdom, effectively slashing his retirement incomes by a significant percentage OR Barofsky can help with the mystery of what happened to Gomes and continue to feed information to Patterson. They understand each other perfectly.
Jax walks into his empty house and enjoys the peace and quiet. He's amused by the flotsam of domestic life with wee ones -- a pile of toys drifting across the carpet like a sand dune across a highway, a basket of laundry that needs to be put away -- but before he can actually enjoy being home, his phone rings. Jax goes into the kitchen, pulls a burner out of the Ziploc bag full in a drawer, and then fields a call from Barofsky.
Unlike 90% of the people Jax deals with on a regular basis, Barofsky is refreshingly transparent. Patterson is threatening his revenue streams, she's on to the hit-and-run from the morning and he is not happy. "I'm swinging in the breeze here, Handsome Jack. You owe me one… I need [the driver]." Jax promises to take care of it.
Then, because his day isn't shitty enough, he runs right into Wendy. If ever two people ever had ANTI-chemistry, it's these two and even though this show verges on science fiction with the way bullets and vehicles defy the laws of physics and middle-aged bikers somehow have the resilience and healing powers of Captain America, asking me to believe that these two could somehow find enough common ground to co-mingle DNA is just a step too far.
Anyway, the upshot is, if Wendy was looking for Tara to bolster her commitment to sober living, what she found instead was someone who is pretty much intent on helping her kill herself via smack.
Patterson is now talking with Nero -- he had his attorney call her -- and he tells her, "I'm ready to give up the source of the KG-9… you know about my son, Lucius? I want him moved to the best facility in the state. He gets the best care available, for the rest of his life… I want to end up someplace near him, so he can visit --" "If you cooperate, he won't have to visit you in jail," Patterson says. (Not warmly, but not as coldly as she usually talks to Nero. It's so much fun watching her work.) Nero says, "Yeah, he will. It wasn't Teller who supplied the gun. It was me. I bought the KG-9 off the street, some journeyman dealer. Never seen it before. I gave it to Darveny Jennings for protection. Matthew must have found the gun. I'm responsible for the death of those children."
The whole time Nero's saying this, you can see how Patterson knows he's lying, yet can't bring herself to cut him loose because this could be of some use. Watching two morally compromised people trying to out-poker face one another is delightful.
Tara's entered the sweet shoppe where two extras are busy trying to show Rat how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. Rat rushes over to ask if Tara's looking for Jax, and Bobby Elvis decides it's time for him to stop discussing the role of social media in the Arab Spring with his ladyfriend and run interference. Tara tells him, "I don't want to interrupt," and Bobby dryly replies, "Oh, no, I need a break. The IQs are overwhelming me." He grips her arm and steers her toward the back.
Once they're outside, Bobby sparks up and asks how Tara's feeling. Well enough to share a joint is the answer. Then Bobby begins monologuing: "I don't know what happened between you and Gemma. I guess it's none of my business. But I feel like I know you both pretty well, and if there is anything you need me to do…" Tara shuts that down and hands over the joint with, "I appreciate that. It'll work itself out." Bobby gives her an eyeroll and says, "Oh, yeah, yeah. It always does." There's a long moment where Tara paces, and then she asks, "Do you think he can do it? Move SAMCRO into legitimate business?" Bobby shakes his head slightly before saying, "It's always easy to move. Just hard to stay there. You know, Jax is still trying to figure out how to be king. When he settles into that, he'll do what's best for the club. The run we've been on the last couple of years, almost any direction is a better direction." That's a lot of words to say, SAMCRO will never go legit unless they are out of other options. Bobby, however, is interested in Tara's take. She dodges, "It doesn't matter what I think. I'm just an old lady." She makes to go, and Bobby implores her, "Look, Doc. Don't give up on him. Jax is someone who needs to be with someone. Always been that guy. We're up against it here. To be honest, I don't know if we're going to make it. But he ain't got a chance without you." Tara's face does not betray the fact that she would like nothing more than to have the club disappear and have Jax turn his considerable energies to his family. So… what would her incentive be to help the club thrive?
Speaking of Jax, he's pulled up in front of the house where the hit-and-run driver lives. Naturally, Fiasco and his crew are already there and they are eager to blow out the brains of the mostly-civilian driver. I will say this for the show, it does an excellent job underscoring a point that David Simon made back when he wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets: A lot of criminals are unsuccessful because they have poor impulse control and an inability to take the long view. Chibs, who has a bit of both, suggests, "Maybe we should back away from this one." Jax wants to play it smart, saying, "There's a better way. DA pressed Barofsky this morning, saying she'll take away his port control if he doesn't give her something." "All right, so we give her the driver," Chibs says. "Whoever he is, it ain't about us," Jax says, which more or less sums up his entire leadership ethos. So the goal is to keep the Byz-Lats calm until the police arrive, and for the Sons to go inside and politely ask, "What the hell?" There's no way this can go wrong.
Roosevelt's swung by Patterson's office and she asks about Gemma Morrow's being picked up on a domestic violence change. Roosevelt says, "Family dispute got physical. Dr. Knowles miscarried in the attack." Patterson's visceral response is, "Jesus! Are these people just godless?" ("Pretty much!" calls my husband from the other room.) Roosevelt's not there to discuss the complex belief systems of biker gangs, but to bring by the CSI results, which confirm what we knew five episodes ago: Toric killed Erin Bryne. Patterson says, "It's very sad. We meet the end we deserve, I guess." And with that line, I can't help but suspect Kurt Sutter is setting Patterson up for an uncommonly brutal death where she is robbed of all human dignity immediately beforehand.
Roosevelt exerts the superhuman effort of will to refrain from asking, "So you think my pregnant wife deserved to die in agony after being gutshot?" and asks instead, "Do you want me to cut loose Padilla?" Patterson says distantly, "Nero Padilla admitted to supplying the gun to Darveny Jennings this morning." (Speaking of: Why haven't any of these geniuses decided to look for her recently?) Both she and Roosevelt do not buy the story that Nero just happened across a KG-9 completely independent of SAMCRO. Roosevelt points out that this is becoming ethically and logistically problematic with, "You're leveraging a confession with a bogus murder charge. You don't think his lawyer's going to take a look at this report? She'll get him to claim coercion; they'll throw out the confession." Patterson's willing to bet that doesn't happen: "I'm putting together a deal that will give his son a better life in exchange for his full admission. Roosevelt's all, "And that somehow makes it okay?" Patterson almost smiles as she says, "I get the sense that he's a man looking for a penance* and I'm going to give him one. That's my job -- to look at the greater justice, lieutenant. That's what this is." Roosevelt is propelled out of his office on the parabolic arc of his own epic eyeroll.
* Or a safe way to break up with Gemma without getting killed. We can hope, right?
Okay, so Barofsky has intel, but of course the Byz-Lats are about to ruin everything. Again -- caveat emptor when you're dealing with a gangster named FIASCO. So a boatload of people descend on the house and are shocked -- shocked! -- when the house's resident ambushes the Byz-Lat with his machete. As one does. (A machete!) Jax head-butts him into submission (I know…) and in the melee happens to notice that the man has a framed photograph of his son. His son, who happens to have been one of the four children massacred by Matthew Jennings.
So Jax pulls the gun-wielding fiasco off Mister Machete, the Byz-Lats pull guns, the Sons pull guns and Jax manages to scream that "His kid was in the school." Everyone immediately drops their guns in horror, on account of actually facing someone who was affected by their actions. On the floor, bereaved father Felipe screams, "You guys gave that freak the gun! He killed my baby boy!" We cut to Tig, who seems to collapse in on himself with, "Ah, shit, man." Jax leans over and tells Fiasco that the cops are on their way over now. Even if he wants to kill Felipe, it's going to end badly for him, on account of his car being parked outside and the house being filled with evidence. Fiasco shouts, "So now what? We just let him go?" Tig says, "His baby boy was gunned down, brother. He blames us for that. What would you do?" Juice becomes a media critic: "Goddamned headlines did this."
Tig becomes the decider and knocks out Felipe, saying, "It's for your own good." Then everyone skulks out. Jax is last: He carefully replaces the boy's picture on the shelf and says, "I'm sorry" as he leaves.
The scene is just a heartbreaker. As the cops come into Felipe's place, he elects to cut his own throat in front of them. Patterson arrives on the scene and takes it all in: the phenomenal pool of blood on the floor, the body, a photo of Felipe's son clutched in one hand, another on the floor to the kitchen knife he used to kill himself. She barks at the cop to give her the photo in Felipe's hand. When he does, she takes a moment to look at the beaming boy who's proudly holding his soccer trophy, and then her face ages 10 years as she whispers, "Oh, my God."
Oh, good, Gemma's here to confront Wendy. This is the point in the episode -- and the recap -- where I wish I kept a list of boilerplate paragraphs and phrases, because honestly, how many times in one series is Wendy going to get verbally bullied by these people? And how many times is she going to point out how fragile her sobriety is? So. Here we are: Gemma tells Wendy if she switches allegiances from Tara to Gemma, she might make sure Jax doesn't kill Wendy. Also, Wendy needs to "prove herself" by refusing to take the drugs that she's begging Gemma to destroy. It's another win-win for our girl Gemma: If Wendy does play ball, Gemma can work against Tara. If Wendy OD's, she's out of the picture.
Man, I love the character Gemma, but I do get tired of the cycle where it's "Gemma suffers a hideous personal setback! Gemma roars into revenge mode! Gemma suffers no consequences for her bullying of others!" over and over again. It is my dream to see this series end with Gemma working as a cashier at a Chevron and living in a studio apartment with only a bird for company, utterly bereft of both family and club. Sort of the SAMCRO equivalent of how The Shield ended, yes?
Jax is now meeting up with Barofsky, who is not happy with how things turned out: "Patterson's going to want my balls in a paper cup." Jax shrugs an apology and Barofsky cackles darkly: "It serves that bitch right. This shit's on her. Leaking that story. I kind of wish I was there to see her face." In any event, there's no blowback for Barofsky because he can always remind Patterson that journalists are happy to take hot tips from anyone and she's not going to want the headline "District Attorney forces victim's daddy to slit his own throat." "It's very catchy," deadpans Chibs. Barofsky wheels away with a clap to Jax's shoulders and a "You did good, prez," but Jax isn't drinking up the praise. Instead, he'd like to know what known closet-skeleton collector Barofsky did with Alice's body. Although Charlie claims he chopped up, burned and buried the body, Jax frets, "I shouldn't have killed her." Barofsky says cheerily, "Don't worry, kid. I won't use it against you. 'Less I have to. [wink]" Oh, I like Barofsky.
Jax goes to pick up the kids from preschool and who should be waiting outside but Gemma. Why this hospital does not have her face posted with a "DO NOT LET ANYWHERE NEAR THE PREMISES" sign is a private mystery, especially since Gemma laid hands on Margaret Murphy, who should have pressed charges for assault.
Anyway, the show has gone to such lengths to put Jax and Gemma together in a scene, we may as well indulge it. Jax stares at his mother with a mixture of incredulity and pure loathing. Gemma says, "I know, I have the restraining order, but I had to see you." Jax claims to have nothing to say to Gemma. She launches into her "I need to tell the truth, I would never hurt Tara" monologue -- rich for anyone who knows how many times Gemma has threatened Tara or actually laid hands on her -- and Jax snarls, "You're a liar and a sick, twisted bitch." Gemma assumes her most martyred expression and says, "Hate me all you want, but I'm telling you the truth." Jax replies, "Let this eat into your brain, Mother. You're never going to see my wife. And you will never see those kids again. Grandma is dead." He walks into the daycare, leaving a rather composed Gemma in his wake.
Wendy is in her apartment alone, which makes me wonder -- exactly where has her partner been this whole time? Wouldn't any good girlfriend have made arrangements to try and be around if her partner was all, "My psycho felon ex banged a speedball into my arm and now his mom is handing out death threats?" ANYWAY, guess who is taking drugs again? Putting aside the Tara-is-so-screwed-because-now-there-is-nobody-to-take-the-kids angle, I find it incredibly tragic that the only sense of agency Wendy has any more is annihilation.
Patterson strides into Nero's holding room and slams down a folder. Nero says, "If that's your deal for Lucius, I want my lawyer here for this." "Open it," Patterson barks. Nero does: It's photos of the four slaughtered children. He asks, "What is this?" and Patterson replies, "You want to do right by your kid? I want to do right by these." Nero protests that he is doing the right thing and Patterson unleashes with, "No. You're too proud, too stupid to do the right thing. If you cared about these kids, you'd tell me everything -- the whole truth." Nero says, "I don't know where you're going with this, but I ain't saying another word to you without my lawyer." Patterson says, "You don't need a lawyer. Toric killed Erin Byrne. You hold on to these [photos] and think about them every time you visit Lucius. And know that if we believe in the same God, debts will be paid." She's at the door in an instant, telling a guard Nero's free to go. However, Nero's expression suggests he's feeling anything but liberated.
Tara's putting Abel to bed -- he is the least dramatic preschool put-down in the history of bedtime, of course -- while Jax walks Thomas to his room. Tara comes in and watches Jax standing over the crib, staring at his son. She leans over the crib and waits. Jax speaks quietly: "Do you ever regret it? Coming back?" Tara mentally reviews the past few years in an instant and her face shows every feeling. Then she composes herself: "A lot of things I'd do differently. But no. [Thomas] makes it all worth it. Do you?" Jax seems like he's trying to keep from crying as he says, "I sometimes wish you'd come back five years sooner. Or five years later. I'm lost here, Tara. I'm trying to put it back together, but I don't know if I can…" Tara whispers, "I know." Jax sits on the futon and gives Tara his full attention before saying, "I just feel so far away from you now. I know that's my fault. Please, just tell me, how do I get back?" QUIT THE GODDAMNED CLUB AND CUT OFF YOUR PSYCHO MOTHER would seem to be the obvious answer, but Tara restrains herself. She only says, "I'm not sure." Jax is giving Tara the full bedroom eyes now and begging, "Babe. Please let me back in." And the episode ends with us, the viewers, holding the awful knowledge that these two are only going to get even further apart.
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.
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